Falling for the Mafia Boss

Chapter Thirteen

Donnie POV

“Ey!” I yell to Mia when I see her hand grasp the door frame. Why is she just standing out there? I have s**t to do and we have already been looking for her for fifteen minutes. Dad’s energy is depleting, and all mom wants to do is have a nice dinner while dad is out of the hospital bed he has been rotting in the last few days.

Mia still standing at the door as if she does not hear me, whispers something to someone. I can’t make out what she said, but I heard something that sounded like the word mafia. I lean past her and poke my head out to see who she is talking to and startle her. She jumps into the arms of Enzo and clutches her chest. “Jesus Donnie.” She squeals. Enzo chuckles and brushes his fingers down her arm gently. I want to punch him in the face for touching her so intimately, but I know his gesture was only to calm her nerves. I told Ma I would ease up on my protectiveness of Mia now that she is an adult and I know Enzo isn’t interested in Mia – she’s too much like a sister to him.

“Pa’s getting tired Stellina, go help mom set the table so we can eat before he needs to take his morphine.” Mia lowers her head and pushes past me into the house. Whispering an apology to Enzo as she goes. I lean in the doorway and make sure she is out of ears length before I turn back around to Lorenzo. I smack him in the chest with the back of my hand. “Ey, what the f**k was that? What were you and Mia whispering about?” I swore I heard her say something about the mafia.

“Your sister just asked me if we are part of the mafia… She keeps asking me Donnie. Eventually I’m going to have no choice but to tell her.” He runs his hands through his hair and sighs, “She saw Marco whack someone last nig-”

I shove Enzo up against the brick wall before he can finish his sentence, my forearm holding him at his throat “What the f**k!” I try to whisper but my anger is dampening my ability. “I told you to watch her and keep her out of our business.”

Enzo shoves me hard, unpinning himself from the wall. He gets in my face, his jaw twitching with the same energy as me. He points towards the kitchen, “That piece of s**t bartender you hired assaulted her. What the f**k did you want me to do, huh? Marco and I both saw red. I grabbed her, he shot the kid. I wasn’t thinking Donnie. Once it was done, she kept asking me if we were the mafia.”

“What did you tell her?” the questions barely able to escape my clinched teeth. I don’t want Mia to ever be a part of this. I don’t want her to know how f****d up this world is and how low her brother truly is. She looks up to me. The last thing I want to see is fear in her eyes when she finds out that I murder people and sale illegal items on the black market for a living.

“I told her she didn’t need to stick her nose in places it didn’t belong.” Enzo peeks his head in the door and lowers his voice. “You got to tell her, Donnie. If you don’t, I will.”

Fuck this guy. Who does he think he is trying to come in between me and my baby sister? She will never forgive me if she knows I got our family back into the Mafia after dad tried to desperately to get out. “Get the f**k off my porch. You’ve seemed to forget that this is MY family, not the Genovese family. Mia is not and will never be involved in Costa Nostra (mafia family). If she is comfortable enough with you to ask questions that she should be asking me, then you two are too f*****g close for my liking.”

I hear footsteps coming down the hall. The tension in the air is so thick, whoever walks out will know Enzo and I are not okay. He has no right to tell me that I need to tell my sister my business. Why would I want her to become an accessory to the mafia. Why would I want her to have to live her life always peeking over her shoulder? She is too innocent to be a part of this and I refuse to dim her light.

I’m surprised when I see Pa is the one who interrupts our argument. He looks from me to Lorenzo and then back to me. “What are you two getting worked up over?” He demands to know.

I thought Enzo would keep his mouth shut, but I was wrong. “Your family became my family long before you took your oath Donnie.” He takes a step closer to me. Pa strides forward, putting his shoulder between me and Lorenzo as if he has the strength to protect me. Lorenzo glances from me to Pa. “Mia is asking questions about what we do Rocco, she needs to know. My mother was in the dark and look where it got her. If she knew that she was in constant danger maybe she would have saw them coming. Moretti’s niece was killed, and the other kidnapped. Mia is in danger whether you two like it or not.”

