Page 27 of Runaway in the Mafia (The shadows of Cosa Nostra Chronicles #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

VITALE

“ W hy the fuck not?”

An icy shiver crawled under my collar. The library stunk with the foul mood. It was as high-strung as a finger on the trigger with the safety off. An imbalance was impending. Imminent in the room full of egos. Jealousy swam underneath the surface. Hate littered in between.

Batista and Romeo guarded the door, faces stiff and hands too close to their hips.

Remigio could easily be missed, sunk into the corner chair, hidden by the darkness of the shadows.

With his body slouched, pudgy fingers clutched tightly around a glass of whiskey, it was clear he wanted to slide under the radar.

Endrigo and Marco, though, thrived in the spotlight.

Especially the former. Cuinnutu. The fucker couldn’t read the room.

The tension in it evaded his hollow brain and flat eyes.

That and the shared genes of a dead man made my trigger finger itch underneath my dark, stained oak desk.

Three out of the seven men in this room, I could shoot on a good day.

Probably the reason Antonio and Sergio joined in.

Antonio’s disregard was to be admired as he gazed out the window, and my underboss standing behind his father was no coincidence, I supposed.

“Well?”

I ignored Endrigo’s growl and caught Remigio’s stare aimed at his idiot brother’s heating neck. He knew. It was only a matter of days, but at this rate, a few minutes until I let that control loose like a slippery brake and pulled that gun and pointed it at his jackass brother’s head.

“Andrea isn’t a man to play with,” Marco said, and I didn’t make an effort to hide the roll of my eyes. He frowned. “Then what’s holding you back?”

It’s brown. Smells all peachy and tastes like sin.

Before I knew it, my hand grabbed my pen off the table, and the barrel found its way to my mouth. I could barely hold back the groan that climbed up my throat. I can still taste her, like I’ve put my tongue to her pussy and sucked.

Fuck. I’d lost the grip on self-control.

I’d proven it enough when I’d had my throbbing cock in my hand the second she’d stumbled out of the door.

Didn’t even wait for the door to slam shut.

Didn’t even lock it or make it to the bathroom.

Couldn’t. Her scent on a fucking piece of metal had got me off and made me come like a raving teenager.

The thought had crossed my mind more than a few times that I was fucking insane.

Gone out of my mind. A fucking boomerang out in the wild.

It was her. All her. She messed me up. Turned me inside out. Took the fucking direction in my path and turned it upside down. She made a masochist out of me. Made me push her limits and mine. Then she took my control in her pretty little hands and snapped it into a million pieces.

Fuck. I sucked on the edge, and my cock jerked alive.

Instantly. No time in between limp and rock hard.

It only took me a second to think of her, and I was ready to come in my pants.

In a room full of men loaded with guns and a scale shifting with a power imbalance.

There was no doubt anymore. This woman was going to get me killed.

With a growl, I yanked my pen out and shoved it into the drawer.

The gold of her chain glittered next to it, along with the tiny bottle of eau de parfum I’d nicked from her bathroom.

I shut it all off by slamming it closed.

Control. I needed my head in the game, and not the one between my legs.

I ignored the dry grin from my peripheral view.

Fucking Antonio. Just before the meeting, he’d told me I reminded him of himself. I didn’t dare to ask how.

“I’ll think about it.” My tone was tight. My words contradicted my intentions. Everyone knew it.

“What’s there to think about? Sign the damn contract and marry the girl. I’ve had it with the fucking Albanians breathing down my neck. Romeo caught one of them sniffing out mio Angelo’s .”

“It’s a strip club. He wasn’t sniffing you up. He was probably under the skirt of one of your girls.” Sergio’s dry tone brought out a row of uncomfortable laughs.

Endrigo’s humour was as lacking as his IQ points. “Is this a fucking joke to you all?” His hands gripped the arms of the chair as he pulled himself forward. “Make no mistake, figlio mio—”

My ears perked up. “You threatening me?”

The mood in the room shifted. Went from tensed to ready to combust. Anticipation orbited like a dark cloud around him and me.

Antonio shifted near the window. Sergio stepped close to me.

I leaned forward and put my face two feet from Endrigo’s puffed-up visage.

His gaze was shaky, but he didn’t relent.

At least I wouldn’t have to kill a coward.

“It would do you good to listen to the older generation.”

“It would do you good not to fucking threaten the don.”

“It wasn’t a threat,” Remigio spoke up. His tone tight.

