Rafa seems surprised when he opens the door and finds me on his doorstep.
“Stef,” he starts. His gaze shifts over my shoulder momentarily. Has he always done that and I’m just realizing it? “What are you doing here?”
He’s barefoot and bare chested and when I step inside, he buttons the last of the buttons on the jeans he must have just pulled on.
“Dropping in,” I say, studying him, eyeing the tattoo over his heart. A symbol of his pledge. His fealty to my family.
He glances toward the bedroom door, seeming anxious.
“Bad time?” I ask.
“No. Of course not. Just have a girl in there,” he says. “Come in. Let me go tell her to have a shower and I’ll make coffee.” He closes the door and I walk through the open plan living area to the kitchen counter while he momentarily disappears into the bedroom. He’s back not two minutes later.
“Who is she?”
He shrugs a shoulder. “No one special.” He switches on a burner, fills the bottom of the small espresso pot with water and measures out espresso. He sets the pot over the flame and turns to look at me. “What’s up?”
“Does your dad get pissed when he sees that?” I gesture to his tattoo.
He touches the space over his heart, looks down at it. “I don’t show him. Easier that way.”
“But he knows it’s there. Does it piss him off?”
He shrugs a shoulder and busies himself getting two espresso cups. “Doesn’t matter, Stefan. I stand behind it.”
“Do you?”
He turns back to me, cocks his head to the side. “Something going on?”
“Why didn’t you tell me that you took Gabriela to Taormina?”
He gives a short chuckle, like he was waiting for this. “I just felt sorry for her, that’s all.”
“And that you didn’t take soldiers?”
His jaw tightens.
The coffee pot steams and he switches off the burner then pours espresso into two cups. He hands me one and we sit at the counter.
“Any special reason you didn’t take soldiers?”
“It’s not a big deal, Stef. I didn’t think I’d need them.”
“Or you didn’t want your father to see Sabbioni soldiers in territory he thinks belongs to him?”
“It’s not like that. You know that.”
“Isn’t it?”
He sighs, drinks a sip of espresso, then touches his lip because the liquid is steaming hot.
“Sicily is yours. He knows that. He’s not stupid enough to try something like that. He’s your uncle, Stefan. He respects that. Respects you.”
“My aunt is dead. No reason for loyalty. And when she was alive it was a very fragile bond.”
“He just helped you find Gabriela, for fuck’s sake. He wouldn’t help his enemy. He’d want to weaken you if he was your enemy.”
“Or maybe he set it all up to gain my trust.”’
“You’re not that stupid and trust doesn’t come that easy. He knows that.”
I sip my espresso. “How often do you see him?”
He shakes his head like he’s trying to remember, but I know him. Rafa doesn’t forget a thing. He’s just trying to figure out the best way to answer me.
I think about what I told Gabriela. About how that line between ally and enemy is constantly shifting.
But Rafa has been like a brother. It doesn’t apply to him.
Antonio was my brother, too. He was also my father’s son. He turned, didn’t he? No one is beyond reproach.
I need to remember that.
“He’s my family, Stefan.”
“So am I. And I’ve been more family to you than he ever was.”
“What do you want me to do? Cut off ties?”
“Thing is, I thought you already had.”
“That was a long time ago. After your father died—”
“Was murdered.”
“Was murdered, I wanted to have mine back. You can understand that, surely?”
“I can understand that, but what I don’t understand is why I’m finding out through my fiancée. Why you asked her to lie to me about it.”
“I didn’t ask her to lie.”
“Omission is a lie.”
He opens his mouth, closes it and runs a hand through his hair. “I knew you’d be pissed. She could have gotten hurt.”
“She did. Two cars sideswiped you and you lied about that too.”
“For the same reason. I lied for the same fucking reason.”
“Who were they?”
“I don’t know. I’d never seen them before. But one of them was at the house. In Pentedattilo.”
I don’t expect him to tell me that, but then again, he has more to gain than lose by offering me that small piece of information.
“And you don’t know who he is?”
He shakes his head. “Or who he works for.”
I finish my espresso and stand.
He stands too.
“I don’t want you to lie to me again, Rafa. You know I consider you a brother.”
“I know, Stefan. And I feel the same way about you. You are a brother to me.”
We stand like that for a minute and I study him.
“We good?” he asks.
“Yeah. We’re good.” I check my watch.
“How is she?”
“She’s okay. She’s tough.” I wonder how she’s going to like what I have to tell her today. “Did you put anything other than the tracker on the new phone?” I ask. Rafa was the one who set up Gabriela’s cell phone both times.
“Like what?” he asks. “Man, I’m starting to think she’s right.”
“Right about what?” I ask, noting the change of subject.
“She thinks you’re jealous of me.”
