Page 43 of Empire of Seduction (New York State of Mafia #2)

Reaching behind me, I flicked open the kitchen window to let in cold air. “Happy?”

“I don’t like you smoking.” My sister held her cappuccino cup in front of her mouth so I couldn’t see it, then said something to my brother.

With a wry grin, he said, “Sì, certo.”

“Cazzo madre di dio,” I snarled. “I will throw you both out if you don’t stop talking about me.”

Paloma’s smile was all teeth. “I asked Massimo if you started smoking more often because of your ragazza.”

I put the cigarette out and threw away the stub. They were doing their best to get under my skin and I had to remain calm, focused. “Paloma, I would like for you to serve as my consigliere.”

Her mouth fell open and she slowly lowered the cup in her hands to set it on the marble. Maz shifted in his chair, his gaze on the island, but I would address my sister first.

She blinked a few times. “Vito, I-I don’t know what to say. Shouldn’t you be asking Maz?”

I glanced at my brother, who still hadn’t looked up. “He’s welcome to the position at any time. But it’s my understanding that he doesn’t want it.”

“I don’t,” Massimo confirmed, heaving a sigh. “But it’s weird hearing you offer it to someone else.”

“Maz,” Paloma said, tugging on his shirtsleeve. “You should do it. The position is rightfully yours.”

“No. I asked to get out and now I’m out.” Massimo blew out a breath toward the ceiling. “Give me one of those cigarettes, fratello.”

I didn’t know whether he was serious or not, so I took the pack out of the drawer and tossed it to him. He dug out a stick and lit it.

“You two are gross,” Paloma said, waving the smoke away from her. “And I’m telling Enzo that you’re both trying to get cancer.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not if you’re my consigliere, sorellina. Everything stays between us, no matter what. That means you can’t even tell Maz, let alone Enzo.”

She tapped her manicured nails on the marble. “That makes having brothers a lot less fun. I love gossiping about the three of you to each other. It’s a never-ending game of who I can piss off the most.”

“You should say yes,” Maz said to our sister. “Vito needs one of us to help him and it should be you. You’re the smartest.”

“Allora, this is true.” She snatched the cigarette out of Maz’s hand and took a long drag off it. When she gave the cigarette back, she asked, “Why now? Why me?”

“Because I need someone I can trust. Someone who gives good advice. I—” I walked over to the island and took the cigarette out of my brother’s fingers. I continued to smoke, not caring whether anyone liked it or not. “I’ve been distracted and I need someone to help me keep my head on straight.”

Her lips pressed together like she was trying not to laugh. “I see. But won’t that distraction clear up when you leave it here and return to Toronto?”

We all knew she was talking about Maggie, but I let it go. “I’m expanding there into a number of different projects. It’s a lot to manage and I need someone at my side that I can trust implicitly. Tommaso would be my next logical choice . . . ” I shrugged. “But he isn’t a sibling.”

“So I’m the last sibling standing, is that it?”

“Don’t be that way, Lo,” Maz said, using her nickname. “It should be you. And if you were a man, this wouldn’t even be a question. You’d already be doing it.”

She rubbed her hands together like an evil mastermind. “I do like the idea of stepping on all the misogynistic toes. I assume a lot of your people will be pissed, V.”

“I don’t give a fuck. You’re family. My family.”

“I don’t give a fuck either,” she echoed. “I’ve been dealing with men telling me I’m not as good as them my entire life.”

“And women in the ’Ndrangheta aren’t so rare anymore,” Maz pointed out. “They’re taking over when the husbands go to prison.”

Paloma stared down at her cup, turning it back and forth on the marble with her hand.

“I need to think about it. I’ve worked hard to build a life for myself that has nothing to do with our family.

It’s different from Maz because I was never truly in the ’ndrina, but it’s nice to have my own bank account, earn my own money.

I can sleep with whoever I want and stay out all night.

” She played with her bracelets, a nervous habit of hers.

“Papà kept such a tight leash on me . . . I can’t go back to that. ”

I held up my palms. “I would never ask it or expect it of you. I will give you a salary, if you wish, into an account of your own that I cannot access. You’ll need to live at the compound with me, though. I can’t promise you can have men visit there, but I own a penthouse in the city you can use.”

“My brother’s apartment?” She wrinkled her nose. “No, thanks. I’ll buy my own place. I know how often you wash your sheets.”

“That’s Maz who never washes his sheets,” I said, gesturing to our brother. “Not me.”

Maz rose and stretched his arms over his head. “Dai, fratello. Don’t pick on me. I’m on your side.” He kissed the top of Paloma’s head. “I’m going home to sleep. If you want to smoke some and relax, Lo, come join me. Otherwise, go apologize to Maggie and I’ll see you around dinner time.”

