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Leaning on one arm of his chair so he was closer to me, he lowered his voice and turned serious. “I worry for you Alessio. For the future of this family. You are all I have to carry on my name. To make my life’s work meaningful. I am trusting you to do what I no longer can. Once I am gone, everything will be yours. My entire empire. You have to promise that you will prevail. You will conquer the North. Rule all mafiosi under one name. The Barbieri name. You should marry soon. Have an heir. And see to it that Isabelle remains well cared for. That is your duty.”
“I understand papi,” I nodded once, feeling the heaviness of his words rest on my shoulders like metal armour. He had never once told me he loved me, but he had shown it with the faith he put in me every day. He had chosen me. I could have been no one. A drug addict’s child who had no future. But instead, he gave me all this.
“Our secret will die with me, Alessio. You may not be my son in blood but you are still my son.”
I patted his hand and took a swig of my whiskey to numb the emotion that was threatening to rise in me. That was the last thing I could do in his presence. Show emotion. He had drilled it into me from a young age that emotion was a weakness. That as soon as people realised they could fuck with your emotions, you were under their control. That’s why he had tested me, time and time again. In different scenarios and planned confrontations to see how I would react. It took me a few years to be able to ignore the spiteful words, the brutal blows to my ego or self-esteem by strangers he had paid to taunt me before I no longer lashed out and fought them with everything I had. But he was right. It taught me a valuable lesson. Now, anyone could pretty much say anything to me and my rage was controlled, turning it into a deadly weapon that everyone feared. No one knew when I would use it. And that made me unpredictable. That was what people feared the most.
“I will not fail you, papi.”
“Bravo. Because if you do, Alessio… this will all be taken away from you. Even from the grave, I will have influence. Do you understand?”
I stared into his cold eyes and saw that he meant every word. It was always an axe hanging over my head since I had first learned my role. One wrong move and this would all vanish. This life I had known. These things I had. It would all be ripped away from me and I would be left with nothing.
“Si, papi.”
“Good,” he smiled.
An hour later, I strolled out of his house to a warm evening breeze. The sun was no longer hovering above the horizon but had sunken out of sight, leaving only a reddish tinge in its wake. I inhaled the humid air and made my way to the car, my main bodyguard, Stefano, opening the door for me to enter.
As soon as the engine started up, I pulled out my phone and checked my messages. After replying to a few business emails and listening to a voicemail from one of my capos, I sat back and pulled up her messages.
On my way home from work. Will call after a shower. How has your day been?
That sounded normal, right? The kind of message a normal man would send a woman he was interested in. I cursed under my breath as I realised how doomed this was from the very start. I was no normal man. My phone buzzed and I looked down to see she had replied already.
Okay. Sounds good. It’s been okay. A little stressful but seeing your text earlier gave me something to look forward to.
I couldn’t stop the smile from appearing. She was looking forward to talking to me? Already. I was fucking good. No, Alessio. Don’t be an arrogant twat. Ask her about her.
Stressed? How come? P.S. look at you being nice. I am glad I cheered you up.
Just family stuff. P.S. Don’t get used to it.
I was beaming like a fucking idiot now. I glanced up to see Stefano looking at me strangely in the front mirror and let my smile drop.
I get it. My family is stressful too. P.S. I’d like to get used to it. Although your sassy attitude is what gets my dick hard.
I couldn’t help it. Something about this girl just had my mind drifting to unholy places. I loved flirting with her, imagining her chewing at her bottom lip and that cute rash creeping up her chest in equal parts arousal and embarrassment. When she didn’t immediately text back, I started to panic. Fuck, had I come on too strong, too fast?
What else gets your dick hard?
There she is. I never should have doubted her.
These days… only thoughts of you.
Like I said, I can’t help flirting with her. It was the best part of my day. And that wasn’t a complete lie. I had been hornier than usual since I’d come back to the South and already jerked off thinking about her once last night and again this morning.
Are we sexting now?
I burst out laughing, causing Stefano to eye me suspiciously in the mirror again, but this time I didn’t try to hide my smile.
Fuck yes. What are you wearing?
Silk shorts and a cami. I’m ready for bed.
Cazzo, just that image had my dick standing to attention.
Take them off. Your body is too beautiful to hide.
