21. Cassio
“Okay, so something is wrong.”
I pinched my nose, feeling the start of a migraine. “What?”
“Your mood is oddly good today. I can practically see the sun shining.” Vitelli sat in the chair before me. All bright and smiley. “You’re not sour, or bitter, or even gloomy.”
“I get it, Vitelli. Is there a point to all of this?” He narrowed his eyes and looked at me for a while.
“How many?”
“How many what?”
“Women. There is no chance in hell that you’re in a good mood because of this,” he looked and waved around the office. “So, I can only assume women were involved. Or you finally killed Donato Manci.”
“Fuck”s sake, Vitelli. You’re ruining my mood.”
“So, it wasn’t Donato?” He deflated.
Honestly, after everything that happened this past weekend, it was a fucking miracle that the man was still breathing. There were no good Mafiosi, but Donato was straight out deranged. Cruel.
There were different kinds of men in the same spectrum varying from bad to borderline satanic.
“No,” I bit out. “I didn’t kill him.”
“So, it’s women then,” he pried, broad smile on his face, one I wanted to wipe off.
Woman.
Single. Not plural as he believed.
It wasn’t supposed to have happened; it had caught me by surprise. I thought it would have been a one-time thing and then we would be back to ignoring each other.
One day turned into two, and two ended up turning into her staying at my place for the weekend. Sleeping in my bed—although there wasn’t much sleeping involved. It was clear to me that she hated being at her place. So, I brought her back to mine again and again.
The sex was great. Mind blowing really. The best sex I had in my entire life. Watching Francesca lose herself was one of the best experiences of my life. I might not have been her first, but knowing I was the one to show her this world, the one to offer her so much pleasure…it humbled me.
“Has Romeo contacted us?” That took Vitelli by surprise. It would keep him from asking questions I didn’t want to answer.
“He wasn’t pleased with you leaving like that, but thankfully he understood. I’m good at persuasion. But you made me late to pick up Marie and she was pissed.”
“I imagine you made it up to her.” I raised one brow. “Good at persuasion, I’m guessing.”
“Something like that.” He smirked. Where did you drive off to?”
“Somewhere important.” I waved him off.
“What could be more important than the meeting with Romeo Ferraro?”
Francesca. Simple as that. Francesca was starting to become the most important thing in my world, and that unnerved me.
“Romeo suggested we tie our alliance with a marriage.” I pondered Vitelli’s words. “He suggested you marry his cousin Livia, the girl?—”
“I’m not marrying her,” I pointed out simply.
Vitelli smiled and nodded. “I thought that would be your sentiment, so I said we could work something else out.”
“Good.” I agreed. Marrying was the last thing I wanted to do right now, especially to Romeo’s sister. I liked the guy, but I wasn’t ready to be part of his family.
“Well…I’m not marrying her either,” Vitelli said with sudden determination. The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, but a smile pulled at the edge of my lips. “I’m not, Cassio,” he warned me.
“And why is that?” I knew he wouldn’t, and it wasn’t my idea to marry him off. I just wanted to see that look on his face. Marriage had never been a reality for my brother. Not even now with his girlfriend, the poor girl would be strung along until she was old and dying. Vitelli had a fear of commitment and marriage was a big one.
“I asked Marie LeRoy to marry me,” he practically blurted.
Well, that was unexpected. “Is this a joke?”
“I’m not laughing,”he said seriously. “I meant to ask you after dinner, but then you disappeared, and I couldn’t reach you. I wanted to ask her the week after we met, but I knew you would never approve, so I gave it some time. One thing led to another, and I asked her yesterday. No one knows, and I asked her to keep it quiet. I said I would talk to you, out of respect as my brother, but I’m marrying her,” he said with determination.
“I’ll always be loyal to you, that doesn’t change things, that just means I’ll be sharing that loyalty with her. Marie would never harm me or the Outfit, and she loves me, Cassio, she really does, she makes me happy. I can’t remember a time when I was actually happy?—”
“Enough, Vitelli.” I didn’t let him finish.
“I just meant to say that I’m happy with her and that it doesn’t affect what we have here. You’re my brother and my Capo. That doesn’t change.”
I was actually stunned, but my schooled expression didn’t give away my inner turmoil. We never really talked about the past. The days following what happened to my father and to my sister were a blur. We didn’t stop to think about it. For me, those days had been chaos, filled with guilt, anger, alcohol, and the need for revenge. It had consumed me so much; I couldn’t even recall what happened during that first year.
