Page 3 of The Mastermind (Mafia Rivals #1)

CESARE

Half an hour later, and my mood had plunged further south.

Frustration bit deep, pounding in time to the music blaring from the speakers in La Miraggio nightclub. My gaze swept back and forth on high alert for anything and anyone out of the ordinary as I awaited Rafa’s return.

So far he’d cornered three key Mancinelli Racing crew members and discreetly taken them out back for a ‘quiet word’.

Nothing.

I was already riled up from the stupid shenanigans of the Mancinellis crowing about their race win like it was the second fucking coming.

But that wasn’t what was eating at my insides like battery acid.

She wasn’t here. You’d think she’d jump at the chance to rub my face in it like her uncle Stefano, currently well on his way to being high and hammered, and feeling bolder by the second as he ventured closer to my VIP section, laughing and pointing like some stupid puppet while his audience laughed.

I ignored his drunken sneers and caught Rafa heading my way. The subtle shake of his head made me curse under my breath.

Had it been a mistake coming?—

The thought stalled when the small crowd parted. And I saw her.

She’d arrived without fanfare and almost slid under my radar.

Bitterness and that slow sizzle of electricity that always attacked me whenever she breached my thoughts tossed my mood deeper down the toilet.

Rafaelle dropped into the seat next to me, then followed my gaze. ‘Yeah, meant to tell you. Hot Tits has arrived.’

My teeth ground and I shot him a glare. ‘Watch your fucking mouth.’ That was my name for her. No one else was allowed to use it. And if anyone found that fucking weird, it was their problem not mine.

Rafaelle returned my glare with a smile before his gaze shifted sideways. ‘You want me to take care of him or have Fist do it?’

I read his lips more than heard the question but I knew he was referring to Stefano. Ignoring him had made him bolder, and I could hear raucous laughter to my right.

The twins, Dante and Lorenzo, five years younger and almost as zealous about racing as I was, were equally fucking pissed off at the scene unfolding before us.

And by my silent order not to crack open a few Mancinelli skulls the way they were itching to.

Coming third had riled us all up but descending into mayhem would get us nowhere.

That said, maybe my earlier thought was right. Maybe we should’ve stayed away, tackled this differently.

Nah, who the hell was I kidding? I thrived in mayhem.

And that state was being greatly exacerbated by having to watch her , writhing on the dancefloor in that fucking red cocktail dress, right in my line of sight.

‘Just say the word,’ Rafa encouraged, drawing my gaze for a split second.

At times like these I envied his ability to remain calm, no matter the circumstances.

There was a reason he was nicknamed The Silent Assassin.

You didn’t see or hear him coming until the knife had slid between your ribs and he was walking away with a smile on his face. I’d seen him do it often enough.

I was almost tempted to ask him to do it one more time to the idiot grinding his small dick against her .

Maddelena. The girl who’d left… something… an indelible mark I couldn’t rid myself of all these years later.

But no. She I intended to take care of myself.

My phone buzzed, another summons from Orazio. Continuing to ignore him wasn’t the best course of action. But I wanted some answers before the inevitable confrontation.

The de facto head of the Salvatore family hadn’t used his fists to make a point for at least a week. But that glorious reprieve was about to break, most likely on my face, if I didn’t find answers for him.

I’d taken many a black eye and bruised rib in my stride over the years.

Rafaelle too. But the old man, that fucking cunning fox, had wised up to the fact that his two oldest grandsons lost their minds when his fists were directed at their youngest brothers.

Or even worse, on Bibiana. If I didn’t answer soon, that was where he would refocus his ire.

I looked over to my left, to where the twins were staring at one another, engaged in that silent twin speak that frequently drove me up the wall.

They looked as sullen and perplexed as I was furious.

Dante, the second driver in my racing team, had gone from a consistent one-two reign on the podium alongside me to now finishing outside the top five in the last few races. His anxiety levels had gone through the roof lately, only his twin gluing himself to his side keeping him on an even keel.

We’d had every engineer, strategist and aerodynamicist on the Furia Racing Team scratching their heads as to what had gone wrong before we’d concluded that there was nothing wrong with our racing car. That it was outside influences adversely affecting our team.

If I couldn’t find answers from the Mancinelli stooges, then I was headed straight for the top.

I eyed my brothers, read every version of their barely bridled patience. Dante was a slightly less icy version of Rafa, while Renzo rivalled me in the hothead stakes. I could tell he was about to blow from the way his knees were bouncing and the loud cracking of his knuckles.

