by A. C. Katt
“You wouldn’t…” The little, blousy, woman hissed again like The Alpha Mate’s cat when someone stepped on his tail.
His Frankie looked her straight in the eye and said, “Try me.”
Carmen led them to an old-fashioned sitting room. The brownstone was in the same neighborhood as Alpha Clavier’s home, and it appeared to be of similar size. Don Ferone, Junior, and Frankie’s mother waited for them.
They walked into the family’s presence. Don Ferone and Junior stood. Frankie spoke, “Dante, Junior, Mom, this is my fiancé, René DuBois. René this is my umm…father, Dante Ferone…” Don Ferone beamed as soon as he heard the word ‘father.’ “My brother, Dante Junior, and my mother, Brigit Ferone.”
René stepped up and shook first Don Ferone’s and then Junior’s hand. He kissed Frankie’s mother’s cheeks and handed her the chocolates and fudge. “These are for you, Mrs. Ferone.” He took out the small two-cigar case from his pocket and gave it to Don Ferone. “A token of my esteem, sir.”
Dante admired, then opened the case, and removed one of the cigars. He pinched it to check the humidity, rolled it in his fingers and grinned. “Cubans?”
“Yes, sir. Mr. La Marche has many resources.”
“As do I,” Dante replied in a pointed tone.
Seventeen-year-old Junior, asked, “What do I get?” René took out another slim wrapped package out of his inside suit pocket. Junior opened it and found a gift card to iTunes. “I’m going upstairs to download some music. Thank you, you’re an okay guy.” As he climbed the stairs, he mumbled, “For a fag.”
Don Ferone shouted up the stairs, “Dante, you will come down and apologize, now.”
René shuddered. Don Ferone didn’t sound like one of the Alpha’s at their worst, the Alpha’s were legendary in their tempers, but he got damn close. Dante Junior came reluctantly down the stairs and mumbled, “I’m sorry,” then trudged back up.
Don Ferone proceeded as if nothing had happened. “Please, take a seat.” He pointed to an old-fashioned loveseat. “Welcome to my home. So, you also work for Mr. La Marche?”
“Yes, I’m one of his lieutenants. I’m in charge of his personal security. My brother, Martin, is his first lieutenant.”
Don Ferone’s eyes turned speculative. “I believe I’ve met Martin.”
“Martin always stands at Mr. La Marche’s left shoulder. If you’ve seen Mr. La Marche, you’ve seen Martin. However, you wouldn’t have been introduced. Martin will be at the wedding with his husband, Edward Kellerman.”
“It is inherited, just as the articles implied…”
Brigit was oblivious to what her husband said. “Dante, I’ve heard you mention Mr. Kellerman. You said he was a darn good lawyer and that he worked for Garou.” She turned to René. “Dante is very competitive. He wants the best people. He was rather annoyed when Mr. Kellerman wouldn’t leave Mr. La Marche’s employ to come work for him.”
Frankie laughed. “Julien also works for Garou. When I first met Julien, I tried to purloin his cook for you and Dante. I knew it was past time for Carmen to retire. Why didn’t she stay in here?”
“Carmen is in her room. Your father felt that the wedding was family business and she didn’t need to be involved. Speaking of the wedding, when is it taking place?” Mrs. Ferone deftly moved the subject away from the twin minefields of Carmen and his and Frankie’s sexuality.
“The wedding has been moved up to Saturday. We saw no reason to wait.” Frankie grabbed René’s hand. If he doesn’t like it, too bad. I’m not going to hide our love in front of him. Frankie’s lips thinned in defiance.
Frankie’s mother observed their entwined hands. “Those rings are beautiful. May I see? I assume that these are a combination wedding and engagement ring.” Frankie held out his hand. “You have a ruby ring, and René has an emerald ring, and the scrollwork is slightly different.” René gently removed his hand from her fingers before she examined the scrollwork too closely. “Dante, they’re beautiful and at the same time, masculine.” Frankie and René dutifully went over to Dante and extended their left hands so he could see the rings.
Don Ferone gave them a perfunctory examination and rubbed his goatee. “Why the big hurry, no one can be pregnant.”
René politely laughed at Dante’s sally then changed the subject. “Mrs. Ferone, you have a lovely home.”
