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“Impossible, dolcezza.”
ChapterSeventeen
Iknow I shouldn’t have been listening in on Holly’s conversation with her sister, but fuck… I needed to know what she was thinking. She wasn’t opening up to me like she does with her twin. Does that piss me off? Yes, but I also understand the connection those two share is stronger than a normal sibling bond. Hearing Holly say she was scared she wouldn’t be able to love her own child because she thinks all her love is used up on me, well, that just about broke me.
She doesn’t realize just how fucking perfect she is. She’s a fucking angel. I smirk, staring at the soldier currently strung up in my warehouse. Maybe she’s a little dark these days, but she’s still heaven-sent. I didn’t want to leave Holly back at the house today, but these loose ends need to be tied. I won’t have any fucker around with a vendetta against her. “You disrespected my wife. You disrespected me,” I say calmly as I remove my tie, then my shirt.
“N-no, Boss I didn’t. I was following orders. You said not to let anyone in.”
“And you thought that included my wife?”
“You saidanyone.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Being stupid does not bode well for folks in our industry.”
“It won’t happen again. I swear it won’t.”
“You’re right. It won’t. Ya see, I had a lot of pent-up anger today. I was looking forward to dragging this out. But I have much more important things to do.” He doesn’t speak in return, just nods up and down like a bobble head. “I watched the security feed, you know. I saw the way you leered at my wife. She’s hot, right? It’s hard not to look at her.”
“N-no.”
“No? Are you telling me my wife isn’t hot?” I ask him. There’s no right answer to this. I know it; he knows it.
“Yes, she is. No… I mean, I don’t know, boss.”
Without a word, I stalk forward and dig my thumbs into his eye sockets and scoop back until the optic nerves are hanging loose. “Nobody disrespects my wife,” I hiss into his ear. “Finish it,” I tell Neo, and I hear two shots as I walk out of the room. I’m stopped in front of the warehouse. There’s a convoy of blacked-out SUVs lined up the street, and one Al fucking Donatello standing smack dab in front of me.
“I trust he deserved to have his eyes gouged out.” He smirks at me, his eyes twinkling with something I can’t read.
I shrug. “I’ve done much worse for much less. What are you doing here?” I glance towards the army of soldiers he has with him, and smile. The old man must be afraid of me, or my reaction to seeing him. Lucky for him, Isabella appears fond of the son of a bitch, which means, for her sake, I’ll let him live. For now.
“We need to talk. Not here. Get in.” He points to the car closest to him.
I laugh. “Yeah, that’s not happening. You want to talk, follow me. If you can keep up.” I don’t look back as I jump into my Maserati, enjoying the purr of the engine as I floor it away from the warehouse. I head back to my parents’ estate. Absentmindedly. I shouldn’t have brought him here, but this is where Holly is, so this is where I want to be. I wait on the front steps as Donatello’s convoy pulls up behind me. “You can come in, but your goons have to wait out here.”
I watch him nod to one of his men, and they all hop back into their respective vehicles. Rose, one of the housemaids, approaches me as we enter the foyer. “Good evening, sir, can I get you anything?”
“Show Mr. Donatello to the study,” I instruct her. “I’ll meet you there shortly. I have someone I need to see first.” I jog up the stairs towards my old bedroom. It feels disrespectful to the man who raised me to have Donatello in his house. I don’t even know if my pops knew the truth.
Holly’s asleep, all curled up in the blankets. I lean down and brush the hair off her face, kissing her forehead lightly. She stirs but doesn’t open her eyes. Walking out, I close the door quietly and make my way back to the study.
“Right, so what was so urgent you couldn’t say it over the phone?” I ask, entering the study to find not only Donatello, but also Neo and his old man.
“Uncle Gabe, I didn’t know you were stopping by.” I haven’t heard much from him since returning to the city. He was my father’s consigliere, now mine. Not that I’m really sure I’m too capable of taking advice anyway.
“Yeah, your mother asked me to stop by,” he says, eyeing Donatello warily.
“Did everyone but me fucking know about this? Did Pops know?” I ask, not missing the flinch in Donatello’s face.
“Yes, he did. And he loved you like his own anyway,” my uncle grunts back.
Yeah, that does not make me feel any fucking better about the situation. “Well, as you can see, I’m a busy man. Tell me what you need to say and then get the fuck out of my house.”
“It’s the Clover. He’s in town, and word is he’s building up an army, looking to exterminate the entire Valentino bloodline.”
“That’s it? In case you haven’t fucking noticed, the whole of New York is currently hoping to do the same. Not exactly news.”
“From what I hear, there are only two families still talking shit. The Garzos are too busy looking for their boss. Know anything about that?”