“Ciao,” she said. “Get some sleep.”

“A presto!” Maz called and then went out the door, leaving me alone with my sister.

Paloma sipped her cappuccino, then said, “Maggie seemed disconcerted by my presence. Does she think this is just sex? Or are there feelings involved?”

“She insists it’s just sex.”

“Do you believe her? Because that girl—” she pointed at the door where Maggie had disappeared “—didn’t act like this is just sex.”

“She didn’t?”

Paloma pressed her palms together and shook them to the ceiling. “Madonna, save me from idiotic men. Have you seen the way she bandaged that meaningless scratch on your side? She took such care and precision with it, like you are precious to her. Like you mean something to her.”

I put a hand on the bandage over my injury. Was this true? “She has repeatedly said that I don’t.”

“Vito. Have you told her how you feel, confessed that you’re in love with her?”

“I’m not?—”

“Please.” She put out her hand to stop me.

“I’ve known you my whole life. I’ve seen you with women and I can tell that you feel differently about this one.

So can Maz. And you braved a fucking blizzard to get back here last night because of her.

Now, if you want me as your consigliere, you have to listen to what I say and believe me and accept my advice. Not argue with me.”

“So this is some kind of a test.”

“Maybe.”

I braced my hands on the marble and leaned over, elbows straight. “She lives here. I’m in Toronto. Nothing about that will change, even if I wanted it to.”

“It might, if you asked her. If you told her how you feel.”

I wasn’t a coward. I’d faced down any number of enemies, done unspeakable things in the name of the brotherhood. Had tortured, maimed, killed. Took over a goddamn city.

But the idea of opening my heart to Maggie? It terrified me. My instinct told me she would reject me, that she didn’t feel the same about me as I felt about her.

I cleared my throat. “She loves this place. It’s her family’s legacy and she will never leave it.”

“It’s not her family’s legacy any longer. It’s yours. Priorities change, Vito. Maybe you could be her priority, if you gave it a chance.”

“You don’t understand how she feels about the vineyard.” I’d witnessed her panic over the Red Blotch. She wouldn’t even allow me to smoke around the vines, for fuck’s sake.

Paloma pursed her lips. “Have you taken her on a proper date, or just shagged her in this shabby little cottage?” I winced, and a noise of disgust emerged from my sister’s throat.

“Vito, mamma mia! Italians are romantic, we flirt like it’s our job.

We are lusty and passionate. Use your charm to get her to fall in love with you. ”

“There hasn’t been time. I’ve been dealing with a number of headaches, which is why I need you here to help me.”

“If you do three things for me, I will agree.”

Why did I sense I wouldn’t like this? “What are they?”

“ Uno , my own bank account that only I have access to. You will deposit fifty thousand dollars a month in it for me as a salary.”

“Done. What else?”

“ Due , you buy me an apartment in your building in the city. The deed goes in my name.”

I waved my hand, rolling it as if to hurry her. “Done.”

“ Tre , you take your woman out on a proper date.” She held up a finger. “ And you tell her how you feel.”

The idea of it sat in my stomach like spoiled milk. I hadn’t wrapped my head around how I felt yet, so how could I communicate it to Maggie? I needed to think about it and decide what I would say. “Fuck. You’re killing me, Lo.”

“It’s good for you. I know you probably had a plan for how this was going to go and I’m ruining that plan. But sometimes you need to invite a little chaos into your life to shake things up. Turn it all upside down every now and again.”

“I don’t like chaos.”

“We’re all aware. But how can you find the best acorns if you don’t rattle the tree every now and again?”

“I did that once. It backfired on me.” At seventeen, I went against my better judgment. Impulsively, I’d asked Simona to marry me without anyone’s approval. I loved her and thought she loved me in return.

“I told that troia I was disowning you,” my father sneered, calling Simona a whore. “I told her you would be a nobody, with no money and no ties to our family if the two of you married. The other option was to take a check and disappear. Can you guess which she chose?”

The humiliation had broken something inside me. Simona hadn’t loved me. The whole time she was after the prestige, the money that came with being my wife. None of it had been real.

“Simona was a long time ago, Vito. You both were so young and Papà was a prick. This winery woman could be very good for you.”

I didn’t say anything and she let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, fratello. I can tell you need to think this over. In the meantime, I want to hear about the trouble you’re mixed up with here. Maz said something about bikers.”

Seizing the chance to set the issue of Maggie aside, I eagerly launched into my past and present issues with the Red Raiders.