“Valentina, is that you?” She rolled her eyes as she walked into the house; her dad knew who it was but he just liked to pretend that he couldn’t see her walk in. But their house was protected, that would be something any mob boss made sure of, so of course he always saw who walked on his land or through his front door.
“Yes, it’s me dad.”
“Good,” he said as he walked out of the living room. “Come join me, I want to talk to you.” Val sat her purse down on the table by the door and followed him into the cozy room. Most of their house was formal, as befitting who he was, but mom made sure there were rooms of comfort and coziness and not hard and cold. Her mom often felt that more people would open up if they were in a comfty place, unlike her dad, who believed hard was better. He sat down on the couch and she followed suit.
“What’s up dad?”
“You know there’s been a long standing war between us and the Constantini’s right? A war that was started by your grandfather.”
“I’m aware, probably why Vinny and I have issues.” He sighed at that. He knew about them, that wasn’t news. Hell, their issues with each other stemmed as far back as their playing on the school field. Vinny was one year older than her, so for them, they really had been around each other forever. And hell did he remember the phone calls they would get about the two of them fighting.
“Well, those issues need to stop.” ‘Stop,’ she questioned to herself, they just had a show a couple hours ago in fact!
“Why dad?”
“Donatello and I called a cease fire.” Her eyes opened wide. A cease fire? That was unheard of. But, then her eyes narrowed. They were mob bosses, and you didn’t do anything for free.
“What’s it costing us?”
“It’s sad that you can’t be my heir, your mind is so ready for that.” Yes, it’s a bitter pill to swallow that she was a female, but no female was allowed to be in control; they couldn’t make those tough choices.
“I know, it’s a shame, now answer the question.”
“You.”
“What do you mean ‘me’? Hai intenzione di massacrarmi prima di loro? Lasciando che il mio sangue corre per le strade invece?” (Are you planning on slaughtering me before them? Letting my blood run down the streets instead?) She was furious. He was willing to do that to his only child, female or not.
“No! You are to marry Giovanni.” Oh, that was not any better. She’d rather take a bullet to the chest than be led to the other version of slaughter, holy matrimony with the biggest play boy around; yeah no thanks on that. She clenched her teeth as she stared at her dad.
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“Join me son,” Donatello said as he took his eyes off the pool table and glanced at his son. At 24, Giovanni was a good looking man who had all the women at his feet and his dad knew that. And knew that his son would never think about settling down, now or anytime soon. So, as much as he hated being a controlling son of a bitch with his kids, this time he needed too. Sure, the cease fire was great, but he could admit the other motive; marrying his son off to a damn good family.
“What’s up papa (dad)?” Donatello sank the nine ball and tossed the stick to Vinny.
“Had a meeting with De Luca.” Giovanni nicked the table at those words, not even hitting a ball.
“And you didn’t kill each other?”
“No, actually figlio (son), the De Luca’s and the Constantini’s have a cease fire.” Donatello watched his son, watched as his eyebrow’s scrunched together, watched as his jaw clenched and watched as his hands fisted.
“Why?”
“Because enough is enough. Too many lives have been lost. Who is to say you weren’t next?”
“I can’t of course, but really? How did you manage that? I mean, De Luca isn’t the type to just say, ‘here, we are done, what now’.”
“No, he isn’t,” Donatello said as he took another cue stick and lined up a shot, sinking the ball and looking up at his son. Giovanni moved to sit on the stool as he watched his father.
All his life, all he had heard about was this war; was about the anger these two families had. And, yeah sure, it spilled out on their kids; Giovanni could admit there was a time or two he wished he could have punched Val, but there was also times that he wished he didn’t have to be so cruel to her. Valentina was a smart woman, and there were times he would have loved to just talk to her. Granted, those times were few and far between. And yet, here was his dad, talking nonsense.
“So, you called a truce, what’s the cost? Are we paying him? Giving him run over our streets?”
“De Luca’s empire needs none of that. What he does need is a stable and strong hand for Valentina.”
“Marriage?”
“Yes.”
“To who? I have all sisters and my cousins wouldn’t work for that princess. Are they taking one of your men?”
“No, not unless you are one of my men and not my son.”
“Me, why…I’m too marry her?” Giovanni bellowed as he got off the stool, his eyes wide. “Non puoi essere fottutamente serio? Preferirei prendere un proiettile alla testa.” (You can’t be fucking serious? I’d rather take a bullet to the head.)
“Fermarsi!” (Stop). Giovanni’s nostrils flared at his dad yelled, but he shut up. “You have no choice son. This truce falls on the heads of you and Valentina. You are to make the next world better.”
“Or her and I could start the war all over again. Don’t you see that we don’t like each other?”
