Reckless & Ruined

“You’re only young and stupid once.”

Alessa thought that had to be the dumbest thing she’d ever heard. “Exactly. You’re only stupid once, Dean. In my family, that means you only get one chance not to mess it up. Because if you do, you’re screwed.”

Dean laughed, taking another step toward Alessa. She backed further under the willow tree, keeping a safe distance between her and Dean. The guy was cute, as far as that went. It was just about the only thing he had going for him and cute didn’t add up to a whole hell of a lot when your personality was seriously lacking. Dean didn’t seem to understand the word ‘no’ when Alessa said it.

It was just too damn bad his father was a Capo in la famiglia. For Alessa, that put her in a bad situation whenever Dean showed up. Terrance, Alessa’s grandfather and the boss of the Outfit, didn’t mind Dean or the guy’s father.

Dean screamed bad news in the worst way.

She didn’t care that he was affiliated with the Chicago mob at only eighteen-years-old or that he was as arrogant as they came. No, that wasn’t it at all. Alessa’s biggest issue with Dean was that his interest in her only went as far as her position as Terrance Trentini’s granddaughter. Dean didn’t like Alessa because of who she was as a person, but rather, he liked the people she came from. The guy just wanted to situate himself with a pretty face, a good last name, and a piece of ass to get him higher in the mob.

Alessa wasn’t going to be that girl.

“Come on, Alessa,” Dean said, grinning as he took another step toward her. “Go out with me and have some fun tonight.”

“Like how you took my sister out last month?” Alessa asked.

Dean’s jaw tightened. “We’re just friends.”

Right.

Alessa loved her sister Abriella, as far as that went. But Abriella was a little on the wild side and didn’t know how to follow the rules. If she went out with Dean, it wasn’t because the two were friends. And if Abriella didn’t take Dean out again, he definitely wasn’t worth Alessa’s time.

“I didn’t realize I had the word idiot stamped on my forehead,” Alessa said, smiling as sweetly as she could manage. “Let me go wash that off for you so there’s no confusion the next time we meet.”

Using her sarcasm as an easy and obvious way out of the conversation, Alessa ducked under the low lying branch of the willow tree and headed back toward the Trentini mansion. She didn’t make it very far. Dean caught up to her before she could get out of the privacy of the tree, grabbed her around the waist, and pulled her back into his chest.

“Hey, let me go,” Alessa barked, jerking away from Dean.

Dean held tight. “Come on, Alessa. Don’t be like that. We both know—”

“—That you’re a fucking tool,” Alessa interrupted hatefully.

Dean grabbed even harder, squeezing the air right out of her lungs. Panic saturated Alessa’s insides, freezing her in place as Dean grabbed the ends of her wavy brown hair and tugged firmly enough for it to really hurt. All of the air in Alessa’s lungs rushed out in a whoosh.

“Be nice and stop acting like such a spoiled little bitch,” Dean said in her ear.

Alessa shivered, the disgust rolling thick. “Let me go, Dean.”

“No, I think we’re good here. First time I’ve actually been able to get you alone. I think you’re one of those girls that likes to tease and fuck around with a guy until he can’t take it anymore and just snaps. Then you get it rough just like you like, right?”

“No,” Alessa whispered.

She didn’t know what he was talking about, but she didn’t like it. Fear compounded in her heart. She was too far away from the back of Trentini mansion to be heard even if she yelled at the top of her lungs for help.

Alessa felt stupid for having left the afternoon party without taking someone with her, but everyone else was busy doing their own thing. She had just wanted to get the hell away from Dean and his constant badgering. When she thought Dean wouldn’t notice her missing, Alessa took the chance to slip out of the back of the house and take a walk on the large property. She needed the breather. Dean followed her like the creep he was.

Dean’s hand drove down Alessa’s back to her ass where he grabbed her through her summer dress. When he tried to stick his hand under her dress, Alessa yelped and pulled away from him fast enough to take him off guard. Spinning in her ballet flats, she struck him on the cheek with her open palm. The sound of the slap reverberated through the quiet hush of the wind whistling through the tree leaves.

“You bastard,” Alessa hissed, readying to hit him again if he came near her. “I am not some piece of ass for you to handle however you want. Don’t you understand that I don’t want you? I have never wanted you, Dean! You’re a self-righteous, entitled, disgusting little prick. And you’ll be lucky if I don’t tell my father and grandfather what you just tried to do to me!”

