Page 563 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

It’s like my gangster dance card is full.

They finally break away from their embrace and the older of the two men walks over to me, a grimace on his stern face.

“And you are?” Joe finally asks, looking up at me.

I tilt my head to the side. “Oh, I guess you didn’t get my head shot along with the resume when you asked my father for thatfavor. You know, the one where you lied about everything?”

Lily nudges me.

I fight the eye roll. “Zeno Villani.”

Joe and Nico, the younger guy next to him I take to be Lily’s brother, exchange a look. “We should talk. Lil, why don’t you head inside?” Nico snips, giving Lily a quick peck on the cheek. “We’ll be back in a little while,” he says before stiffly stalking toward a darkened corner in the hallway next to the restaurant.

I stare at Joe until he backs away, retreating to join his son.

“Hey,” Lily whispers to me. “Don’t be a dick. Go and talk to them. Fix this, okay? For all of us. One big happy gangster family, remember?”

I drop a kiss on her nose. “Yeah, you know me.”

“That’s kind of what I’m afraid of,” she calls out to me as I walk toward the Salesi men.

It’s Nico who speaks first with a death glare fired straight at me. “How the fuck did my baby sister end up getting shot?” he snarls.

“Okay,” I say, holding up my hands. “First of all, she’s no baby. She’s a grown woman who has an incredible badass streak running through her. I guess it must be in the Salesi blood. And just so you know, she got shot taking on our joint enemy. Domenico Messina, name ring a bell? The guy whose organization you sent me to cripple to save your own asses? Well, guess what? You and your crew lost him once he went back to Sicily. Who the hell knows if he ever did go back? He wanted revenge for me killing his son, another tidbit you left out of the job description. So he tracked me here. And he tracked Lily, too. There’s a whole lot more that happened, but if you wanna know the truth, I’ve never seen a woman be that strong and willful. And if you think Lily is messed up, you should’ve seen the rest of them.”

“How in the fuck did she even end up with you?” Joe sneers. “You were never supposed to meet! I’ve tried for her whole life to keep her safe and far away from thugs like you?—”

“Hold on,” I interrupt. “Let me just tell you something, Joe. When you asked my father to take care of your Messina problem and you fucking lied to him about the target and the reason, you put Lily at risk. So thugs like me had nothing to do with what happened! Just so we’re clear!”

I look at Nico and I can almost see smoke billowing out of his ears. But Joe backs down. He takes a few steps away from us, running a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. “You’re right,” he finally says, turning back to us, his shoulders deflated. “I did hold back that information. But you should understand why. I needed to know that I could count on the Villani family as partners, especially if we were considering joining Red Ladro. I figured your father was the right person to ask since we’d both had issues with Messina. The guy was strong-arming me into working with him. That part wasn’t bullshit. But Messina took it too far when he had his son and nephew go after Lily.” He pushes back his hair. “I figured it wouldn’t come back to us if Messina found out it was you who took them out. You were already at odds, so he’d expect retaliation. And I wanted to keep the blood off my hands because I knew it would stain the hands of Lily and Nico. I was trying to protect my family, but I went about it the wrong way. I took advantage of your father and of you.” He turns his tired eyes on me. “I’m sorry,” he says.

“But don’t think that this means you have our blessing to be with Lily. Because you don’t. And you won’t. Ever,” Nico bellows. “We’ve tried hard to keep her away from our business dealings. I don’t want her sucked into yours.”

“Did you ever think that maybe if you didn’t try so hard to shelter her, she’d be able to protect herself better against your long list of enemies?” I shake my head, letting out a dry laugh. “She is perfectly capable of handling herself. She proved that many times over the past week. That should make you feel good. And you’d better believe she’s as safe with me as she would be with either of you.” I lift an eyebrow. “Besides, if she’s living out here by herself, wouldn’t you rather her be withfamily?”

Joe and Nico exchange another look.

“And just to add to all of that, try to tell her something she doesn’t want to hear and see how far that gets you, because in case you didn’t know it, Lily isn’t the kind of girl who takes instruction very well.” I fold my arms over my chest, biting back a smirk. “So, what do you say,partners? All for one and one for all, yeah?”

* * *

I walk into the restaurant behind the Salesis, the stress knot at the base of my skull so damn tight, because even though it seems that I’ve managed to smooth things out with them, I still have plenty of others to deal with.

I groan inwardly when I see the massive Severinov brothers flanking crazy Kat near the front entrance. They exchange quick hugs with the Salesis and then fix their menacing stares on me.

Who knew I’d be the guest of honor today?

I square my shoulders, fully prepared to strut right past the unofficial welcoming committee, but Kat steps in my path, her arms folded and her eyes spitting white flames.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she hisses.

“To eat, if you don’t mind. I think I’ve earned that right, yeah?”

“What you’ve earned is a fucking brutal ass-kicking!” she says.

I quirk an eyebrow. “So, what, you think you’re gonna toss me around this place?”

“I don’t think,” she seethes, her fists clenched tight at her sides.

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