Chapter Five #2
“Have a good day, mi amore,“ I told her, stealing a kiss from her luscious, cursing lips. “I’ll see you after work.”
I had several work-spaces around the city, but the one I thought of as ‘my office’ was right here at home. As expected, Massimo was there and impatient to begin the day’s business.
Gone were the days of dim, smoke-filled rooms with old men in dark suits at long tables, dividing the city like cake.
My work could be surprisingly tedious between turf wars, with more and more of our family assets coming from legal enterprises, or successfully hiding behind one, most of it was paperwork.
There were project reports to be read, contracts to be approved or rejected, funds to be transferred and endless emails to be read.
The hours ground out slowly and Vittoria was there, hanging over all of it like a ghost of perfume, beckoning me back to her.
“Rom? Did you hear me?”
My fantasies abruptly vanished with Massimo’s question. Of course not, I wanted to rant. Do I look like a man who gives a shit about anything right now other than being between my wife’s legs?
Aloud, I said, “Of course, I heard you. We have a meeting with the Bianchi brothers at three o’clock this afternoon.”
“And this is you—“ He gestured at me in my tailored dress shirt with the collar unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up. ”—ready to go to that meeting?”
“You never heard of casual Fridays?”
Massimo scrubbed his hand through his hair before lacing me with a scrutinizing gaze. “You’ve been distracted to the point of obsession with this woman. Is she seriously that good in the sack?”
If only he knew. There was a time I would have told him, a time when Massimo and I shared everything. Simo was my best friend, and had been since my mother and I went to see his mother in the maternity ward.
I’d never forget that day, even though I was only a toddler.
I reached out my chubby hand to touch the sleeping baby.
He opened his eyes and stared at me and I don’t know, but it stayed with me because I had no brothers yet and felt weirdly connected.
We stared at each other for a bit and then Simo had his first smile.
Our moms filled the private hospital room with laughter watching the two of us watch each other.
From that moment on, it seemed we were never apart.
He took his first steps holding on to my hands.
My name was his first word. We grew up together and throughout our innocent boyhood, I led and he followed.
Then his parents were killed in a territorial dispute, and when father brought him and his two brothers to live with us, our boyhood ended and we had to grow up even faster.
We learned how to fight, how to shoot… how to kill.
And girls, yes, we learned about them, too, and whatever we hadn’t learned yet, we talked about even more.
And through it all, Massimo was forever at my side, forever following where I led and eventually became my consigliere, who managed all the Capos and reported to me directly.
Like us Vitale sons, the Di Mauras had no choice but to be part of this life, part of us.
It was like fate had decided we seven would be brothers, and together, could weather any storm, even those created by rivals who wanted what we had, and there were plenty of those.
But with my alliance with the Calogerà family, I had secured every corner of my father’s—my—empire.
The climb had been steep, as had the cost to get there, and the view from the top showed me only new problems and new enemies.
We had the Irish, Russians, and the Yakuza, who had posed no problems to date, but I didn’t expect that to last forever.
Now that I was top dog, everything would change, even loyalties.
We dealt in prostitution, but not trafficking. That was the Russians. They had trains running all the time for their clients around the world. And their other great claim to fame was smuggling and dealing in arms, something my family had not been a part of, nor would they ever.
The Russians never moved beyond their baser mobster instincts, and that worked out well for us.
We’d grown, in both legal and illegal businesses and controlled the ports and now, all the shipping routes.
We didn’t have to deal shit on the streets to build an empire, because we decided what came in and out of the country.
That was the true power and now it was ours.
Sure, there would always be ambitious punks who thought they’d found the limits of our control and that was the purpose of the meeting this afternoon; the Bianchis might think they were there to offer our man on the east docks their discounted goods, but when Simo and I walked in, they’d know their encroachments into our territory had not gone unnoticed after all, and we would learn who they were working for now.
“You’re doing it again,” Massimo said, interrupting my thoughts. “What is it this time? Her tits or her ass?”
“That’s my wife you’re talking about. And for your information, I was thinking about the Bianchis.”
