Page 26 of Married to the Mafia

“You think about that tonight. You either marry me or I destroy your entire world and you still end up married tome. Or would you prefer Ricardo? You know he eats women when he’s finished with them.” I walk over to the stairs and head up them, glancing back over my shoulder. “While they’re still alive.”

I leave her to ponder on that. I lock her in and sit in my study, pouring myself another drink. Corrado comes in while I’m staring at the bookcase.

“It’s done,” he says, taking the seat opposite the desk. “Church is booked for noon. Priest is organized. The dress will be here first thing in the morning. It can be adjusted if needed before the ceremony.”

“Good.” I drain my glass.

“Have you persuaded her to do this?”

I take out the chip from the drawer in front of me and run it through my fingers, flicking it over my knuckles. It’s such a small thing and yet it will change everything. Like her, I think to myself. “She will do it,” I say, placing the chip on the desk.

“What is it? Something’s troubling you.”

“She says the chip isn’t hers. Says she found it.”

“A lie to win her freedom.”

“Maybe.” Something about what she said has stuck with me, though. “Her mother had a safe deposit box,” I add, “according to her, anyway. Find out if she was telling the truth.”

Corrado knows how I operate. I share what needs to be shared and nothing more. He nods and heads out. I gather myself up and walk upstairs. I look in my bedroom.

It is the last night I shall sleep in here alone. Tomorrow night she will be in here with me. Willingly or not, she will give her new husband the thing he is entitled to. I will become Capo dei Capi.

I think of her wrapped in that towel, and my cocktwitches with desire. Twenty-four hours and she will be in here with me. I can wait that long, but no longer. I am a patient man, but I have my limits.

A means to an ends. That’s all she is. That’s what I tell myself when I climb into bed. Funny thing is, the last thing I think of before falling asleep is how soft her hand felt when it was enclosed in mine.

The way it trembled with fear and the way I wanted to stop her being afraid, promise to take care of her, protect her from harm.

I need to shut those thoughts down. Let them worm their way into my brain and there’s a real danger there. A danger of me getting distracted from what matters.

Tomorrow we wed and I will be on my way to becoming Capo dei Capi. That matters. Nothing else.

10

Dino

Dino

I’m up early. There’s a lot going on today and I haven’t much free time. I’m in the pool for half five. I swim several lengths, wondering about her and how she slept.

The thought that she was telling the truth refused to leave me last night. It gnawed at me, woke me up a few times. I’m not a man who suffers from doubt. People who doubt themselves become easy targets for more confident men, men like me.

Yet last night I had what I can only equate to doubt. I doubted she’s lying about the chip.

I’m able to swim away from the doubt. She is lying. She must be. Corrado left me a message that I received when I first woke up. I replied at once, setting him another task.

There is a safe deposit box in her name.

That doesn’t mean she was telling the truth. It only means she knows how to lie well. The best lies lurk between truths. That way, they blend in. Like me.

I blend into the world by lying only when I have to andonly to the authorities investigating me. To everyone else, I tell the truth.

It can be unpleasant. It can leave a foul taste in the mouth. It can strike terror into those you are about to kill, but it is about respect. I tell the truth and respect those who must die. I have not lied to her about any of this. She is lying to me, though. She must be.

I turn in the water and roll onto my back, swinging my arms as I glide to the edge of the pool, always moving.

She kept the chip in the safe deposit box. That is the simplest explanation. Not the bullshit that someone put it there. That story makes no sense. There would be no purpose to it. She is lying. It is her chip. Her father is the Capo dei Capi.

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