Fall (A Mafia Crime Family Romance)

by Bella Love-Wins

  But that all changed as he moved up the ranks in Father's organization. The higher he climbed, the more I saw him. Four years ago, when Father made him my personal bodyguard, I thought what I felt for him was just innocent puppy love. But last year, he was put in charge of Father's protection detail. His best friend, Vinny Costangelo became my bodyguard, and that's when I knew for sure that my feelings for Antonio were real. As I grew closer to Vinny, I realized he was more like the brother I never had. We'd talk and laugh and share our secrets, but my heart never felt what it felt for Antonio. My teenage crush kept growing into much more.

  I overheard his men talking about him one night. They say he’s got all these women after him because he lives up to the hype. The stereotype Italian stallion seems to apply, although I haven’t yet had the pleasure of seeing his body without clothes to know how much it applies.

  Just the thought of what I might be missing makes me press my knees together to dull the ache that begins to throb at the tops of my thighs.

  Maybe one day...

  But the talk around town is that he's more of a one and done kind of guy. That once in a while he'll hook up with a random chick to get his freak on. But according to them, it's because his job is far too dangerous, and he's too devoted to my father to ever be serious with one woman.

  If that’s true, the way I see it, it’s a good thing. It means he’s available.

  It means I have a chance to win his heart one day.

  “Is that your father?” Nonna asks, pulling me out of my longstanding daydream.

  “Um, no,” I answer. “It’s Antonio. He’s waiting at the baggage claim in arrivals.” I unlock the phone and try not to show my excitement as I read the entire message, which includes a sweet birthday greeting at the top. “Father’s delayed at a meeting in Staten Island somewhere. He sent Antonio for us.”

  “Good. And the airline worker is here for me.”

  Lifting my eyes from the screen for the first time in what feels like hours, I notice that most of the passengers have disembarked. The plane's aisles are empty. A quick scan to the back of the aircraft confirms that just a couple of families with young children and a few adults needing ground transfer assistance remain on board. One pilot and two flight attendants stand off to one side of the cockpit door up ahead, making room for the uniformed airport ground staff rolling a wheelchair toward us. Nonna is more at ease within a few minutes when we're off the plane and on our way to the baggage area.

  My chest tightens as I catch sight of Antonio, his rugged feature, jet black hair, and six-foot-three height easily drawing my attention through the thick crowd. I should be used to this feeling, the way my body reacts every time I see him, but I'm not. He stands at the drop area of the conveyor belt, his broad shoulders and large biceps pronounced through his neatly pressed white shirt, arms at his side with one tucked into the pocket of his dark gray dress slacks as he looks for the rest of our luggage. Three of our four suitcases are already on a cart beside him.

  I'm not surprised.

  Nothing escapes this man.

  He makes it his business to know everything about everything to do with our family. Even something as seemingly inconsequential as what brand and color baggage his boss's mother and daughter traveled to Italy with matters to him.

  I used to fantasize that his laser-sharp attention to the most minute details about me meant he cared about me. Sometimes I still do, but I know it's just his way of showing my father how seriously he takes his job. He's no different with Nonna, who he calls Nonna Romano like everyone else does, and with Lupo, Father's aging pet Abruzzese sheepdog.

  “How was your flight, Nonna Romano?” Antonio’s voice rumbles the question to my grandmother but his eyes are on me, and the sound resonates throughout my body.

  "Hello, son. It was rough. But good, because we're here safe, thank God," she answers, staring up at his face from her lowered height in the wheelchair. Her arms reach up, an invitation for him to give her a warm hug and a kiss on both her cheeks, something she usually reserves only for immediate family. "Is my Paolo okay?"

  He pulls from their brief embrace and nods reassuringly. “Yes, everything’s fine. He’s finishing up a meeting and promises to see you at home soon.”

  “That’s good.”

  “And how about you?” he asks, looking at me for a moment before returning his gaze to the conveyor belt. “Happy birthday, by the way.”

