Page 11 of Heart's Temptation
“I believe that’s my problem.” Romeo sat down, followed by Massimo. It would have been a Vitale family reunion if our other two brothers had been here. Tano was in Italy for his honeymoon, fucking his new bride, and questioning his life’s purpose.
Vincent was busy overseeing renovations for the opening of another restaurant location for Buono Come Il Mamas.
“The question remains: Who do we have that can infiltrate the Irish to find out who is responsible for this?” I reiterated what Tony had already asked.
Romeo’s blank expression would have been more believable if his posture wasn’t so stiff. Out of all my brothers, our Don, Romeo, was by far the most likely to have a heart attack. With his wife pregnant, and due any day, his need for control and safety had increased exponentially and I’m sure this latest issue only increased his need to remove any threat to our empire.
In truth I’d been avoiding his over-controlling nature ever since he’d announced Vittoria was pregnant, or as he put it, ‘carrying the baby prince of our empire’. I’d laugh if the prince turned out to be a princess. That wasn’t the only way Romeo had changed. He was softer when around his wife, but mostly because he finally cared about someone more than himself and that had a way of changing a man.
Since Romeo wasn’t taking control, I did so myself, turning to Massimo. “Simo, do we have any new soldiers with the gift of spying?”
“Luca, or either of the Bianchi brothers.”
I could tell from the expression on his face that Romeo didn’t like the options Simo offered. Luca was loyal and had been with us since our father’s passing and the chances of him being recognized were high. The brothers were far too good-looking to blend in and not be noticed.
“What about Dante?” I threw in my suggestion.
Simo frowned at me. “Why Dante?”
All eyes turned to me, and I was acutely aware that my answer had better be good or Simo would dismiss it without a second thought. His dismissals irritated the shit out of me, which was usually why I avoided the heavy lifting when it came to making suggestions and kept my nose in my own business. This situation, however, could and would escalate and we needed a solid strategy before things got messy.
“He’s the dark avenger, doing Massimo’s dirty work mainly from beyond closed doors. I doubt he’s ever been caught in the light of day, as the man is stealthier than a shadow.”
Simo wouldn’t like it as Dante was the day-to-day guy for him but operated primarily incognito, taking a lot of Simo’s overflowing plate of responsibilities. There was also the risk of course, of his identity being discovered, possibly changing his position in the Vitale, la familia.
“It’s a risk to your operations, Simo, I know, but he’s our best bet to get the information sooner rather than later so we can cut off the head of the snake before it bites us.” I added this for his benefit so he would know we appreciated what he brought to the table. I sure as fuck did, but mostly because he was Romeo’s consigliere, and they were tight, which took a lot of the stress off the rest of us.
Everyone turned to Simo, and waited for him to reply, but I could already see in Rom’s body language that his mind had been made up. Simo seemed to as well, and graciously offered his number one guy for the mission.
With that settled, the discussion moved to beefing up security and going through names of vetted newcomers who were looking to work with us, a few of whom were cousins on my mother's side.
So far, we'd managed to keep them in easy positions and far away from anything dangerous, as per our aunt’s request, but they were already older than we were when we took the reins of our businesses within the Vitale empire. I could tell by the direction of this conversation that our cousins were finally going to move up the ranks.
I drifted as they debated over names, like two teams calling out their first picks. It wasn’t due to boredom as I had thoughts of my own regarding the names being bantered about, but because of Marko. Something wasn’t right and it didn’t look good that an attack occurred on us while his location was unknown. He was family to me, but only me. Romeo wouldn’t hesitate to do what was needed if he had any suspicions about Marko’s involvement.
Tony gave me a pointed look while the others discussed every possible reason as to why the Irish would attack us now and why so blatantly. Apparently, he and I were thinking the same thing regarding Marko. I excused myself and went to my office, placing a call to Marko. It went straight to voicemail.
Next, I called Simon, our IT guy, and asked him to trace Marko’s phone. He came back five minutes later with an address. He was in New York at one of the family’s hotels, Was he chasing a piece of ass under the guise of ‘helping a friend’?
Antonio was gone when I returned to the table, leaving me with Fausto, Rom and Simo. I sat in my usual spot, waving away the two beauties on standby that showed up at this time of night to be at my beck and call should I want a partner or two.
My brothers were intently watching a group of women on the dance floor. I gazed to see what had drawn their attention. Four women in sexy outfits danced together, which was an all-too-familiar scene.
“Those aren’t your wife’s friends, are they, Rom?”
He turned around. “Sure are. Remember when I caught Vittoria here with them?”
“I remember you losing your shit when she blew you a kiss and then turned around and wiggled her ass at you.” I smirked when his eyes darkened at my answer.
“I did lose my shit, but she’s learned since then, that unless she wants to pay a hefty price, there are better ways to get my attention.” Romeos apathetic reply didn’t fool me. He thought he had control over his wife, but the truth was Vittoria had him wrapped around her finger.
I liked my sister-in-law. She was a true mafia princess through and through and ruled well at my brother's side.
“She was drunk that night, and way too flirty.” Simo glared at Gia, and I assumed he meant her, and not Vittoria whom Simo didn’t like at that time. I blamed his low opinion of Vittoria on his bromance with my eldest brother, but in a way, he’d been right all along regarding her being up to something. She and our brother Vinnie were captured, and subsequently rescued from the Calogera family, V’s brother and father, who’d been scheming all along to take us down.
“Didn’t you take her home that night, Simo?”
Romeo glared at me. “You better not be talking about my wife,” he threatened.