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Romeo chuckles. “I’m talking to the owner and purveyor of Boston’s most exclusive, high-end sex club. I didn’t think you were into the whole monogamy thing.”
I stifle a grunt. Does he think I’m only here for a quick lay? He’s wrong if he does. My money and status granted me those privileges a long time ago. It’s more than that.
I shrug. I don’t typically give a shit about giving anyone a reason for my actions, but I want to tell him. I look up to Romeo. When our families solidified our standing by joining our forces together, we became more than cousins. He’s my brother-in-arms.
I exhale. “You know I’ll do what I have to.”
Romeo nods and sobers. “Just giving you shit, Sergio. I knew who you are. I know what you stand for.”
I knew when I took the lead that it was only a matter of time before I had to get married. I have to. In the eyes of my rivals and allies, I can’t be a man commanding respect and holding power if I don’t have the backing of a wife and kids. We are, in a sense, modern-day royalty. Traditionally, a royal family holds a certain title or status. Members of royalty are born into a family. There’s a monarch who holds both privilege and responsibility, who has access to wealth and resources and political power. We’re both cultural and ceremonial leaders. Royalty is steeped in culture and tradition, identity and pride.
Onlyourroyal family isn’t the type that others look up to.
But we do have moral standards. For me, marrying for love is not one of them.
I already have a family. I’ve already sustained crushing loss. I have no need for any more family or any more inevitable loss.
My job, then, as the leader of the Montavio family and Boss, is to strengthen my family, reinforce our traditions, and devote myself to the Montavio brotherhood.
I’ve known for a long time that my family would be the only responsibility I’d willingly take on.
“Look, Romeo. My father married for money. Yours married for connections. I’ll take a wife because my family needs me to, end of story. I’ll treat her well and give her what she needs.” I don’t voice the rest of my sentence, because he knows exactly where I’m going with this.
And then I’ll treat her the way everyone else in my family before me has treated theirs—as a figurehead, no more, no less. She can have her fun and I’ll have mine.
“Good. Well, that makes my job easier, then,” he says, not meeting my eyes.
Romeo’s aged since he’s taken the throne of Rossi Don. Unlike other groups in the US—run by patriarchs, men in their prime—our two families are led by me and Romeo, decades younger than those others. We had toearnrespect. And what we’ve had to do to that end has taken its toll.
He scrubs a hand across his brow. I notice gray in his hair I haven’t seen before, and a weariness that shows in the wrinkles in his brow and around his eyes. But it’s more than that.
“Listen, brother,” Romeo says, his voice lower and a bit raspy, as if affected by emotion. “Taking this role is a heavy burden. Fucking millstone, if I’m honest. And with it comes responsibility and privilege, yes. But it changes you. You know that.”
I nod wordlessly. I know what he means. Taking on this role means that we devote ourselves to our family in a way we don’t ask anyone else to do. And that matters.
“I was lucky,” he says softly. I know he’s talking about his wife Vittoria.
I nod. “Ricco, too.” Neither one of us says what we’re both thinking. Ricco is exactlywhyI want to have a wife I’m not attached to. Just the fact that he had to step down as leader of our family to care for his sick wife is testament enough.
I can’t have a woman that takes away from my role. If I married someone I loved, I’d have to put her first above all things.
I don’t have that luxury.
“The prince must always be aware of the potential for conspiracy and betrayal, and take steps to prevent it,” Romeo says softly.
Ah. Channeling old Machiavelli, are we? Two can play that game.
“True. Itissafer to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”
And I won’t have both.
“Right,” Romeo says with a knowing smile. “So we need to arrange a marriage for you, then.”
I nod. We both know it’s for the best.
“We do.”
Romeo takes another sip of his drink and places the nearly empty glass on the table. Wordlessly, I signal for a refill and replace it.