  “Thanks,” I smile.

  “How was the trip?”

  “Nice. Quiet. Hot.” I hear the suggestive tone of the last word leaving my lips and wish I could take it back. It’s one thing to be in love with Antonio, and yet another thing to betray my emotions with people like Nonna around. There’s no way she’d be supportive of my feelings. In her eyes, I already belong to someone else.

  Long before I was old enough to think about love, I was promised to Santori Giorgio, next in line to the Giorgio crime family empire in New York. My father has had our union in the works for over a decade. It’s a foregone conclusion that one day I’ll be Santori’s wife.

  An accepted fact by everyone.

  Everyone but me.

  “Well, you won’t be spared the heat here either,” Antonio says, smiling a little. “It’s been hotter than hell in Trenton.” He grabs our last suitcase and places it in the luggage cart. “Is this everything?”

  "Yes," Nonna answers for us. "We did a lot of shopping, but Natalia gave away so many clothes and shoes to her cousins this time that we fit all the new things in the extra space. Can we go now? All this traveling wears me out."

  “Sure thing, Nonna Romano,” Antonio tells her, wheeling our luggage toward the waiting town car while I follow along guiding Nonna’s wheelchair.

  We find Vinny leaning against the side of the town car, patiently waiting for us. He clicks the trunk door open when he sees us approaching, and nods politely at Antonio. "Welcome back, young ladies," he greets us, and as usual, bends forward and kisses Nonna on her forehead. He glances over at me. "Had a good trip, I hear?"

  "Yes, Vinny. It was great," I tell my pretty boy, my blond male BFF.

  “And happy birthday, woman!”

  “Thanks,” I tell him.

  “What was it like, spending some of your first few hours as an adult in the friendly skies?”

  “I slept through most of it.”

  Antonio helps Nonna into the car in the seat behind the passenger side, probably unaware that Vinny already has every detail of what I did and where I visited because of the insane number of text messages we exchange daily.

  As I walk around to the other side to get in behind the driver's side, I notice Antonio's facial expression go from relaxed to concerned as he reads something on his phone. And when he tells us we need to get a move on in a hurry, there's no doubt in my mind that something isn't right. I can't say if he's become serious because of how relaxed Vinny is with me, or if some urgent news or a new request or some instruction from Father has just come in on his phone. He finishes loading our luggage into the trunk and sits in the driver's seat without making eye contact with Antonio.

  Something’s different between the two of them.

  They’re supposed to be best friends, but there’s tension I didn’t feel before I left.

  Or maybe I’m imagining things.

  Antonio is a lot more serious now.

  I just wish I knew if something went down while I was gone.

  3

  Antonio

  It’s not wrong that I missed her.

  Night after night while she was in Italy, all I could think about was whether she and her grandmother were okay with the protection that Romano's family provided. Nothing's wrong with a little concern for her wellbeing.

  What’s wrong is, now that she’s back, and on her eighteenth birthday, I’m craving her.

  I watch her through the rearview mirror as she speaks to her grandmother, her voice soft and light, her body turned slightly toward the elderly woman. The
re’s a sweetness to her tone, a gentle grace that calls to me, drawing me in when I should be focused on everything else around me. She loosens her seatbelt and crosses one leg over the other, and the move reveals the red sole of her black spiked heels. I take her in, all of her, from those shoes and upward, drinking in her curves in the soft summer dress she has on, like an ice-cold drink. But I rip my eyes away when I remember that I need to stay on task, now more than ever.

  The airport terminal fades away in the side mirror almost as quickly as the essence of my lecture to Vinny seems to have been forgotten. The man is stubborn as fuck. I told him to work on being more professional around Natalia, especially when her family or other protection staff are around. But he won’t listen. Even now, with Nonna Romano, the matriarch of the family seated in the back of the Mercedes AMG SUV, he’s choosing to ignore my instruction yet again about engaging in too much casual conversation when his focus should be on driving safely and observing what’s going on around him.

