The Italian Dom by N.J. Adel
CHAPTER 7
Domenico
“Is this some sort of payback?” Tino’s palms slammed against the top of his desk, and the thought I’d dismissed earlier turned out to be exactly what he was thinking.
“Che cazzo? Calma. What fucking payback?” Enzio asked, uncrossing his legs.
“Don’t play dumb. You know what I’m talking about. Leo and Claudia. Now, you send your cousin to do the same to my sister.”
I mumbled a curse. “Tino, c’mon. Are you serious?”
Nicky narrowed her eyes at me. “Is this true?”
“No! Fuck no! Nicky, I’d never…” I glanced at my capo. “Enzio, say something.”
“Tino,” Enzio started, “there hasn’t been a day that we’re not thankful that your son didn’t marry my Claudia. Yes, he broke off the engagement after she’d been betrothed to him for years, and we were angry at first, but you and I sorted this out a long time ago. Then the family found out how unwell he was, and we’re grateful till today that he and Claudia didn’t end up together. Besides, she’s happily married now. What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Your cousin has had his eyes on Nicole since my wedding. She didn’t like it. I told him to back off. But Dom continues to make passes at her. Aggressive passes in my own house.”
Merda. How much did his wife tell? Enough to break our alliance or have my balls chopped off?
Enzio shifted his gaze toward me. “Che cazzo hai fatto?”
“Nothing! He did nothing!” Nicky answered for me. My brows hooked. Was she scared for me or for herself? Probably the latter. She shouldn’t be, though. Tino wouldn’t punish her for something like that. Even if he would, I wouldn’t let him. I wouldn’t let anybody, whoever they were, hurt her in any way.
And once Tino was certain my intentions were honorable, all this would go away with just one word. A simple agreement that would make me a happy man.
Unless that was what terrified her.
Cocking a brow, I looked her in the eye. “It wasn’t nothing.”
Her teeth clenched, grinding a curse, but I continued before she’d spit it. “We had a conversation where I made my intentions clear in case she misinterpreted them the first time we talked.”
“Jesus Christ, what—”
“I really like you, Nicky,” I interrupted her. “I’m saying it in front of everyone. I’m not hiding anything.”
Her big blue eyes widened at me as she put her hands on the beautiful curves of her hips, color flooding her cheeks, giving her a sexy glow I’d love to see when I teased her with my body, too, and not just with my words. “Well…” Her lips twisted, but then she lifted her chin. “I don’t care what you like. I don’t like you.”
I chuckled at what I knew was a lie. If she hadn’t cared, she would have dismissed the whole thing and wouldn’t have been angry or afraid. She wouldn’t have hesitated right now before she blurted out this bullshit. “Yes, you do.”
“I don’t!”
“Even if that’s true, it doesn’t matter. It’s enough that I like you.”
“What the hell? Enough for what?”
“For making you mine. The right honorable way.”
She threw her hands in the air. “You’re crazy. Tino?”
“With all due respect to your capo and mine, don’t go looking for help in that department from Il Lupo or Il Tagliatore. Do you think either would have gotten their wives if they’d taken no for an answer?” I passed a daring stare between the two bosses who glared back at me.
Even though I honored and respected them and would forever remain loyal to the family, no one had a say in my choice of women. Because of a secret he and very few knew, Enzio had never asked me to marry for the family, and I wasn’t the kind to offer myself for these arrangements. For everything else, yes, but never these. It was the only freedom I’d made sure I got. Choosing my own woman when the time came. And after a very long time, I chose Nicky. No one had the right to object or stop me from having her, especially these two...and not even Nicky herself.
Tino’s glare tightened, the creepy blue of his eyes shining like a real wolf. “You want to marry my daughter?”
Daughter, not sister-in-law, not Nicole, but daughter. Was that a mere show of her worth or a threat? Knowing Il Lupo, it was both.
It wasn’t going to intimidate me, though. I knew her worth and valued it even if she hadn’t been a Bellomo. And the threat was useless. I was a Lanza, as powerful and as honorable and loyal as any Bellomo—except for that piece of shit Leo. That bastard had no honor.
I played by the same rules. Protecting and taking care of women was one of them. “That’s why I initiated this meeting,” I reminded him so he and Enzio knew I’d never mess with either famiglia’s honor. “Yes. I’d be honored to marry your daughter.”
Nicky’s nostrils flared. “Tino, you can’t—”
“Shhhh.” He gave her a warning stare so menacing that even sassy Nicky couldn’t dare challenge. She should have known better than to interrupt a conversation as important as this one. Tino had already given her a lot of liberty, allowing her to be in the room, listening to the whole thing before we reached an agreement. In many of our families, the women were rarely included in forming a family decision in matters such as marriage. They were simply informed of it and had very little choice whether to accept or refuse. Such freedom he’d given her should be used wisely. She shouldn’t have abused it. My little kitten, sassy or not, had so much to learn.
I couldn’t wait to start teaching.
A smile twitched on Angel’s lips. She might have ratted me out to Tino, but something told me she might be the only one on my side here. Obviously, she didn’t tell her husband what she saw in details or we would have been having a different conversation here, one that didn’t have so many words. “Nicky…remember what we talked about last night?” she asked quietly, but it was loud enough for me to hear and pique my curiosity.
What did they say about last night?
“Yes,” Nicky hissed. “But I’m not gonna do it. Listen, all of you, I’m not—”
The doors burst open, and one of Tino’s bodyguards rushed in to his side. Then he whispered something in Tino’s ear that, by the look on Tino’s face, couldn’t be good.
What the fuck just happened?