“He’ll help because he knows what it’s like to be forced into an arranged marriage.” She sounded so convinced it would have been easy to believe her, but I’d learned a thing or two about the Marchionnis over the previous year. They rarely, if ever, behaved as expected.
“Then our problems will be solved. In the meantime, I have a date.”
My phone chimed with an incoming message. I opened the window and froze.
Danny:I need your address.
Me:I’ll meet you there.
Danny:You sure? It’s a date. Shouldn’t I pick you up?
Me:Absolutely sure. Meet me by the entrance.
He replied with a photo.
The goofball had dressed as the Joker, which we’d planned. However, he’d either colored his hair or was wearing a green wig. Making matters worse, he had on more makeup than I did. Part of me was disappointed I couldn’t see his face.
Sophia glanced at the screen and groaned. “That’s him?”
“Yep.”
“How are you supposed to know if he’s handsome or hideous? He didn’t even show you his body.”
“Physical appearances don’t matter.”
Sophia kept talking, but I tuned her out. I needed to think of something clever to text Danny but came up blank. In the end, I settled for sending him a quick selfie.
“…or Quasimodo with a tiny dick? Believe me, it’ll matter when he wants to have sex and there’s apepperonciniwaiting for you.” She demonstrated her point with her pinkie finger.
I grinned, thankful I’d missed most of her lecture. “I don’t need to worry if he has a tiny pepper penis or a salami. I’mgoingto a ball, not playing with his.”
The mention of sex with Danny made me dizzy, but I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. I didn’t really care what he looked like. It was enough to finally meetthe man behind the curtain. The man that made me smile even on my worst days.
Sophia sighed. “Uh huh. Remember, orgasms are like truth serum. Don’t screw up and tell him your real name.”
“I’ve been pretending to be Julia Carpenter at the Marchionni Corporation for months without a single slip. I’m not going to blow it.” I understood her fears. I even understood her frustration.
It went against Sophia’s nature to sit on the sidelines while I put myself in danger. She would have been the one working behind enemy lines, but she didn’t know squat about computer programs, let alone how to hack them. Not to mention, the Marchionnis would have recognized her the second she walked through the door.
They believed she’d murdered the heir to their throne, Joe Jr. Which she hadn’t. However, she absolutelyhadtried to poison their entire family at Gabe Marchionni’s engagement party.
Although, that sort of wasn’t her fault. Sort of.
Sophia, beautiful, ruthless, and gullible. Not to mention, she had the luck of a black cat standing under a ladder. In short, she’d partnered up with Pietro Lazio, thecapoof another mafia family, to bring down the Marchionnis. When his schemes had failed, Sophia had taken more than her fair share of the blame for his shady activities. As a result, my entire family had been punished.
It was up to me to clear the Abruzzo name, get rid of our brother, and save my sisters. So far, my efforts had worked as well as concrete water-wings, but failure wasn’t an option.
Ah, the life of a mob princess. Never a dull moment.
I grabbed my tiny cross body bag and headed for the door to wait for my driver.
“Wait!” Sophia rushed toward the bathroom. “You’re forgetting something.”
Mentally, I ran through my checklist. Lipstick, phone, fake ID, fake debit card to an account under my fake name.
She returned and pressed a stack of condoms into my palm. “These are extra-large. If he’s packing a baby jerkin, skip the sex or they might fall off.”
“Thanks, Soph. That’s some…great sisterly advice.”