Page 41 of Mafia Darling

Marco opened the door and I slipped in before he could close it on me. Fausto sat at his desk, his suit coat off, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up on his thick forearms. He removed the glasses he wore when he was working and stood. “What’s this?”

A grinning Giulio pulled free of his uncle. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Fausto snapped. Then his gaze traveled to me. “Francesca, you are not needed for this.”

I lifted one eyebrow. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

Oh, il Diavolo did not like having his words used against him. He drew in a deep breath and his chest swelled, those bright eyes glittering as they narrowed on me. “This is a family matter. Go upstairs.”

The words slashed like knives inside my chest, but I lifted my chin and stared him down. “Are you saying that I’m not family?” He told me he loved me earlier. Did he mean it? Because until I saw evidence of it, I wouldn’t believe him. “Besides, I’m here for Giulio, who is like family to me.”

He studied me, that keen mind turning over my words. “Sit,” he finally said, pointing to the sofa. When I obeyed like a good mantenuta, he addressed Marco. “Explain.”

“Papà—”

Fausto lifted a hand. “I will hear from your uncle first.”

Marco said, “He missed an appointment tonight at the club. Gratteri called me, asked me to track Giulio down. I found him sitting outside Paulo’s apartment. Turns out he’s been doing that a lot lately.” He walked over to Fausto’s desk and set a small square cartridge on it. A vape. “I also found this in his pocket. It’s a vaporizer for weed. There’s also tons of weed in the car.”

Fausto pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and two fingers. “Ma che cazzo?”

“I lost track of time!” Giulio folded his arms. “And this is not a big deal. Marco is overreacting.”

Fausto didn’t like that one bit. A muscle in his jaw twitched and he snarled, “This is a big fucking deal, Giulio.”

“It’s just weed, Papà—”

“Just weed? You’re sitting outside Paulo’s apartment, getting high, and neglecting your duties. Are you saying I should not be angry with you?”

Giulio chuckled, then worsened the situation by saying, “It’s no different than alcohol—and I remember how much you drank every day when Frankie was at the beach house. So, come on, Papà. Spare me any lectures.”

Oh, shit. All the air was sucked out of the room and Fausto’s face flushed, the angles sharpening with his mounting fury. It was like watching a dragon readying itself to breathe fire.

But this was the weed talking. Giulio wasn’t normally so disrespectful. I jumped to my feet and darted in front of him. I put my palms up toward Fausto, who was coming around his desk. “Wait a minute and calm down. He’s not in his right head.”

“Get out of my way, Francesca.”

Giulio wrapped his arms around my shoulders and leaned onto my back, almost like he was snuggling against me. Fausto’s mouth tightened. “Let her go before you hurt her.”

“I would never hurt Frankie,” Giulio said into my hair. “She’s the best stepmother I could have asked for.”

I closed my eyes briefly. Jesus. Baked Giulio was a blabbermouth.

“Listen,” I said to Fausto, more than ready to put the stepmother comment behind us. “Let me grab some chips and I’ll take him upstairs to watch a movie. Then you can yell at him all you want tomorrow.”

Fausto’s nostrils flared, his chest rising and falling with the force of his breaths. I didn’t know if my suggestion would work, but I had to try something. The last time I saw him this mad was when he learned I knew Giulio was gay. I didn’t want Giulio to suffer from one of Fausto’s rash decisions.

“She’s right, Rav,” Marco said, shocking the hell out of me. I wasn’t his favorite person, so I couldn’t believe he was siding with me. “Let him sleep it off. We’ll discuss it tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Fausto gritted out from between clenched teeth. “But he doesn’t leave without my approval.”

“Fuck, he’s really mad, isn’t he?” Giulio whispered with a chuckle.

“Get him out of my sight.” Fausto spun and strode toward his chair. “Marco, see that his car is cleaned out and stored. He won’t be driving it anytime soon.”

I supposed that meant we were dismissed.

I took Giulio’s hand and towed him from Fausto’s office. “Let’s go get some snacks and we’ll watch that new Adam Driver movie again.”

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