“Work for someone else?” I asked with a slight laugh. “You meanmy wife?”
“I’m not your wife yet?—”
“I will make you my wife right fucking now if you want to get technical about it.”
“Okay.” She raised both of her hands gently in an attempt to calm me. “Let me start over.”
There was no starting over. I was pretty mad about the whole thing.
“Whatever we decide to do in this life, we decide together. If you want to rule Cosa Nostra, I will happily walk away from the vineyard to support that dream—if that’s what you want. But if you’re happy at the vineyard, then we can do that too. I want you to know that it’s okay. I know Palermo is your home. I know Cosa Nostra was your life. I just want you to know that option is always on the table if you want it. It’s not a deal-breaker for me.”
This would mean a lot more to me if my mind were in that place, but it just wasn’t. “If you didn’t exist, then maybe it’s something I would want. But I met you at that vineyard, and my life was irrevocably changed. Palermo will always feel like home to me, but it’ll never feel as much like home as your little villa where we fell in love. Cosa Nostra is a big operation with a lotof enemies and work that never sleeps. I came to the vineyard because I respected your father and the way he ran his business. It’s simple and straightforward, but I like that. And I consider it a great honor to work for you every day—not just because you’re my wife and I love you, but because you’re the best boss I’ve ever had.”
Her eyes flicked back and forth between mine as she absorbed that. “I’m not your boss.”
“I can work for any organization or gang anywhere in the fucking world, but I wanted to work for your father—and now I want to work for you. Cosa Nostra is as corporate as organized crime gets. A family business that started with the original Mafia a hundred and fifty years ago is much more appealing to me. You’ll pass this business down to your children and their children. It’s a legacy. And I want to be a part of that legacy.”
Her eyes softened as she looked at me across the table, and she shook her head slightly as she continued to stare. “I’m afraid you might get bored.”
“Bored?” I asked with a laugh. “How can I get bored staring at your ass in those jeans all day?”
“But I’m not always going to look like this.”
“I promise I will grope your ass every day until we die. Consider that one of my wedding vows.”
She released a quiet chuckle while she rolled her eyes at the same time.
I watched the laughter reach her gaze and slowly disappear before I turned serious once more. “It means a lot to me that you would walk away from the vineyard to support my ambitionswith Cosa Nostra. It means a lot to me that you view us as a single entity rather than two different people. I would much rather serve you than lead a bunch of assholes. I’m very happy where I am.”
Whatever reservations she had seemed to dissipate as she accepted my words. “I just wanted to make sure.”
18
FRANCESCA
Someone knocked on the open door to my office, so I flicked my eyes up from my computer, expecting to see Elio, who stopped by to talk shop throughout the day.
But it was Leo.
I continued my hard stare under the assumption he would leave at my hostility.
But he stayed. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
I’d prefer it if we never spoke again.
“Boss,” he added, like sucking up to me would help.
It wouldn’t help one bit. “You need something?”
He hesitated by the door, clearly unsure if he should walk in or not. But then he stepped inside and approached my desk as he slid his hands into his front pockets.
“What did you need?” I repeated, trying to cut to the chase.
“Can we sit?”
“I am sitting.”
“I mean, face-to-face?—”
