Page 3 of Assistant to the Mafia

None of which she had the chance to get started on before the desk phone rang, demanding her attention. It seemed one of their newer foreign market contracts, based in Ireland, had been keeping an eye on the clock. Time to work.

Romeo really hated February. Mostly he hated it because it was cold as fucking Antarctica, and he’d had more nightmares than he knew how to process thinking of all the ways the icy roads and stupid-ass drivers could kill his little girl without even trying. But he’d hated it before he became a father, too. It was February. The month where everything was filtered through shades of sparkling pink and everything revolved around romance. No one, not even his brothers, understood what it had been like growing up with the name Romeo and having to endure all that expectation.

Not that he hadn’t gone through a phase of trying his level best to live up to it, too.

Now he had a school-aged daughter and he was starting to have new nightmares. Nightmares about the day she didn’t see boys outside the family as gross and annoying. His hands were bloody enough, frankly, and even Dante frowned on hurting kids.

“Daddy! Where’s my jacket?” Lucia’s voice carried from down the hall, the pout as clear as if she were standing in front of him.

Romeo tossed back the last of his breakfast coffee and set the mug in the sink. “Be more specific, Lucy. You’ve got five.” And though it felt like she came back a little older and a little less his baby girl each time she went off to school, he knew they needed to get their asses in the car. Icy roads or not. So he strode from the kitchen and off toward the foyer closet, where he knew she was.

Sure enough, the closet door was wide open and three different perfectly acceptable coats were tossed on the floor. Little Lucia De Salvo was nowhere in sight, though her backpack, with her favorite airplane keychain dangling from the zipper, rested beside the door. Romeo sighed. “Lucy, we need to get going or you’ll be late.”

“I can’t find it!” Lucy jumped out of the closet, her brown eyes big and pleading. “Where’s my sunset sky jacket? The one with all the pretty colors and the clouds!” She made senseless motions with her hands while she talked, as if her movements would paint the image for him.

He didn’t need her to, of course. “Lucy,” Romeo said, moving to rest a hand on her shoulder. “It’s at the drycleaner, remember? It got dirty last week. I’ll pick it up on my way home today, I promise.”

She latched on to his sleeve. “Can we go now? I want to wear it! Please!”

Romeo sighed and scooped up the faux-fur trimmed winter coat in shades of blue. “We don’t have time, princess.” He wrapped the heavy and sufficiently warm material around her shoulders. “Wear this today for me, okay?”

Lucia gave him her best puppy dog eyes. “But—”

He pressed a fingertip to her forehead. “No buts. There’s nothing wrong with this jacket. I promise you’ll have the other one for tomorrow. Now, button up while I clean this mess so we can get going.”

Lucia scrunched up her face but didn’t argue again.

Somehow, Romeo managed to get Lucia out the door and all the way to school without incident. He watched from the side of the SUV as she disappeared into the building, as he always did. This was his least favorite part of the day, no matter the season.

His phone buzzed in his pocket almost the instant she was out of sight. He answered without checking the ID. “Yeah?”

“Still stalking Lucy at the school gate?” his elder brother, Dante, asked.

Romeo grunted, turned, and ducked back into the warmth of the vehicle. He shouldered the phone to buckle himself in and motioned for Mo to get moving while he talked. “Hilarious. I can’t wait to throw this back at you in like six years.” He was genuinely looking forward to that, but he’d make sure to save the barbs for when Iris was out of earshot. She didn’t deserve them.

Dante actually chuckled. “You underestimate me, little brother. I’m going to buy the fucking school.”

Romeo barked out a laugh. “You’re an asshole. What’s so important you couldn’t wait fifteen minutes for me to get to the office?” Fifteen to thirty, anyway, depending on what so-called drama Tina threw at him.

“About that,” Dante said, already calm again. “Come straight to me. There’s something you need to know, and you’ll need to provide input on how we move forward.”

Well, fuck. That didn’t sound good.

two

Off-Limits

Romeo drummed his fingers over the armrest of the sofa in Dante’s office, irritation lashing through him. “Well that’s fucking fantastic.” He couldn’t say he’d had the greatest relationship with Tina, but he’d never felt he’d done wrong by her. Her accusations and abrupt departure were most definitely undeserved. He was honestly more pissed off about those things than he was about the idea of replacing her.

“Obviously we’ll do what we can to get you an acceptable replacement as quickly as possible,” Dante said.

Romeo turned his head to the side, his gaze slipping out the thin floor-to-ceiling window panel on the far side of the door. It was currently set to ordinary glass settings, though he knew Dante could darken it with the click of a button. From his angle, he had an almost perfect view of her.

His brother’s personal assistant, Grace Mariner. She was a fucking angel on earth.

“Think you could lend me Grace?” The question was out of his mouth before he could think better of it, or think about it at all.

“Don’t be a dipshit.”

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