Chapter 17 – Nico
“Ican’t believe we did that,” Rae muttered.
Buttoning my shirt, I shot her a side glance as she tugged her shorts over her hips. “Regretting it already, cherry-bomb?”
She snorted and lifted her hands. “Hottest fucking sex I’ve ever had.” One hand raised. “With the boss’s son?”
“Grandson,” I corrected, already feeling my heart sink.
Shooting to her feet, she brushed the grass off her arms. Pieces stuck to the lace of her bra, but she tugged the tee over her head before I could help her.
“Yeah, well, now I have to go back to work and not look at your package.” She gave me a pointed look before walking back toward the tourist trap.
Porca puttana!
Tonight was supposed to prove to this intoxicating woman how obsessed I was with her.
I blew off a meeting with my grandfather and a business associate.
The tracker in Rae’s truck led me from the heart of Boston, where she’d hopped on a bus.
Before I realized she was sightseeing, I expected the worst, that she was running.
And I wasn’t in a position to drag her back to the city—where she belonged.
I debated kidnapping her and keeping her prisoner in a luxurious brownstone.
But in my gut, I knew she wouldn’t thank me for it.
If I was the don, there would be no question in my mind.
I would make her my queen. She would never scrub another floor or wipe the rim of a toilet.
Was it too soon to make such a bold statement? No. Fuck no. I was obsessed.
But the damn timing wasn’t right for those kind of villainous actions, so that left me keeping her hidden until I could publicly claim her or letting her run away, but with the full intention of chasing her down and dragging her back in the future.
Luckily for me, neither of those were choices I had to make. My sweet, southern bloom was out for a night of fun.
At a fucking corny historical ghost tour.
Maybe it was the brutal training my father subjected me to as a lad, but no supernatural haunt could frighten me…. Except the image of Rae having fun with other men.
The way she’d smiled at them from stop to stop.
I debated dragging some of the college kids into the alleys and ripping their beating hearts out. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. Rae didn’t seem the least bit interested in those boys.
“Are you hungry?” I offered as we headed back to the last stop on the ghost tour.
Rae tripped over her feet.
I shot my arm out and caught her. Around us, the air was perfumed with fresh cut grass. There was an enchantment cast over the evening, but I knew in my gut it was ending. The offer of food was only to drag out a few more precious moments with her.
“We’re not going to dinner,” Rae hissed.
We were approaching the bus, the sounds of the city increasing with each step. My city. The place I was destined to rule.
I lifted a shoulder. “The night’s still young.”
“That’s—” she stuttered. “Are you nuts?”
I pulled her into me. Gently cupping her cheek, I bent over her until our foreheads brushed. “Are you honestly telling me that you’d rather hop on that smelly bus and go back with that lot?”
“I have to get back to my truck,” she countered.
“I can take you.”
She arched a devious brow and tossed her hair. Watching the wild, curly locks catch in the wind made me want to fist it. Hard. While I fucked her sweet mouth.
“You’re telling me that you don’t have more important mafia matters to attend to? Or what about the fancy friends you’re always rubbing shoulders with? Shouldn’t you be there, Prince Grimaldi?”
Such sass. Fine. I could play. “Throwing my generosity back in my face?”
A rough, scathing laugh cut from her throat. “Look, we both got what we wanted. Scratched the proverbial itch. Let’s call a spade a spade, and move on with life. Can you do that?”
Fuck no.
I most certainly could not.
Rae pulled away, and I let her. My jaw clenched tight enough that the molars threatened to crack.
She was obviously worried about what this would do to her job. Right now, it wouldn’t. This had to be a secret. There was no claiming her in the open. But if she thought she could fight me on this, she had another think coming. She’d already surrendered. Her body knew mine.
There was no going back to pretending it didn’t.
“See you around, killer.” Rae smiled, continuing to walk backward toward the bus.
Every fiber of my being screamed to run after her. I didn’t. Right now, the best thing to do was let her think she’d won the hand. But I was in this to play the long game.
I tipped my chin up. “Night, cherry-bomb.”
With a slanted smile, an intoxicating little eye roll, and a small shake of her head, Magnolia Rae Bennet turned around and climbed onto the waiting tour bus.
I disappeared into the shadows. I waited for the final part of the tour to end.
When the tourists exited the ballfield, hopefully well-haunted, they clambered into the waiting bus.
Only then did I start the engine of my car.
Keeping back, I followed them into the city.
I had to make sure Rae made it into her truck.
And then…I followed her to my grandparents’ house. Where there was a bedroom designated for my use.
Maybe it’s time to move home.
***
“Dominico, a word?” My grandfather’s voice clipped out of the front parlor.
Cavolo.
I should have taken the back door. Using the front door was a rookie mistake.
Plus, if I’d gone through the back, I could have grabbed a snack.
Maybe even caught the cook cleaning up for the night.
The chance to pick his brains about the butler’s niece would have been much better than whatever hell this was.
I stopped on the threshold. “Sir?”
My grandfather’s gaze swept over me. “What is—what is this?”
Some of the buttons of my dress shirt were gone. My hair was a mess, since I hadn’t bothered to comb it after Rae had dug her claws into me. And there were patches on my knees from where I’d knelt in the mud as I fucked her into the next dimension—where she’d dragged me with her.
Not the best presentation to a regal sonofabitch like Francesco Grimaldi.
“You’re covered in mud,” he sneered.
“I am.” I kept my spine ramrod straight.
“You canceled our meeting for—” he gestured at me “—manual labor?”
It had been decades since my grandfather worked the streets. Many of the capos took their lead from him. No, the only thing that kept the good old boys of the Grimaldi Famiglia out late were lavish parties—or hookers they hid from their wives. Not honest, good old-fashioned criminal work.
His snobbish attitude was disgusting.
“Sir, I told you this morning, meeting with Samuelson is a mistake.”
The don slapped his palm against the curling arm of the leather chair. “Tucker is a shrewd businessman, and his proposal is solid. Something you would know if you’d shown up to your responsibilities and attended the meeting!”
“His assets are rickety at best,” I countered.
This was the exact same conversation we’d had this morning.
Only, now I had the old man’s attention.
It might be for all the wrong reasons, since he only stayed up to lecture me.
He was never going to listen. “We’ll sink too much capital in Samuelson’s project.
Even if we can make it back, one bad month or delay in the launch could risk over sixty percent of the famiglia’s liquid assets. ”
“You think you’re so smart,” my grandfather scoffed and rose from the chair. He pulled the strap of his robe tight. “But if you were half as smart as you think you are, you would have come and listened to him. Tucker has his head on straight. Which is more than I can say for you, Dominico.”
“He wined and dined you, sir,” I snapped. “This is a bad plan.”
“Enough!” Purple splotches formed over the old man’s neck. “This is yet another instance of how not ready you are to take any real responsibility.”
I blistered on the inside.
No real responsibility? My father had me in charge of soldiers since I was sixteen. I did the work of a capo by age twenty-two. And then he had to go and die. I’d wasted time, doing unimportant work these last few years. This was my legacy, and all that stood in the way of it was a feeble old fool.
“The project will cost us,” I promised. “Just be sure you’re willing to pay.”
My grandfather waved a paw at me as he passed. “Pshaw. You know nothing.”
I know enough. And it was time to act.