Page 12 of Sacred Sin

Tony gave me a pointed look while the others discussed every possible reason as to why the Irish would attack us now and why so blatantly. Apparently, he and I were thinking the same thing regarding Marko. I excused myself and went to my office, placing a call to Marko. It went straight to voicemail.

Next, I called Simon, our IT guy, and asked him to trace Marko’s phone. He came back five minutes later with an address. He was in New York at one of the family’s hotels. Was he chasing a piece of ass under the guise of ‘helping a friend’?

Antonio was gone when I returned to the table, leaving me with Fausto, Rom and Simo. I sat in my usual spot, waving away the two beauties on standby that showed up at this time of night to be at my beck and call should I want a partner or two.

My brothers were intently watching a group of women on the dance floor. I gazed to see what had drawn their attention. Four women in sexy outfits danced together, which was an all-too-familiar scene.

“Those aren’t your wife’s friends, are they, Rom?”

He turned around. “Sure are. Remember when I caught Vittoria here with them?”

“I remember you losing your shit when she blew you a kiss and then turned around and wiggled her ass at you.” I smirked when his eyes darkened at my answer.

“I did lose my shit, but she’s learned since then, that unless she wants to pay a hefty price, there are better ways to get my attention.” Romeo's apathetic reply didn’t fool me. He thought he had control over his wife, but the truth was Vittoria had him wrapped around her finger.

I liked my sister-in-law. She was a true mafia princess through and through and ruled well at my brother’s side.

“She was drunk that night, and way too flirty.” Simo glared at Gia, and I assumed he meant her, and not Vittoria whom Simo didn’t like at that time. I blamed his low opinion of Vittoria on his bromance with my eldest brother, but in a way, he’d been right all along regarding her being up to something. She and our brother Vinnie were captured, and subsequently rescued from the Calogera family, V’s brother and father, who’d been scheming all along to take us down.

“Didn’t you take her home that night, Simo?”

Romeo glared at me. “You better not be talking about my wife,” he threatened.

I couldn’t help the roll of laughter. “Obviously not, I was referring to the youngest Beomi brat.”

It was Simo’s turn to glare at me with a warning look. “Don’t talk about Gia; she isn’t a brat. She just needs someone to show her limits.”

Romeo and I exchanged looks of amusement. Apparently, our giant of a brother had a new fixation. Prior to Vittoria joining the family as Romeo’s wife, we’d done research on her. That’s when we learned of the identity of her four best friends, all daughters of lesser mafia dons.

Gia was the youngest in her family, and with seven older siblings, she was at the very bottom of the totem pole of importance and took advantage of the freedoms her position in the family offered her. Total brat.

I’d come back that night after following Tano and one of my new waitresses into the back room, to see my brothers, Antonio, Fausto, and Massimo with Vittoria’s friends, and Romeo and Vittoria gone.

Even then I could tell Simo had a thing for Gia and I couldn’t help teasing him about it still. “You know she’s not good enough for you, right brother?”

Romeo raised his eyebrow but didn’t say a word.

Massimo spun in his seat and partially rose. “You don’t speak about her, ever!” He sat back in his seat at Romeo’s prompting.

“I’m just teasing, big bro. Take a play out of my book and fuck whoever you want.”

He scrubbed his face with his fists. “That’s the problem. She’s who I want to fuck.”

Finally, things were getting interesting. “So, what’s the problem?”

Romeo’s phone beeped and he frowned at the message. “Time to go, Vittoria is cramping again, and the doc is on his way.”

He hustled away, followed by a reluctant Simo, who took one last look at Gia before following Rom out the door. I was thankful that I wasn’t Romeo’s enforcer. Out of all of us, Simo seemed the least likely to get what he wanted out of life, not because he was limited, but because he would always put Romeo first. Women didn’t like to be in competition with a man’s family. Until he learned to put himself first, nothing would change for him.

Not my problem; though Marko, however, was. I drained my drink. It was time to find out what my friend had been up to and with whom. When the club closed, I ran the accounting software and locked the place up for the night.

I thought about going home and napping for a few hours, but my gut was telling me to drive to New York. I hit the outskirts of the city just as the sun was rising. Probably the best time to see The City That Never Sleeps.

The morning traffic hadn’t kicked in yet and the streets boasted only a few pedestrians, most of whom were out for a morning jog before work. I was reminded of a trip Marko, Nicolette, and I took to New York to see a Russian ballet company perform. At the time, I’d thought I’d rather be in a street war than sit through a ballet.

Turns out the most dangerous performance in that theater wasn’t on the stage. It was the one unfolding between the three of us.

My father purchased a box every year and gave out tickets as rewards for good service and as comps to curry favor with those we wanted to be in bed with. When I told him we were going, he’d had no problem sectioning it off for us. We had a lot of space as the box held eight seats but only the three of us were there. We’d taken Nicolette shopping during the day for a dress to wear. That had been fun too. Marko helped in the dressing room while I kept them guarded. There were so many giggles and shushes that came from behind the curtain I was almost jealous.