He hadn’t been sure about me opening the Inferno so to show him that I was succeeding at it made me stand a bit taller, proud of the work that I had put into this dream.
“The restaurant is already cleaning close to fifty grand a night on the weekend. It’s been a strong opening.” I offered numbers for the legit side of my business.
The pride was in my voice and the feeling swelled as my father stood, pressing his hand on my shoulder and giving it a squeeze.
“You’re doing good work, Dante. Will you host the contact at your club?” I nodded in confirmation, “Good work, my son. I will come to see the game on Friday just so they can see my face and know that I’m still around. But after the wedding we will make it official. Dante will be taking over.”
My heart squeezed at the idea of continuing my fathers legacy. Building on the criminal empire and turning a lot of things around to make it clean.
I wanted to hand over the businesses I built to my children, to give them a clean start and not to have to know dirty hands. Leading a mafia family wasn’t going to give them that.
“Now, your mother wants me home to change before this party and before we see your beautiful Ilaria.”
The meeting was over now and I sighed in relief, looking at Fransisco who was looking at me with a knowing smirk on his face.
It would be Francesco who would eventually run this all; he didn’t mind the risk of his life. Being on the wrong side of crime was like breathing to my cousin and I knew he would be the leader they needed. My father would be dead before I gave it to him; we both knew my father wanted me to be the heir.
“I have time for one drink before I have to change.” I tell my cousin as he just smiles, standing up and following me to my office.
I pour us each a heavy handed tumbler filled with scotch. The soft clink of glasses before I lean on the desk, looking at him eyeing the office that we’re in.
Francesco always took in his surroundings. I joked he was always looking for an exit as soon as he entered somewhere which was why he would make a better head to our family.
“I have a question for you.” His eyes were on me, interested in what I’m about to say, “Be my best man.” He smirked at this, like I had told him a joke.
“You trust me around your bride?” He teases like it’s a joke and I thought about the times he had slept with my girlfriends just to prove to me that they weren’t loyal.
I sip heavily on my scotch before leveling him with a look that was all business.
“Ilaria is different, Francisco. She’s not just a girl to me.”
He could see it in my eyes, knew that this wasn’t the game children play but something had changed. Maybe it was me that had changed, finally growing up and realizing more about life as I aged.
Maybe it was the Ilaria effect.
The way she smiles at me, how it reaches her eyes as she jokes so easily. It could be the way she curls up next to me at night, her head on my arm as she buries herself in my body letting me keep her safe. It could be that she trusts me, looking at me in a way that made me feel like I was superman here to save the world instead of destroy it.
“Oh cousin, you have it bad.” He was looking at me with his eyes twinkling in delight, as if I told him a joke, “Did your girl send you flowers? How sweet.” His words stop me as I look in the corner, frowning at the red roses that were sitting there.
Walking over I snatch up the card in front of them, my heart beating as I read the florist note.
‘Couldn’t deliver. She doesn’t work there.’
What had Ilaria done?
And more importantly if she quit her job what had she done all day?
We were less than an hour away from our engagement party and I hadn’t heard from her at all today.
I had thought it had been work and then busy with getting ready for the party. I had expected her to thank me for the flowers when she saw me or chalk up her lack of communication with life being crazy. But now I was thinking of how Ilaria reacted the last time I had messed up.
Was she going to show up tonight or was my fiancée somewhere around the world playing her game of hide and seek?
“You look upset, Dante. Trouble in paradise already?” Francesco’s smile fades as he catches my glare but he had no idea just how bad it was. “I’ll show myself out. I need to head home to change.”
When he is gone I pick up my phone, dialing Ilaria’s number as I pray to God that she answers it. Hoping that she was safe and that she wasn’t going to stand me up in front of all our friends and family.
“Dante.”
The way I let out a breath as she says my name, the relief that she was alive and okay was washing over me as I wiped my face, trying to remember how to breathe again. How had she managed to wrap me around her finger so easily?
“Principessa, I missed your voice.”
“You’ll see me in a half hour, Dante.”
Was she smiling at me, happy that she had been wrapped around her pretty little finger? Did she know how my soul was hers? My heart already given to her. My world only spinning because she was in it.
“That’s not soon enough.”
I was flirting with her, well aware of how good it made me feel to talk to her and flirt with her. If this was what our marriage was going to be like. Acting like an idiot in love I was in a lot of trouble.
“The car should be coming soon. I’ll see you there.”
I blink as she hung up, thrown off by how short she was with me and suddenly remembering that I had called her because she had quit her job. The flowers I had given her as an apology for the birth control appointment had been returned.
Ilaria was still upset with me and I didn’t have any time to fix it.
Maybe this feeling, the guilt and dread was more of what my marriage was going to be like instead.