Dean laughed a dark sound. “Your father? You mean the guy who isn’t even good enough to be in with the Outfit, but just a used up lawyer for your grandfather? Get real, Alessa. What is he going to do to me, huh?”

“Terrance—”

“Your grandfather thinks I’m made of gold,” Dean interrupted with a cruel smile. “Go on ahead and whine to him all you want, but he isn’t going to believe you. In fact, if my father gets his way, I’ll be standing there to meet you at the end of an aisle while you wear a white dress. Keep holding onto your skirt like that’s going to protect you, Alessa. I’ll get it one way or the other.”

Alessa felt sick. “Fuck you.”

Like hell and over her dead body. She would never marry this man.

“That’s the plan, babe,” Dean said, smirking wickedly. “Even if it takes me a little while to get you there. You’re sixteen now, but eighteen is just around the corner. How long do you think you’ll last after that before your grandfather marries you off to the best man he can find in the Outfit? Right now, I’m looking mighty fucking good to him.”

Alessa barely held back the vomit. She trembled from her head to her toes as her hands balled into tight fists at her sides. “I’d slit my throat first.”

“So dramatic. I like a crazy girl. They’re always fun.”

What was wrong with this guy?

“Plus, you know Ben will make it happen,” Dean added with a wink. “He’s best friends with your grandfather and all. My uncle wouldn’t mind getting me a little closer to the top. You have to admit, we’d make a damn good pair.”

At Ben DeLuca’s name, Alessa barely managed to supress her shudder. Ben happened to be the right-hand man to Alessa’s grandfather and Dean’s uncle. Dean, being the son of Walter and Patricia Artino who were both thoroughly integrated with the DeLuca side of the Outfit, had a great deal of power behind him. Maybe even as much as Alessa had behind her. Patricia, Ben DeLuca’s younger sister, was also close to Alessa’s mother.

A marriage between her and Dean would put the Artino family front row and center for once. They were usually overshadowed by the DeLuca side of their family when it came to the mob. Alessa would not be that family’s way to the top, regardless of whatever plans Dean and his father might have for her.

“Keep dreaming,” Alessa said, refusing to show Dean how his words affected her. Trentinis didn’t show fear, ever. Her grandfather wouldn’t marry her off to a man like Dean, right? “Because that’s all you’re ever going to get from me.”

Her words didn’t seem to faze Dean a bit. As he spoke, he moved toward her again. Slowly, one step after another, he came closer to Alessa like she was a mouse and he was a snake ready to swallow her whole. She felt cemented to the ground, unable to move or run.

“Think about it, Alessa. Your grandfather needs to set something up for when he’s good and done running the Outfit. Your father isn’t in with the family.”

“My brother—”

Dean barked out a laugh that chilled Alessa to the core. “Joel? He’s such a fuck up. Get your pretty little head out of the clouds, girl. He’s not going anywhere. Terrance is going to go for the next best thing—marrying his granddaughters off to the strongest and best families he can find. Look no further, Alessa. I’m exactly where you’re heading in the foreseeable future.”

Dean was close enough to reach out and grab her again if he wanted. She refused to give him that chance. Alessa’s legs finally decided to catch up with her screaming mind and pounding heart. She turned to bolt out of the cover the willow tree provided and ran straight into something hard.

The strong arms of Adriano Conti caught Alessa before she hit the ground. Something akin to a sob caught in her chest as Adriano righted her without a word and moved her slightly behind him. Alessa fisted her hands into the back of Adriano’s T-shirt like it was the only lifeline she had left.

“You all right?” Adriano asked, never taking his glare off Dean for a second.

“Yeah,” Alessa mumbled. “I’m okay, Adriano.”

“Good.”

Alessa felt Adriano’s hand reach back and cover hers. He squeezed her hand and then let it go. Adriano Conti was the same age as Alessa. They even went to the same private school. His father was heavily involved with her grandfather and the Chicago mob, seeing as how Riley Conti was the Outfit’s front boss.

What Adriano had never done, was pay Alessa very much attention. He stuck to his side of the Outfit, and Alessa stuck to hers. They passed one another by from time to time at family dinners and parties, but they didn’t make an effort to be friends. Adriano was the high school football star, a mob principe for the Outfit, and a player on and off the field. Every single girl Alessa knew had tried to get a piece of this guy—her not included.

That didn’t mean she never wanted to, though. Alessa would be a damned liar if she ever said Adriano wasn’t gorgeous and interesting to her.

