Page 3 of Mafia’s Final Play

But she couldn’t let that keep her in any kind of prison anymore. If he wanted a wife that could be his match, that could be what he needed, then she’d have to show him that she could be. The only problem was, she wasn’t sure how to go about that.

2

Matteo rolled over in bed and turned off his alarm clock before it was set to go off. He only set it out of habit now, and just in case he happened to oversleep. His body was trained after all his years of waking up at 6 am and it was rare that he didn’t wake up before the alarm went off. Instead of getting up, he turned to look at his wife.

That word still surprised him even though they’d been married for quite a few months now. He knew he’d asked her to be his wife, and knew his logic behind it. To save her from bankruptcy and his Aunt Celeste’s wrath, he’d offered her marriage. He hadn’t necessarily planned that marriage to be forever but from the moment she’d looked up into his eyes and said, “I do”, she’d become a part of him that he knew he could never let go off. She was his wife. His.

He’d almost lost her, but she was there, safe and sound, and that’s where she’d stay. Whether she liked it or not.

He’d like nothing more than to stay home with her, to caress every inch of her body, over and over again, but he had things to do.

After a quick shower, a bite to eat, and getting dressed, Matteo left the penthouse apartment and drove out to the family’s construction office. That was where he was supposed to meet Anton, his right-hand man. He walked into the office 45 minutes after he turned the alarm clock off that morning and went straight to his office.

“Come on in, Anton.” He waved at the man that sat in a chair in the reception area as he took off his suit coat and put it on the coat rack. “Talk to me.”

“Turns out that intel you got was true. It was the de Silvas that attempted to carry out the hit on your wife.” Anton looked Matteo square in the eye and Matteo knew that meant that it was best not to ask the big man with the cold, light-green eyes and hard jaw, how he’d attained that information. The whole idea of using Anton to carry out his orders was to keep his name out of the police department’s files.

“So, she’s out of danger now. Good.” Matteo took his seat behind the desk and pushed invoices and purchase orders out his way. He pulled a laptop from his briefcase and put it in the empty space he’d made. “Or is she?”

Anton hadn’t answered him as quickly as he should, and Matteo understood that hesitation. “Find out who ordered the hit then, if it wasn’t the de Silvas or the senator’s nephew. Or the senator. Fuck, we have too many enemies.”

The family had a lot of enemies, a lot of rivals, and it could have also been any number of organizations. Or people. Matteo had a suspicion, but it wasn’t one he wanted to fully acknowledge, not yet.

“Yes, boss. Will do.” Anton tapped the top of Matteo’s desk as a goodbye and left the office. He had a job to do and Matteo knew he’d get it done, no matter the cost.

Matteo knew he had a new problem; one he hadn’t quite counted on back when he’d made the decision to marry Marie. His enemies and rivals now knew he had a weakness: his wife. They would use that weakness as much as they could to take him down.

If he’d married her simply to save her from Celeste, he might not care, not much anyway. But he’d come to need her, to need the reassurance of her smile, the warmth that her smile gave him, and the happiness that the sound of her voice brought him. He needed the friendship she gave him and the care that he’d never had from anyone before.

His phone buzzed beside his laptop and he picked it up. “What do you want, Trina?”

“Are you going to keep her locked up forever?” His cousin’s impatient voice bombarded his ear and he pulled the phone away from his head and turned on the speaker. He was alone in the office, so it wasn’t a problem.

“Why do you have to be so fucking loud, Trina?”

“Because I’m a New Yorker, dumbfuck. Why the hell you think I’m so loud? Now, are you going to keep your wife a prisoner forever or not? Because I’d like to go out to lunch with her today if you don’t mind.”

“Not gonna happen, Trina. Sorry, but she stays put.”

“I hate you right now, do you know that?” She huffed for a long moment and swore under her breath. “Look, I know you’re caught up in the throes of your first time of being in love, but you can’t smother her like this, you’ll just drive her away. You have to let her out of that apartment soon or she’ll lose her mind, Matteo!”

“She’ll be fine, and you can visit her whenever you like, you know that.” He looked at one of the purchase orders on the pile he’d made and narrowed his eyes. That was far too much lumber, what the fuck were his builders doing on that project?

“You aren’t even listening to me now, are you?” She didn’t sound happy, and he knew she’d make him pay for it somehow, but right now, he didn’t care.

“Gotta go, Trin, talk to you later.” He ended the call and went about looking through the recent purchase orders.

That bastard running his work crew was trying to make a little money on the side it looked like. As soon as Penelope, the receptionist/accountant came in, he’d have a talk with her about the foreman. Then he might have to call Anton back in for a new job.

Greedy bastard, he thought as he waited for his laptop to load.

He turned on his VPN, the best money could buy, and looked at the file on a site on the dark web that Anton left for him. The takedown of the de Silvas had been brutal, from what he could see in the pictures, but it had to be. The world had to know you didn’t fuck with Matteo or his family. Even if Matteo couldn’t be traced back to that takedown.

Trina started to text him then. One every five minutes. Finally, he called her back.

“Stop, will you?” He scrubbed at his smooth jaw with a frustrated hand and sighed. “If she’s at home, I control the situation, I control who goes in and who comes out. My men keep her safe. If she’s out with you, anyone can attack her. I can’t have that.”

“Fuck me. Why can’t you just say you love her then, Matteo? Why keep her in the dark on that?”