Page 131 of Heartless Mafia Prince 2: Rocco & Ryah

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ROCCO

RYAH DIDN’T MENTIONLevi for months. Didn’t say she and Faith would visit him, nothing.

Life was good. Ryah and I were settling into our Philly home. It was bigger than the house we shared in Princeton. This was our “forever home,” as she liked to call it.

With all our house flipping success we chose to purchase another fixer upper. We lived with my parents and fifteen-year-old sister for a month. That was eventful. Breann was constantly trying to sneak out. I spent most of my time trying to keep her on lock down. I told her bodyguard not to let her out of his sight during school and after. Ryah said Breann reminded her of herself at that age. I remembered sneaking Ryah out of my cousins’ house and dodging Art to pull a heist.

Yup, she could definitely relate.

We realized we wouldn’t make it six months at my parents so we moved into our “forever home” ahead of schedule while it was under construction. Every day was an adventure. One morning, I leaned against the kitchen cabinets while I sipped my coffee. Ryah walked toward me.

“Rocco, I take it you didn’t see the wet paint sign?” She pointed to the wall above the breakfast nook.

I bounced off the counter, peeking over my shoulder. “Shit, I’ve ruined a perfectly good suit.” There was cream paint on the back of my pants legs.

Ryah kissed my cheek. “Babe, you have to pay attention. We live in a construction zone.”

She said it like I was unaware.

A chuckle rolled past her lips. “You look so pissed. Rocco, it’s just a suit.”

“Oh, yeah.” I scowled, as I inched toward her.

Her eyes widened. “Rocco, don’t.”

She ran toward the living room. I wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet effortlessly.

“You think it’s funny, huh?”

I plastered her back against a wall on the other side of our spacious kitchen.

“What the fuck?” she hollered.

“Paint’s all over my tank and skin.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You can wash it off.”

“Gladly.”

I tossed her over my shoulder and stormed up the wide spiral staircase.

We had many situations like that one. The paint incident was the most enjoyable.

One-night, Ryah and I relaxed in our backyard on one of the cushioned loungers. She snuggled against my chest under a blanket near the fire pit. After a long day at work, it was a nice place to unwind with a cold beer. I was in the midst of telling Ryah about something crazy that happened at one of the construction sites, when the sprinklers popped on at nine o’clock at night.

“Shit,” I growled. I sat the beer bottle on a small table, whipped off the wet blanket, then jumped to my feet. The ice-cold water drenched my body.

“What the fuck?” Ryah bit out.

I pulled her shivering body into my arms and ran into the house. The irrigation installer set the timer for p.m. instead of a.m. That was one of our worst situations because it was early March.

The Andrisani Construction company had worked in our home for months. I didn’t like to think of it as the renovation from hell, but some days it certainly felt that way. You’d think the construction guys would go above and beyond since they were, after all, working on the boss’s house. Let’s just say, I fired several people during the renovation.

I worked at our corporate office Andrisani enterprises. Sometimes, I managed various construction jobs around the city. I also handled suspicious problems at our waste management yard. A couple of guys thought it was ok to use our trucks to make extra money on the side. That was the first error of their ways. They were caught dumping heavy construction material in the garbage truck. Since it happened one too many times, I had to make an example out of them. The truck was already damaged why not discard those two assholes inside, then burn the truck. I was sure after that message was delivered, no one would do that shit again.

Ryah was becoming the face of Conti enterprises. She loved to handle problems in the field. Her father wasn’t big on her actions outside of the office, but he was learning to adapt.

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