“Is that you or years of hate?” Giovanni went to open his mouth to answer, but couldn’t. Could they really make an alliance work? Would that ever be possible? Could their streets finally see peace? After all, these were the strongest families who were drawing the lines and calling a truce; on the heads of their kids, of course.
They sat outside in the car, looking at the restaurant and Val’s stomach was in knots. She hadn’t spoken to Donatello before and it had been four days since she had seen Vinny, since her dad told her the news. And here she was, meeting them both so they could talk about contracts, about what each party wanted or would like. In here, she was going to have to be the perfect mafia princess; her father had already warned her. No yelling, no acting bitchy; she promised. But would Vinny hold true to not being an asshole? That part to her was doubtful. “Are you ready, bella (beautiful)?” Valentina glanced at the building and then at him. “No, but I don’t have a choice, right? Let’s go.” He helped her out of the car and she t
Valentina stared out over their pool, her hand playing with her long black hair as she thought over everything. When they had gotten home, Rafael had made it known to his daughter just how she was to be, how she wasn’t to make scenes, something she didn’t normally do and it only led to a fight. The pair of them hadn’t spoken in three days, and that was unlike them. But with her day’s outburst, she couldn’t help the thoughts rolling around in her mind. She was a duty bound daughter, behaved how she should and respected those who respected her; which Vinny didn’t, so therefore, she struggled in giving him the proper respect when they had run ins. She had followed her dad’s rules, and in fact at 22, had never had a boyfriend, even being in her senior year of college. So, why did he feel the need to yell at her? Was Vinny right? Did he hate having
The men stood up after agreeing on everything and walked over to the kids, laying the paperwork before them. Valentina reached for the pen and signed her name and then handed the pen to Giovanni, which he took. But before he signed it, he looked up at the two men. “Can you give us a moment?” he asked them. “If you don’t sign…” “Dad, I’ll make him sign.” She glanced at Vinny and then back at her dad. “Besides, I trust him enough that he will follow through with this.” The older man nodded and walked off. Vinny cleared his throat and then took something out of his pocket. &
Giovanni watched the three people as he sipped on his own wine, although his eyes kept straining back to her, with her long black hair pulled up into a high ponytail and the nude colored dress tight on her body. Again, he couldn’t quite explain it, but he was grateful that all of that was, and would remain, his. “Vinny?” He let out a soft sigh as his eyes broke away from her and turned to look at his cousin, and his best friend, along with his second. “What is it Salvatore?” “Jennifer came in, caused quite a scene. Your dad took her to the library.” &nbs
Giovanni and Valentina watched the retreating back for a few moments before Giovanni turned to look at her. “One of your many admirers, huh?” Valentina rolled her eyes and stepped away from him. With his loud mouth, she recalled Jennifer and his wonderful conversation. “Yes, Dante had tried to get me to go out with him plenty of times. In fact, I think he was waiting for me to graduate before talking to my dad about pressing for my hand.” “Ha, your dad wouldn’t have aligned with that family.” “Yet he aligned with the Constantini’s, go figure.” Valentina shot him a glare
“What are you doing?” Valentina looked at the man through the mirror and smiled. “Getting my hair done. As you know, I have an upcoming party to get ready for.” “You mean the one that’s coming up on Friday at your parents place?” Giovanni took the empty chair by Valentina and she smiled. “I’m sorry, but my mom doesn’t take well to being underhanded.” Vinny tilted his head to the side as he regarded her in the mirror. “You know, you would think our moms knew that this war was over.” She couldn’t stop the laugh that came out and she couldn’t deny that she liked
“Buongiorno (good morning), Giovanni.” Giovanni looked up at his dad as he walked into the kitchen. His dad perched against the island, a cup of coffee in one hand and the morning newspaper in the other. “Buongiorno, papà (morning, dad).” Vinny eyed the man again as he made his way to the coffee pot. It wasn’t odd to see his dad awake, and hell if wasn’t odd for Vinny to be awake either. But it was odd to see his dad still in the kitchen and not in the family dining area, which told Vinny that his dad remained just so he could run into Vinny. “You and Val make a striking couple,” Donatello said, tossing the newspaper on the counter between them. “The media are calling you two the power couple.” Vinny finish
It was simple and sweet and it sure as hell caused her heart to start doing double time, which was something she didn’t like and refused to examine why. But the sounds of cat calls and whistles soon broke them apart and as they did, she stared into his eyes. And she blinked as a flash captured her attention and she turned, seeing a cameraman there. “Thanks for that shot, Vinny; the readers are going to love it.” Val quickly took a step back, her teeth grinding against each other. She should have known better! In fact, she would do well to remember that all of this is for show that Vinny would never care for her like she would want. “Glad you got it, Nico.” Nico smiled at Val but she couldn’t return it. ‘This is just a job, grin and bear it’, she k