I retracted that thought as soon as some of the men started to arrive.
Standing next to our father, my brothers and I greeted all his guests, men he’d been familiar with before he’d been incarcerated. Some of them seemed truly pleased to see him. Others, I could see the speculation in their eyes, feel the edge of their demeanors, though most of them attempted to hide the unease.
Luca Fausti was a man who took his revenge no matter how cold. The unease was not unfounded.
One set of men, especially, stood out to me.
Dionigi Pitarresi and his four sons.
Dionigi was about Luca’s age, stoutly built with a neck that not even my hands could fit around, and a chest that resembled a barrel. When he greeted Luca, he did so with a kiss to each cheek, and a handshake that lingered longer than the rest.
His four sons, all equally stout, hovered around him, either staring at the reunion or checking out the setup of the poker games. Once Luca and Dionigi had reconnected, we were introduced. Only one son made an impression on me, the one who attempted to break the bones in my hand when we shook.
Vanni, his father had introduced him as.
By the end of our little male pissing contest, he started to sweat and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to mop up. My brothers grinned at him, then at his brothers, who seemed to sneer.
Whatever stood between our fathers had transferred to their sons.
Apparently, they knew what this was about, whereas we had no clue. Or I didn’t. I was sure the situation would reveal itself in time. Luca wasn’t a man to mince words or waste them. He didn’t enjoy speaking twice on the same issue. He wanted to wait and see what the situation proposed before he spoke on it.
“I have heard things about you,” Vanni said to me in Italian, and when he spoke, his skin turned ruddy.
The Pitarresi’s were fair skinned with red hair and blue eyes. All but their father, whose hair had turned a shade of gray.
“I have heard nothing of you,” I replied.
“You do not remember?” The sneer came back, but it came in the form of a smile. “You missed out on marrying my sister.”
I had to resist the urge to look at Luca. I couldn’t remember all the girls he had attempted to sway me with. Just that most of them were connected in some way and would increase the Fausti empire. Little did he know at the time, the one he would have picked for me existed in a little town in Natchitoches, a huge star in her own right.
I shrugged. “Missed out is in the eye of the beholder.”
The two of us stared at each other; he was sizing me up. I only stared because he was. I was certain that if I hit him in the center of his head, I could pound him into the ground like a mole.
His father cleared his throat, beckoning his sons to a table that Luca pointed out. The main table, the one where Luca would sit as head.
Vanni gave me one last look before he followed behind his father, his brothers following him.
Romeo nudged me. “There are two sisters.” He wiggled his eyebrows.“Rosso ovunque.”
Rocco shot him daggers. The Pitarresis had looked up at Romeo’s comment—red everywhere.
“Your wife will spear you through the heart,” Dario said, almost underneath his breath.
“I did not touch either of them,” Romeo said, almost offended. “Thomas and Guido. At separate times, of course, and not with the same sister.”
All of us laughed quietly, thinking of Thomas and how much he had loved women. He’d once told Scarlett the more dangerous, the better. He liked women who were taller than him, with fire-red hair, and he was at least six feet tall himself.
Guido scowled at the Pitarresis when he walked in, and we laughed even harder, receiving an even harsher look from him.
Guido was good at reading Romeo.
“Later,” he mouthed at Romeo in Italian. “You and me.”
Romeo lifted his hands in acome and get me gesture.
Luca called us together and we followed, taking seats around the tables.