“Good,” Massimo grunted. “Nice to know you can still put your head in the game when you have to.”
But now that he’d brought her up, my thoughts strayed to Vittoria, to her firm full breasts bouncing as I fucked her, her luscious ass quivering and turning red as I spanked her.
I couldn’t help wondering if she was still as I’d left her, bound spread-eagle across the bed, or if she’d somehow managed to escape the cuffs.
I knew she couldn’t be loose on the grounds or the in-house security monitor would have alerted me, but if anyone could do it, my bride would find a way.
I had to hand it to her; the woman was tenacious, her father’s indulgence was beginning to make more sense to me now, despite the risk to his reputation.
However, there was real danger in her wandering off and I took this seriously and would correct her with very real and immediate consequences.
By now, everyone knew what the Vitale queen looked like, and if she ever managed to escape the home where I kept her protected, it would be nothing for my enemies to snatch her up.
If that happened, everything I’d built from the legacy I’d inherited would fall, tumbling from my hands like a deck of cards.
The intensity of this conviction surprised even me.
I’d never thought about the reality of having a wife until it became necessary as part of the transaction with her father, but now I couldn’t imagine a life without Vittoria in it.
Somehow, in such a short time, the man I had always been—the son, the brother, the boss—had become something more.
A husband. And not merely in title. Vittoria had rooted herself beneath my skin with alarming speed, altering the rhythm of my life, my thoughts, even the way I viewed my empire.
Before her, power had been enough. Now every decision carried the weight of protecting what was mine.
I should have resented that vulnerability.
Instead, the thought of returning to the hollow version of myself that existed before her felt impossible.
“You ever think about getting married, Simo?” I asked, musing on these thoughts.
“Why?” he countered. “We in trouble with another family already?”
“I’m serious. You should get married,” I decided, pointing at him. “Loosen you up. If she’s a sweet, obedient lady, you’ll finally relax and have some fun. And if she’s a hoyden like mine, you’ll have even more fun.”
“I don’t have time,” he said flatly. “And neither do you. We’re meeting the Bianchis in an hour. Go put on a tie, kiss your distraction goodbye and meet me in the car. You make me come up and get you and you’re riding in the trunk.”
“Yes, boss,” I said.
Massimo, already on his way out the door, stiffened and sent me a black stare for that, but left without further comment.
I exited my office and made my way through the house to our suite.
I’d left instructions with the staff that when the door to my private quarters was closed, no one was to go in.
Despite that, an uneasiness filled me about that door.
Would it be closed, as it was left, or… Relief washed over me when I discovered the door was still closed and a guard still posted outside.
“Carlo,” I said, walking up to him. “You’re one of my wife’s personal guards?”
“Yes, sir. Team leader, sir.”
I was surprised that Massimo would give this assignment to Carlo, one because he was still fairly young despite having been with us since his high school days, but also pleased because he was a tried and proven soldier and had kept me from getting shot on more than one occasion.
“Good. I think it’s time my wife met her security staff. Call your team, get them up here, and introduce yourselves. Then show her around.”
“Yes, sir. Where?”
“Anywhere she wants. What’s mine is hers. Just don’t let her get too comfortable anywhere, keep her moving. You’ll get a formal debriefing later.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good man. Oh, and Carlo?” I reached for the door, but paused to lock eyes with him. “This is one of those jobs you really, really don’t want to fuck up. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
I entered our bedroom warily, prepared for anything, only to find my wife sleeping in her restraints. Quietly, undoing the cuff, I gently moved her arm, and ran my hands down her smooth skin. She moaned, her eyes fluttering open.
“Have you been here this entire time?” she asked sleepily. “I thought you had a meeting?”
“I do. I can’t stay long.”
Real disappointment flashed across her face, swiftly replaced by a haughty pout. “No one asked you to stay.”
“Perhaps not, but someone is asking me for a spanking right now.”
She stuck her tongue out and rolled protectively onto her back, the covers slipping down as she did so, revealing her beautiful breasts. I leaned over and took a nipple in my mouth.