Page 24 of Third Degree

“No, what?” I pressed her.

“I don’t plan to live with my parents forever.” She sat up in her seat.

“Of course she doesn’t. She will be married one day and live with her husband. What a ridiculous question,” the uncle snapped. I noticed her mother hadn’t said a word in this conversation.

“Is that what you want?” I turned to look Gianna in her eyes. She bore a painful look of both curiosity and a pleading to drop this conversation. The entire room was eerily silent.

She whispered, “No.”

“What the fuck?” Angelo banged his hands on the table and rose. “What does this have to do with the business we have together?”

His wife looked over at him and grabbed his arm. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”

Everyone, including myself, turned to Gianna.

“I guess I imagined my life a little different from Mama’s.” She sent a pleading, sorrowful look over to her mother. “It would be nice to be able to explore the world a little bit more before I settle down,” she added, looking over at me while I gave her a nod of confidence.

“Why did you not tell me this before,principessa(princess)?” Her father sat back down in his seat.

“Because I was worried you were going to say no.”

He tsked. “You cannot live the life of a single maiden forever, amore. You must get married. It is how we continue our bloodline and heritage.”

That was the thing about the Mafia families. It was ironic, but they claimed that their arranged marriages were meant to strengthen family bonds and survive our Italian-American culture. It was a cloak to make different families have better ties with each other. It was simply a business move.

“But what if it was just for a while?” She was pressing the boundaries, and I could tell she was nervous by the way she was shaking. “For a few years until I’m thirty. Let me go find someone on my own to fill the bloodline?”

Gianna’s mother looked over at Angelo. “I think we should let her try.” Her voice was soft.

Angelo looked between his wife and daughter before his eyes landed on mine. “What does this have to do with you?” he asked.

“The Feds are up your ass. They have shut down every single legit business you own. They have put most of your men in prison for quite some time.” I narrowed my eyes.

“Our distribution is great,” Angelo retorted sharply.

I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms.

“Is it?” It was hard for me not to smile. He was back. Elio fucking Marchetti was back.

I looked over at Gianna, who was struggling to breathe but just kept staring at me.

“I can expand the club. I can build others to help accommodate the extra cash we will have to wash.” Whether she knew it or not, I was going to give Gianna everything she had ever dreamed of. “We still take your guns. You wash your money. It is an easy deal for two gentlemen to make.”

“At what expense?” Her father knew there was always something more to my business deals. I had worked with him in the past before, after all.

“I’ll make you a deal, Angelo.” I leaned over the table, my back turned to Gianna. I had the upper hand here.

I was going to give Gianna everything. Her dreams. It was my first big business deal since coming back into the Mafia.

“You let her go live her independence until she’s thirty, and I’ll watch over the nightclub at least until then. When she turns thirty-one, I’ll step down and leave the club in the hands of the Gambini family.” My eyes threw daggers at him. “You have to give her what she wants, though, Ricci. No forced marriages until she is thirty-one.”

Everyone was eerily silent at the table. This was a man who didn’t appreciate being told what he needed to do. And he waspissed. The way his eyebrows narrowed. The way he fidgeted with the rings on his fingers. It was all a tell. I was playing the only hand he hadn’t expected to have been laid out.

“You want this, Gianna?”

“Yes.” She was breathless. There was an air of shock emanating from her. “I want to find my own husband, too.”

“No,” Angelo demanded.

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