“Is that wise?” Joey asks, running his hands through his hair, his face anxious. “What about Mom and Eva?”
“What about Natalia?” Sisco adds.
I unbutton my jacket and perch myself on the edge of my father’s desk. “We can protect them.”
Joey and Sisco look between themselves and then back to me. I already know what they’re thinking and I agree wholeheartedly. Natalia has no idea the pivotal role she plays in all of this, the power play I put in place by demanding her as our payment.
She’s my smartest move yet and possibly my biggest mistake.
But how was I supposed to know that we would all fall so hard for her? Natalia Costello, the beautiful, untouched mafia princess of Frank Costello. The promised bride for Alfonso Rosso.
She is everything I ever dreamt of and more. Pliant to us all but still with fire in her eyes and willing to stand up to me. She’s driving me crazy. I can only imagine the goddess she’ll be once she discovers how powerful she is. My dick goes hard at the memory of her in the limousine. Her legs spread wide, my brothers’ hands on her sweet pussy, and her gaze defiantly on mine as she came. I must grin or show in some way that I’m thinking about her, because my brothers laugh.
“She tasted good, brother. You’re missing out,” Sisco says, a grin in his tone.
“Yes, andsowet for us both,” Joey adds, and they laugh again.
“Fuck you both. It was me she wanted,” I grumble. But we all know that’s a lie. She loved all of us on her, in her, watching her. She wanted all three of us. And she’ll have us all, soon. But not until she begs for me. This is a lesson I’ll make her learn.
I’ve never backed down from anything in my life, and I don’t intend to now. I don’t care how long it takes, or how many times I have to watch her cum on my brothers’ tongue and fingers; until she begs me to take her, I won’t touch her. It’s a battle of wills now, and one I am more than willing to let play out.
Natalia is an unexpected advantage in all this mess, but one I am more than happy about.
“We need to get back to business,” I say, closing the subject on Natalia for the moment, because I can’t think straight when she is on my mind. She consumes me in a way that I’ve never felt before. I don’t love the woman—I’ve never loved a woman in my life, other than my mom and Eva—but I feel something for her. Something unexpected.
“So, tell me,” I say, “how is business going?”
Things had been in a bad way before our father was murdered. From the outside, business was booming, but going legit is hard. Harder than we knew. And when our father had started handing his empire over to us, that was the route we’d wanted to take. I say legit, but there’s only so legit men like us can go. Murder and death are in our veins, but there are certain things we could eliminate. Of course, this is what had pissed off so many people, and no doubt gotten our father killed.
I bore the brunt of that guilt on my shoulders, despite it being a joint decision.
Joey sighs. “We’ve finally cut all ties with the Russians.”
He stalks over to the window and looks out. He didn’t agree with this—going legit. He never completely wanted it, but he went along with it because he trusted us—Sisco and me—and he believed in what we were trying to build. The new direction we were going. While our bank balances grew from the blood money we collected, our sister and mother were in danger. I refused to do that any longer.
“They took it as expected, I presume?” I probe. I sound cold and heartless, but it cuts me when he speaks and tells me what I already know.
He’s silent a beat before turning to look at me, his face expressionless. “We lost several men in the fallout.”
I nod, the guilt ever-growing. “Make sure their families are well subsidized.”
Money—it’s the beginning and the end of everything.
“Do you think there will be more?” Sisco asks, going to stand with Joey. He places a heavy hand on his shoulder.
“Without a doubt,” Joey says with a humorless laugh.
We’re all silent, all thinking of the deaths on our hands from trying to go straight. To protect our family, we must destroy another’s. Nothing about that sits well with my brothers or me, but no matter the guilt, my loyalty has to be with my own blood.
“Then we’ll be ready for them too,” I say, and go to stand with my brothers. I place a hand on their shoulders, looking between the two of them. “I know that this is hard. Believe me, I know, but we must protect our family. We can’t protect them if we’re dead.”
Sisco laughs. “What makes you think we’re going to die, brother?”
I smile at his confidence. “Frank Costello almost died yesterday,” I say seriously. “His business was already being torn to shreds before he was in the ground, his wife and daughter in danger. I won’t have that for our mother and Eva. All this has done is prove to me that this is the right decision for us. Everything I do, I do for them—and you, of course.”
“Good and evil are so close as to be chained together in the soul,” Sisco quotes seriously.
“Indeed, dear brother,” I agree.
