Page 4 of The Don's Prisoner

“Gio!” my father snapped, and I jerked my head in his direction. Wow, I was being really spacy. Maybe I hadn’t gotten enough sleep the previous night.

“Sorry… didn’t hear what you said,” I admitted, and my father sighed.

“I was just filling your grandmother in on the project we have going on tomorrow in the early hours of the morning,” he explained and shot me a look warning me to not space out again. Nonna may have been the one to put my father on the throne, but my father was a formidable mob boss who had worked hard to earn his title as “Don” of the syndicate. No one fucked with Don De Carlo—not even his children. It was a point that he had made very clear and very publicly a few years ago when I didn’t follow through with an order. I still had the scars on my back as a reminder.

“Yes, the ah… car dealership,” I nodded, getting back into business mode. “I’ll be taking care of that around 2 a.m. Chris has been dropping the cameras the last few weeks, so there is a record of a faulty security system. That way, if the insurance company suspects foul play, they won’t be able to prove it. Not only that, but if the owner sues the security company, he might be able to get a settlement from them as well.”

My father nodded his approval and even looked a little bit impressed if the arch of his eyebrows was any indication. Nonna nodded as well.

“Good, Gio. I’m glad to hear you can think on your feet. I would hate to think your father chose you as his right-hand man only because you are his son.” She shot my dad a look and then turned back to me. “Speaking of which, being a De Carlo is a lot more than just having the last name. As the reigning Italian Mafia family, we have certain expectations of us. We must set an example.”

I did not like where this conversation was going. I looked over at my father, but he wasn't looking at me. He was watching Nonna with a knowing look on his face. Whatever we were going to talk about, he had either heard it before or had known it was coming.

Nonna waited for a moment, and in that pregnant pause I nodded.

“I understand that.”

“No, Giovanni, I don’t think you do,” she contradicted, her tired wrinkled face turning to me with seriousness etched into her skin. “For generations, the De Carlos have run the better part of New England. When your grandfather was running the show, we had just secured part of New York, which was an achievement all its own. Now we own the entire state as well as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and we are slowly moving into Virginia. Our territory is wider and more powerful than it has ever been in our family’s history, and there must always be a De Carlo on the throne. We must pass it down through the generations, which is why one day, after your father and I pass away, you will own it all. You will be in charge, but I admit, I am nervous.”

“About what?” I asked, even as pride was spilling through me. So much power, so much territory. I would be a king. Hell, if we took over much more, I would become a god.

“You are unmarried,” she said simply. I furrowed my eyebrows at her in confusion. What did being married have anything to do with running the Mafia?

I hesitated a moment and then responded

“So?”

“So, you have no heirs!” Nonna exclaimed, smacking her hand on the table. My father murmured something to her that I didn’t fully hear. Whatever he said, she silenced him with a look. Then, she turned back to me. “I have been waiting for you to grow up, settle down with a nice girl, and have a few children, but you just don’t seem to have an interest in that. And if you don’t have an interest in having a family, how can we expect you to run one?”

I blinked at her, not knowing what to say. Since when did me having a family become a factor in how good of a Don I would be? No one had ever said I had to get married.

“Committing to one woman has never been… an interest of mine,” I admitted. “But it shouldn’t have any impact on what I am willing to do for this family. I have blown up buildings. I have hidden secrets and bodies. I have killed to keep our family going, shouldn’t that be enough?” I countered, gaping at both of them now.

“It goes a long way,” my father said, “but it’s not everything. We need you to give us heirs to pass the name and the business on to.”

“Isabella will have kids!” I offered, but Nonna shook her head.

“And they will have her husband’s name. If we have to, we will have her hyphenate her last name whenever she gets married, so her children will carry on the name. But then after your father retires, she will become Don, and I know she doesn’t want that. She has never been about our life, and she is far too young to give up on her dreams just yet,” Nonna said then paused as if to let her next words sink in. “But if you don’t settle down and give me an heir, I will make certain that Isabella takes over when your father retires.”

“You can’t do that!” I tried to argue, letting all my frustration and disbelief seep into my voice.

“Oh, she can, and she will,” my father voiced, turning to pin me with an intense stare. “Because I agree with her, and I will make sure that you are completely cut off from the family. No more Mafia, no more jobs. You will have to go into the world as a broke civilian if you don’t get your act together.”

I stare at them both, dumbfounded.

They were going to excommunicate me? That was practically a death sentence. If any member of a rival organization knew that I was out, they would have me taken out for everything I had done to them, without any fear of backlash.

No matter how good I was at protecting myself, I would be dead within the week.

And all because I had chosen to live my life the way I wanted to.

“Seriously? Are you really doing this?” I asked my father and he nodded, not a hint of remorse on his face.

“You have to grow up sometime, Gio,” he said in answer.

“You have six months,” Nonna said, and I turned to her, still in complete shock.

“Six months to have a kid? I don’t think it works quite that fast, Nonna,” I joked, but she didn’t even crack a smile.

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