“Thank you. Please call me Brigit. Since I’ve had arthritis, I haven’t been able to take care of it like I should. Carmen is getting old, too. We hired a new housekeeper yesterday, Frankie. Your father brought her home. She is Lamberto Salvaggi’s sister, Gemma. You know Lamberto. He’s a nice young man.”
Frankie peered at his stepfather from under his eyelashes. His stepfather’s jaw clenched.
“Berto Salvaggi took care of Apuso for my stepfather,” Frankie told René over the Mate Link and René blanched.
Frankie’s father continued, not knowing he had been interrupted by the side conversation over the Mate Link. “Gemma Salvaggi has recently come over from Italy. She was sent by her mother to take care of Lamberto, but Lamberto lives in a one-bedroom apartment and doesn’t need a housekeeper. She’s been sleeping on his couch. He wanted his sister in a good situation away from the olive oil business. When Carmen retired, it happily solved two problems.”
René glanced at Frankie. His Mate nodded, mollified.
Brigit smiled brightly. “We’ll see how she does. Frankie, she made the cake and pastries. I believe she said she made Italian cheesecake and cannoli. You like Italian cheesecake. Every time we went to your father’s restaurant when you were a boy, that’s what you ordered.”
Frankie broadcast over the Mate Link to him, “I hope hers is better than Carmen’s. But Dante hired her. He wouldn’t be taken in by a sad story like Mom was with Carmen.”
“Frankie says you’ve lost your mother…” Brigit regarded him expectantly.
“Yes, I lost her at an early age. My father was the President of DuBois and Goodman and was visiting their new office site at the Twin Towers on nine-eleven. He and thirty-six others died. Mom died a year later of grief.”
“She must have loved him very much.” Brigit’s eyes went soft.
“She did. They were well matched.” Frankie reached over and squeezed his hand.
“I almost lost myself in grief when Frankie’s father died. I wanted to die, too, but my Dante pulled me away from the brink. We recently celebrated our twenty-first wedding anniversary.”
Dante got up from his chair and patted Brigit’s shoulder, giving her a kiss on the neck, while watching Frankie.
Frankie bristled. René’s eyes sparkled. “What is good for this gander is good for that gander.” His Mate settled down.
“Congratulations. I hope Frankie and I will see the same happiness.”
Dante glanced over at Frankie as he sat back down.
“Let me ring for the cake.” Brigit picked up a beautiful crystal bell. It tinkled. “I feel so uppity ringing the bell, but Dante doesn’t want me in pain, and it’s easier to ring the bell than it is to go down to the kitchen, and I hate to shout. Now, how did you meet our Frankie?” Brigit crossed her hands over her lap.
René lowered his eyes to her knuckles and fingers, which were gnarled from her disease. “We met at a wedding reception. We were introduced by a mutual friend, Julien Bellaire. Mr. Ferone did some work for Julien recently.” René glanced over at Frankie, willing him to be civil.
Dante said, “You didn’t say you knew Mr. Bellaire when we did that work for him. If I knew he was a friend of yours, I wouldn’t have charged him.”
“I knew him from the clubs before he met his husband.” Frankie kept a straight face.
“You’re spinning a rather tall tale. Maybe I should write this down for everyone else.” René grabbed his hand again and kissed his ring.
“You can tell The Alpha. He’ll make sure the rest of them know. After all, I can’t exactly tell him we met two days ago, and we’re going to marry o
n Saturday. From what I understand, The Alpha Mate told his friend Tony the truth, and Tony is still suspicious of The Alpha and barely speaks to Sean. We can’t have Dante looking too closely, so I told a story he would buy.”
“I used to go by myself and often ran into Julien, Martin, and Edward. I met René at a wedding. Julien introduced us. We gravitated toward each other right away.”
“Where will the wedding be held?” Brigit asked. “We could have it at Dante’s restaurant.”
“Because Frankie will have such an important job with Mr. La Marche, and because he will be handling the finances of most of the Board of Directors, Mr. La Marche has decreed that it be at his Greenwich Village townhome so that all the Board of Directors and their Lieutenants can attend. The Lieutenants wouldn’t feel comfortable somewhere else,” René said with emphasis.