Dante shot him a ‘chill’ look that earned him a sneer. ‘We look like chumps, sitting around with our thumbs up our asses. We should…’

I stopped listening, my fixation on her seizing my attention.

As with every time I’d seen her… except that night when my warning had well and truly riled her, as intended … Maddelena Mancinelli looked fucking flawless.

The quintessential Sicilian beauty.

Her skin glowed with the kind of health and vitality that didn’t come from creams or endless pampering but from Mother Nature’s grace and favour.

Old Man Mancinelli may be nicknamed El Topo, on account of his rat-like features, but by some stroke of genetic genius, all his offspring had escaped being saddled by his fugly DNA.

Every last one of his daughters, and even the idiot Narciso, had inherited their grandmother and mother’s striking good looks.

It killed me that I could never take my eyes off her when she was in the same room. That something about that one and only close encounter an eternity ago had imprinted her on me in a way I couldn’t scrub off, no matter how I tried.

And I had tried.

Women in all shapes and sizes had graced my bed since I hit puberty, eager for Salvatore cock, if only for the chance to boast about it to their friends and family. It didn’t hurt that mine was impressively miles above average, too.

Dozens of women. And yet that itch behind my breastbone remained.

Maddelena Mancinelli had helped herself to something vital of mine in those stolen moments out on the field in the Middle of Nowhere, Connecticut.

Like the kind fucking Romeo should’ve known better than to risk with Juliet?

Fuck no. There was no forbidden love, or even hate – that was reserved for the fuckers messing with my dream – here. But there was… something.

Something I intended to get back, or die trying.

I let all of that show on my face, and I saw the moment she clocked me from across the dancefloor. The moment she saw it, too.

Her stunning blue eyes widened a fraction and the hand clutching her glass trembled before she got control of it. The dumbass she was dancing with took one look at me and left her high and dry on the dancefloor, a move she acknowledged with pursed lips and a fierce glare my way.

I ignored the glare, for now, my attention on the glass’s bubbly contents.

When the hell did she start drinking?

I knew for a fact El Topo had a list a mile long of all things forbidden where his granddaughters were concerned. Just as I knew at the top of that list, etched in blood, was the warning to stay away from us Salvatores, on pain of severe punishment.

And yeah, drinking was in the top ten.

As if she read that thought too, a corner of her mouth lifted, a challenge issued.

‘How long are you two going to keep eye-fucking each other? I’m getting fucking pregnant over here.’

The twins burst into laughter, the thick tension easing a fraction before ratcheting right back up.

‘Rafa…’

He didn’t heed the warning in my voice. ‘I’m just saying, there’s only so much of the sex fumes I can take before shit gets weird, you being blood and all. Either do something about it or shut that shit down.’

I managed, barely, to drag my eyes from her to scowl at my brother. ‘Whatever the fuck you think you see, you’re wrong.’

He opened his mouth. I held up my hand. Mutiny flashed across his face before he clamped his mouth shut. I didn’t fool myself into thinking this would be the end of it, though. My brother was dogged if nothing else.

Another skill he’d honed in that super-secret part of the government he refused to divulge, no matter how much liquor I poured down his throat.

‘You have a job to do. Whatever it takes to find the mole, do it. I want them dealt with before the next race. Understood?’

He didn’t answer immediately. But he got the gravity of my order. And honoured it with a two-finger salute a second later.

My phone buzzed again. And again. And again.

Another burst of raucous laughter from across the room, loud enough to be heard over the thumping music, drove the twins to their feet. Unsurprisingly, they’d reached the end of their tether.

‘We’ve had enough of this shit. Either we break some ribs, preferably that pezz’i miedda Narc-Fuck’s, or we leave. Which is it going to be, brother?’

I leaned forward, elbows on knees, clenched fists dangling between my legs. ‘Go home. I’ll follow shortly.’

Rafa’s eyes narrowed. ‘ Frate … whatever you’re thinking is probably not a good idea,’ he muttered for my ears only.

My gaze lanced back to her, my insides spasming as if someone had shot a Taser into my belly.

Relentless echoes of bodies touching, writhing, exploring in the dark unravelled through my brain.

My fingers twitched. I bunched them into tighter fists.

‘Maybe not, but when have you known that to stop me?’

Rafa sighed. ‘Just make sure you’re well-equipped for hazardous weather in case you fall through that thin ice you’re skating on, sì ?’

I didn’t answer, but my clenched jaw spoke volumes for me.

He jerked his chin at the twins, who left without another word, leaving behind the bodyguards stationed strategically in the room.

Electric volts rippling through me surged higher when I rose to my feet.

And started across the room towards my target.