“This here,” I say when I return from the upper second floor to the first floor. “I want the entire level. This here stays a bedroom, it has the best en suite bathroom, that one—“ I point at the room next to it, “This will be my study. The other one over there, make a gymspace out of it. I want different doors. Make them heavier, a grandmother can kick those in. I want more plants. This is all too slick.”
I don’t know why I am so annoyed, but I want to be done with this. I have a dire need to feel at home somewhere.
While I would have generally preferred the upper floor, I decided on the first floor because the rooms there have balconies. Meaning, if necessary, I can escape.
“Salvatore,” I say. “There was something about nightclubs in the books, we own them, yes?”
“Some, yes.”
“Which ones?”
“Please don’t tell me you want to go party,” he says and rolls his eyes.
“It is exactly what I am going to do.”
He groans.
“It’ll be fun,” I say.
“Not if you don’t know the etiquette,” he says.
“I am sure you can tell me beforehand.”
“Let me rephrase it,” he says. “Not if you give a damn fuck about etiquette.”
“Salvatore,” I say, and grab him by the shoulders on either side. “You need to relax, really. Let us have some fun. The commission approved. We’ll exceed the quarterly goal. Everything will be fine.”
“Nothing is fine,” he says. “The threat potential is the highest possible somewhere with so many people; you need to be careful. Many people held a grudge against Giuseppe, and they see you as an ant they can crush without lifting a finger.”
“Well, let us show them I’m no ant,” I say. “I’m not hiding for the rest of my life. We are partying tonight, this is an order.”
He groans again, and I tap him on the shoulder.
“Let’s go,” I say. “We have things to organise.”
17
ROSALIA
PLAYLIST: I SEE RED – EVERYBODY LOVES AN OUTLAW
“Iam going to murder that bitch!!!” shouts Adria at me from across the living room.
“Adria,” says Kat. “That house was in your father’s ownership. She took over; it’s hers now.”
“It was mine!!”
“One day, maybe. You did not even want it,” I say dismissively. I have lived through Adria’s angry episodes uncountable times now. I have my own things to deal with. And that is the fact that Antonella has the audacity to move into a house so close to mine. I don’t want her close.
Adria is in a state of rage that will end with someone dead tonight. She is family, but she was made a dangerous weapon with an entitlement that goes beyond general understanding. I can already see it coming. She has that thing in her eyes whenever she is about to snap. A darkness that makes her eyes look black with a shimmer over her lava.
Partially, I can understand her. She used the house without his father’s knowledge; if anyone knew, they let it happen. But Antonella took over, and apparently, she wanted the house. Therefore, Adria came bursting in here, full of rage, because she had to leave in a hurry and now has nowhere to be except here. Where she has to deal with me, my rules and Kat.
The two hated each other from day one.
“I am going to kill her,” says Adria suddenly, turns, and walks to the door.
“You are not touching her!” I roar in anger as I get up and follow her.
