“Stop calling me that.” I try to climb off him, but his strong arms hold me in place.
“I’ll buy you new things.” He grips my chin forcing my face to his. “Those clothes were fucking rags.”
Hurt and shame take turns slapping me in the face. “Maybe to you. They were mine, and you had no right to do that. I don’t want you buying me new clothes or anything.” I avert my eyes while trying to wriggle out of his arms.
“I didn’t do it to hurt you, baby, but no woman of mine is wearing anything less than the best.”
“I’m not fucking yours,” I roar, the ire stoking inside me again. “I’m not fucking anyone’s.” I thump at my chest, only now realizing the towel has come lose and it’s pooled at my waist. “I belong to me. Only me. No one else will ever own me, and that includes you.”
“Wrong, but we’ll have to argue about it another time. I need to go to the office.”
“Great, so you’re just leaving me here naked and helpless and chained to your bed, I suppose.”
His eyes twinkle mischievously. “Can’t say I’d mind, but this isn’t a prison, and I have some clothes for you.” He releases my wrists and jerks his head at the clothes on the bed. I frown as I examine the pale pink tee and denim skirt, and bile swims up my throat.
“I’m not wearing some other woman’s clothes,” I snap as jealousy kicks me in the teeth. “How many women are you fucking anyway?”
“Only you.”
It does little to comfort me, and jealousy and anger charge through my veins like a wrecking ball. “You fucked me without protection, you asshole!” I swat at his chest, but he grabs my wrists again.
“Stop hitting. It’s not very ladylike. You’re clean, and I am too, and you have an IUD, so stop making an issue out of a non-issue.”
Tension instantly thickens the air. “You know this how?”
He heaves out an annoyed sigh. “I don’t have the time for this petty crap.” Lifting me off his lap, like I weigh nothing, he dumps me unceremoniously on the bed.
“Fiero!” I jump up as he gets off the bed, uncaring the towel falls to the floor. “How do you know that?”
“That fat fuck you call a husband told me.” His biceps bulge and strain as he opens and closes his hands. “The same time he was telling me I could do whatever I wanted to you as long as I didn’t mark your face.” He turns around and yells before slamming his fist into the wall, putting a hole in it.
I grab the towel, holding it up to my chest as I step away from him.
His face falls as he watches me. “You’re not in danger from me, Valentina. I won’t hurt you.” He grabs handfuls of his hair. “You’ve got to stop pressing my buttons.”
“I thought you liked my sass.”
“I like your sass in the bedroom. I’d prefer your obedience outside of it.”
“You’re a fucking prick, just like every other man I’ve ever known.” I’m awash with rage, and every nerve ending in my body bristles with anger.I feel like screaming and throwing shit, and I’m barely clinging to my sanity.
He mutters something under his breath before briefly closing his eyes. When he reopens them, he seems calmer. “If it helps, no other woman has ever shared that bed with me, and the only women who have come into this house are my sisters, my housekeeper, my mother, and my best friend’s wife. I’ve never fucked anyone without a condom before, and I wouldn’t have fucked you bare if I wasn’t clean. I’d never risk your health like that. Those clothes belong to my youngest sister. She won’t mind you borrowing them. Now if there’s nothing else, I need to get dressed.”
He stomps off into his closet, leaving me hurt, pissed off, and even more confused than before.
15
FIERO
“Thanks for coming in on short notice,” Massimo says from the head of the conference table where we are gathered for an emergency sitting of the board in downtown Manhattan at Commission Central HQ.
“What’s going on?” Bennett Mazzone asks, clasping his hands in front of him on the table as he leans forward a little in the chair.
Ben was the first president of the reformed Commission, and he mentored Massimo for years, ensuring a smooth transition from our first president to the next. They are still close, and Massimo confides in Ben more than anyone else when it comes to serious matters. It’s clear, on this occasion, that Ben is as much in the dark as the rest of us.
Originally, The Commission comprised the dons of each of the five New Yorkfamiglie. The current New York dons are yours truly, Massimo Greco, Bennett Mazzone, Cristian DiPietro, and Caleb and Joshua Accardi. It’s a good mix of youth and experience, but we felt we’d achieve greater unity across the US if we expanded the representation. So, eighteen months ago, Dominic Mantegna from Chicago, Dario Agessi, the Philly don, Volpe from Pittsburgh and Pagano from Detroit were voted onto the board, and so far, it’s verifying the decision was a smart one.
“Don Salerno received troubling information that has potentially far-reaching consequences. He’s dialing in from Vegas shortly.”
