Wolfe
I gave Don Mancini a day to cool off, but we had unfinished business—not just with Francesca, but with the asshole who’d tried to take her.
I kissed my woman goodbye before I drove to the winery.
When I pulled up to the gate, I wasn’t sure if it would open for me, but after waiting a couple seconds, the double doors parted to allow me entry.
I pulled onto the property and approached the three-story villa that was still under renovation from the attack by Umberto Lombardi. Instead of parking my car all the way in the lot, I just left it there.
Andre and Salvatore were smoking cigars as they leaned up against the house. They both stared at me but didn’t make any kind of gesture. Their guns were tucked into the back of their jeans, but they didn’t reach for them, like the don hadn’t ordered my head on a platter—just yet.
I left the car and walked past them.
They stared at me as I passed, not saying a word.
I headed up the stairs and entered the house.
Some of his other henchmen stopped me and asked me to wait by the stairs while they conferred with Don Mancini upstairs.
The whole charade was pretty pointless, because we were going to talk whether he liked it or not.
We could do it the easy way or the hard way, but the hard way would leave a couple people dead.
The men returned downstairs then nodded for me to head up.
Good choice.
I walked up to the third floor and approached the open doors to his office. Sunlight stretched into the hallway from his open windows, and as I approached, I heard voices from within. I recognized Elio and Leo.
I rounded the corner and stopped to look at the scene.
Don Mancini leaned against his desk, arms crossed over his chest, and the second our eyes met, he stared me down.
I stared back.
Leo turned in the chair to look at me in the doorway. He showed no reaction.
Elio had the smuggest look on his face. Definitely an I-told-you-so vibe going on.
Don Mancini gave a slight nod and silently excused the two men.
Leo rose from the armchair first and stared me down as he came close. He stared at me until he walked behind me and headed down the hallway. The standoff with Elio was worse. He walked up to me, stopped and stared, and then took a deep breath.
I knew exactly what was coming.
He spat on me.
I sidestepped it in time, so the glob of spit meant for me sprayed into the hallway and landed on the floor.
He literally snarled at me. “Figgh’i buttana.”
I watched him walk by and into the hallway, ignoring the puddle of spit he left behind.
Don Mancini continued to regard me with quiet ferocity.
He was in a charcoal-gray t-shirt and black jeans, looking physically too young to have a twenty-six-year-old daughter, but world-weary enough to have lived a lifetime.
He had some ink on his arms, but not like I did, just some color here and there.
I walked inside and stopped about ten feet away, staring at him head on in the quiet office.
He regarded me with the same seething silence as the other night, like the time and space had only made his anger boil instead of simmer.
“I hoped we could have a civil conversation with cooled tempers.”
“When it comes to my daughter, my temper never cools. We both know what you did was unforgivable.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not here to apologize.” An apology implied remorse, and remorse implied regret. I didn’t regret anything that had happened with Francesca.
He gave a slight shake of his head. “You’re the most arrogant son of a bitch I’ve ever met.” He pushed off the desk and straightened, but no amount of elongating his spine could make him reach my height. “You disrespected me. I don’t like you—and I don’t like you for my daughter.”
“With all due respect, our relationship has nothing to do with you.”
“My daughter will never choose a man I disapprove of—”
“Well, you’re in for a big surprise, then.”
A flash of anger moved across his face.
“I don’t want it to be this way. I want to reconcile and find middle ground, but you seem more interested in drawing a line in the sand and forcing your daughter to cross it. You seem more interested in burning what remains instead of restoring it.”
The look of hatred continued. “If you had come to me first, this would have been a lot different. If you’d come to me at any point during this relationship and faced me like a man, it would be different.
But you decided to sneak around behind my back like a coward. You decided to make this into a game.”
“Francesca is not a game. I had every intention of telling you. There were multiple instances when I wanted to, but Francesca convinced me not to. Said it wasn’t the right time or you weren’t in the right mood.
I wish I’d disregarded her wishes, because this isn’t how I wanted it to unfold.
I’m not making excuses, because at the end of the day, I should have just done whatever the hell I wanted.
But I don’t want you to think this is how I wanted to handle it.
I don’t want this situation to undermine your relationship with Francesca.
The last thing I want is to adversely affect her relationship with you and Leo. ”
“Then leave and let her find a man who wouldn’t make your mistakes.”
