“Slight exaggeration, but I don’t regret my decision to marry my wife. Best thing I ever did was put a ring on her finger and knock her up.” He tilts his head to the side, eyeballing me as I take the turn for the road leading to my house. “You should be finding a woman to settle down with, not chasing a woman who already belongs to another.”
Irritation bats at me. “She doesn’t belong to him. She loathes him, and he doesn’t appreciate her.”
“Yeah.” A heavy sigh leaves his lips. “I picked up on that too. I’m betting theirs was an arranged marriage and she was forced into it by her parents.”
“No betting or digging required. One hundred percent that’s how that happened. There’s no way a woman like Valentina willingly chose marriage to that dick.”
“Want me to find out?”
I shake my head and look over at him while I wait for my front gates to open. “Why bother? I told you this is a one-off, and I meant it. Her marriage is none of my business.”
“I still can’t believe you paid that much for her.”
I drive slowly along the short drive toward my two-story Spanish-style hacienda. “I’d have paid four or five times more if I had to.”
It’s barely a dip in the ocean of my finances. I majored in financial investment during my undergraduate studies, and I put my knowledge to good use. Massimo and I invested wisely, which is how we were able to start our own business, Rinascita, in our early twenties. It’s hugely successful and it’s made us very rich.
Combine that with our earnings from ourmafiosocriminal enterprises—namely our Colombian drug production facility in Cali—and we’re obscenely wealthy. I have my own personal property development portfolio, and I continue to invest heavily in the stock market. It’s all paid off, and I’m more than comfortable. I have more money than I know what to do with. Five million is chump change to me. I’d have paid way more for the pleasure of Valentina’s company if I’d had to.
Rico’s eyes almost bug out of his head as I pull my car into one of the bays in my parking garage. “You are literally insane,” he says.
“It’s not like I’m struggling for money, and that prick needs it.” I shut off the engine. “I hope he uses some of it to buy a new car. That piece of shit looked like it was falling apart.”
“How bad is his gambling debt?”
I rub the back of my neck. “It’s considerable, and the cartel is apparently running out of patience.”
“That could cause issues for D’Onofrio and for us in a larger context.”
“I’m aware,” I say before getting out. Rico joins me. We walk toward the side door that leads into the house. “I have informed the board Dom is problematic and I’m handling it.” The intel on the cartel is new, but I’ll update the board on that after my weekend with the stunning Valentina in case I need to use that as leverage for a little longer.
“I’m sure they weren’t expecting you to bail him out and bed his wife in the bargain.”
I slam to a halt and turn to face him. “No one is to know about that deal. This stays between us.”
“My loyalty is with you, and I would never discuss your private business. You know that.”
I do. Rico is one of the most trustworthy men I’ve ever encountered. I resume walking. “Just ensuring we’re on the same page.”
“For the record, I want to state this is a really bad idea, and on a personal level, I completely disapprove. You are railroading that young woman, and it’s not right.”
“Your disapproval has been noted,” I say, punching the code into the alarm keypad and stepping foot in my house.
Rico emits a deep sigh. “But it doesn’t change anything.”
I let a smirk run free. “You got that right. Next weekend, Valentina Ferraro is mine and I intend to make the most of my time with her.”
“Show me who you have on your list,” I demand of Vitto the following morning as we sit across the table from one another out on the patio area at the rear of his house. It’s a glorious day, and I’m hoping to finish up here early to go for a run on South Beach, followed by a swim.
“Do we have to do this now?” Vitto rubs his temples while nursing his usual ginger hangover cure drink. “Can’t it wait until Monday? I didn’t crawl into bed until five.” He pouts like a toddler on the verge of throwing a tantrum.
And this is why the board sent me to mentor this goon. Despite his failings, I quite like the man. He’s not a bad guy, just lazy, unambitious, and out of his depth. He’s had no one to show him the ropes, having been thrown in the deep end when his father died suddenly two and a half years ago, leaving his playboy heir in charge years earlier than he was expecting. He really needs to get his act together and fast. We can’t have a weak link in a key territory, and Vitto knows he’s on borrowed time.
“You’ve got to quit the partying, Vitto.” I take a sip from my coffee as I study the man. “And quit with the womanizing. It’s not a good look for a don, and it doesn’t do anything to foster confidence with the board.”
“I never wanted to be a don,” he grumbles, staring out at acres of pristine manicured lawns.
“Not everyone does, but you are where you are, and there’s no point bitching about it. Your men are looking to you for leadership, and you’re not providing the right kind of leadership or setting the right example.”
