“Report,” I order Giovanni when my second-in-command walks in and I’m on the treadmill trying to tell my muscles that fucking my wife isn’t the exercise we do before breakfast.
Yet. I restrain the urge to ask how Ruby is.
“All the premises are fine. Supply good, distribution good.” Giovanni rattles off more updates on the main parts of the business.
I nod my approval. All things that I’ll verify, but I trust him, as I do all my men. Only those fiercely loyal to me, Clerkenwell, and the Angelini family, work for me now. But still, I’m cautious.
“House security,” I prompt him when he pauses.
“Don, there was an intruder last night,” he says gravely.
“Who?” My chin snaps up and my mind clicks into focus. “Did you get him?”
“They ran off before I could,” Giovanni explains. “They took out one of the cameras and climbed the East wall.”
“Who do you think it is?” My brain is churning through options. Someone from a rival family that I somehow missed? Or the Essex Cartel, perhaps? Maybe even one of the London Mafia Syndicate deciding they’ll take a swing at what they think is a vulnerable target.
Fuck. It’s been peaceful for a long time. I’ve become complacent.
“I’m not sure, Don,” Giovanni replies. “Not one of the Italian families, I don’t think.”
“Get the camera working, and update me when you see them again. I want them caught. I don’t accept any threats to my family.” Especially now that Ruby is here. If something happened to her, I’d never forgive myself. “Be vigilant.”
“I will be, Don.”
I clap Giovanni on the shoulder. “Thank you. I know I can rely on you.”
If it weren’t for my men, I don’t think I could let Ruby out of my sight for a second. She’s too precious to risk.
15
RUBY
After a brief Italian breakfast with Dante, which is admittedly delicious, I’m on my own. I pluck up the courage to message my mother a long and mainly fictional account about my new marriage, telling her what Dante suggested. I receive a “congratulations, I hope it works out well” in response, which leaves me a bit flat. So I hang out in the enormous lounge that opens onto the garden, and read some of the old paperbacks on the shelves, feeling vaguely guilty for not being at work. But it’s only about an hour until there’s a knock at the door.
I’m preparing to say that I’m good with the cup of tea I have, when an unexpected face peeks in.
“Hey!” Lucia, the bride’s mother from the wedding, and Dante’s sister, grins at me.
She’s wearing jeans and a top, and her hair is in a messy ponytail. There are a few little signs that she isn’t twenty anymore, but she looks amazing given she’s had a kid. I’m instantly starstruck. She’s too cool to be interested in hanging out with me.
“Hi! Come in! It’s so nice to see you!” Wait, what am I doing? I cringe at myself acting like this is my house. It’s far more Lucia’s than mine. “I mean, if you want to.”
“I do!” She flies to my side as I get up from the sofa awkwardly, discarding the old paperback with a bodice ripper cover that I was reading. Hopefully Lucia won’t see it.
“I hear I have a new sister-in-law. Can I give you a hug?”
“Uh.” What, I was so sure she’d be scornful and unimpressed that I’d somehow caught her brother, but she’s acting pleased?
“Sure,” I agree.
“Mm!” She catches me up in an embrace, and unlike hugging girls my age, she’s soft at the edges, no angular elbows. “I’m so happy you’re going to be part of the family!”
Emotion wells up in me, an unexpected wave.
“Ohh, yeah.” I hug Lucia back, because how can I not when she’s being so lovely? “It’s not quite like that,” honesty compels me to say.
“Let me look at you.” She draws away to hold me by the shoulders and look at me, smiling at me with what seems like genuine warmth. “Just as gorgeous as I remember.”
