Page 2 of Mafia Star

“Luigi’s taking Elizabeth home.”

I’m telling my brother for two reasons. As our underboss, he assigns the men to the family members they guard. Also, Luca prefers Luigi to guard Olivia and Petra, but since Luca is with his wife and daughter, I’m taking one of our most trusted men from his assigned duty. Luca stares at me for a moment before he nods.

“Don’t read anything into it. She’s practically our sister now, too. Would you let her Uber?”

That makes Luca glance over at her before he shakes his head.

“Hence Luigi.”

“Fine.”

“Thank you. Are you staying much longer?”

“No. Olivia is about ready to drop. We’ll ride home with Mama and Papa. They can drop us off first.”

Now that they have a child, Luca and Olivia bought a house in the same neighborhood as our aunt and uncle. It also happens to be the one where all the married Kutsenkos live. Irony at its best.

We all grew up in Queens— every syndicate family —but most of us moved to Manhattan after college. As the Kutsenkos got married, they started moving back to Queens to keep their family closer together. I suspect we’ll all end up there or in our parents’ community around the corner.

As Elizabeth says her last goodbye and moves toward the door, I scan the room for anyone who might be watching her. Motherfucking son of a bitch. Alejandro Diaz. He stares at her until she leaves the ballroom, then glances at me. He smirks knowingly before he heads for the door, too. If I follow him to keep him away from Elizabeth, I’ll just confirm his silent accusation. If I don’t follow, I won’t know what the hell he says. Will it be something shitty about my family or me? Or will he try to seduce her? She’s not related to anyone in his family. He sees her as fair game.

“All right. I’m headed out now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I hug Luca and make my way to the door, saying a couple brief goodbyes. I’m not getting drawn into some conversation with an old guard member who wants to tell me how they did things back in the day. I arrive at the elevators just as the doors close. I call for the next one, and it comes quickly. But neither Alejandro nor Elizabeth is in sight when I step into the lobby. Did he move that fast?

I make a beeline outside just in time to see Elizabeth get into the car and Luigi close the door behind her. I spot my driver and walk toward the car, but Alejandro appears. He’s had this ability since we were kids. He’ll skulk around in the shadows then show up right next to you like some fucking apparition.

“You look like a lost puppy, cabrón.” Asshole.

I ignore him.

“Trailing after your owner who’s leaving you behind. Did she leave you some food and water? Maybe give you a scratch behind the ear before she left?”

“Don’t be shitty. She’s Enzo’s sister-in-law. I’m not hooking up with her.”

“Maybe not, but you want to.”

“That would be you. I didn’t follow her out.”

“No. You just followed me because I followed her.”

“Or, all our cars are out here, and I’m ready to go home.”

“Sure.”

“Fanculo.” Fuck off.

What more is there for me to say? He’s an asshole just as much as I ever am. But I don’t like that he noticed my interest in Elizabeth. I can justify it, but it’s hard to hide something from someone who used to trade his lunch for mine in elementary school. His bunuelos— deep fried balls of cheese —and empanadas for my caponata— diced fried eggplant and a mix of carrots, celery, and whatever else I thought my mother was torturing me with —and bruschetta. One of many examples of our fucked-up childhood. We traded food back then. Now we trade bullets.

I pretend as though we weren’t in the middle of a conversation and walk to my waiting car. I saw his driver at the other end of the block. Once I’m inside, I push him to the far corners of my mind. It’s Elizabeth who occupies my thoughts. No surprise there. Why am I so drawn to her? We didn’t really spend that much time together. I danced with her once since I was Enzo’s best man, and she was Chelle’s maid of honor. Laura was her matron of honor— no one made Chelle feel like she had to choose —but there wasn’t a chance in hell Maks would allow anyone in my family to dance with Laura. She might gut one of us, and then Maks would have to pay us a shit ton and try to make polite society forget what they saw.

I’ve danced with plenty of women in nightclubs and the wretched fundraisers I’ve been attending since I was a teenager. No woman has ever felt so right in my arms on the dance floor as Elizabeth. Thank God I had to keep our bodies apart for proprieties’ sake; otherwise, she would have felt my raging hard on. We chatted, but I could barely focus on the conversation. I was too busy trying not to picture her underneath me, on top of me, in front of me, in whatever fucking position— literally —we could manage. I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to anyone. At least not to someone I’m not about to kill.

It started last night at the rehearsal. She and I had to talk to the priest about our roles in the ceremony. Good thing my only actual job was to hand the ring over to Enzo. I barely paid attention to anything else. It’s like she radiated this energy that made my body— mainly my cock —pulse. We sat beside each other at the dinner. I had the chance to pull out her chair, and our eyes locked just before she sat. Did something pass between us? Or was that something entirely conjured by my horny imagination?

Neither possibility matters. I’m not going to bang her. I can’t even hook up with her without having sex. Papa would murder me after Enzo was done killing me. I’m not looking to settle down. I like my bachelorhood, even if it is getting lonely now that everyone else my age is married. I refuse to do what the others have done. I’m not bringing an outsider into the shitshow we call normal. I’m not having kids who are going to be the next generation of Mafia. When I want to fuck, I go to my club. When I want company, I go to the gym with the guys. When I want to be alone— well, I have plenty of time to do that now.

The six of us— Luca, Matteo, Carmine, Gabriele, Maria, and me —were inseparable as kids because our family is so close. As we got older, Carmine and Gabriele really separated themselves. Those shitheads. They caused a lot of trouble, and it’s only been within the last year or so that we learned why. Now I feel bad for Carmine and his misspent and misunderstood youth.

---