The contrast between Dean and Adriano under the willow tree as they had a stare down was visible to Alessa. Adriano might have been two years younger than Dean, but he towered over the man by at least six inches. Dean was tall and lean, but Adriano was built like the linebacker he was. He had broad shoulders, thick arms, and a stance that screamed for someone to back off.

Alessa could feel the muscles in Adriano’s back tighten like coils ready to spring. He practically vibrated under her touch. His teeth bared as he sneered in Dean’s direction like the guy was nothing more than a worm to be crushed under his shoe.

“Artino,” Adriano said, tipping his chin in Dean’s direction. “I thought that was you I saw following Alessa out here earlier.”

Dean scowled. “What about it?”

Adriano shrugged. “Nothing. But when a girl says back off, it means get the fuck away before she decides to hand you over your balls.”

“We were just having some innocent fun. Right, Alessa?” Dean asked.

Alessa glowered at him. “Sticking your hand up my dress is supposed to be fun for me?”

At that admission, Adriano lurched forward, going straight for Dean with a fist raised. Because Alessa was still holding onto Adriano’s shirt, she went with him. Luckily, Alessa managed to catch herself and let go of Adriano. Dean flew backward, his hands raised high in the air.

“Whoa, careful there, Adriano,” Dean said, grinning like an idiot. “You wouldn’t want to piss your father off by messing with someone affiliated.”

“Not made,” Adriano said through clenched teeth.

“What is that?”

Adriano flicked his hand in Dean’s direction like he was dismissing him and his warning. “You’re not made which means, you’re not important. I don’t give a fuck about you or your father.”

Dean scoffed. “We both know that isn’t true.”

“Wrong. Your first mistake was fucking around with a Trentini, but your second was assuming you know a goddamn thing about me.” Adriano looked like he was ready and revving for a fight with Dean. Alessa didn’t want to get Adriano in trouble, but she didn’t think speaking up would stop him from kicking Dean’s ass. “I suggest you make your way back to the house before you end up eating your teeth and you’re stuck with sucking your food through a straw for the rest of your life.”

“I—”

“Fuck with someone else,” Adriano interrupted coolly. “She’s not your toy.”

Alessa watched in fascination and confusion as Dean turned around and stalked off. Once she knew he was out of hearing range, Alessa finally relaxed enough to step away from the safety Adriano had provided her.

“Thank you,” Alessa said.

Adriano sighed, crossing his arms as he stared in the direction Dean had disappeared. “He’s something else.”

“A jerk.”

“I was going to say something worse, but that works, too,” Adriano muttered. “Don’t thank me for getting you out of that, but where in the hell is your brother?”

“Joel?”

Adriano nodded. “He’s the only brother you’ve got, right?”

“Somewhere. I just wanted to get away from the party.”

Adriano didn’t look like he believed a word coming out of her mouth. “Actually, you were trying to get away from that fucking piece of shit. I saw how he was following you around and pestering you. Speak the hell up, Alessa. Nobody will stand for his bullshit if you say something about it.”

“He’s never done anything like this before,” Alessa said.

She wasn’t trying to defend Dean. His actions were beyond contempt. But he had never once gone as far as he had today.

“Right, whatever,” Adriano said, shaking his head. “What was he going on about before I stepped in, anyway?”

Alessa cringed, not wanting to go into that. Knowing Adriano, he probably wouldn’t care about Alessa’s fears of being married off. “Nothing.”

“Hey.”

“Yeah?” Alessa asked.

Adriano took a step closer to Alessa. Unlike before with Dean, she wasn’t bothered by his close proximity. He reached out and tipped her chin up by using two of his fingers. She was at least a foot shorter than him and looking up made her feel incredibly small.

“Speak up, Alessa,” Adriano repeated softly.

“Nobody around here cares what a girl has to say, Adriano. You know that.”

“I care.”

Did he?

Alessa blinked, surprised. She didn’t know what else to say, but she wanted to get as far away from the topic of the Outfit as she could. “How’s football?”

Adriano cocked a brow, smirking. He watched her with his green eyes like she was the most important thing to grace his presence for the moment. The guy had skills. Alessa had to give him that.

“Boring,” he finally replied. “Football is boring.”

“Really? You seem to like it a lot.”

“I like a lot of things.”

“I noticed,” Alessa said before she could stop herself.

“Did you?”

Alessa’s cheeks heated under his heavy regard. She dropped his stare. “I just … never mind.”

“Hey, don’t do that,” he said, ticking his fingers under her chin again. Alessa couldn’t help but look at him. “Never do that, Alessa.”

