Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
MATTEO
“ C hastity fucking Costa!”
I’d barely stepped through the kitchen door before my twin brother Gabriel started shouting.
It was obvious he’d been waiting for me. Not only did he usually eat breakfast hours earlier, but he always sat facing the stove. Not today, though.
Today, he was seated fully facing the door, and in front of him sat a half-eaten vegetable frittata that looked like it hadn’t been touched in hours.
“Good morning to you too, brother,” I shot back facetiously. “I’m guessing you’ve been talking to our housekeeper.”
Gabriel didn’t look amused. Not surprising—he rarely did. Our family wasn’t known for its sense of humor.
Quite the opposite, really.
“Tell me this was your sick idea of a joke,” he demanded. “That you picked up some chick in a nun costume off the street and told Letizia the wrong name just to give me a heart attack.”
I could only shake my head as I headed toward the fridge. “No, it’s her.”
“Then you must have lost your goddamn mind,” he “I can’t think of any other reason my usually level-headed younger brother would bring the only daughter of our family’s biggest rival home as a one-night stand.”
Well, there was one thing he had wrong.
“It’s not a one-night stand,” I said calmly as I pulled the glass pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice out and brought it over to the seat across from Gabriel. “She’s going to be staying with us for a while. Two weeks, to be exact.”
“The hell she is,” Gabriel exploded, bringing his fist down hard on the marble top of the kitchen island to punctuate his point.
Anyone else in the world would have shit their pants to have Gabriel D’Angelo scream at them like that. With very few exceptions, making the boss of New York’s most dangerous crime family was a death sentence.
Lucky for me, I fell into that category of very few exceptions .
But even so, it was jarring to see my brother so angry with me. I couldn’t remember the last time either one of us had lost our temper with the other. No matter what, when push came to shove, he always stood by me. Just like I always stood by him.
And it wasn’t just a twin thing.
Though Gabriel might have been my mirror image, we shared the same close bond with our adopted brother, Dorian. Even though he didn’t have a drop of D’Angelo blood in his veins, he was one of us.
And in this family, we had each other’s backs.
Unless you brought home a Costa , I thought wryly.
“She can’t go back to Brooklyn,” I stated calmly as I poured myself a glass of OJ. There was no use joining his shouting match. Gabriel’s foul moods never lasted too long. I knew because it was my job to make him see reason and keep him from lashing out in violence when his temper grew short.
Of course, I usually wasn’t the one caught in the crosshairs of that temper.
“You can’t expect me to believe Michael Costa tossed his only daughter out on the street,” Gabriel said.
I shook my head. No one would believe that. The man was the definition of an over-protective father.
“No, but he threatened her in front of me.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed slightly. If there was one thing neither of us could stand, it was someone who abused women. “With violence?”
“Among other things.” I picked up one of the pastries piled high in the basket between us and took a bite. “If you’d been there, you would have done the same thing.”
Okay, maybe not the exact same thing.
Not only was my brother newly married, but he was also absolutely devoted to his wife. Since the night the two had met, I hadn’t seen Gabriel so much as look at another woman.
But the idea that Gabriel would simply stand by while an innocent woman was threatened and shamed was ridiculous. Even if that person just so happened to be a member of the Costa family.
“Fine,” he conceded unhappily. “I’m sure Costa lost his temper and said some things he regrets. But I’m bet he’s calmed down by now. There’s a chance if you send her home now before anything happens, we might be able to avoid an all-out war between the families.”
I drew a deep breath and looked my brother dead in the eye. “It’s too late for that.”
“Goddamn it, Matteo!” Gabriel cursed. “Don’t tell me you fucked a nun.”
“She’s not a nun yet,” I answered with a shrug. “Just a postulant. She won’t take her final vows for another two weeks.”
“Fucking hell!”
Clearly, that wasn’t the part he was worried about.
“More importantly, I technically haven’t fucked her.” Not yet, at least.
But damn if I wasn’t dying to.
I’d only managed to doze for a couple of hours by her side. The entire time, my body ached for her. All I could do was toss and turn as erotic dreams floated through my head. Images of plunging myself deep inside Chastity’s core, of feeling her heat surround me as she called my name, taunted me. It was enough to rouse me out of sleep only a few minutes after I’d drifted off.
By the time the clock on my bedside table read nine o’clock, I was ready to give up on sleep.
The day awaited, and my schedule was packed. Life didn’t care about my sexual frustrations.
But my poor balls did. Throbbing with frustration as I stepped into the shower, they demanded release.
That, at least, was one problem I could solve.
But while jacking off in the shower had helped ease the pressure in my pants, it didn’t do a thing to cool the fire burning inside me. Only one thing would satisfy that—and she was currently curled up tight in my bed.
“Not technically ?” Gabriel shook his head in disappointment. “I don’t even want to know what that means. I only care if you can look Michael Costa in the eye and tell him you haven’t defiled his daughter.”
That definitely wasn’t the word I’d use. Awaken was much more fitting.
But somehow, I didn’t think Gabriel wanted me to meet up with Costa just to tell him I’d felt his daughter come alive in my arms.
“That’s not going to happen,” I told my brother flat out.
“Why the hell not?”
Because now that I had her, there was no way I was giving her up. Not until I’d satisfied her every primal desire…and mine.
“Because if I see Michael Costa again, the only thing I’m going to do is put my fist through his face.”