Frankie seconded him. “They rarely go out with their bosses for social occasions. It would be awkward for them to be social anywhere else. But Mr. La Marche holds the Christmas parties, etc. so they are at home there. There are fourteen others besides Martin that hold the same level of responsibility that René has and they are all friends and are planning to attend. Mr. La Marche lives on Washington Square and has a ballroom that holds seventy-five.”
René added, “In addition to the two lieutenants, the directors each have a housekeeper and a factotum. In Mr. La Marche’s case, since his affairs are so varied, he has an assistant―that would be Frankie―and another gentleman, Pierre, who acts as his chauffeur, butler, and manservant.”
“Aside from my family,” Frankie said, “all of our friends come from the Garou circle and most of the men attending will be René’s friends. We expect to have fifty-five to sixty. It’s funny you hired a new housekeeper today. René and I hired a couple before we came here, Annie and Alphonse Eustis. Because we will be working so much, they will maintain the house for us and prepare our meals so we can eat when we get home instead of eating fast food, or at nine at night.”
Frankie’s mother looked up in alarm. “Dante, I just had a thought, you have to tell them right away if you’re bringing Mr. Salvaggi and Mr. Amato. For a wedding, you need to get the right numbers for the caterer.”
René smiled. “No need to get upset, Brigit. Mr. La Marche’s housekeeper, Meg, and the other cooks are catering the event. They usually do a buffet, and there is always plenty of food. This crowd can eat.”
“Other cooks?” Frankie’s eyebrows drew together and he squinted in apparent confusion.
“The housekeepers and cooks of the other members of the board. From what I understand, Isabel particularly wants to give us a good send off.”
Frankie laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Don Ferone seemed to be irritated because he didn’t get the joke.
“Isabel is the classically trained chef that I tried to lure away from Julien for Mom,” Frankie told him. “She attended the Culinary Institute of America and specialized in pastry. It’s a good thing that both Richard and Julien have a high metabolism. Otherwise, they’d both be as big as a house.”
“That is good that you think of your mother. Here is Gemma with the pastry. I’ll cut for Brigit, if you don’t mind, René. She goes to PT, but her arthritis still sorely tries, and she refuses to take pain medication. She has a prescription from over a year ago. I told her to get a new one because the medicine has to lose its efficacy after all that time.”
Dante served the dessert. Junior came downstairs, got a cannoli and a piece of cheesecake then disappeared again.
“Mom, this is excellent. Gemma is a good cook.”
“She is, isn’t she? Last night, because she didn’t have adequate time to prepare a meal, she made us rotelle with puttanesca sauce. She served it with a Caesar salad. It was wonderful.” His mother lowered her voice, “I hate to say this about Carmen, but she couldn’t cook, and Dante ate at the restaurant frequently. Now maybe he’ll eat at home.” His mother appeared angelic while Frankie’s stepfather, obviously startled that his wife knew why he avoided dinner, narrowed his eyes.
He covered by pouring more coffee. “Would anyone else like more coffee?”
René stood. “I’m afraid we have to leave. I see through the window that Pierre is outside. We’re leaving tonight for New Mexico so that Frankie can meet the rest of the family. I have third, fourth, and fifth cousins out there. It’s easier for us to fly to New Mexico than it is to have a hundred people fly here.”
“Oh yes. It’s nice to have a large family, but sometimes, it is burdensome.” Brigit stood with difficulty. “Come and give me a kiss, Frankie, René. René, it has been a real pleasure to meet you. You will, of course, come to dinner.”
“Yes, ma’am, and I’ll even bring Frankie.”
Brigit laughed and Dante saw them to the door.
“Dante, Mr. La Marche would like a meeting with you on Monday at ten,” Frankie said. “He’s going out to New Mexico with us tonight, and like Martin no doubt told you, can’t make the one he scheduled for Wednesday. He said to tell you he’s about to ask for a favor. He told me to tell you that he will owe you four favors for this one.”
Don Ferone rubbed his chin. “Because he goes with my son to introduce him to his new family, I am inclined not to get insulted over the canceled meeting and grant him another meeting on Monday. However, he will see me on Saturday, why can’t we talk then?”
