“You’re different from your sisters. Giana is in your face. She takes charge and can be as deadly as a crocodile when she wants to be. You know what you’re getting with her, and she’s menacing from the start with an armor so thick it’s hard to breach. She will make minced meat out of someone one day. It will be fun to watch when she meets her match.” He shrugged. “Nicoletta is a gazelle. She’s carefree and happy. Innocent, even after everything she’s been exposed to in this life. She’s harmless and too naive for this world.”
“Okay, so we’re comparing my sisters and me to animals, got it. What am I?”
“You’re a lioness. You appear cute and cuddly, but you’re silently lethal and will go for the jugular before your prey even knows they're in danger. You know this life, and you quietly thrive in it. It’s captivating to watch.”
I sat back in stunned silence. I felt more like a zebra, trying to blend in until I could get out and away. I did not see myself as he did at all. I was not a predator. This life scared me for many reasons; it was why I was working so hard to escape it, the only way I knew how. The only way I could.
“How does this explain why you call me Miss Morelli and not Bianca?”
“As I said, it’s captivating to watch. Someone noticed that and warned me. I value my life, so you are Miss Morelli.”
I smirked, “Romeo warned you off me?”
Mossimo started the car and turned on the music, effectively ending the conversation. It was a day of revelations. I learned a few things from Mossimo. One, he could not read people for shit if he thought I thrived in this life when I was just trying to escape it. He had a bit of a thing for me at some point. He didn’t anymore as I was certain he was dating Lenora, one of my father’s capo’s daughters. They may not have made it official yet, but they were about as subtle as a sledgehammer. It also neveroccurred to me that Romeo would take such an action. I didn’t know whether to appreciate the protective older brother act or to resent it.
I leaned against the headrest, closed my eyes, and planned how to make Mossimo call me Bianca. My last name wasn’t exactly something I was proud of. It was feared in Brooklyn as well as the other four boroughs. There was no getting away from it in the city.
Mossimo’s phone rang, but I ignored it, letting myself relax into the leather seat. “Yes, sir.” I heard him agree before he disconnected. I expected him to continue to my house, but he veered toward Manhattan instead.
“Mossimo?” I questioned when he didn’t say anything.
“Your brother told me to take you to the club. You will have to wait for him there.”
“Why?” It was rare that I got to go to a club at all because I had nobody to go with, but it was even more so that my brother would request my presence there. Especially at this hour, when it no doubt was in full swing.
“He didn’t say, Miss Morelli.” Mossimo hesitated. “But I did get a text earlier that I was to stay vigilant, so he could be expecting some kind of trouble.”
My stomach sank. “Are Giana and Nicoletta meeting us there?”
“No. Just us, your brother, and Lorenzo.”
I took a deep breath. Lorenzo Vitale was a pain in the ass. He was a hot, rugged, all-consuming presence who knew how to drive me crazy as nobody else could. Which pissed me off. The man made me want to fight and rebel against everything he said, and I didn’t know why. My sisters saw him as a brother. I did not. He was as overbearing and overprotective as Romeo.
“Great,” I muttered, trying to mentally prepare myself. I just knew whatever it was would change everything.
Chapter Three
Bianca
Mossimo drove to the warehouse district, not Area 212 as I expected. “I thought we were going to the club?”
“We are, Miss Morelli, but not the one you’re thinking of. It’s your brother’s other club.”
And the revelations continue, I thought bitterly as nerves twisted my insides into knots. “What?”
Mossimo seemed reluctant to share more. “Lussuria. It’s a sex club where people can indulge their fantasies.”
I wanted to puke from the hysteria trying to swallow me. “Romeo is a member?”
“He’s the owner. It’s off the books, and only a handful of his men know it belongs to him.”
Lorenzo is obviously one of them. “I don’t want to go in there,” I said softly.
“You won’t. Your brother would never allow it. You’re going to his office only,” Mossimo assured me.
“And you don’t know what this is about?”
“No, but he wouldn’t do this unless it was for your safety. Whatever has happened is big enough for him to expose this club’s existence to you.”
