11. Moan My Name #3
Max stared at me as if I had just suggested pineapple belonged on pizza, then burst out laughing. A full hyena cackle erupted from his chest as I rolled my eyes and took another sip of my beer, waiting for him to get it out of his system.
“You’re going to make the mayor’s daughter fall in love with you? That’s the big, brilliant plan? Fuck me, you’ve actually lost it this time. That is…” he wheezed, slamming his bottle down. “I don’t even know…”
I beckoned his judgment with my fingers, bobbing my head. “Get it all out.”
“Have you actually lost your mind? You do realise what is at stake here, Sani? You are on thin fucking ice. The Mayor of Rome wants you locked away behind bars, and if he succeeds, we don’t just lose our footing in the capital, but it’s a downward spiral for us all.
Gio, Alessio, me. And you want to what… make this poor girl fall so madly in love with you that she not only looks past who you are and what you do, but begs her daddy to join our forces?
” He threw his head back and laughed some more, raising his hands in prayer as he whined in a woman’s voice, “But please, Papi, I love him.”
“Okay, okay,” I growled, pacing back and forth. “Are you done?”
“Not nearly,” he chuckled, forcing himself to calm down. “Please tell me there’s a Plan B.”
“I don’t need one.”
“You’re insane. You do hear yourself, don’t you?”
“Listen, she’s Piero’s only weakness. Once he finds out I’m going after her, he’ll freak out completely, all right? He’ll try to make a deal to keep her safe. That’s when we’ll be able to negotiate with him.”
“So you’re using her? Making her want you to piss Piero off so he negotiates a deal?”
“No,” I growled. “I’m not using her. I want her. She’s mine. Whether Piero agrees to a deal or not, she’ll be mine.”
Max stared again, realising that nothing he could say would change my mind on this. Then he threw his hands into his hair and turned his back on me. “For fuck’s sake, Sani. This won’t end how you expect. Actually, no. Tell me, how do you expect this to end?”
“I’ll threaten Piero enough into believing that the only way to save his daughter from me is to agree to a negotiation where we can both live peacefully in Rome with mutual respect.
Meanwhile, I’m making her fall in love with me.
When the time comes to negotiate, part of the deal will be that I marry her and promise to keep her safe for the rest of her life. ”
“You live in fucking cuckooland, Sani,” Max chuckled. My fists clenched. “And what will Piero get out of that negotiation? He’ll never agree to it.”
“I’ll make him the most powerful and successful man in Rome.
I’ll fund all his future campaigns, pay his fucking mortgage, whatever.
I’ll buy him a private island and set him up with an offshore account where he can live a life of luxury, drinking coconuts and fucking wild boars for all I care.
I don’t give a shit what he wants. But he’ll realise I’m the only one who can make his daughter happy, so he will agree. ”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“He will.”
“Voice of fucking reason here.” Max waved his hand in my face to get my attention. “Humour me. Let’s say he doesn’t want anything from you? What then?”
“Then… he won’t stay mayor.”
“So you’re going to destroy her father? Quite a way to persuade her to marry you.”
I groaned, slamming my beer bottle against the side. “It won’t come to that.”
“Okay, let’s assume it doesn’t happen because of a different outcome. What if she doesn’t fall in love with you?
I smirked. “Impossible.”
It was his turn to roll his eyes. He thought I was being cocky, and maybe I was. But that wasn’t the only reason.
“When you first laid eyes on Cami, talked to her, touched her, did you know you two were meant for each other?”
He stilled, narrowing his eyes at me. He knew I had him. He loved his wife more than life itself. He was such a softie at his core. “Si.”
“Would you have done anything to make her yours?”
“Si.”
“And did she fall in love with you because it was inevitable?”
“Perhaps,” he answered.
I raised my bottle in the air. “Then you understand me.”
He grumbled, tilting his head back against the ceiling. “Gio isn’t going to like this plan. Alessio will have something to say about it, too.”
“And neither of them will have a leg to stand on because they are the biggest hypocrites of all. If I have to burn Rome to the ground to have her, I will. Just give me a few more days before we tell them.”
He glanced back at me with a smirk and a shake of his head. “Crazy fucking bastard.”
I grinned, hitting my bottle against his. “What did you expect? Look at my role models.”
“So it’s our fault, is it?”
“I’m a product of my environment.” I grabbed another beer from the fridge and slid it towards him. “Now, want to come on an adventure?”
“It’s five a.m., Sani. I’ve been waiting for you all night. I want to go to bed.”
“Old man, you’re not dead yet. Come on.”
“Do I dare ask?”
“I need to get a tattoo. Then we’re going to pay Piero’s secretary an early morning visit.”
He blinked at me. “Those two sentences don’t belong together.”
I slid the file I had on the man across the island, and Max opened it, finding the images I had my PI take of him balls deep in his wife’s barely legal sister.
“He’s our ticket to finding out where they’re keeping Simone Doria and who tipped Piero off about the shipments.”
Max grinned, nodding. “Not just a pretty face, Santino."