René spoke up, “He doesn’t want to mar our wedding day with business, even though it’s urgent. He also thought that maybe it was inappropriate to do business with Frankie’s mom and Junior present.”
“We will meet on Monday at ten then?” Dante’s eyebrow shot up.
“Ma Vie, no matter what you may think, some of your characteristics come from your stepfather. That mobile eyebrow for one.” René’s beloved blushed.
“Ten is good, thank you, Dante.”
“Your car is waiting.” Dante grabbed Frankie for an awkward hug. Frankie reluctantly hugged him back then René and Frankie walked out to the waiting limousine. René’s heart leapt in his chest, tonight they would mate and his Frankie would take René’s bite and knot.
Chapter Twelve
René’s Townhouse
Four forty-five
Alphonse greeted them at the door. “I have your bags packed, Beta, Beta Mate.”
“Here in the house when there is no company, call us René and Frankie.” René balked at the formality. He lived with it all day.
“Beta, this is our first position. We hope it will be permanent because you will need our services as your family grows larger. Even so, I need to do as I was trained. If I don’t, I will forget to be formal at a time when it is crucial that I am. I like you and Beta Mate, but I must call you by your title,” Alphonse answered him earnestly.
“If that’s what makes you comfortable, that’s what we’ll do.” René glanced over at Frankie, who nodded.
“Beta Mate, with your permission, on Friday I’ll go and finish packing up your condo. The Alpha suggested that you might want to rent it furnished because you can get more for it. If you do, I’ll pack up all the personal items and bring them here. You’ll have your things by Friday evening. Do you wish to do as The Alpha suggested?”
Frankie met René’s eyes, and laughed. “It seems that The Alpha has everything in hand.” His Mate’s eyes sparkled. “Tell me, is he choreographing the mating?”
René kept a straight face. “Depends on whether you know how to dance?”
Frankie cracked up. It didn’t take too long for René to join him. The phone rang and René was still laughing when he picked it up. “Eh…René DuBois speaking, may I help you…”
“René, Martin. We’re leaving at six thirty. The Alpha Mate waited for The Alpha to eat his dinner and The Alpha doesn’t want The Alpha Mate to eat Frankie’s sandwiches or to go hungry, so Meg is making them a light supper, and Pierre is busy taking the cat to Brooklyn. The Alpha says you should use the extra time to buy numbing and regular lube
at the pharmacy. The numbing lube is important so you don’t hurt him the first time. After that, you use the regular, or you’ll be tempted to go at it too hard.”
“I’ll bear that in mind.” René snickered.
“The Alpha said he’ll explain the rest of the process on the jet. Pierre will ring the bell. Edward and I will see you soon.”
René hung up the phone, chuckling.
Frankie, with raised brows, asked, “Who was that?”
“Martin. They’re not going to be here until six thirty. They had to feed The Alpha Mate. Let’s go to the kitchen and see what Annie has prepared. I’m famished, and you haven’t been eating enough. I think you’ve lost weight.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Besides, I have an errand to run after we eat.”
“What’s that?”
“Martin said The Alpha told him to make sure I went to the pharmacy to purchase numbing and regular lube.”
Frankie sputtered. “Two freckles to the right, now kiss and pirouette left…” He did a little dance pantomiming the two of them making love with The Alpha’s direction.
“Stop! I won’t be able to control myself when I see him.” René bent over laughing.
“Does he always micromanage?”
“No, not usually…but he’s nervous about the Russians. Last time they were after Vitas, and Sean wasn’t a potential target. This time they want him, and that means Sean’s in danger. The Alpha Mate won’t let him give up Martin, and I’m out until we mate. He has a vested interest in the mating going well and me getting back to guarding The Alpha Mate. He trusts Martin or me exclusively to protect Sean. If we’re not around, he only trusts himself.”
“But he’ll draw the Russians if we don’t get them at the airport.”
“Exactly.”
Annie had made fried chicken, and she cooked enough for them to bring on the plane. She also assembled club sandwiches and fried homemade potato chips. By six fifteen, she had cleaned up the kitchen and packed the leftover food. René ran his errand and came back with his supplies. When he returned, Alphonse had one suitcase, two gym bags, and two garment bags for the suits waiting at the door. René supposed that the suitcase belonged to Annie and Alphonse.