  “What do you think, Antonio?” I hear him ask me, but I haven’t been paying attention to what they’re talking about.

  “About what?”

  “Whether or not Natalia can pull off the robot in her dress for tonight,” Vinny answers, his tone relaxed. “I’m thinking no.”

  “I’ll rock the robot no matter what I’m wearing.”

  “Robot duck, maybe, with the way your lips pucker and your shoulders scrunch up whenever you dance,” he tells her jokingly.

  She shakes her head and leans forward, tapping the headrest of his seat. "Dude, you're gonna eat your words when the DJ drops a beat. You'll see. It'll be like… like that movie I asked you to TiVo for me before I flew out."

  “There were a few you asked me to record for you.”

  “The one with that guy,” she giggles, spinning her index finger near her forehead as she tries to remember.

  “What guy?”

  “You know, the one with the face.”

  "Oh, that's really helpful."

  “I forget his name. All those foreign films I watched in Italy wiped out some of my short term memory.”

  I give Vinny a harsh look and turn to face forward. It’s no use scolding him in front of anyone. We’ve been arguing this same point for close to a week, but it might be time to lay down the law.

  He's quick to dismiss my orders for a few reasons. First, according to him, nothing bad has happened. I was ready to punch him square in the jaw when he gave me that justification. He's looking at it all the wrong way if he believes it'll take something terrible happening to prove that he's not serious enough about how important a job he has.

  Second, we've been friends for years. There are only a few people I trust to have my back in this world.

  My boss.

  My kid brothers.

  And Vinny.

  But our friendship is getting in the way of our work relationship. I’m his boss. He has no place defying my orders. Yet on this particular topic, he’s just not doing what I tell him to.

  The other reason he’s not listening is because he believes that I’m jealous of how close he is to Natalia.

  Jealousy is a strong word.

  Sure, they spend a lot of time together, now that I’ve moved up the ranks and made him her bodyguard. Sure, I find myself wanting to tell him to keep his fucking paws off of her whenever I see him guiding her somewhere or helping her in or out of a car. But jealousy? I wouldn’t call what I’m feeling by that word.

  I’m not jealous. I’m protective.

  That’s the part he doesn’t seem to understand.

  I'm trying to protect them both because the boss sees everything. Nothing escapes him. He's already pulled me aside once to ask if I have any concerns about Vinny, on whether I think he's up for the task of protecting his most cherished person in the world. I wasn't lying when I told the boss that Vinny's damn good at his job and will put his life on the line to keep Natalia safe. But I'd be lying if I don't admit I have some doubts.

  It only takes a split second for a little mistake to turn into a shitstorm. When you’re providing protection, people get hurt when you’re not on top of your game. And when the wrong people get hurt, heads will roll. Romano has seen it firsthand. I do too. And the fact that the boss is raising any questions at all about him tells me it might already be too late for Vinny. There are no second chances in this business. That’s the message Vinny needs to get into his thick skull.

  I lower my window for a second and adjust the rear facing mirror on my side. I can’t take chances. If anything happens to my boss’s mom and kid while I’m in the vehicle, it’s on me. I’ll be damned if I let anything catch me off guard. Not on my watch. Then I notice the traffic up ahead. It’s eleven in the morning. I’ve taken this route out of New York to get home many times before. It’s usually much quieter than this by now.

  “Hey, are you seeing that roadblock up ahead?” I ask him, if for no other reason than to curb the incessant babbling as he and Natalia do more of their catching up. I turn to him and notice his eyes narrow as he squints to check it out.

  “Yeah, that’s strange,” he answers. “I’ll take this side street coming up to get around it.”

  “No. Stop here and put on your four-way hazard lights. Let the car behind us pass, and turn around when it’s clear.”

  “But that street up ahead—” he starts.

  “Shut up and do what I say,” I order him in a growl, my tone sharp. “Now.”