“I’m not doing anything.”

Adriano laughed deeply. “Sure you’re not. Don’t be embarrassed, Lissa.”

No one called her that except her close friends at school and her family.

“I notice a lot of things about you, too,” Adriano added.

Oh.

“Did you?” Alessa asked.

“Mmhmm. You don’t like football all that much, do you? I never see you hanging around the team spots or showing up at games and whatever.”

Alessa wondered why he had looked for her at all.

“No, I don’t like it all that much,” she replied. “The football players at our school have big heads and little brains.”

“All of us?”

Alessa smiled at his question. “Some of you. Maybe you could convince me otherwise.”

“Maybe,” he echoed.

“Are you interested in trying?”

Adriano flashed his white teeth in a sensual grin. “Very.”

Ruined.

That was exactly how the Outfit felt to Adriano Conti.

The Chicago mob had always been the one thing Adriano trusted to never let him down. The Outfit—la famiglia—was supposed to be based on a strong foundation of beliefs, loyalty, and unity between men. It was supposed to be home.

It didn’t feel anything like home to Adriano anymore.

“My condolences,” one person said, squeezing Adriano’s hands.

“You’re in our prayers, son,” said another.

Adriano said nothing.

He had nothing to say.

The people kept their voices low and their eyes down. Someone had killed Adriano’s mother. As she stood at a table, defending her nephew against her own sister, Mia was shot in the side of the head by a drive-by shooter.

No one knew why. No one had any answers.

Instead, Adriano’s father Riley was going after the next best thing for revenge, which was someone to blame. The boss didn’t need to apologize for his non-involvement in the shooting. Terrance had been sitting at the table when the shooting happened. He could have just as easily been shot and killed, too. Riley needed to feed his anger and his grief. He needed to feel better. Adriano was sure his father would end up ruining the Outfit in the process.

Mia Conti’s casket lowered into the ground. Adriano had already said goodbye to his mother. Her blood had coated his hands when he tried to save her life. Those visuals plagued him day and night. Whenever things got too quiet or his grief caught up with him, Mia’s memories took him to a calmer place.

Mia had always been like that. For a woman involved with the Outfit, a woman who had married a made man in the mafia simply because her father told her to, Mia Conti had been a gentle soul. Adriano remembered his father adoring his mother. Their marriage had been a close one, but one with struggles, like Riley’s infidelity. Adriano wondered how his father could be so in love with his mother, but still have women on the side.

He wasn’t angry like his father was. He was heartbroken. He didn’t blame the Outfit, but he did hurt.

“To the car, son,” Riley said gruffly.

Adriano jolted from his thoughts at his father’s order. “What?”

“The car, let’s go.”

The final moments of the funeral and burial had passed him by. Most of the guests were slowly making their way out of the cemetery. Adriano’s sister, Evelina, tossed a single white rose into the grave before she blew a kiss at her mother’s casket and then turned away from the grave. Evelina was taking their mother’s death hard. She didn’t know how to deal. Adriano didn’t know how to help.

A splinter of pain settled in his chest. Two men, groundskeepers for the cemetery, picked up shovels and uncovered the mound of dirt. Adriano thought his mother was far too good to be covered with mud.

Adriano still wasn’t ready to leave. “Give me a few. I’ll meet you at the car, Dad.”

“All right.”

Adriano watched the men begin to fill in his mother’s grave. By the time he turned to leave the gravesite, the rest of the mourners had all gone. The overcast, windy Chicago day felt appropriate for the July funeral. Adriano walked along the pathway in silence, making his way toward the road where his father had parked the Mercedes.

“Adriano …”

The whisper of his name made Adriano come to an abrupt stop on the path. He looked around but saw nothing.

“Over here,” came the familiar voice.

Adriano couldn’t help but smile as he caught sight of Alessa Trentini under the birch trees lining the edge of the cemetery. She wore the same black dress from earlier in the day when her family arrived at the funeral, ready to give their condolences for Mia’s death. Riley kicked them out, demanding Alessa’s grandfather leave immediately.

The Outfit’s boss barely blinked at Riley’s show of rage. Terrance gave his front boss what he wanted without question and left.

Adriano hadn’t gotten the chance to speak to Alessa. He’d been more concerned with getting his father calmed down so the funeral could start and finish peacefully. By that time, Alessa had left with her family.

Just seeing her standing under the trees made Adriano feel better for the moment.

