Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

Dav

Renzo’s place was pretty packed by the time I got there, the music in full swing, everyone already holding plates and drinks.

I immediately sank into the crowd, getting my own food and eating, so I didn’t stick out too much.

Even as I fell into conversations with men and women I hadn’t seen or spoken to in weeks, though, all I could seem to do was think about Cinna.

In my apartment.

In my bed.

She almost looked completely back to normal these days. Her bruising had gone from coalescing, violent shades of mulberry and indigo to bright yellow and green with just a hint of something darker in the center. The swelling was completely gone, leaving her ridiculously gorgeous face with no lasting damage.

Really, it was just her wrist and her ribs holding her back at this point.

Well, that and her own trepidation.

We hadn’t talked about it. Any time I tried to bring up the attack and the people responsible for it, she clammed up, tensed, rushed to change the topic.

The thing was, something was different with Cinna because of that attack, because of those bastards and what they’d done to her.

For the first time in her career, it seemed like the violence had not only impacted her physically, but mentally as well.

She tried to hide it.

And maybe no one else but me would have picked up on it.

But she was jumpy.

I’d once seen this woman not even flinch when a bottle flew at the wall beside her head and shattered.

Now? She nearly jumped out of her fucking skin when the intercom buzzed or there was a knock at the door. Hell, once a damn pigeon landed on the sill outside of the window, and she jerked so fast and hard that she’d jarred her ribs enough to bring tears to her eyes.

This attack had changed her.

I imagined that was the only real reason she was still in my apartment rather than back at her own. She wasn’t mentally ready to leave yet.

I mean, sure, her ribs were still bothering her. But not enough that she couldn’t go back to most of her daily life duties without an issue.

She just wasn’t emotionally ready to go yet.

Not that I was complaining.

Clearly, since all I could fucking think about was her even when I was supposed to be enjoying my time with all my fellow capos and my boss.

“Looking for someone?” I asked as Rico’s gaze slid over the crowd, brows furrowed.

“Where the fuck is Cinna?” he asked, making my stomach tense. Not just lying to the boss then, it seemed.

“I saw her on my way here,” I told him, the partial lie slipping easily from between my lips. “Looked like she was in the middle of something.” At this point, that was likely eating the dinner I’d picked up for her. “Dunno if she’s gonna be here tonight.”

“Oh,” Rico said, face tangled in confusion, but his shoulders relaxed a bit.

“Why?” I asked.

“Just heard one of her soldiers talking earlier, saying they hadn’t seen her in weeks.”

“Hadn’t they heard from her at least?” I asked.

“I mean, yeah.”

“You know Cinna,” I said, shrugging. “She’s always busy.”

“True,” Rico agreed.

“Or maybe she found herself a personal life,” I said, getting a chuckle out of Rico.

“That’ll be the day,” he said.

“Hey, we never thought Renzo would slow down either,” I reasoned, jerking my chin toward our boss, who was leaning against the bar, watching his wife talking to Elian, her clear favorite of all the capos, a man who’d championed for Renzo to understand what a prize he had in his wife.

I liked Lore. Everyone did. She just… wasn’t my type. Soft and sweet and timid. A mafia princess raised in a sheltered life thanks to her father and five mafia capo brothers. But I could see that she was exactly what Renzo needed. Someone to come home to. A reason not to work himself to the bone.

“Gonna go say hi to the boss,” I told Rico, moving in that direction.

I was a solid ten feet away still, though, when someone came charging through the crush of people, making a beeline for the pool table, and snatching up the eight ball, turning, aiming, and sending the fucking thing sailing through the air, missing Renzo’s head by two inches, and crashing into the bar behind him, a bottle of liquor smashing with the impact.

“Jesus Christ, Saff,” Renzo said, brows pinched.

The man didn’t even flinch.

“You had no right to do that,” Saff snapped, charging toward him.

All five-feet-three-inches of fury.

When it came to mafia bosses, Renzo Lombardi was probably the most progressive out there. Because he not only tolerated, but encouraged, the idea of female capos in his organization.

I think a lot of us thought Cinna was a one-off back in the day. Because she was so tough and badass. Because everyone who ever met her knew she was meant for a life like this.

But, slowly over the years, he added more and more female soldiers and capos.

Saff was one of those.

Looking at her, you wouldn’t think she was every bit as tough—if not more so—as Cinna. She was short and thin with thick thighs and almost comically small feet. I was pretty sure the woman could shop in the children’s section still.

She had a pretty, deceptively sweet-looking heart-shaped face with big light brown eyes that almost hinted a bit grayish in the right light, a delicate nose with a ring, very defined cupid’s bow lips, and a smattering of subtle freckles over her nose and cheeks.

Her long hair was usually down, but tonight she had the dark blue wavy strands pulled up in a ponytail, the resulting effect making her look even younger than she was.

The real difference between Saff and Cinna, though, had nothing to do with looks.

Where Cinna was calm and collected with anger that ran cold, Saff was pure chaos whose anger ran hot enough to burn up everyone around her.

Like throwing a pool ball at a fucking mafia boss.

“Seeing as this is my family, Saff, yeah, I did have the right,” Renzo said, voice patient. Because, quite frankly, he’d been dealing with Saff’s explosions for years.

“I had it handled,” she raged, moving toward him, her heeled boots clicking on the floor as she went. They were a solid five inches, and they just barely made her average height.

“I never said you didn’t.”

That took some of the wind out of her sails. But this was Saff. She wasn’t going to let it go that easily.

“Then why the fuck would you step in?” she asked. “Would you have done that if this was Rico’s job? Or Elian? Davide?”

