Chapter 66

The ride home was great.

Paolo appreciated that I got out to the car on time.

After a few minutes of pleasant chatting, we stopped talking, after which I replayed movies in my head of my morning with Cat.

The sounds she’d made.

The way her breasts had felt in my hands –

The way her pussy had caressed my cock.

The look on her face as she came over and over and over.

It had been a fucking great day.

A great day fucking, you might say.

So when we got back to Don Vicari’s compound, I was feeling pretty good.

That all changed at the drop of a hat.

I had just walked into the kitchen when an older servant looked up at me.

There was no mistaking the look of terror on her face.

I stopped in my tracks, wondering what the fuck had happened.

All of a sudden, an angry voice boomed from the other side of the house.

“IS THAT HIM? SEND HIM IN HERE!”

It was Don Vicari –

And he sounded furious.

Shit.

Shit, shit, SHIT –

My mind raced.

Had he found out about Cat?

Was she in danger?!

Was I about to be killed?!

Everything in me wanted to run –

But I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other until I got to the study.

When I walked into the room, Don Vicari was sitting at his desk, a demonic scowl on his face.

Rocco was standing next to him.

My first reaction was You fucking son of a bitch –

But then I realized that Rocco hadn’t sold me out. Not intentionally, at least.

His eyes were downcast, his lips were quivering, and he looked like he might start crying any second.

There was a bright red mark on his cheek –

Like he’d been viciously slapped.

Or maybe even punched.

The ‘tough guy’ had gotten smacked around by Daddy.

But then I realized what that meant for me:

Nothing good, that was for sure.

“You wanted to see me?” I asked.

“Where the fuck were you today?” Vicari snarled.

I stared at him in surprise.

Oh shit.

“Yeah,” Don Vicari said with a savage smile. “I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere. Rocco didn’t know I had a mole in his crew. He called me earlier to tell me Rocco punched you and left you behind, and then you just disappeared. So tell me, pretty boy – what the fuck were you doing?”

I knew from Rocco’s expression that the jig was up.

No point in lying.

...unless it was lying by omission.

“In exchange for punching me in front of his crew – so he got to look tough in front of his guys – Rocco let me go,” I said. “So I went drinking.”

Rocco, who had been staring at the floor like a five-year-old, looked up at me in surprise.

Don Vicari frowned. Apparently he hadn’t been expecting a confession.

(Even though I left out the part about who I was drinking with. And what else I was doing with her.)

“Bullshit,” Vicari snapped.

“It’s the truth.”

“Where were you drinking?”

Shit.

“I don’t know Ragusa,” I said. “Somewhere near some steps.”

There were a shit-ton of steps in Ragusa, so I figured it could’ve been anywhere.

Don Vicari narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“Let me smell your breath,” he demanded.

I’d told him about the drinking because I knew I could sell it.

Not only had Cat and I drunk the complimentary bottle of champagne that came with the room...

We’d also drunk another two bottles from the mini-fridge.

Okay, okay...

She’d had maybe three glasses total.

I’d drunk all the rest.

I was still mildly buzzed from two and a half bottles of champagne over the last six hours.

Not only that, but I was 100% sure he wouldn’t smell sex on me because I’d taken a shower –

And he wouldn’t smell anything else because Cat had followed Paolo’s advice about not wearing perfume.

I walked over to Don Vicari, leaned over, and breathed in his face.

By the way, this was – by far – the weirdest fucking thing that had ever happened to me in the Cosa Nostra: a mafia don sniffing my breath like he was a parent busting a 13-year-old kid for raiding the liquor cabinet.

“What the fuck is that?” he barked.

“Champagne.”

He looked at me with disgust. “Champagne?! What the fuck are you, a faggot?”

My blood boiled in one second flat.

I didn’t care if anybody was gay or not –

But I knew Vicari did.

And he was quite obviously questioning my manhood –

The worst insult he could level at me.

I about lost my fucking mind –

And I was already buzzed –

So I did something I probably shouldn’t have.

Scratch that:

Something I definitely shouldn’t have.

