Page 287 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

“Oh, so what is this-s,Pretty Womanwith a little gangster twist?” she mumbles. “I’m not gonna screw you, Romo. And I don’t kiss on the mouth.”

“Yeah, well, that ship’s kinda sailed.”

She leans back against the couch, rolling over the top of it and landing face-first into the seat cushion with a little yelp. “You lost my puppy. My Bella,” she murmurs. “Jerk.”

I peer over the top of the couch and sure enough, she’s passed out in what seems like seconds.

“Cheap date,” Dante says. “You sure know how to pick ’em, bro.”

“Tell me about it,” I groan.

“What’d you do to her puppy?”

I roll my eyes. “That’s the only question you have for me?”

“We can start there.” Dante saunters over to another couch and sinks into the leather, draping an arm over the top.

“Are you gonna get dressed tonight or what?”

“Hey, I usually air-dry at home, so consider yourself lucky that the towel is still on.”

I let out a frustrated sigh and collapse into a chair opposite him.

A loud snore comes from the opposite side of the room and I sigh, pushing back my hair. “I guess I can talk freely since she’s on another planet right now.” I lean forward, my head in my hands. “Frankie stole those drugs. He hooked up with Salvatore Giaconne, who had a beef with us. But he claims he can’t get the blow back, that ‘they won’t let him have it.’ He also said they found him and not the other way around. He says he doesn’t know how to get to the drugs or the dipshits who have them.” I let out a sigh “Sal didn’t give me any names either. It’s all on Frankie. I think he’s full of shit. He’s working with an enemy of ours. I know it.”

“Maybe you’re looking too deep,” Dante says. “Maybe it really was a revenge plot, Sal getting you back for firing him, Frankie getting you back for running them out of Sicily and humiliating their family.”

“I don’t know. But I don’t trust Frankie,” I mutter.

“So what’s that got to do with Sleeping Beauty over there?” Dante’s forehead creases. “You kidnapped her as leverage, but for what? Is it just to get the drugs back?”

I shake my head. “I want the drugs, yeah. But, for all I know, we’ll never see them again. The bigger problem is taking care of the bastards who made off with our stash. I need to make sure they never pull the same job twice.”

“And that’s why you went insane, drugged your ex, and snatched her off the street?” Dante lifts an eyebrow.

“No,” I say tersely. “I did all that to prove to my guys that I’m not some pussy who’s gonna let anyone walk all over me. I did it as a show of strength, as a way to keep their respect since I lost a ton of it when this went down.

Dante nods. “Okay, so where’s Frankie now?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I gave him one week to get me what I want.”

“And you restore everyone’s faith in you and you jump into Matteo’s number two spot because you’ve made the empire whole again.”

“Exactly.”

Dante shakes his head. “Romo, what if you’re spinning your wheels looking for an enemy who isn’t there? What if you miss the real ones, Frankie and Sal, because you’re chasing a fucking figment of your paranoid imagination? You always think people are trying to cut you down, to undermine you because you’re the youngest. Matteo left you out here to run things because he trusts you. Don’t fuck with that, bro. Do your job. Don’t make problems where none exist.”

“I’m not imagining it!” I say, standing up and pacing across the floor. “And now I need Frankie to get me the guys who were behind this. Once he does that…” My voice trails off as I sneak a glance over at Marchella’s limp body.

“You give her up? Again?”

I swallow hard. “Yeah. That’s how the story ends, Dante. I close the book on the Amantes for good.”

“Can we talk about the puppy now?”

I groan. “Bobby got Marchella with the tranquilizer dart while she was trying to help a stray puppy. Same one she was chasing in the…” My words drift off as I recall my arms wrapped tight around her in the park, right after she almost wiped out on that rock. “…in the park.”

“In the park. And is that where you, ah,” he grins. “Sexually assaulted her?”

---