Page 19 of Ties That Bind Us

“Meeting was fabulous. Alessandro was thrilled with the way things went down, appreciated you taking care of the hit, and everything is back to business as usual,” he said casually.

“But?” Leo asked as my dad paused.

“But . . . as always, it’s always a little more complicated than we expect. The Russians are getting more brazen. To put a guy into our supply chain and try to discredit us is passive, but it also proves their real motives. They want to take us down. Both us and the Morettis. Alessandro and I think it might be good to work together on a more permanent basis,” my dad finally spit out, eyeing us both closely for a response.

“What the fuck do you mean ‘more permanent’? Don’t you remember when we did that before? It didn’t work.” Leo groaned and threw his hands in the air. “I thought we were done with them.”

My dad narrowed his eyes at Leo. “Leo, can you keep your mouth shut long enough for me to get this out? I understand you’re skeptical, but it’s not your place to question my choices.”

Leo lowered his head.

“I thought the idea of an alliance was out of the question,” I pressed, treading carefully. Unlike a lot of Mafia organizations, we were governed by a council. My great-grandfather had put it into place with some of his top advisors so no one man could run our organization into the ground. My father was Don, as I would be one day, but a majority of his big decisions had to go through the council first. They had outlawed an alliance with other organizations several years ago.

“It is.” My dad nodded. “We cannot form an alliance with them in the traditional way, but we have something else in mind. A union would allow us to work alongside each other without actually being one body.”

“A union?” Leo said, finding his voice again. His word choice was intriguing, especially since I thought that was exactly where my dad was heading with this.

“Yes. It’s the only condition that was set by your grandfather and the rest of the council. The only way for us to work long term with the Morettis is if a member from our family and a member from theirs . . .” He trailed off.

“Marriage,” I said aloud. As soon as the word was off my lips, I felt ill. I knew the council decree well. It was how our entire organization operated.

“Yes,” my father said, not meeting the eyes of either one of us because we all knew what this meant. The acting Don had to be the one to marry. My father never would, he loved our mother too much to do something like this. That meant that if this really went down, it would fall on either Leo or me, and my father would step aside.

We sat in silence for a second, contemplating the ramifications of this.

“Is this really necessary?” Leo asked. “I mean, we’ve been functioning fine without Moretti support for years. Why the change now?”

“It’s getting to be complicated. There are a few soldiers from the Asnikov group who moved into a neighborhood in Newark. It’s a small sliver of land that’s right between our territory and the Morettis’. Like I said, they’re getting more brazen, and now they’re not only trying to discredit us, but they’re moving in on our turf. Neither of us are strong enough to take down the Russians on our own, and if we aren’t proactive, we’ll all be at risk. By joining with them, we double our strength and there will be no way Asnikov and his men can compete with that.”

I was too concerned to speak. Another group moving in was the last thing we needed, especially if they had already been funneled secure information about both us and the Morettis, but this seemed a little extreme. We didn’t even operate in the same field as the Morettis—they were in drug trade and we mostly dealt with weapons. We were generally pretty conservative in how we ran things, but Alessandro and his group were a little bit like a loose cannon. Alessandro was power hungry and greedy, and he often drew criticism from other organizations, as well as unwanted attention from law enforcement. Combining forces was risky in more ways than one. “So what exactly do we need to do?”

My dad scratched his head, glancing at me and then looking away quickly. That told me everything I needed to know. I was going to hate what was about to come out of his mouth.

“Nick is going to marry one of Alessandro’s daughters.”

Six hours later, I found myself standing in the front of an upscale Italian restaurant near Times Square. I was meeting my father here, where we would be having dinner with Moretti and his daughter, and our marriage would be initiated. I could appreciate where my father was coming from in asking me to do this. It made sense for me to marry one of the Moretti girls and then take over for him as Don. We’d been preparing for the transition for years, albeit I never imagined it would be under these circumstances. Combining with the Morettis would double our force, and leave me in charge of a vast army of men. In theory, a merger like this was actually a good tactic for holding off the Russians. A more direct and violent approach would draw unwanted attention, and we were liable to lose men if a battle broke out. This was cleaner, with less risk involved, and as long as we were all on the same page, it just might actually work.

The only problem was there was no way I was actually going to go through with this. There had to be other ways, and I was confident if I could stall long enough, I could come up with something. No way in hell was I going to be a part of an arranged marriage, even if it meant I became the Don of our family.

My plan was to pretend like I was going along with the arrangement. I’d show my dad my dedication, and how badly I wanted this role and responsibility. I would be the perfect gentleman in front of him and Alessandro, but the second I was alone with the girl, it would be a different story. I would be cold and calculated, ignoring her completely and making it nearly impossible for her to stay. I gave it three weeks, a month tops, before she was running back to her daddy’s house. I’d play the part of the dutiful son doing everything he could to protect his family, and she would be the one calling the whole thing off and refusing to marry me. It was perfect. And once this little inconvenience was taken care of, I could start my search for Ava again. I was a man obsessed, what could I say?

I followed a crowd of people inside, waiting to let the hostess know that I was here. I had never been here before, but the smells coming out the kitchen were heavenly. Nearly every table was packed with older men, and I got the feeling it was a usual spot for after-hours business meetings. It was dark and smoky, and the deep booths provided just enough discretion.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

I whirled around to find Ava standing in front of me, wearing a tight, long-sleeved black dress that put her perfect body on display. Jesus Christ, she was a smokeshow. Her outfit left just enough to the imagination, and I was certainly imagining.

“Such a dirty mouth for such a pretty girl.” I grinned. “Do you greet everyone that way?”

She glared, narrowing those beautiful eyes at me. I prayed Moretti and the girl didn’t walk in right now because she was all I could focus on. “You know I was kidding about the stalking thing earlier, but now I’m not so sure.”

I shrugged. “I believe I was the one here first, which would mean you’re stalking me. If you wanted to see me again, all you had to do was ask.”

“Oh please.”

I reached out, stroking her cheek softly and leaning my head in so I was only a few inches from her. “Please what, baby?”

She flinched under my touch but couldn’t hide how it affected her. Completely hot and bothered, she tried to move and backed herself right into a corner. I shouldn’t even be thinking about her as I was about to meet my future wife, but I couldn’t help myself. This would be my last hoorah for a while. Something about my impending meeting had me all riled up.

---