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“You sound — acquainted.”
“No, I am not fucking her.”
Yet.
“I didn’t say you were. Just the opposite, actually. I think you like her, and you plan to hold off having sex with her until you’ve properly courted her.”
“Courted? When the fuck do you think we live? Eighteen sixty-five?”
“Don’t deflect. If she were someone you wanted to fuck and be done with, you would have. Or you’d set something up at your club. Everything about you right now tells me she means something to you. So, knowing you, you’ll take your time.”
“Knowing me. When’s the last time I dated someone?”
“College, and I remember how much you liked her until you realized she hated everything we are.”
“You weren’t even here. You were in California. How the fuck would you know?”
“I wasn’t in Massachusetts either, but our family talks. I might have been exiled to Stanford, but there were still some people in our family who didn’t disown me.”
“Maria.”
Carmine grins.
“You know she and I have always been close. Until Gabriele moved here, she was my only friend for years. I might have fucked up, and Uncle Salvatore might have sent me to Palo Alto rather than throttle his baby sister’s only child, but Maria never ignored me.”
He could sound resentful, but he’s matter-of-fact. Everything he said is true. He caused a lot the trouble that made our uncle send him away for four years, but he’d had good intentions. He’d just been too hurt and spiteful to explain any of them.
“You figured it out. I like her. We had a date last night, and I was supposed to meet her at her office. When she didn’t come downstairs and didn’t answer her phone, I got worried. Her office was completely empty since it was after six-thirty. I heard a noise in her office that sounded like something falling off her desk. I kicked the door in to find that fuck face with his hands on her.”
I won’t say that he had his hand under the hem of her skirt. Hearing that out loud will push me around the bend. I’m already clenching my fists so much they hurt.
“And he lived?”
“What do you think? I couldn’t whack him in front of her.”
He rolls his eyes. There are enough cliches about us to fill a tome. We may as well reclaim some of them.
“Did you at least threaten him?”
“Of course. I didn’t threaten to kill him or anything else that would be grounds for him to sue me. But I told him I would break every bone in his feet, so he could never walk again. I don’t trust that this will be the only time he goes after Michelle. I think he’ll keep trying until he gets what he wants and knowing I’m in the picture will only make him want her more. He’s the type who wants to take from a family like ours, so he can brag about it.”
I pull out my phone and tap the screen as Carmine watches me. He sighs and turns back to his computer while my call rings.
“Luca, I need you to adjust the schedule. I want Afonso and Luigi.”
Luca is our underboss or Uncle Salvatore’s second-in-command. One of his many duties is to set the schedule for the men who guard the women in our family. It might sound trivial to some, but that’s the most important responsibility any of us could have. Not a single woman in our family is helpless. Of course, my sister is the best shot in the family followed closely by our mom.
They all carry weapons and know how to use them. But that doesn’t change the fact that the men who’d attack them will always be larger and stronger than them. Most likely faster despite their size. They go nowhere without guards. Usually, it’s a family member. But for routine things like going to work or the gym or the grocery store, one or two of our men accompany them.
Afonso and Luigi are two of our most trusted men who rotate among the women in our family. Afonso’s twin, Alonzo, is our strongest guy besides Gabriele. While I’d like him to guard Michelle, he’s already assigned to Luca’s wife and infant daughter. I’ll have to think about who I want assigned to her. Even if this shit hadn’t happened, I’d want her to have a security detail.
Luca doesn’t agree automatically.
“Why?”
I’m sick of hearing that word today, but it’s a reasonable question.
“I need them to follow someone and make sure the guy knows he has two extra shadows. They don’t have to do anything to him. Just be present.”