Regardless, Alessa still showed up at the burial after the church fiasco. That made all the difference to Adriano. She’d probably defied her grandfather’s wishes and somehow snuck out to get to the burial site. It gave Adriano a little bit of hope that maybe, despite the fact that everyone around them seemed to hate one another, there was still a chance some didn’t. There was a chance that she didn’t hate him.

Adriano didn’t want Alessa to get in shit for coming to him. If his father noticed her there, he would probably give Terrance another warning about keeping his family far the fuck away from the Contis.

Every inch of Adriano screamed to go—to move—to Alessa’s side.

He’d felt like that about her for as long as he could remember. Their friendship had started when they were teens, but it didn’t stay innocent for long. Adriano knew every inch of Alessa Trentini. He knew what she felt like, her tastes and all her sounds.

Alessa was kept in a bubble wrap of protection by her family. The boss made his granddaughters seem like they were above all reproach, like they were some kind of fucking angels. Adriano knew the risks he took messing around with Alessa at times, but he couldn’t find it in himself to give a goddamn.

She always kept him at a safe distance. He figured she did that for her heart.

Fuck.

She didn’t realize that he didn’t know how to hurt her even if he tried.

Adriano stayed frozen on the walk, not wanting his father to notice their unwanted guest. Well, she was only unwanted to Riley.

Raising his hand high enough for her to see, Adriano mouthed, “Hey.”

Alessa flashed him a small smile. “Hey.”

Her hand raised up and she touched her lips with two fingers, as if to tell him to be quiet.

“I’ll see you soon,” Alessa said quietly, her words traveling with the breeze.

He hoped so.

*

“What should we do about it?”

“We wait it out, of course,” Riley replied.

“Wait it out?” Kolin asked.

“Absolutely.” Riley sipped from his rum and coke. He waved at the server as the young woman walked by and said, “Get me another one of these, honey.”

Adriano rolled his eyes, frustrated with the entire meeting. His father had gathered his most trusted men in the Conti family and crew together to discuss the recent shooting. Someone driving Serena Rossi’s car—they all suspected it was Laurent—had shot up Riley’s new bar. The shooting of the Conti business by the Rossi family had been a troublesome thing to wake up to. Riley was pissed, but he brushed it off.

Adriano did, too.

Laurent Rossi’s alcoholism was seriously starting to show if his rationale was so gone that he couldn’t understand what it would mean to shoot up a fellow family’s bar. Laurent was struggling to keep Terrance Trentini’s respect and friendship. In his failed attempt to show where his loyalties truly were, he had done nothing more than dig his own hole deeper.

“It’s like this, I have no issue to take with the Rossi family,” Riley said, waving at the ten men sitting around the booths. “Laurent has had his problems for years. His wife likely pushed him to do it—the idiot always did pant after her ass like a dog in heat. The statement he made by shooting up my business does not reflect on the rest of his family. Believe that.”

“Can you be sure?” Adriano asked his father.

“I’m inclined to side with the men who have reached out to me with an apology.”

“Who?” Kolin asked.

Kolin Bastoni was a close Capo and friend to the Conti family. He also happened to be Riley’s first cousin. He ran a good portion of the Conti territory under Riley’s watch. Adriano had worked under the man for a long time—since his sixteenth birthday, actually.

Loyalty was everything to a man like Kolin. And he was incredibly loyal to the Conti family. His first reaction was to retaliate on anyone who hurt Riley or the man’s family. A lot like the rest of the men in the Conti crew.

“DeLuca,” Riley finally replied.

“Ha, which one?” Kolin asked.

Riley smiled a cold sight. “That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?”

“As long as it isn’t Theo,” another one of Adriano’s father’s men put in. “You know how close he is to the Trentini crew, boss.”

Riley didn’t even blink at that title. In fact, he acted like the man hadn’t even graced him with it. Adriano didn’t like his father’s reaction to being called the boss at all. There was only one boss in the Outfit—Terrance Trentini. Adriano’s father might be the front boss to the public, the men on the streets, and to the FBI, but everyone who was anyone in the Chicago mob knew who the real boss was.

Claiming a title that wasn’t reserved for you only spoke of two things. One, you either had a big enough ego that you believed you were eligible to fit the title. Or two, you were ready to go after the position to wear the title properly.

Adriano didn’t know which one his father fell under. Neither would lead to anything good.

“Well, we can safely say one of the men who reached out isn’t Ben DeLuca, anyway,” Riley said, shrugging. “Being Terrance’s underboss, old Ben wouldn’t wipe his own ass without his boss’s approval.”

