Page 90 of Highball and Chain

I checked the screen and frowned. “It’s Pops. We will finish the conversation.”

“Looking forward to it,” Marco deadpanned and draped his arm back across his face.

I had a good idea why he’d called. To soften him up a bit, I answered the phone in the Italian tradition. “Pronto.”

“Walk into the office and close the door. We have matters to discuss.” For a man reliant on oxygen to breathe, he did a great job of shouting.

Over the years, I’d excelled at two things—cooking and following orders. I waited until I closed the door behind me before I replied. “I’m here.”

“Your brother told you what the Lazios want?”

“Money, time, and a wedding.”

“I trust you will do what is expected of you?” He wheezed and broke into a coughing fit.

A million thoughts crossed my mind while my dying father gasped for air on the other end of the line. The rush I got while working in my kitchen. Years of feeling not good enough, of starving for attention, longing for a pat on the head and an attaboy. My mother’s disapproving stare. Watching my brothers laugh and play together. Hildie’s advice. Shanna whispering she loved me.

His coughing eased. “Gabe won’t ask this of you, but you and I both know the only way to end this standoff is to tie the families together.”

“There’s another way.” If I had to sell my soul, I’d rather sell it to the mafia than the devil in stilettos. Besides, if things worked out the way I hoped, I wouldn’t take over the Marchionni Empire alone. I’d have a sexy, brilliant woman by my side to help break us free. “Name me as your successor. I’ll take care of the business and the people in Comiso. Gabe and the others can go legit.”

“I want your word you’ll marry Nico.”

He’d either ignored me or hadn’t heard. I prayed for the latter. “Pops, let me take Gabe’s place.”

“No one is taking anyone’s place. Your role in this family is to marry Nicolina. If you refuse, then you are on your own.” My father disconnected the call.

I slammed the phone on the desk. “Goddammit.”

The phone rang again.

I snatched it from the desk. What else could he possibly have to say to me? “Yeah?”

“Is that how you answer your mother?” Evelyn’s voice crackled through the line.

“Ma? We have a bad connection.” I debated hanging up and blaming it on faulty cell service.

“I know you’re with that Shanna girl. I saw the proof with my own eyes.” She blew out an exasperated sigh. “Isaac is a Jewish name. Did you bother to ask if she was Catholic?”

“Her religion doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to your father and me. I won’t have Jewish grandchildren.”

“I love her.” The fact the words rolled off my tongue as easily as stating the sky was blue, or water was wet, scared the hell out of me. Knowing something was true and facing the implications were two very different things.

“You don’t know the meaning of the word. Love is sacrifice, not licking wine off a body. One week. You have one week to put an end to it and marry Nicolina in her family’s church.”

“I can’t do that.” First my father had dismissed my idea without bothering to discuss it and had sold me off like a fucking brood mare. Now, this?

Hildie’s right. It’s time I start thinking about me for a change.

“She isn’t for you, Lorenzo. I know the two of you have been through a lot in the last week, but don’t mistake it for more than it is.”

“I’m a grown man. I know the difference between being in love without someone and sympathy.”

She sighed and went for the kinder gentler approach. “I know you. You have a big heart. You’re taking care of that girl. This is like when you brought home that mongrel dog…”

Is she seriously comparing Shanna to a stray puppy?I’d heard enough. “Ma, this is nothing like that.”