I shrugged. ‘You were thinking of telling El Topo you’re pregnant. Orazio’s frothing at the mouth at the thought of a great-grandkid. We’re just bringing the timeline forward a little.’ I tilted her head so I could stare deeper into her eyes. ‘You do want my baby, don’t you?’
Yearning, sweet and powerful, darkened her eyes. ‘Yes. More than anything.’
‘There you go. I can’t wait to breed you,bedda mia.’
Some of her sass evaporated. ‘You don’t think we’re tempting fate with all this?’
I kissed her long and deep. ‘If she won’t be tempted to our side, then we make our own fate, baby. But I have a feeling with the amount of effort we’ll need to put into making everyone we care about happy, she’ll have no choice.’
Wrapping my hands around her trim waist, I picked her up and flung her over my shoulder. She shrieked. ‘Wait, what… Where are we going?’
I slapped her ass. Enjoyed it bounce against my cheek. ‘First, I’m going to take this ass as payment for your earlier near-insubordination. Then we’re going shopping for the fattest diamond on Fifth Avenue. We’re good for now, Fist. Be ready to head out in an hour.’
She groaned at the reminder that Fist was seeing her slung over my shoulder on the way to getting reamed.
I grinned as I stepped back into my bedroom and kicked the door shut.
Things had been hairy for a second – and would probably remain tricky for a while – but for now, I was going to enjoy my woman in all the ways God had intended. And in some of the ways he didn’t.
27
CESARE
It helped that the woman I was planning on marrying hadn’t pulled the trigger that had killed our mother. But it was inconvenient as fuck that her last name was Mancinelli. And that her little sister may or may not be directly responsible for my mother no longer being alive.
I would’ve been highly entertained if I’d have been watching this on a big screen with popcorn and not living every second of this heaven and hell myself.
Every day until Orazio’s eightieth birthday was like navigating a landmine with clowns on my heels. I fucking hated clowns. The only highlights being the nights I spent between Maddelena’s thighs.
In four races, I’d closed the championship gap to Narciso to within seven measly points. And with three more races to go, the championship was back within reach. The sponsors were less angsty, the Turks were happy with our level of supply and service, although I wasn’t holding my breath on that lasting, and an alternative pipeline was developing with the Armenians. All our clubs, casinos, warehouse and trucking concerns that servedas the perfect cover for moving product hadn’t needed serious oversight for a while.
Everything was ticking along as smoothly as could be expected. Except there was a calm-before-the-storm vibe in the air that made me angsty as fuck.
Or maybe it was Rafaelle’s continued cold shoulder. I gave him three days to cool off after Maddelena’s bombshell revelations before I reached out. He’d agreed to turn up to the family meeting in Fallbrook only after Orazio threatened to throw his collection of guns into the Potomac.
Breaking the news of my impending marriage to Maddelena to the wider family, after telling them of her sister’s role in my mother’s demise, produced fresh outrage and more speculation as to whether I’d lost my mind, but thankfully, the temperature had died down quickly.
Giacomo had absented himself from the meeting, with Orazio’s blessing, and to my relief. The haunted grief in his eyes still devastated me. And now I’d found a woman of my own, I was beginning to understand the depths of his loss and heartache.
My grandfather shutting everyone up by reiterating his blessing had calmed things down quickly. For which I was grateful. Although the twins looked sullen and pissed off, and Bibi looked pained when she approached me after.
‘This isn’t a joke, is it? You really have a thing for the Mancinelli girl?’
‘It’s more than a thing,soru.’ That heady feeling moved in my chest with the admission. I hadn’t quite found the words to describe it yet, but it was a living, breathing thing inside me.
‘I ought to be shocked as hell but considering what this family is capable of…’ She shrugged, then her gaze shifted to Rafaelle, who sat brooding in the corner with a glass of cognac in his hand. He’d remained silent all meeting, but he didn’t looklike he wanted to tear my head off, which was something. ‘Is he going to be okay about this?’
I nodded. ‘Sì. I’ll make sure of it.’
She kissed my cheek and left. And by silent signal from Orazio, everyone filed out, leaving him, me and Rafa.
I got straight to the point. ‘I think Father Calogero is worth looking into. I’d like to hear his version of things.’ And to thank him for keeping Maddelena safe that day.
Orazio nodded approval. ‘I had the same thought. Which was why I put out some feelers.’
My brows shot up. ‘Already?’
His scathing look told me what he thought of my reaction. ‘You think I sit around all day waiting for you to come up with all the pearls of wisdom?’