“No,” I hissed, “and if you ever call me that again, I’ll slap the fucking shit out of you.”

Rocco looked over at me in wide-eyed terror.

Don Vicari was shocked –

And then his expression turned murderous.

He leapt up and swung his arm at me in an open-handed slap –

But I’d studied hand-to-hand combat for months under Lars.

I didn’t even think. I just blocked him.

My forearm struck the inside of his, HARD, and stopped the blow.

Rocco looked like he was about to shit a bowling ball.

To be honest, as soon as I’d realized what I’d done, I almost shit one, too.

Don Vicari looked absolutely astounded –

And then he came stomping around the desk, shoving Rocco out of his way.

This time, though, his hands were balled into fists.

He bellowed like a bull and swung at me –

But I stepped out of range.

He swung at me again –

And I stepped back once more.

At which point he reached into his jacket and pulled out a revolver –

Which he aimed directly in my face.

Fuck this.

If I was going out, I wasn’t going out like a bitch.

“All I said was, ‘Never call me a faggot again,’” I snarled. “Is that the kind of pussy you want in your family? Somebody who’ll let another man call him that? Somebody who’ll just drop his pants and bend over?”

Vicari glared at me over the barrel of the gun –

And then he started roaring with laughter.

He doubled over, both his hands (including the one with the gun) braced on his knees, and proceeded to bust a gut.

I’d only ever heard him laugh in that psycho way of his, or maybe chuckle a little –

Nothing like this.

Neither had Rocco, apparently.

He looked like he’d just seen aliens walk out of a spaceship.

He kept glancing between me and his father like, Am I on drugs?! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!

I had no clue.

I thought about trying to disarm Don Vicari and take away the gun –

But then I’d have to shoot my way out of a compound surrounded by a hundred Sicilians with guns.

No thanks.

I decided to ride it out and see what happened.

When Don Vicari stood up 60 seconds later, he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

“Fuckin’ hell – when I said you had balls, kid, I didn’t even know the half of it,” he said, snorting with laughter as he put his gun back in his jacket.

“I don’t like being called a faggot,” I said casually, like it was all just a funny misunderstanding.

“I can see that,” he chuckled, then shook his head. “Why the fuck would you pull this bullshit just so you could go drinking?”

“...I like getting drunk,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

Don Vicari started laughing again and turned to Rocco. “He likes to get drunk!”

Rocco hesitantly smiled, but his eyes were still wide with fear.

In this instance, Rocco was smarter than I was.

I started laughing along with Don Vicari, thinking the danger was past –

And that was when he sucker-punched me.

His fist slammed into my gut like a sledgehammer.

Rocco couldn’t hit, but his old man sure as shit could.

I wasn’t ready for it. All the air went out of me, and I collapsed to my knees in pain.

Vicari grabbed my hair, yanked my head to the side, and bent down close to my ear. “That’s for talking back to me, you little cocksucker. Do not EVER do that again. If you disrespected me like that in front of anybody else but my son, I’d put a bullet in your head on principle. Do you understand?”

I just nodded, unable to say anything because I still couldn’t breathe.

“And this – ”

Vicari slammed an open palm into my face, knocking me to the floor.

I’d been punched by over a dozen guys in my lifetime.

Most of them didn’t punch half as hard as Don Vicari’s slap.

“ – is for not following my fucking directions and doing your goddamn job,” he snarled.

I lay there sprawled on the floor, unable to breathe –

And then air finally rushed back into my lungs. I inhaled with a groan.

My left ear was ringing, the side of my face hurt, and my guts felt like they were on fire.

Don Vicari stood up and straightened his jacket. Then he looked over at Rocco.

“Despite him being a shithead, that took some fuckin’ balls,” he said. “You could learn a lesson or two from him.”

“...yes, Papa,” Rocco whimpered.

“Now get up,” Don Vicari growled at me.

I forced myself onto my knees and staggered back to my feet.

Vicari glared at me. “You think my business is so beneath you? You think you don’t have anything to learn? Then you can just stick around the compound until you get married.”

SHIT.

I tried not to betray my panic –

But if I couldn’t get out of the compound, then I couldn’t see Cat.