Lorenzo rubs the back of his neck and nods to my father, a silent apology for being so forward with him. Instead of leaving like I told him too, the bastard strolls into the house like he owns the place. f*****g intitled prick.

Pa turns to me, placing his hands on my shoulders to steady himself. “Let’s go eat son.” I look into my fathers’ fading eyes. They hold just a tiny bit of life but cling onto its absence. He is so tired – ready for his fight with cancer to be over. “As a family.” He adds, accepting Lorenzo even through our fight.

I stop Pa from dragging me inside. “What do I do about Mia?”

Pa shakes his head, no fight left in him to care. “Your sister has always been a curious one. She studies the habits of microorganisms. What makes you think she does not already know what you are, who Lorenzo is, and what business you actually run? She is not a little girl anymore Donnie, and I’m afraid Lorenzo is right. She needs to know that to some people she is an easy target.” Pa leans in and kisses my left cheek, and then my right, his way of showing affection. “I know you, Marco and Lorenzo will keep her safe. I love you boys, especially you, my son.”

***

Dinner went fine but ended too soon. The food made Pa sick, and he almost didn’t make it to the half bath across from the dining room in time before he puked. We all heard him struggling and couldn’t eat after that. Mom made us all to go boxes while Mia took care of him.

Sometimes I feel that karma came back on Pa ten folds with the cancer. When he was in his prime, he was all the streets talked about. His nickname was Capo Capone because he didn’t take s**t from anybody. He helped grow the Genovese empire to what it is now. Pa handled everything on this side of the ocean while Lorenzo’s Nonno (Grandfather) sat in his mansion in Italy eating grapes from his vineyard. It wasn’t until Ma was almost kidnapped that dad started to take his life outside the Mafia more seriously. By then though, he had already taken the lives of hundreds of people. Karma would award him a slow and painful death.

I squeeze through the cracked door that leads to our back patio and shut the door behind me. Mia peers over her shoulder for a brief second before she goes back to staring into the still water of the pool. She has that expression on her face, the one that says “Nothing is wrong with me”, but I know her better than that. She only wears that face when her thoughts are too much for her to handle. Judging by the already empty bottle of wine at her side, I read my baby sister well.

“Hey.”

She peeks up from her knees that she has her chin rested on. “Hey.” She glances past me at the house. “Everyone gone?” she asks.

“Enzo left. Marco is helping mom clean up.”

Mia snickers and straightens her legs out in front of her, finally relaxing instead of clamming up. “No s**t… Marco cleaning?” she jokes.

“I’m going to head out, but I wanted to check on you after what happened with Pa.” I really want to ask her why she is poking around in business she shouldn’t be, but now is not the appropriate time. Mia has not experienced death like I have. She has never watched the life fade from someone’s eyes as she is watching now with Pa. She has never lost anybody, not even a friend. That conversation will happen and soon, but not tonight.

“You do not have to worry about me, Donnie. I’ll be fine.”

“I want to take you out tomorrow. We can have dinner and catch a movie.”

Her nose scrunches up like she smells something rotten. “Like a date?”

“Where do you think we live in Alabama?” I joke. “What you do not want to spend time with your big brother? Am I embarrassing?” my goal is to cheer her up since she looks like her dog has died.

A smile finally grows on her face, “I’d love to, but let’s have breakfast instead of dinner. I already have plans for tomorrow evening.”

“Oh yeah, with who?”

Her cheeks blush, her attention retreating from me and back to the water. “an old friend.” She admits shyly.

I kiss Mia on her cheeks and tell her good night before leaving out the back gate. I meet Mario at my car and urge him in. Once inside, I set the to-go plates Ma made for me and Moretti on his lap.

“Do you need to go home to your wife? Or do you want to go back to the club and have some fun with the girls? I need to drop this food off to our hostage anyhow.” I ask. My question is rhetorical. I already know what Marco wants.

“The Club.” He glances at me and winks.