I hoped not. I was really trying not to kill family. Again . I didn’t shift my gaze from his brother. “Sounded like it to me.”

“It wasn’t.” Remigio pulled his body off the low armchair and walked up to stand behind his brother. The stupid one. He put the weight of his body into his hand as it dug into his shoulder. “Apologise to the don.”

“I am not going to fucking apologise. He’s a kid. He’s peed his pants in front of me. Hell, I’d cle—” His face turned purple under Remigio’s weight.

“Apologise. To. The. Don. Now.”

Endrigo crawled out from under his brother’s heavy hand and shot up.

His fists on the table were white knuckled.

Sweaty. His idea of intimidation was to tower over me while I was seated.

Didn’t work like that. No one got to fucking intimidate me.

He couldn’t hold my frosty glare and was the first to look away.

“You better sign that fucking contract and seal this deal.” He pushed off, and the chair clattered to the floor behind him.

He hit the leg, stumbled, and kicked the chair angrily.

“You better fucking do it. Otherwise, we will have a war in our hands and all the blood that is going to be spilt will be on your fucking hands, nipote mio.”

He stormed off to the door and came to a dead halt when he hit the wall made of Battista and Romeo.

“Unbelievable,” he huffed. “You’re on his side?” They didn’t bat an eye. He turned and glared at me. “You going to lock me up now?”

Nah. Probably much worse.

I lifted two fingers and gestured to my cousins. They stood back and Endrigo stalked out, the door slamming behind him.

“Let him cool off,” Remigio pleaded. “He’ll—”

I held up my hand to silence him. Marco squirmed in his seat in front of me. Anyone who knew me knew it was too late. But still, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Wanted to try not to fucking blow the head off another family member.

Clear lines were being drawn. Loyalty was being questioned.

The balance had shifted. The younger generation had taken over.

No one knew, other than Antonio, that I had already signed the contract for the fucking marriage.

I could probably have said it and gotten rid of all this tension.

Been done with it. Clear the air. But I didn’t.

Something held me back. It was tangible.

It was brown. It was the sound of her moans coming on my fucking Mont Blanc.

Pent-up testosterone and alter egos put me in a foul mood.

I walked out of the charged room, looking for the only relief I could find.

Mamma was brewing something with her back turned to me, but the kitchen didn’t hold the kind of entertainment I sought.

I was almost out of there when she called out, “Romeo, take this to Aha—” she turned around.

“Oh, Vitale, I thought you were Romeo.” I wasn’t my fuck faced cousin who was all over a girl.

She glanced at the clock. “ Amunì , it’s one already.

” She took the pot off the stove and poured it into a mug. “Lunch isn’t ready yet, figlio mio.”

She took it for granted that I’d stay for lunch. I couldn’t even contradict her anymore. I was always staying for lunch. And fucking dinner, too.

An annoying presence grated on my back. “Romeo…” Mamma held out the cup. “Can you take this to Ahana?”

The hand in my pocket fisted around the chain enclosed within my fingers.

The fucker slipped past me and grabbed the handle like he was the perfect errand boy.

Any job I gave him, he couldn’t be bothered to finish off.

But this… he was too fucking eager. Annoying.

I wanted to blow his head off and bury him six feet under. Instantly.

“Is the Princess having a lazy day?”

Mamma gave me a death glare. “That girl isn’t one of your sisters. She wouldn’t know lazy if it hit her in the face.” She walked over to Romeo and covered the mug with a plate. “Make sure you’re quiet when you go into her room. She’s having one of her headaches.”

Romeo going into her room? In what world was that an approved thing? I don’t fucking think so.

I let him carry it out with a wide grin. Then I waltzed out of the kitchen with a soft whistle in my tone. I dropped it the moment I was out of sight from Mamma and took the stairs two at a time. I was just in time to catch him knocking on her room door.

Eager little bastard. Just because he was called Romeo didn’t mean he had to go after my fucking Juliet.

I came up right behind him. “Give me that and bugger off.”

“Jesus fuck,” he startled. “Did you have to creep up on me?”

“I didn’t. You were preoccupied.” I gestured towards the mug. “You’re wanted.”

He glared. “Where?”

“Somewhere.”

He shrugged and handed the mug over to me. At least he wasn’t an idiot. “Whatever, man. I’ll have her all to myself anyway soon enough.”

I took it back. He was a moron. I predicted agony in his future.