Page 4 of Taming Nikki

That earned him another smack from his mother, but I had to agree with him. Nicole Morelli was something else.

* * *

The party was in the backyard, which was large and open, with a pool and the tennis court I saw earlier. The spacious patio was covered in lights and crowded with different groups of people. I could see members of each of the big families in the Cosa Nostra, all trying to get in on a slice of the Morelli fortune. The girls were all seated at a long table where they could be greeted under the watchful eye of their mother. They all sat primly except Nicole, who was slouching and looking bored, her arm slung along the back of her seat.

Uninterested in joining the line of men edging along the table, I made my way to the bar they set up at the end of the patio. While I ordered a drink, I noticed Aunt Carlotta hovered close, uncomfortable around the different families. I didn’t hold it against her. Before I took control, with our reputation in the gutter, they saw themselves as better than us and treated my family like shit. We’d since risen above them and most of them were either respectful or fearful, but she was there, and struggled to let go of the past.

Frankie stared at Nicole until she took notice and wiggled her fingers at him, a small smile on her face. His face lit up bright red, and he spun around. Ducking his head as he moved to stand beside me, he effectively used me as a shield to avoid her. She laughed and shook her head before turning her focus back to the men standing in front of her sisters.

“Smooth.”

He scowled at me. “Shut up.”

Aunt Carlotta rolled her eyes. “She’s too old for you, tesoro mio. You are here to meet her younger sister.”

He made a face, ducking his mother’s hands as she tried to fix his hair. He almost stepped back around me, but thought better of it and tried to lean casually against the bar instead.

“She’s not that much older than me.”

I chuckled. “How can you land a woman like that when she can’t even wave at you without you turning into a tomato and hiding?”

He narrowed his eyes at me and I raised my eyebrows and stepped back so that I no longer was blocking him. He yelped and ducked behind his mother. She sighed.

“Leo, don’t be cruel. Frankie, let’s go say hello to her sister.”

He shook his head vehemently. The sister he was supposed to meet, Amara, was sitting right beside Nicole. She looked sweet enough, a small smile flitting across her face whenever Nicole leaned to whisper to her. Frankie probably would’ve been interested if Nicole wasn’t the star of the show, though she only seemed popular with a select few. Most of the men chose to avoid her, and it looked like she preferred it that way.

I knew of only one way to get a teenage boy to grow a pair. “Pussy.”

He whipped around, glaring at me. “Shut up! I don’t see you going over there!”

“We aren’t here for me.”

He clenched his fists, and his gaze darted between me and the table with the girls. I handed him my drink and ignored his mother’s indignant screech as he took a healthy swallow of whiskey. He cringed and coughed. Handing it back to me, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stumbled nervously to the end of the line.

I was about to order another drink when a large commotion came from the head table. People took a step back. I moved toward them and watched over Frankie in case someone decided now was the time to start something. But it wasn’t Frankie I should’ve been worried about.

Nicole hovered over her younger sisters, seething. She glared at the man in front of Amara. A knife sat buried in the table between them.

ChapterThree

NIKKI

The evening startedout pretty much as I expected it to. Papa glowered at me. Viola itched to whack me like Nonna did, which I’d never put up with. My older sisters looked disgruntled as they stood next to me. That they were greeting one of the most handsome men I’d ever seen mattered very little. He was Cosa Nostra, which meant he was probably a misogynistic mama’s boy and I had no interest in a man like that.

I led the way to the head table outside, where the meet and greets would happen. I knew better than to expect someone to want to talk to me. People didn’t want the affair baby attached to their family, so I mostly watched over the people talking to my younger sisters. Gemma is seven and is mostly here for appearances, letting the world know that Papa had daughters aplenty for future deals. Amara being there made me nervous. She just turned fourteen, and she’s gorgeous. Her long dark hair hung in loose curls running down her back and she wore a simple short sleeve dress. She drew the eyes of men over twice her age and she told me before this all started she felt uncomfortable with the attention they gave her.

She’s only recently been old enough to come to events like these and actually interact with people. At previous events, she’s stuck to me like glue, because some of Papa’s ‘associates’ were making her uncomfortable, like the man standing in front of her now.

He looked like he was at least forty. His hair was greased back and his mustache was stupid thin. He leered at her in line until he was standing in front of her.

“So, Amara, how old are you?”

She shifted uneasily under his stare, her eyes on the table. “I’m fourteen.”

He grinned, leaning his hands on the table to draw her eye. “You are blossoming into a beautiful young woman. How exciting.”

My skin crawled just listening to him. I shot Papa a look, but he shook his head once, ignoring me when I raised my eyebrows. Either he couldn’t hear what the man was saying or he was okay with it. Neither option protected Amara as the man reached forward to touch her face. I moved quickly, pulling out the hunting knife I stole from Gino and slammed it into the table between them. The man lurched backwards and landed on his ass.

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