Page 29 of Satin Empire

Niccolo’s face breaks my heart as I drive away from my old life forever. His eyes brim with tears, and the last thing I see is Orsino smacking the back of his head as I turn a corner.

Chapter 14

Carlo

I retreat to the Rossi mansion while my wife moves herself into our apartment. I keep thinking about the night before, about lying in bed with her and teasing her with only my words, though I was desperately tempted to reach across and touch her. But I could tell that would only push her further away. She needs time to acclimate to our new reality, and maybe once the war’s over and the alliance isn’t so desperately needed, maybe then we can talk about what our future’s going to be like, but for now she’s all mine.

Something’s bothering me though as I go looking for my brother Saul. It’s the way she reacted when I made a stupid comment about letting go and taking what we want from each other. She misinterpreted what I said and thought I was joking about how she’s convenient and we might as well fuck—except that isn’t what I meant at all. There’s nothing convenient about the girl at all.

Her reaction was interesting though. She took it personally, like she actually gives a shit about what I think of her, as if our relationship has any meaning to her. If she didn’t care, she wouldn’t have gotten insulted. And she definitely wouldn’t have been jealous when I mentioned other women.

That leads me to think there’s more going on underneath her angry little surface than she lets on.

Maybe she liked our first meeting as much as I did—and maybe she’s obsessing about our first kiss like I am.

I find Saul in his office. His son Vincenzo’s playing in the corner with blocks and magnetic building tiles—for a one-year-old, he’s surprisingly good with the stuff. He’s grunting and making babbling noises to himself as the tower he’s working on is precariously high. I crouch down and pick him up, which makes the little rascal scream with delight as he wiggles around in my arms.

“How’s the family treating you today, bro?” I ask, blowing a raspberry on Vincenzo’s arm. He laughs wildly and wraps his arms around my neck as I hold him.

“Busy,” Saul grunts. He’s the Famiglia’s underboss, second in command only to Renzo, which means he’s stuck with most of the shit jobs. Renzo makes the decisions, and Saul gets the joy of making it all happen.

“You got a second to talk? I wanted to run something past you.” I put Vincenzo down and he immediately knocks over the tower, which leads to some pouting and moaning until I manage to convince him to rebuild it.

“Two minutes,” Saul says, cracking his neck, and gestures at the couch near his desk.

I sit with a sigh and stretch out my legs. Vincenzo crawls over and scoots around, using my legs to hold himself up.

“I heard about the new businesses opening up. I know Renzo already promised them to someone else, but since the Famiglia’s growing, I was thinking that I might start expanding too.”

Saul crosses his arms and leans back. “Yeah? Expand, how?”

“The clubs. A few of them are doing really good.”

“Your titty bars?”

“One of those and a nightclub called Respect. I’m thinking I could open second locations for both of them on the other side of the city, make them like fucking sinful franchises, you know what I mean, bro?”

Saul grunts in response as Vincenzo babbles and climbs into my lap. I let the kid drag himself up to standing, his belly in my face, and I resist the urge to blow another raspberry.

“Put together a plan,” Saul says but I can tell he doesn’t sound convinced. “Maybe there’s room in the budget. Hell, maybe we don’t have to make room, if you’re doing as well as you say.”

“I’ll come up with the numbers and bring them to you, but I wanted to make sure there was interest before I went to the trouble.”

Saul strokes his face and gestures for me to bring over Vincenzo. I carry the kid to him, and my nephew seems very happy to sit in his dad’s lap and mess up the desk.

“Honestly, Carlo, it’s going to be a hard sell. You have a new young wife to deal with. Why don’t you give her your attention instead of throwing yourself into business right now?”

I clench my jaw and try to hide my emotions. That’s the exact response I was worried about, and hearing it feels worse than I expected. Saul knows me better than most people, and even he thinks I can’t handle an expanded job description.

“I’ve been running the war with the Russians for months now,” I say, making sure my tone’s as steady as I can make it. I don’t want this to turn adversarial. “Now that the Milanos are officially on our side, we’re going to roll over them. Jasha’s all but dead. I’m thinking long-term now.”

“That’s good, it’s really good, but you haven’t shown much interest in the business side of the Famiglia for a while.”

“Because I’ve been too busy killing Russians and Irishmen.” I glare at him and mentally kick myself for making this mistake. Saul shuts down, because I’ve given him what he expected—emotional, angry, off-the-handle Carlo, the guy that’s not serious and can’t be trusted with real responsibility.

Sure, give me a gun, point me towards the enemy, and I’m good to go. They’ll happily let me kill for the Famiglia all I want.

But give me real earning power?

---