He grinned but said nothing. He didn’t call men to a sit-down for his wife. He only killed them if he had a name. But I understood where Tito was going with this. He did, too.
“Between us,” Rocco said, using his hand to motion between him and I.
Tito went to open his mouth, but Rocco lifted a hand. “Dammi questo, zio.” Give me this, uncle.
Tito looked at me. I nodded.
Rocco cleared his throat. “This will save time. Tell me what will happen if I speak to your wife again—alone.”
I looked him straight in the eye and said the words easily,“Ti ucciderò.” I will kill you.“Faustifamigliaor not.”
This was about more than him being alone with her. This was about respect for another man in this life and his wife. If boundaries were not set, and enforced, he would walk all over them. There was nothing some men wanted more than what another man had. It was the equivalent of a virus in this life of ours. It ran rampant.
The Faustifamigliawere a step above the rest. They had more power and money than all of the five families put together, and it only grew over the years.
Rocco Fausti had wanted Alcina before me. He didn’t get her. After I did, he was going to fight even harder to have her. “No” wasn’t a deterrent to some men; it was a word that triggered them to work harder for what they wanted.
When it came to my wife, fuck that. Fuck him and his name. He set one more foot over my personal boundaries, and all civilities were off. The only reason I did this was because of the respect I had for Tito and Romeo, and in general, the Faustifamiglia.
He nodded and then stood. We all stood.
Tito nodded. “We all agree then,” he said.
Rocco nodded and then I did. He fixed his suit and walked over to me, Romeo and then Guido behind him. He offered me his hand and we shook.
“Alcina is a special woman,” he said. “I respect your boundaries, and I respect you more for having them. You will take good care of her.”
I didn’t respond. It was none of his business what I did or didn’t do with my wife.You will take good care of herwas not a casual comment. It was an order. I didn’t fucking need that from him.
He grinned, because make no mistake, he was an intuitive bastard. You had to be in this life. “It will not matter much after your death anyway, since you keep fucking with the wrong man,” he said, moving past me toward the door. “I will still be here.”
Yeah, to fucking take care of my wife.
I turned and spoke to his back. “Fucking bastard,” I said, finally getting it off my chest.
He stopped, and after a minute, he finally turned around. We faced each other.
Tito rushed toward us, coming in between us again.
“We have an agreement,” he said, pushing his glasses further up his nose. He was much smaller than us, shorter and thinner, but he was more respected than all of us put together in this room. To stand next to him was like standing next to an immovable, impenetrable wall. You didn’t fuck with him.
“For now,” Rocco said, fixing his suit again. “Rules are void when a man is not alive to enforce them.”
“If it’s the last thing I do on my deathbed,” I said. “These rules will stick.”
He knew how serious I was being then.
“There are worse men than me for a woman,” he said, and then left.
Romeo squeezed my shoulder before he followed his brother. Guido looked at me and shook his head.
Tito stood in front of me, forcing my eyes on him. “It makes you think, does it not? If you keep up this foolishness, chasing after old ghosts, who will be here to take care of your family if something happens to you?”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “That’s our life,” I said. “The fucker in this club or the fucker on the corner who pulls the trigger—the bullet goes in the same way, and I don’t come out alive.”
He studied my face. “The product of this life, through and through,” he said. “I treat grown men who are dying daily. I see and hear all types. Some men cry for theirmammas. Some men are angry, because anger hides true fear. But you—men like you—you wake up with acceptance.
“‘If it is notthisknife in my back, it will bethisbullet in my heart.’ However. You are in a position that is not like the rest. You have earned the right not to constantly have a dagger over your head, or a gun pointed at your heart. Why waste it on what happened years ago?”