The cold fury that rushed through me just saying the man’s name must have come through in my tone and on my face. Gabriel stopped short, his brows arching high.
If it was rare for us brothers to argue, then it was downright unheard of for me to lose my temper.
I was supposed to be the calm, composed one. As the defender of our family’s legitimate side, nothing was supposed to ruffle my feathers.
And until now, nothing had.
“What happened?” Gabriel asked, his voice now heavy with concern.
“His family of spoiled brats are constantly causing chaos in my club, and the night they all get shitfaced enough to start throwing punches, that bastard has the balls to burst into my office and not only threaten me for having the decency to protect his only daughter, but to threaten her as well.”
“And that’s all you were doing?” Gabriel said, some of that skepticism creeping back into his voice. “ Protecting her?”
“It was a brawl,” I shot back. “What would you have done if you saw a guy trying to punch a nun?”
“You said she was only a postulant.”
Fucking semantics. “I didn’t learn that until later.”
The hint of a wry smile twisted my brother’s lips. “Did she tell you before or after you technically didn’t sleep with her?”
Between the lack of sleep and this infuriating conversation, my head was starting to throb. I rested my elbows on the counter and lowered my head to rub at my aching temples.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I swore through gritted teeth. “It was just some damn kisses.” All right…some powerfully intimate kisses and one earth-shaking orgasm that had lit my whole world on fire. “And I didn’t even initiate it. She kissed me. ”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t bullshit me.”
“I’m not.” I tilted my head just far enough to meet my brother’s gaze, forcing him to see the sincerity on my face. “I’m not saying I was a fucking saint. I could have stopped her. But I didn’t.”
“And why didn’t you?”
Why the hell did he think?
“Because, nun or not, she’s a beautiful woman.”
And clever…and resilient…and brave.
And sexy as hell.
“Oh shit,” Gabriel said, pushing back in his chair. “You’ve got it bad for Chastity Costa, don’t you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I answered, dismissing the idea. “How could I have feelings for anyone I’d only been around for twelve hours.”
“You knew her back in school.”
“I knew of her,” I clarified. “Passing someone in a hallway a couple of times a day doesn’t count as a relationship.”
“Keep telling yourself that, brother,” Gabriel said with a laugh.
If I’d been thinking straight, I would have taken his laughter as a good sign. One that meant his anger was cooling. But as tired and riled up as I was, the sound rubbed me the wrong way.
“Hey, I didn’t give you shit when you kidnapped a woman and used her as collateral against her family’s debt.” And Lord knew I could have. “So do us both a favor and lay off.”
To Gabriel’s credit, he shut his mouth…not for long, of course. But for him, even a few moments of silence was a show of good faith.
“Fair enough,” he said a few seconds later before letting out a long sigh. “Besides, you’re right. Trouble between us and the Costas has been brewing for a while now. I still can’t believe war didn’t break out when Dorian took out Carlo for what the bastard did to his wife.”
Of course, it helped that our brother was quite possibly the best assassin around. Not only had he left no evidence of his involvement behind, he’d killed the son of a bitch who’d dared to assault his woman in such a way that no one had been able to prove that a murder had even occurred. To the police, the press, and even the Costas, it had looked like nothing more than a tragic overdose of tainted street drugs.
“Besides,” Gabriel continued thoughtfully, “the Costas might be a pack of rash, arrogant assholes, but they’re not all idiots. Word is they’ve been doing good business over in Brooklyn. There’s a chance Michael’s capos and street soldiers won’t be willing to risk the kind of cash they’ve been pulling in over a war they know they can’t win.”
It was possible.
While Michael Costa might be obsessed with his daughter’s honor, that wasn’t true of the rest of his organization.
Money was what motivated mafia men, and they were loyal to the bosses who looked out for their wallets. Pride was all well and good, but it didn’t pay the mortgage or keep their wives and mistresses dripping in diamonds.
“I could talk to some people,” I offered. “See what his men are saying.”
Gabriel shook his head. “No offense, but it would be better if you sat this one out. If Costa is as pissed as I think, no one on that side of the bridge is going to be willing to talk to you. Even worse, if you go over there, some idiot might try to impress the boss by taking a shot at you.”
“That would be a mistake,” I said coldly.
One they wouldn’t live to regret.
But as much as I hated to admit it, my brother was right. This time around, I wouldn’t be much help gathering information.
Gabriel’s smile grew slightly. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you threaten anyone before—at least not openly. Do I have your little nun to thank for the change?”
Maybe.
Probably .
“Don’t read too much into it,” I told him, sliding back from the counter and leaving my uneaten breakfast behind. “It’s just been a long day.”
Now he was laughing at me. “It’s not even ten o’clock in the morning yet, brother.”
I let that jab slide. I had a feeling that to get through the next two weeks without committing fratricide, I would have to pick my battle judiciously.
“Do me a favor and send me the contact information for that personal shopper you used for Liv’s wardrobe when you first brought her home,” I said, already making my way out of the kitchen.
“You got it,” he agreed, though his voice still dripped with dark humor. “But I don’t think sell habits down on 5th Avenue.”
I didn’t even turn around.
“Fuck you,” I called out over my shoulder as I pushed open the kitchen door.
“Is that a technical fuck you or a real one?” he quipped before the door swung closed again.
In some ways, it really was going to be a long couple of weeks.