Page 94 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

“Mama would love this.”

I glance at Dante. “Always loved an excuse to wear a pretty dress.”

I miss our mother terribly but right now, I’m glad she’s not here to see this.

She’d love a wedding, and she always understood the world she married into, but I know she’d want this to be for love. She wanted us to start a new era, and all of this? Everything I’m doing? What I’ve done and what I’m about to do? No, she wouldn’t like it.

“You ready?” Sergio says, nudging me. “For that ball and chain to be wrapped tight around your ankle?” He laughs and shakes his head, then grows serious. “I sure as hell hope this plan is worth it, Matty. You’ve got a lot riding on these ‘I dos.’”

“I know,” I say, and they have no idea just how much is riding on it all. “This is good business.”

They have no idea just how good.

“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Roman asks with a quirk of his brow.

I look from one brother to the next. For as long as I can remember, I assumed control over our family as the oldest is expected to do in our world. I learned my lesson the hard way and made sure to never let my judgment falter again.

“Absolutely.”

Dante slaps me on the shoulder as we get out of the car.

We’re ready to go into the church when I frown. My phone…

“Romo, lemme have your keys. I think my phone slipped out of my pocket. I’ll meet you inside.”

He tosses me the keys.

They jog up the steps and disappear inside. Part of me just wanted to keep my family out of this sham, but it’s good having them all here. I never like to say I need anyone, but right now?

I do.

I reach into the back seat for the phone and dial my father’s number.

“Hey, Papa,” I say when he answers. “You okay?”

“Yes, yes,” he says in Italian. “I will be there in a few minutes.”

“Okay, good. I’ll be out front waiting.”

I hang up and look toward the tall spire swirling out of the top of the light gray stone building. I never thought I’d be standing here outside of a church, waiting to get married. A chill slips down my spine as I recall the last time I was in church.

It wasn’t a wedding, though. It was a funeral.

Joey’s funeral.

My throat tightens.

Joey. My younger cousin. I let out a deep sigh, leaning back against Roman’s car.

Heaven isn’t the only one who has nightmares about her past. I don’t indulge them often, but sometimes, it all slips back into front and center.

It’s because of Joey that I’m here right now. The reason I’m so driven. The reason I need to strive to be the most powerful.

A long time ago, my head wasn’t screwed on straight. My father and I didn’t see eye to eye, and I was on a power trip gone awry. I wanted his attention and I got it, but it was the wrong kind of attention, and it had a god-awful consequence.

He kept Joey under my wing. I think Papa figured it would calm me down, that I’d be a role model for my cousin. Joey’s father had been murdered and he was lost. I was back in Italy, burning to make a name for myself.

To be the biggest and baddest of them all.

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