FUCK!

“I’m sorry – ” I started.

“Too fuckin’ late for that,” Don Vicari barked. “You don’t want to do as I say, you can sit around here with your thumb up your ass.”

Rocco laughed like a kiss-ass. “That was a good one, Papa!”

“Shut the fuck up,” Don Vicari snapped contemptuously.

Rocco went quiet and cast his eyes at the floor.

If I wanted to see Caterina again, I had to think of a way around Don Vicari’s order.

“Why don’t I take Isabella out and show her Sicily?” I suggested, my breathing still ragged from the punch.

Vicari looked at me like I was speaking another language.

“She said she’s only been to Palermo,” I continued. “Anytime I mentioned how I visited other cities and countries, she couldn’t get enough of it.”

When Vicari didn’t say anything, I kept talking –

Which I realized violated Niccolo’s rule about Whoever speaks first after the offer is made loses the negotiation, but fuck it. I was panicking.

“I mean, I can spend time with her here, or I can spend time with her there,” I said. “I might as well go see the cities you control –

and make her happy at the same time. Right?”

“Why do you want to get away from here so bad?” Vicari asked. “Did you fuck some whore today?”

“No, I did not,” I said.

My irritation was real – mostly because I hated him referring to Cat that way, even though he didn’t know who she was.

“And as for wanting to get away so bad, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s boring as shit around here.”

Vicari glared at me – Watch it, boy – then asked coldly, “You expect me to reward you for disobeying my orders?”

“I thought you’d want me to make your daughter happy. Especially since she’s miserable around here,” I said, then decided to take a gamble. “Why do you think she reads so much? Because it’s boring as shit. She wants to know what it’s like out there –

and the only way she can do that is by reading books.”

Vicari seemed to consider that.

I think the only thing he disliked more than me was his daughter’s fondness for books.

“I don’t want you taking her out drinking,” he finally said. “Or trying to corrupt her in any other way.”

My mind raced –

And I remembered the tough chick who’d come to my bedroom door the other night.

If you hit Isabella, or abuse her emotionally, or demean her in any way... Don Vicari won’t have the chance to do anything to you, because they’ll find you bled out in your bed with your dick cut off.

“Send Ludavica along as a chaperone,” I suggested. “She knows better than to lie to you, right?”

I’d figure out how to get around the ‘lie to you’ part later.

The Don thought for another few seconds, then said, “It’s not safe.”

“I thought you ran Sicily,” I retorted. “Who would be stupid enough to mess with your daughter?”

“There are plenty of stupid people in the world, boy.”

“So send some foot soldiers along,” I suggested, then realized I was going to make my life a lot harder if Vicari followed my advice. Then I had a bright idea. “But that might draw attention... why don’t you just give Paolo a gun? He’d make a good bodyguard.”

“...Paolo?” Don Vicari asked, slightly confused.

“Molinari,” Rocco spoke up, then dropped his eyes quickly when his father glared at him. “He’s been driving Valentino around.”

“So he was in on your little scam,” Vicari said to me angrily.

Shit.

“He just dropped me off,” I said. “He didn’t know about the thing with Rocco. I met him at the pick-up point. He never knew I was out drinking.”

“What was the pick-up point?” Vicari asked.

He was trying to catch me in a lie –

But I was ready for him.

“That big church in Ragusa,” I said. “The Duomo.”

Vicari didn’t seem 100% satisfied, but he didn’t seem as suspicious anymore, either.

“You could tell Isabella it’s a wedding gift from you,” I suggested, trying to get off the topic of Paolo. “I’m sure she’d love it.”

Vicari stared at me for another moment, like he was trying to see through me –

And then he said, “I have something to show you. Come with me.”

Great.

As we walked out of the study, Rocco started to follow us –

“Not you,” Vicari said contemptuously. “You stay here. Or better yet, go back home to your wife.”

Rocco blushed a deep shade of crimson and stared at the floor as we left.

As much as I hated the guy, I pitied him.

He was exactly what I didn’t want to end up being:

A dog on a leash, with Don Vicari holding the other end.