I stared at her longer. No change, not even a twitch.
“I no longer have.”
She raised an eyebrow at me.
But I chose to take that moment to leave her with that thought.
???????????????????
Over the next few weeks, I made every effort I could to get to know my wife better. During meals that I knew she was home, I would invite her to eat with me. At first, she ignored me, but I kept asking. After a week, she finally sat with me, and asked why I was asking her to eat with me.
“I would like to get to know my wife. It appears even her own brothers don’t know who she is.”
We had been eating at the ridiculously long dining room table again as we had that morning I had tried talking to her about an heir.
She shrugged. “Not much to tell.”
I chuckled. “I doubt that. Seems to be a lot to tell.”
She tried to maintain her expression, but as she turned to take a bite, I saw a smirk form on her lips.
We ate quietly for a few minutes.
“I want to thank you for taking on the Black Widow.” I grunted. “I did not want you to take her on yourself, but here we are.” I gave her a dirty look.
This time she smirked at me. “Well, she was trying to get her dirty hands onmio fratello. I couldn’t have that now, could I?”
“You could have given me that bit of information you know.”
She frowned at me. “But then you wouldn’t have let me go in after her. And that was personal.”
I looked at her closely. I knew her relationships with her brothers were not really close, but they had done what they could to protect and teach her skills as she got older. But it seems she managed to teach herself more skills.
Changing the topic, I said, “So, Lorenzo is awfully good with a gun. Should I reconsider him as an Enforcer with his brother? He was supposed to be a second Enforcer with Alonzo, after all.”
Aria narrowed her eyes at me. “Oh now that you’ve seen he can shoot a gun, he’s good enough to protect you? Pfft.”
I gave her a stern look, even though I knew she had a point. “I was notEl Capountil after all that business was decided. I was only told that Lorenzo was not trained, and I could not have someone be my Enforcer who was not trained.”
She scoffed, but I could tell she knew I was right. She turned to take a bite of her food, but muttered, “My uncle is afottuto stronzo!”
I snorted, making her raise her head. I smirked at her. “Yes he is.”
Her eyes widened for a second. “Shit. I said that out loud, didn’t I?”
I smiled wider at her. “Yes. But your secret is safe with me.” I took a bite of food. After chewing, I said, “To be fair, I like Lorenzo. And I can tell you are close with him.”
She gave me the side eye, but nodded.
I guess that was all I was getting for now. But I would take it.
It was the start of us building a real connection.
Chapter 9
Aria’s POV
Maximo had been acting differently towards me since I killed the Black Widow. We had actually been starting to talk more. About our families, our dreams, our interests. He was eager for me to meet his parents. I was on the fence about that. After all, mine weren’t anything special. Why would his be? And I had been shocked when he told my father off and kicked him down from his Enforcer position. That showed my father had lost respect within the clan since he couldn’t make it to the deadline. Nino had called me shortly after. I had expected some anger, maybe even retaliation, but he actually laughed and thanked me for pissing off Papa enough to make him finally do something stupid in front of Maximo. Apparently, Nino and Rico had been impatiently waiting for the change. The deadline had been arranged between Maximo’s father and Papa. After disrespecting Maximo, he crossed lines even he couldn’t come back from.