“Yeah, Gabriela likes to fuck with me.” The word fuck and Gabriela in the same sentence makes my cock stir.
“I just loaded the tracker on the phone like you wanted,” he says. “I’m going to see Clara later, by the way,” Rafa says. “Thought I’d go take her out before she loses her mind.”
I chuckle. “She bored?” Clara likes to party and she and Rafa have a lot of fun together.
He rolls his eyes. “You’d think it was the end of the world.”
“I can move her to Rome. She wanted to be closer by.”
“I’ll talk to her. Why don’t you come with me? Like old times. I miss those days.” It used to be the three of us having fun together, but I don’t feel like it anymore.
“I’ve got too much going on here. Next time.”
Rafa grins, one eye narrowing. “You like her.”
“What?”
“Gabriela.”
I just look at him.
“I saw how you looked at her at the well, Stefan. I’m not fucking blind. And if a woman looked at me the way she looks at you, hell, I’d stay home too.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Rafa.”
“Just take care you don’t like her too much. Makes her a weakness. You don’t want to make a target out of her again. Your enemies will pounce when they see it.”
I don’t like his tone.
“Relax, man. I’m messing with you,” he says when I don’t reply.
I don’t relax. “Tell Clara I said hello.” I walk to the door.
“Will do. You alone?” he asks when I’m outside.
I nod.
“Don’t do that, man. You know it’s not safe.”
“I’m just visiting my cousin. Why wouldn’t I be safe?”
“There are eyes and ears everywhere. Just be fucking careful.”
Something about all that bugs me the whole way home but when I get back and Millie tells me that one of my attorneys, Paulo Alessi, is here and waiting out on the patio, I put it out of my mind.
I walk out there to find him sitting with Gabriela. She’s in a bikini, the little pink one. Too little.
He’s laughing at something she says but stops and clears his throat nervously when he sees me. I move to stand behind her chair, putting both hands on her shoulders just to be sure everyone’s clear where we stand and to whom she belongs.
“Stefan,” he says, shifting his gaze quickly from Gabriela as he stands and extends his hand. “I got here early, and Gabriela was kind enough to keep me company.”
I take a moment before I shake his hand. “I’m late. Thought I had more time. Ready to get started?”
“Of course,” he says, picking up his briefcase.
“Nice to meet you, Paulo,” Gabriela says, standing now that I’ve removed my hands from her shoulders. She extends her hand to him.
He looks at it, then at me, doing anything and everything to not appear to be looking at her in her too little bikini.
I give the briefest nod from behind her.
“Nice to meet you,” he says with a quick shake of her hand.
“Millie,” I call out as she’s passing. “Show Paulo into my study.”
“Of course,” she says, and he follows her.
I look down at Gabriela’s ass clad in a skimpy triangle of cloth and step closer to her to cup one cheek.
“I don’t want you wearing these when I’m not around.” I squeeze, inhale the scent of sunscreen at her neck. She smells like summer. Like sunshine.
She turns her face a little. “I thought you liked me sitting by the pool,” she says, her tone seductive, like she knew what she was doing.
I give her ass a quick little smack that makes her jump.
“Hey.”
“You’re mine. You only wear these around me. Have Millie help you pick out some more modest suits.”
She rolls her eyes. “You bought them for me, remember?”
“Put something else on until I’m finished and wait for me upstairs. Then I’ll strip you naked and we’ll get back to what we were doing earlier.”
“Jealous much?” she mutters as she walks away.
I grab her ponytail and tug her backward. “Like getting your ass spanked much?”
“Maybe,” she says, biting her lower lip as her eyes slide to my hand then back.
Fuck. Me.
I pull her to me to kiss her once, then bring my mouth to her ear. “When I’m finished, I’m going to bend you over my knee, bare your sweet little ass and spank you until you come.”
Her breathing is short, and her eyes dark when she lifts her gaze to mine.
“Then I’m going to teach you how to suck my cock properly.”
“Jesus.”
“You go think about how you’re going to look to me on your knees with my cock stuffed down your throat after you’ve been spanked to orgasm. Think about how my come is going to taste when you swallow it.”
I slide my free hand into the crotch of her skimpy bikini.
She makes a sound, something between a whimper and a moan, as she grinds herself against me.
“You dirty girl. You’re already wet.” I kiss her neck, her throat, then slide my hand out, smear it across her belly. “You like when I talk to you like this. Just make sure you don’t put those fingers on your dirty little pussy and make yourself come until I can watch.”
“You’ll never know if I do,” she says with a smirk.
“I’ll know.”
She reaches to touch my erection over my jeans. “Are you going to sport that hard-on through your meeting?”
I pull her hand away. “I’m a big boy. I’ll manage my hard-on.” I smack her ass again. “Now go to your room and wait for me.”