  “Okay, boss.” He follows my instruction to a tee, without another word.

  My gaze flicks toward him, and my eyes lock with Natalia's through the rearview mirror on the front windscreen. The way she stares at me with those big, brown intense eyes throws me off my game momentarily. She's always had this way of looking at me, of seeing the real me, like there's no one else in this world who matters to her more than me. But her intense stare is different at the moment. I can't tell whether or not she approves of how I spoke to Vinny, and I'm not in any position to ask her what she's trying to say to me. Plus right now, out here on the open roads where we're exposed and potentially vulnerable to an attack, it's not my job to be nice or shield anyone from feeling bad. I'm here to make sure she and her grandmother stay alive.

  I hold her gaze for a long while, and while I'm studying her reaction, her smile rises, and she gives me an approving nod.

  A deep groan leaves my throat without my expecting it to, and I can’t stop myself from picturing one firm hand on her bare luscious ass and her long dark hair wrapped around my fist as I fuck her tight pussy from behind. That’s all it takes for my dick to come alive, threatening to tent the fabric of my dress slacks at the worst possible time.

  Holy fuck. This is all wrong.

  Looking away, I shift in my seat and stretch my legs out, silently cursing as I will my cock to stay the fuck down.

  I want this woman like I’ve never wanted anyone else before, but there’s no way in hell I’ll ever admit it.

  I won’t act on it either.

  Because I know better.

  I just hope Vinny does too.

  They're getting too close, and that's dangerous for them both. By now, Vinny has to know that if he's so focused on being her friend, his attention will be divided. This is exactly what put us at odds. It was my asking the obvious. The question of how well he can protect Natalia or anyone whose detail I put him on if his eyes are glued to his phone, texting back and forth like a high school teenage girl. He didn't like it too much, and was quick to lash out with more attitude than a spoiled brat, telling me he knows how to do his job. Well, so far today, I'm pulling way more of the slack than I should. He should know that the street he just suggested we turn onto is practically a dead-end road with only an alleyway that trucks use to deliver goods to a few local stores. I know this because it's my business to know how not to be the reason the people we protect end up cornered.

  The familiar buzzing pattern of my phone draws my attention down to my pocket. Every m
uscle in my neck and back tenses up.

  “It’s the boss,” I announce, mostly for Vinny’s benefit, to make sure he doesn’t go running his mouth off to Natalia while I’m giving Romano an update. I’m sure that’s the reason he’s calling.

  “Hello,” I answer.

  "How are they? Did you collect them from the airport already?" Romano asks, and I pick up a subtle urgency in his tone that wasn't there when we spoke earlier this morning.

  “We did, boss,” I answer, getting right to the point. “They’re both fine.”

  “Good. Do me a favor. Go directly to the house. If my mother or daughter want to make any stops, let them know someone will take care of whatever they need later.”

  “All right. Will do. Everything okay, boss?”

  “Being cautious is smart at a time like this. Double up on the protection when you go back to the house. I’ll explain when I see you. Keep my family safe, Antonio.”

  “I will.” Clicking the end call button, I drag tense as fuck fingers through my hair. “Take the second backup route home and step on it,” I tell Vinny.

  “I’m on it,” he answers.

  This time, he doesn’t say another word to Natalia for the rest of the trip home. There’s shit to take care of so that we’re prepared for Natalia’s birthday bash tonight. And now, on top of that this new concern the boss has about making his family’s safety a priority. I’m itching to find out exactly what this new development is.

  Once we arrive at the main house on Romano's property, the tires haven't braked fully before I undo my seatbelt and start to make my way out of the cold, air-conditioned vehicle. Stepping onto the brick driveway, the hot, humid summer air hits me almost as hard as the frenzied activity all across the front yard.

  The driveway is packed, lined with catering trucks and decorator vans of all sizes, commercial food warmers, and massive floral arrangements. There's also an expansive white tent on the front lawn that's bigger than the entire main house.