“Quit that shit.” I narrow my eyes at her while keeping my voice low. “Massimo is my husband, and if I catch you eye fucking him or flirting with him, I will knock you flat on your ass. I don’t care if you’re my sister. You will not disrespect me or my husband. While we’re on the subject, you need to stop disrespecting your husband before he puts a bullet in your skull.”
“All that power has gone to your head,” she snidely replies. “You think you’re so important that everyone is out to take what you have. News flash, sis.” She leans in, an ugly sneer contorting her pretty face. “No one cares. Butt out of my life. You have no say in what I do orwhoI do.” She waggles her brows at Massimo and licks her lips.
His mouth curls into a snarl as disgust washes over his features. “News flash, honey. Insult my wife again, andI’llput a bullet in your skull. The rumors don’t often get it right, but in your case, they hit the nail on the head. You should be grateful your sister gives you any of her precious time. If you were my sibling, I wouldn’t waste my fucking breath.”
“Are you going to stand there and let him speak to me like that?” she screeches, eyeballing me.
A few heads turn in our direction, and that’s our cue to depart. “You threw the first shot, Anais. Don’t dish it unless you can handle the blowback.”
“Cruz!” she calls out, and it’s definitely time to go. “Goddamn it.” She stomps her foot. “Where the fuck is he when I need him.”
“I don’t want to argue with you today. I know you’re upset, so I’ll let it go. Maybe we can talk later at the house.”
“Whatever.” She waves her hand in a dismissive fashion, and I feel Massimo tense at my side. Anais pulls out a compact, grimacing as she stares at her face in the mirror. “Gawd, my makeup is ruined.” Flipping it closed, she slips it back in her purse and rushes past me. “I need to freshen up.” She casts a glance over her shoulder. “I’d say it was nice meeting you, but that would be a lie.”
“Touché, sweetheart.” Massimo doesn’t miss a beat, and Anais stalks off in the direction of the bathroom. “She’s awful,” my husband says, not mincing his words as he steers us toward the parking lot. “I see none of you in her, and I honestly don’t know how you tolerate her.”
“You know why I do.”
He pierces me with his stunning green eyes. “I know the why of it. I just don’t know the how. She’s a spoiled little bitch who never grew up.”
I expel a sigh. “She’s hard work, I know, but I won’t give up on her. I can’t.”
He slams to a halt, reeling me into his arms. “You have a good heart, Rina.”
“I’m not so sure you’d say that if you saw all the blackened parts.”
“I know goodness when I see it.” He nuzzles his nose against mine.
“I love you,” I say because it’s the totality of what’s in my heart right now.
“That will never get old.” Massimo tucks me in tighter to his side. “And I love you too,mia amata. So fucking much.” His lips collide with mine in a hard kiss that reeks of sultry promise. “Later, sexy,” he purrs in my ear, and I shiver all over.
Taking my hand, he ushers me toward our SUV. Fiero is waiting alongside it, talking in hushed tones with one of Massimo’s men. I swear those two are always plotting and planning and working themselves to the bone.
Ricardo opens the back door, and Massimo playfully swats my ass as I climb inside.
We arrive at the DiPietro family home, where the repast is being held, thirty minutes later. Although I have heard Cruz’s family can’t abide my sister, they offered up their home because the Salerno gothic mansion is presently in the hands of the Bratva, something The Commission is planning to rectify soon.
Bennett and Sierra, Natalia and Leo, and Serena and Alessandro are exiting their cars at the same time as us, so we walk with them toward the DiPietro mansion. We are only two days into September, and the weather is still warm, so they have set up a marquee at the side of the house.
“You are friends with Anais and Cruz, right?” Natalia Messina says, stepping up beside me as Massimo falls into conversation with Ben and Leo.
“Yes.” I smile as Sierra slides up on my other side.
“She seems devastated,” Nat adds as a man in a black and white uniform points us around the corner toward the marquee.
“She is distraught,” I truthfully admit.
“I remember they were close,” Sierra says. She glances quickly around. “I know you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but I for one am glad that perv is dead. He trapped me one time at a club in Vegas, and he would have forced himself on me if Ben hadn’t been there to stop it. He had little regard for human life, trafficking young, kidnapped girls and using them for his own depraved pleasure.” A look of disgust materializes on her pretty face. “He tried to force Alesso to move to Vegas after he discovered he was his nephew, and he’s spent the past two years pressuring him into taking over as don.”
“I doubt many here will miss him,” I admit. “And I applaud you for speaking the truth. I hate the bullshit at funerals. How assholes are made out to be veritable saints just because they died. Let’s call a spade a spade. He was a horrible man, and he deserved to die without honor.”
Natalia grins. “I knew I liked you for a reason.”
I return her grin with ease. “I worked with him for years. He was a pig. It sickened me that I couldn’t do much about the sex trafficking. I tipped off the authorities a few times when I could get away with it, and he lost some shipments thanks to me. But it was never enough. I am glad it will end now.” I glance over my shoulder, noticing Serena and Alesso deep in conversation as they walk hand in hand. “How is Alessandro taking the news, and do you think he’ll move to Vegas once it’s reclaimed?”
“He’s pissed at how his uncle died without honor, but he’s not overly upset,” Sierra says. “They weren’t close.”
