Page 52 of Mafia Men Need Love Too

Well, OK, not exactly with grace. She cussed and ranted. Like, a lot. Ultimately, though, as a happily married woman herself, she understood the changes they'd made.

First of all, the Russian and Irish mafia guests were promptly uninvited. River understood why they’d been invited to her marriage of convenience (or arranged marriage or whatever), but why tolerate their presence at her real wedding?

Nico was damn near giddy to exclude them. He’d made the calls himself.

Second of all, while she loved the art museum, they just didn’t need all that space for their scaled-down event. So, the fancy flowers were moved to the aviary, which was plenty big enough. Especially since their guests only included Nico’s lieutenants, the house staff, Tenley, and Ren.

The ceremony was simple, lovely, and non-denominational. Traditional vows (minus obey, obviously) were exchanged. Nico said, “I do” with a speed that brought tears to River’s eyes. Feather Locklear, wearing her best white sweater, served as ring bearer. (By some miracle, she managed to keep her vocabulary clean.)

After a very relaxing—and very naked—honeymoon in the Maldives, it was back to business as usual for the Italian mafia. Nico found running the organization to be way more interesting with River at his side.

River decided not to return to teaching, instead choosing to help Nico manage his team, and take some forensic accounting and investment courses at the local university that would allow her to contribute even more.

She was quickly finding that few things in life were more rewarding than having a big, burly mafia man say, “Boss,” only to find he was addressing her, not her husband. It never failed to make her grin. Nico would always pretend to be all disgruntled about it, but his sparkling eyes gave him away every time.

He loved being married to a bad boss bitch.

River and Nico had no idea what happened to Jeremy. They never asked. But whatever it was, Alexi was satisfied, so there was peace between the Bratva and the Italians once again.

Van ultimately decided to take pity on Ricky, because chances were, he wouldn’t have made a move against Nico if Jeremy hadn’t influenced him. But he also couldn’t afford to let an idiot remain among them. Which is why Ricky ended up with a broken leg, a one-way ticket as far as Van’s pocket change could get him on the bus (Iowa, it would seem), and strict instructions to never darken their doorstep again. According to Ren, he seemed perfectly happy to stay far, far away.

About a month into their marriage, River received a call from the animal shelter. It seemed that a small flock of five performing Amazon parrots and six budgies came into their custody after their traveling circus went bankrupt. The zoo refused to take them because they’d all picked up a very colorful vocabulary between performances, making them unsuitable to be viewed by the public. River, who also felt unsuitable to be viewed by the public most of the time, could relate. So, she immediately had Enzo (much to his dismay) help her pick them up.

She’d been a little worried that Feather wouldn’t get along with her new flock, but her fears were completely unfounded. Everyone got along famously right from the start. In fact, Feather and the oldest male parrot, Clint Beakwood, got along so well that River wouldn’t be surprised if they had baby parrots one day in the not-so-distant future. But for now, the aviary was full of happy, squawking rescue birds who occasionally called each other vulgar names and shouted obscenities at visitors.

Nico liked to pretend he was exasperated by their menagerie, but she’d caught him more than once in the aviary with a parrot on one shoulder, a few budgies on the other, speaking to them in Italian. She had no idea what he was saying, but the birds were as enamored with her husband as River was.

Well…almost as enamored.

So, long-story-short, their life wasn’t perfect. They weren’t happy every minute of every day. They faced tough times, just like every other married couple on the planet. But through it all, they had trust. Respect. Love. Laughter. Each other.

And at the end of the day, does a happily ever after get any better than that?