I never stopped to wonder how my brother took it. Vitelli didn’t have a close relationship with my father, but he was close to Bella. We all learned to deal with the pain and our grief differently. I had never known his still haunted him.
“Do you love her?” He tensed but without hesitation, he nodded. “Do you plan on being loyal and faithful to her?” He nodded again. “Do you plan on protecting and keeping her from harm, meaning from you as well?”
“I would never harm her,” he said fiercely.
As his Capo and older brother, it was my duty to make sure my brother would never do that. I was beyond redemption, but he wasn’t.
“Don’t ever put out the fire in her. Promise me that, and you’ll have my blessing.”
He was stunned for a full minute, not caring to hide it from me. Vitelli had always been light-hearted and fun to be around. I was the dark cloud. But even I’d noticed the change. The fucker was lovestruck and he was going to be a married man.
“I promise,” he said without a shadow of a doubt. “Thank you, Cassio.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank her for being brave enough to accept a lifetime with you.”
He grinned like a schoolboy. “Fuck, I’m getting married.”
Yeah, he was, my little brother was getting married, was moving on with his life. From the depths of my being, guilt exploded, and I couldn’t rein it back in. It refused to remain locked up the way it had been for the past four years. It struck me violently and true, and it didn’t let go.
She was pacing outside the doctor’s office, her blonde hair following her around like a golden aura. She wore a pink floral dress that hugged her body, offering me a view of those delicious curves as well as her long legs.
A sudden image flooded my brain, a memory. Her legs wide around my waist, the heels of her feet digging into my ass. Then it changed, those legs gripping my face tight as I ate her out for the first time. I could still taste her, sweet and addictive.
I stopped and she turned to face me. Her eyes widened and then she was glaring. I closed the space between us, hating how much I desired to take her into one of these offices and fuck the hell out of her.
“Principessa.”
“What are you doing here?” She crossed her arms, cheeks turning pink. Was she remembering our nights, too? “Wait,” she paused. “How did you know I was here?”
“You know how, Francesca.”
“Are you ever going to stop?”
I shook my head. “No.” I would have her followed for as long as possible. Francesca needed protection, and she was mine to take care of. Mine to keep safe. My problem now.
I faced the door and then turned to look at her, she dug her nails into the palms of her hands. I knew she had been out here for the past half hour. Two days ago, Francesca had agreed to visit a psychiatrist, but somewhere along the line that had changed.
“I can’t do this,” she admitted and started pacing again.
“Francesca,” I stopped her and grabbed her shoulders. “Breathe.”
“Why are you here, Cassio?”
Good question. Why was I here? I had so much fucking work to do it had started to pile up in my office. For the first time in four years, I had taken a weekend off. Although I did work, my attention was elsewhere.
I had no other explanation for her other than I wanted to be here. Like I wanted to bring her back to my apartment. Like I wanted to keep on fucking her.
“We’ll do together if that’s what you want,” I said instead. Francesca stared at me like I had lost my mind and I probably had. “Unless you would rather do this alone.”
She took a few seconds to answer and then she shook her head. “You’ve seen me naked, so I guess this won’t shock you,” she blushed.
I chuckled. Seeing her naked had almost shocked me into a coma. Francesca was everything I had always dreamed of and more. “Principessa, there’s little in the world that is capable of shocking me,” I reminded her.
She took a deep breath and looked at the door like it was a portal into Hell. “Our problems are the only loyal things in our life. No matter what happens, they will always be there to haunt us. So, you can either deal with them or you can spend a lifetime being chased,” I told her.
Francesca’s sapphire eyes were filled with fear, but she nodded in agreement. She took the first step toward the door, and I followed. She knocked and when she looked at me, she sported a tentative smile, that made my fucking day.
The doctor answered and led us toward a sitting area. Francesca sat straight, her back stiff and her shoulders tense. She was digging her nails into the palms of her hands once more. A nervous tick that was starting to annoy me. I despised watching her hurting herself. Without thinking, I grabbed one of her hands and held it in mine.
Francesca looked at me surprised but said nothing. The doctor, an old woman with gray hair and large round glasses, took her seat before us and looked at our intertwined hands.
I knew coming here wasn’t a good idea, there were things Francesca needed to deal with on her own. But the honest truth was that I wanted to be here for her. Maybe it was the guilt talking, maybe it was this need to be close to her. I spent an entire weekend by her side, and I realized it wasn’t enough.
I wanted to see her happy, to see her healthy.