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I wanted to be offended at the statement, especially since he’d given me a sweet kiss before that, but I was too tired to put up any fight. “There is that.” I sighed. I’d known it would be expected of me to be knocked up as soon as possible, I just hadn’t counted on the idea that it would be in the first twenty-four hours.
“You don’t like the idea of being pregnant?” He was watching me carefully, and I needed to make sure that I didn’t get into trouble. I felt that I could speak freely to some extent since Stefano wasn’t present, but that could change. I had to watch what I said.
“It was always in my plans, but I had to protect our family and the business first. Then there’s the possible pain of losing a child to violence that turns my stomach and makes me wonder if there’s really a point in trying to repopulate the earth just for them to die early.” I leaned against the counter and watched him stir the food so that it wouldn’t stick to the pan.
“Children are a lot of fun and are the blood of the family, but I haven’t really wanted to add more blood to my family only to have it taken away. Then there was finding someone that would be a partner and not just a sperm donor.” I shrugged like it wasn’t that big of a deal, when it really was important to me.
He turned the burner off and put his arms around me, tilting my chin up so he could see my eyes.
“I’m planning to be more than just a sperm donor. I want to be a father, partner, and lover. Protecting my family is something that is very important to me. I don’t want to bring a child into the world only to have them killed.” He sighed. “I’m not much on apologizing or displaying weakness. So listen very carefully, my father was an idiot to have killed your brother. Babies and children are the cheap shots and should be off limits unless you are killing the entire family.”
“Griffin deserved to die today. He will, but it will be a slower, more painful death now. His family didn’t do anything wrong. We’ve searched for them, but haven’t located them yet. Which doesn’t bode well for them remaining alive.”
I sighed and softened at his touch. “While I appreciate your honesty, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it was done and your father was the one that ordered it to happen.” I brushed stray hair out of my face, as I distracted myself from the vulnerability I inevitably felt when I spoke of my brother. “Look, we can still be enemies, but that’s going to make moving forward much harder. Can we find something that we have more common ground with?”
His nod and stiff movements made me feel like I’d struck a nerve, and I witnessed a wall slowly rise that I hadn’t realized had come down. I didn’t know what it was that I needed to fix it.
“You’re right, we should try to move on from the past and see what the future holds for us. By having your father’s business interests aligned with ours, that will change the feelings between our two groups.”
“He should have just given me the business or let me run things with him as the figurehead.”
Luciano laughed.
I stepped back and glared at him.
“I’m not laughing at you, but the idea of a woman mafia don. I don’t think there has ever been one before. At least not that I’ve heard of throughout history.” He shook his head and tried to be serious. “Where did you go to school?”
This was an easier conversation, so I decided this was something I could answer. “My father had me take business classes at the local college. He said that one of his children should know what to do with all the money he invested over the years. Carina was the best choice to be a lawyer,” I confessed.
There were some things that I could just easily tell him, but some were family secrets or something that I thought the Romanos didn’t need to know about yet. Maybe after I’d gotten his trust then there would be time to reveal more about myself to him.
“Lawyer huh? She any good?” His tone belied that she probably wasn’t, but he didn’t want to upset me.
“Mostly she works with real estate and business contracts as an intern at one of our associated law firms. She doesn’t do the criminal defense work of soldiers though. Her manner wouldn’t work well with the type of people that we have working for us.”
He looked thoughtful. “Ah, yes. Getting those doing the shady work off the hook does take some skill. That’s why you’re here though.” He stared at me with a soft expression. “You didn’t think she could hack it as the wife of a Romano, did you?”
“No.” I sighed, wishing that the subject hadn’t come up. “We’re twins and she is the softer of the two of us. When my brother died, it broke our hearts. I got stronger and vowed to never let it happen again on my watch, whereas she just got kinder to everyone. Her theory was that she didn’t want the last thing she told someone to be unkind.”
He lifted his brow, and his jaw dropped a little. “Yeesh, that’s really soft. I’m sorry about that. You not only have to protect yourself, but her as well.”
At least he got what I was saying. He might not have agreed with it, and that was just fine.
“I love her to death, but she would have died of fright if she’d been in the car that got hit this morning.”
He dished the food up and onto our plates.
“Since you’re the one that went to business school, what did you do for the company?”
The company was what most mafia families called their family business. It was an enterprise after all, with many different departments of cash flow.
I took a bite of my food to give me a moment before I had to answer. Once the food hit my mouth I couldn’t hold in the moan. It tasted that good.
Luciano smirked at me and winked as he took a bite.
I knew I had stalled long enough, it was time to tell him the truth and see where it took us.
“I was my dad’s underboss.” I spoke and waited for his reaction.
