AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dark eyes and a dark heart replied, “No.”
“You sound too sure when it is not your own actions that I am questioning.”
His index finger and thumb pinched the end of the bud, and he blew out to the side before turning to face me. As he replied, I noticed the small scar hidden beneath his short beard by the corner of his jaw.
“You are right. But I know he can’t. That should count for something.”
Something.I huffed.
“Now tell me, Lorenzo, I know where I stand with your father. Will that be the same with you as a boss?”
Arlo kept quiet behind me. His hips swayed at a snail’s pace with crossed arms as he listened to every word and promise two families would share.
I hadn’t taken another hit. The amber burned brightly while I waited for Enzo to speak. Because his next words would change the course and shift the future.
“Katia is allowed to feel the way she does about me. She can craft and believe me to be someone who didn’t care for her and continues not to. The truth is, I never had much power to change her fate. Her duty.” He looked inside, watching her as he continued, “Don’t get me wrong, you are no better man than Borelli or me. But I knew she at least had a chance of not suffering the old ways of a mafioso.”
“What do you mean?”
“You were the greater evil in my eyes. Closer to her age than any boss. A cold-hearted bastard that would at least control his iron hand even if her mouth often sought one.” He chuckled. “By me looking out for her future, I saw the possibility and power we could both have by this arrangement. What two syndicates could be if united. Funny, all I had to do was think about her.”
“You mean, while you were cleaning up after your brother.” I didn’t let him off easily. To stand as if he didn’t offer his sister to save both of their titles.
Enzo shrugged. “Yes, and no. I saw it a bit differently.”
I waited for him to continue.
“New York would’ve come after your brother.An eye for an eye.Then kill what was meant to stay dead, his woman.No loose ends.And we would’ve gone to war, Moretti. While my sister faced Los Angeles, by duty.” Enzo took a long drag. “And in the end, I would’ve gained nothing by losing her. Sure, cleaning after Leo gave me an alternative, but at least I chose it with more than myself in mind.”
Enzo was more thoughtful than I’d perceived. And while his reasoning made sense, it didn’t take away the immorality of his actions. But who was I to judge?
He could paint in different colors and distort it how he wished. Either way, I had Katia now. The how no longer mattered to me.
“What makes you think I control my iron hands?”
“Because while we are both cruel, Lucca, our dicks don’t twitch at the sight of pain on a woman.” He paused. “Well, at least not ours.”
Arlo’s sharp intake of air and soft chuckle blew near my ear, and Enzo snapped his eyes to mine.
“And by the looks of it, I was right.”
While Enzo was right, I didn’t agree. It was unnecessary.
“How long before your time comes?” My question was bold, disrespectful even. But Mario wasn’t here, and something told me Enzo wouldn’t share our conversation.
“Soon.”
That night,Katia was flustered about us sharing a bed. The tradition of bringing bad luck into our marriage by sleeping with me the night before weighed heavily on her.
Hadn’t she seenwewere the bad luck?
That our way of life had deemed us doomed from birth?
It was comical to see her so riled over such nonsense while we lived day by day with death’s laughter on our front step.
I told her to shut her mouth and lay down. It’d earned me her slicing eyes and wild cursing lips. Eventually, she ran out of threats and temper. She crawled into bed, fire forest eyes still burning through the coils and ashes of her thoughts. Nevertheless, I fucked them into bliss.
I took her rage and stinging nails for my own pleasure and devoured her fighting tongue until satisfaction.
