Matteo’s face is a picture as he stands in the doorway listening to our conversation. The poor fuck can’t hide his panic.
Matteo has been her bodyguard since she was sixteen, and although they are discreet, my sister is in love with him and he with her.
Unfortunately, there is no way in this lifetime or the next that our father will accept Matteo as a husband for Fina. As his only daughter, her true value lies in her role as a bargaining chip.
“Come, let’s forget about family shit for tonight. Dominic has cooked your favorite.” I take her arm, and we walk into the kitchen where Dom’s plating up beef stew with dumplings.
We’ve grown up on Italian food, but my sister, for some strange reason, loves dumplings with a passion she usually only reserves for dark chocolate and Sauvignon Blanc.
“Oh my god, Dominic, you’re an angel!” Fina sinks into a chair at the kitchen table and beams with happiness.
“We have chocolate pudding for dessert too,” I say. She closes her eyes for a moment, then looks at me with suspicion.
“Are you trying to butter me up? Is there some horrific fuck-up I need to deal with?”
My sister handles PR for the family. She loves doing all the social media shit and dealing with the press. Mostly, we try to keep a low profile, but it’s difficult because of the public-facing side of the business.
The Di Rossi Foundation donates millions of dollars each year to charitable projects, and our hotel chain is a global brand. What the public and media don’t know is that we also control all the drug trade along the East Coast.
One part of the business feeds the other.
It hasn’t always been that way, but my father broke the mold. He expanded the family business away from the traditional income streamshisfather relied on. In the '70s, he started buying up prime real estate and developing hotels, and from there, the foundations of the modern business grew.
We still deal drugs and other illegal shit, but I’m hoping to pivot away from that and focus more on the legitimate holdings.
It’s going to take time, though. Pa is a traditionalist, and until he hands the reins over to me, I answer to him. Which is proving harder to swallow by the day.
“No fuck-ups, Fina. Although Paris Remington was unhappy when she found out I’d fucked her best friend. She may have posted some shit about me online.”
“Seriously? Aren’t you too old for this kind of bullshit by now?”
I shrug, not caring in the slightest what she thinks of my sex life. My sister scowls.
“Tim Remington has a lot of influence, Angelo. He could make it difficult for us.”
“If Tim makes a move, he’ll regret it.” I fork some tender meat and chew. Paris Remington is a fucking bitch. I still don’t know what possessed me to fuck her.
It was unfortunate that Paris walked in on me fucking her friend Michelle a few days later, though.Oops.
“Hmm, well, let’s hope he doesn’t.”
“Fina, if he pisses me off, he’ll disappear and nobody will remember his name.”
“He has too many dubious connections to just disappear without a trace, Angelo.” My sister makes a good point, but it won’t stop me from ending the slimy bastard if he tries crossing me.
The conversation lightens as we finish dinner and move into the sitting room. Matteo disappears to speak with some of the security guys, so I decide to address the elephant in the room.
“You know you need to break it off, right?”
Fina looks up in fake surprise. “Break what off?”
“Come on, Fina, we both know you’re fucking Matteo.”
A bright flush colors her cheeks as she gulps down some more wine. “No idea what you’re talking about,fratello.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, you do. Dad knows, by the way. You’re not as discreet as you think you are. One of his guys saw Matteo leaving your bedroom last week.”
Telling her makes me feel like a complete asshole, but she needs to know. Dad has said nothing to me, but I have a feeling this might speed up his plans to marry her off.