I couldn’t control the scoff that escaped my lips. “But be a disappointment in every other way.”
He hadn’t moved at all. Still as a statue, unaffected by my rising ire.
“You don’t want me to disrespect you? Then don’t disrespect me.
Because let’s not forget she’s alive right now because I was there.
Let’s not pretend that no one in their right fucking mind would cross Francesca Mancini if they knew she was my woman.
Let’s not pretend I didn’t eviscerate her enemies as they hung from your tree, that I didn’t ground all the planes at the airport so I could kill Umberto with my bare hands.
Let’s not pretend I didn’t walk straight into gunfire to get to Francesca in this house when they had her cornered in her office.
Alessandro would have been a good little boy and asked your permission to date her, but do you want some pussy-ass bitch for your daughter?
Or do you want a man who knows he deserves her without someone else’s approval?
A man who cares only about her opinion and no one else’s?
I don’t need to tell you that I would burn the world for her because you’ve seen me do it.
This isn’t about my worthiness. This is about your ego. ”
“This is about respect. I made you family—”
“Because I’ve busted my ass for it. Because I’ve earned my place here. And I’ve earned Francesca too—no questions fucking asked.”
His face was tinted red like he was going to be pissed no matter what I said.
“I wish I’d come to you before. I mean that, Don. But if I had, what would you have said?”
He stared at me.
“Would you have approved?”
He said nothing.
I was actually wounded by that. “So it sounds like no matter how I moved, your answer was going to be the same.” For whatever goddamn reason, I wasn’t good enough for Francesca.
I’d die for this woman, but even that wasn’t enough.
“You say that Francesca needs a man who can help her run the show, needs muscle to get shit done on her behalf, someone no one will fuck with, and you don’t even consider me an option. ”
He worked his jaw a little bit, like there was something he wanted to say but decided not to.
“And I’m the only option.” There was no man on this earth who deserved her more than me. Who would bust their ass harder. Who would love her more than I did.
The longer the silence continued, the more I realized how pointless this discussion was.
“I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree for the time being.
” I was not a negotiator, only an enforcer.
I was unsuited to resolving disputes among different parties.
I just found another way around the problem, but there was no other way around this problem.
“We need to finish Warren. We’ll put a pin in this and revisit it later. ”
“There is no later, Wolfe. You’re out.”
I cocked my head slightly because I must have misheard him. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“You heard me.”
“We kill Warren first. You can fire me later.”
His eyes were hard as steel and impenetrable. “You’re out—now.”
“That is a very stupid move, Don.”
“Vincenzo.”
Wow. “You have a traitor right under your nose, Don.”
“I know. I’m looking right at him.”
Once I understood the accusation, I couldn’t control the laugh that escaped.
“Yeah, because that makes a lot of sense. I warn Warren to move so he evades capture, and then I tell him where he can find the woman I love. Don’t you understand what the fuck you’re saying? With all the shit I’ve done for you—”
“I don’t know what your endgame is, Wolfe.
But you snuck around with my daughter for months, even after I initiated you, and I don’t believe you ever intended to tell me a damn thing.
So I don’t trust you. I don’t trust a damn word that comes out of your mouth.
I think this is all some very long game you’re playing. ”
All I could do was stare at him for seconds, in utter shock at the accusation.
“I was falling in love with your daughter, and we were trying to figure out the best way to preserve that relationship. That is my only crime. So for you to disqualify everything else I’ve done over something completely unrelated… that’s nonsensical to me.”
“My opinion is the only one that matters.”
I gave a slow nod. “I don’t need work. I’ve got more money than I can spend.
I can go to any of the other gangs for employment.
I don’t need this, and I’ve never needed it.
But I’m telling you—you have a rat right under your nose—and he’s going to stab you in the back.
I don’t want that to happen to you. Maybe you don’t give a damn about me, but I give a damn about you. ”
The anger he wore was long gone, replaced by the most disrespectful look of boredom I’d ever seen. “Get out.”
I’d never witnessed anyone make a bigger mistake than this. “You won’t live long enough to regret that.”
He ignored what I said. “Return—and we’ll shoot you on sight.”
I gave a slow nod, shocked by the disrespect I didn’t deserve. “Warren is mine—”
“We’ll handle him.”
I turned toward the door, knowing I couldn’t build with someone who only wanted to destroy. “Then may the best man win.”