4
Massimo stood guard as I retrieved several dresses and a negligee from my wardrobe.
When it came time to get my bras and underwear, I cleared my throat. “Could you…?”
“Oh,” he said in a voice even deeper than his boss’s. Then he looked away, almost in embarrassment. “Of course.”
I gathered the things from my dresser and wrapped them inside my dresses. “Alright.”
He looked at my bundle of clothes and frowned. “Don’t you have a suitcase?”
“No.”
He looked mystified.
I shrugged. “I’ve never gone anywhere before, so there was never a need.”
He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head like, Makes sense.
Then he started to lead the way back down to the cafe…NôvelDrama.Org © content.
But I stood still, afraid of what would happen when I went back downstairs.
Massimo realized I wasn’t following and looked back.
Rather than becoming impatient, he smiled gently. “Nothing will happen to you. When my brother gives his word, he never breaks it.”
I looked at him in shock. “He’s your brother?!”
“So is Adriano. There are six of us.”
I realized it should not have surprised me so much. The Cosa Nostra was all about fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, cousins…
There was no reason they would not all be involved in the family business.
The family business being crime… and murder.
I shook my head. “I’m not worried about me so much as I am about what will happen to my father.”
“If he wasn’t involved in whatever conspiracy that stronzo got shot for, then your father has nothing to fear.”
I thought back to the ugly man’s words Tell your father my compliments to the chef and wondered if I should be worried.
“Your brother is judge, jury, and executioner correct?” I asked.
Massimo shrugged. “Probably not the executioner.”
Those words sent a cold chill through my heart but I forced myself to sound angry rather than terrified. “I don’t want him making a snap decision based on rumors or gossip.”
Massimo gave me a small smile that was almost kind. “He is by far the most level-headed man I’ve ever met. Like I said, your father has nothing to fear… if he’s innocent.”
I looked at Massimo for a second more, then composed myself and walked past him down the stairs.
When I got back to the cafe, my father was sitting in a chair. He looked terrified. No wonder, seeing as Adriano was standing behind him like the grim reaper.
Don Rosolini glanced over at the bundle of clothes in my arms and raised one eyebrow. “She has no bag?”
“She’s never gone anywhere before,” Massimo explained.
“Hm. That’s all you need?” the stranger asked me.
“I want something else before we go,” I said.
“Go and fetch it, then.”
“It’s not a ‘thing.’ I want a promise that you won’t hurt my father,” I said, surprising myself with my boldness.
That was too much for the Hothead.
“You are not in a position to be demanding anything!” Adriano snapped.
The handsome mafioso raised one hand, and Adriano fell silent once again.
It was something to behold they might have been brothers, but it was like a master quieting his dog.
Massimo spoke up. “I already told her that if her father didn’t join the plot against you, he’ll be safe.”
The mafioso looked at me. “I’ll go one step further. I promise your father will be safe even if he conspired against me… so long as he admits the error of his ways and tells me everything he knows. AND if you go with me willingly. Fair enough?”
I swallowed hard. “…yes.”
I glanced over at my father.
He looked terrified, but he remained silent.
I thought about bringing up what the ugly man had said to me
Then remembered that these men were in the Cosa Nostra.
I wasn’t going to gamble my father’s life on the potentially empty promises of murderers.
“Nothing?” the mafioso said to my father, then turned back to me. “Perhaps he needs a bit more time to reflect. Are you ready?”
I leaned over and kissed my father’s cheek. He grabbed onto my arm.
“It will be alright,” Papa whispered. He smiled feebly, like he was attempting to convince me of something he didn’t really believe.
I nodded and tried to be brave. Then I turned back to the mafioso.”I’m ready, Don Rosolini.”
The handsome man gave me a devilish smile that was both seductive and frightening at the same time.
“My father was Don Rosolini,” he said. “You can call me Dario.”
Dario
She was the first thing I saw when I walked into the cafe.
Long brown hair spilling down her back in waves… a simple white dress…
Soulful brown eyes in the most innocent of faces.
I had been in prison four years, and only out for the last seven days.
Since my return, my brothers had tried to set me up with any number of high-priced escorts
But I had resisted.
I told them it was too dangerous. That our enemies would try to get at me through a woman.
It was all a convenient excuse.
I didn’t actually know why I had waited
But now I knew.
I drank her in, taking in every inch of her.
Her breasts were on the small side, but shapely and firm beneath her modest dress.
Though her waist was tiny, she wasn’t exactly thin she had some meat on her, which is how I like them. I want my woman to be a woman when she’s naked in my bed, not a stick figure.
Suddenly I wanted nothing more than to rip off her clothes and take her
But it was her innocence that entranced me…
Those eyes that revealed everything she was thinking and feeling.
As soon as I saw her, I knew I had to have her.
She was scared of me that much was plain.
But she was also surprisingly brave, willing to speak her mind.
Like when she protested, “I am no one’s possession.”
I liked that.
I liked it a great deal.
If she had been a shrinking little church mouse, I would have lost interest.
But she was like a spirited horse, begging to be broken.
There was only one moment I lost control, and then only slightly…
When she angrily said, “I am not a whore to be bargained over.”
Her anger covered up her fear, which I could feel beneath her bravado…
But I could read her yearning even more clearly.
It radiated off her like heat
And my own cravings responded in kind.
I walked over to her, grabbed her hair, and forced her head back to look at me.
I saw the terror in her eyes
But also desire.
Desire to be taken.
A good little Catholic girl who would never lift a finger to sin…
But who wouldn’t mind if a bad man did the sinning for her.
I leaned down to whisper in her ear so the others would not hear.
Just a little something for her and no one else between the two of us.
A taste of what was to come.
Her hair smelled faintly like roses, and I wanted her all the more.
“You will be my whore,” I whispered. “But only for me… and no one else.”
Then I let her go.
Her look of shock and desire was priceless.
Part of me wanted to ravage her right there to lay her back on a table and fuck her like an animal.
After four years in prison and never touching a woman…
To suddenly encounter the most alluring beauty I had ever seen in my life
It was difficult, but I controlled myself.
Right now, her father was of strategic importance to the family.
And family came first.
I needed her father to reveal what was going on. I needed him to tell me why my enemy had been in his cafe that night.
That was why I made the promise not to take her virginity.
To gain both his trust… and hers.
Of course, I threw in the line about ‘until she begs me’ because it amused me…
But also because it let the old man know that his daughter was in danger if he didn’t cooperate.
And because I wanted her to know exactly what was going to happen between the two of us.
I remembered an old line from a movie. A general spoke of conquering ancient Rome by gaining the people’s love, not by threatening them with his army.
I shall NOT violate Rome at the moment of possessing her.
That was how I felt about this girl.
I could have easily taken her… physically overpowered her…
But I didn’t want her body alone.
I wanted her soul.
I wanted her to moan not from fear and pain, but desire.
I wanted to break her…
To feel her innocence turn to lust as I made her come, over and over.
I knew my brothers would disapprove. Niccolo in particular would rant and rave about how I was letting my cock do my thinking.
But the truth was, she was valuable as a bargaining piece.
I could have easily made the old man reveal all his secrets by having Adriano or Massimo torture his daughter in front of him…
But I would have sooner destroyed the Mona Lisa.
So I decided to steal the Mona Lisa and take her with me instead.