“That only leaves one with any worth behind his name,” Kolin noted.

“It does,” Johnnie, another close friend to Adriano’s father, agreed. “Dino DeLuca. What’d he say?”

“That he understands and sympathizes with my frustrations,” Riley said as he accepted a glass of rum and coke from the server. “Thank you, honey.”

Adriano didn’t bother to hide his glare. Just like how his father didn’t bother to hide the way he watched the server’s ass sway back and forth as she walked away. Adriano didn’t understand Riley for a minute. One day, he was entirely overtaken with his grief over the loss of his wife, and the next, he was acting like an asshole.

It wasn’t unusual behavior for his father, as far as that went. Riley never hid his interest in women other than his wife as Adriano grew up, but it was still a dick move. They just buried Mia a week before.

“Dad,” Adriano snapped.

Riley cleared his throat, waving off the warning in his son’s tone. His attention was back on the conversation at hand in a blink. “Dino is a good ally to have, as are his men.”

“Dino’s looking at prison time soon,” Adriano said.

“Still, his men are of a similar opinion.”

Adriano sighed. “Some.”

“Some are better than none, son. You will do well to learn that. And we have more than you think.”

“So, we wait this out,” Kolin said.

“Wait it out,” Riley echoed. “Terrance has more than enough issues to deal with right now with all of his men divided between the families. Laurent’s actions against me only pushed some along further in that. This is good. We can use this to our advantage.”

“What, we just let them fight amongst themselves for a while?” Adriano asked.

“Yes,” Riley replied.

Why would his father want to do that? If a reconciliation was what Riley might be looking at, letting the feud continue wouldn’t lead to anything good.

“In a way,” Riley said. “I’d prefer to hit him when he is weak, you know.”

“Good plan,” Kolin replied.

That had to be the most ridiculous thing Adriano ever heard. Adriano was not in agreement with his father about whatever plans he might have had for the Outfit’s boss. It was dangerous and the feud was getting more volatile every day. Riley was obviously taking some kind of joy in that.

In fact, Adriano was starting to wonder if his father even gave a damn about Mia’s death. Riley acted like his retaliation was for his wife, but his actions spoke of something different. Like maybe Adriano’s father was more interested in the boss’s seat but was using his wife’s death as a reason to get there.

It was fucking sickening.

“No, it isn’t a good idea,” Adriano snapped, never taking his eyes off his father. “You’re planning to go after—”

“Enough, Adriano,” Riley said, cutting his son off. “Your opinion is not important.”

Adriano felt like he was being torn in two different directions. One was his father, the other, the Outfit. If Riley kept feeding the issues until they were big problems that nobody could fix, that would only mean one thing: War.

“What are you trying to do here, Dad?” Adriano asked, ignoring the curious gazes of the other men in the restaurant.

“Exactly what I set out to do, son.”

Which was what?

Adriano couldn’t figure that out. How long had his father been thinking about taking control of the Outfit? How many people were going to be divided and torn apart because Riley was greedy?

Without a doubt, Adriano understood loyalty. He was devout to his family, but his family had always been more than just his mother and father. Riley raised him that way. He raised Adriano to trust and protect the Outfit. His father’s plans wouldn’t protect anything if revenge was what it was all about. No, there was no protection here, not for the Outfit. It would downright ruin it.

A pretty brunette with blue eyes filled Adriano’s mind. He’d always protected Alessa Trentini, too. He couldn’t do that when his own father could be the one to hurt her.

Riley smiled, setting his drink to the table. “Everything will work out. To our favor, that is.”

Adriano didn’t believe his father for a second. “What if this blows out of control?”

“Feed the flames, of course,” Riley replied.

“Mom wouldn’t want that,” Adriano pointed out.

“Women and children are supposed to be untouchable,” Riley murmured.

Adriano frowned. “I’m aware.”

“Your mother wasn’t included, Adriano. You will do well to remember that, son.”

“I—”

“You will do well to remember that, son,” Riley repeated firmly, his tone offering no room for argument. “And because you are my son, I don’t have to tell you again how important blood is to us. I have repeated these things to you ever since you were a young boy. It has always been an eye for an eye. You need to learn how to curb what you want from the things that are more important. We are more important than your wants, Adriano.”

Adriano’s gaze narrowed. “Stop dancing around whatever you want to say and spit it out.”

“You know what I’m saying, Adriano. You’re thinking with the wrong head again, aren’t you?”

Alessa.

Adriano didn’t even blink. “No.”

“You always were a terrible liar, son.”