“This isn’t a sexist thing, Saff. You know better than that,” Renzo said, shaking his head.

“Would you have taken this from Cinna then?” she asked.

“I dunno. Maybe. You’re different people, Saff. Different strengths.”

“Bullshit. You don’t have the same respect for me as you do for her.”

“You haven’t been made as long as she has,” Renzo reasoned. “You have been a good capo so far, Saff. A great earner. But a lot of the people here, Cinna included,” he said, then scanned the crowd to look for her before looking back at Saff. “I might trust them with this job more than you because they’ve got a longer track record.”

“How the fuck can I get a track record if you take jobs from me?”

“Job. One job. This isn’t the end of the fucking world, babe. This is just a big deal. You were smart in bringing it in. But I want someone more seasoned to seal the deal. It’s not about you. It’s about the money. And if you had gotten your head out of your own ass for two minutes, you would have seen that before storming in here.”

Saff’s jaw was still granite, her eyes still burning, but the flames were flickering out.

Yeah, she ran hot.

But she burned out quickly.

“You need to learn to trust me too,” she said, voice low enough that most of the people in the apartment couldn’t hear her.

“I do trust you. And, with some more time, I won’t even think of stepping in and taking a job from you. You just gotta put the years in, babe. Just like everyone else. Now, you want a drink?” he asked. “Hopefully not tequila, ‘cause you ruined that.”

You had to respect Renzo’s ability not to get his feathers ruffled when one of his own crew came at him. He was a hard boss, sometimes even ruthless, but he didn’t exactly want everyone kowtowing to him.

He wanted an organization full of people who didn’t need to be babysat. Which meant everyone had an attitude, a lot of ego, and big fucking balls. He understood that those things were what made a good capo, so he didn’t get bent out of shape when someone copped an attitude with him.

“Vodka,” she said, and Renzo nodded before moving behind the bar, grabbing the bottle of vodka, and pouring it into a glass, squeezing a lime into it, then handing it to Saff as Elian came by with a dustpan and broom to deal with the glass.

“This doesn’t mean I’m not still mad at you,” Saff said, taking a sip.

“I can live with that,” Renzo said, lips twitching. “Dav, where the fuck you been?”

“Davide?” Saff scoffed. “Trapped under a pile of women, most likely. God knows you’re not working,” she added with a little smile.

“Keep being a little shit and I might be motivated to steal your next few jobs out from under you.”

“I dare you,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me.

“What are you gonna do, bite my ankles?”

Renzo was right about Saff being green. Not that it was her fault. She was barely old enough to drink. Which was probably why she had such a big brother/little sister relationship with many of the other capos. Myself included.

And as much as she might throw attitude around about it, I got a feeling that she secretly liked it, since she had no actual family of her own.

“Just been busy,” I told Renzo. Which was true. I’d been busy taking care of Cinna. “Did I miss one of these?” I asked.

“No, no. Just mean in general. Haven’t seen you around much. You, Cinna, everyone seems busy as fuck without giving me much info on what jobs you’re up to.”

“I’m looking to expand a bit,” I told him. It was true. It just wasn’t something I was actively working on. “A few low-level guys got pinched on charges unrelated to the family. Simple assault over someone running their mouth at a bar. Want them replaced. Can’t have people that sloppy in my crew.”

“Good. Any idea what Cin is working on?” he asked, making my gut clench. I’d hoped that I would only have to mention Cinna once. And here we were for the third time.

“Just know she’s busy as fuck. Barely spared me a word when I passed her,” I told him. Again, not lying. I had passed her in the hall in the middle of the night and she’d shot me tired eyes and kept along her way to go ‘busy herself’ by icing her ribs.

“Oh, didn’t know you’d seen her,” he said.

“A few times,” I said, nodding.

“Oh,” Renzo said, shoulders relaxing. I wondered if someone on Cinna’s crew was running their mouth about not seeing her. “Right. Good. She’s always distracted when she’s busy,” he agreed.

Someone called him over then, saving me from more evasions.

But when my gaze slid back to Saff, I saw her watching me with penetrative eyes, her head tilted to the side.

“You’re… lying about something,” she said, making my heart seize in my chest. “But I can’t figure out what.”

“Now what would I have to lie about, kid?” I asked, trying to rile her, so she let it drop. Of all people, I didn’t think it would be Saff who would be suspicious.

“I don’t—“ she started, but cut off as something behind me caught her gaze.

Turning, I found one of Renzo’s soldiers walking in.

Coal was a kid who’d been working for someone who was trying to take over the family after Renzo’s wedding. A guy who’d been strapped to a chair and beaten, but he hadn’t broken. He’d impressed Renzo enough to offer him a job.

Since then, he’d been hungry to prove his worth.

Clearly, he was coming back from doing some sort of work for the family, because his face was bruised, his lip split, and his nose was still caked with dried blood.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him without blood or bruises on him,” Saff said, shaking her head as Coal made a beeline for Renzo who had his arm draped around his wife’s waist. “I’m gonna go eavesdrop,” she said, then walked off, saving me from having to try to convince her I wasn’t lying about anything when I kind of was.

I made a round, saying a quick hello to the other capos, just so no one would question where I’d been lately.

Then I made my way quietly out, hoping no one but the guard at the door noticed.

Normally, I was one of the last to leave, never the kind to walk away from a good time.

I tried to tell myself it was just to save myself from more evasions and lies.

The problem was, though, that I knew the truth.

Wanting to leave had nothing to do with the party.

And everything to do with the woman at home in my bed.

Or, as it turned out, stubbornly camped out on my couch.

I really should have anticipated that.

But she wasn’t going to get her way.

Walking over, I carefully placed the gun out of reach, fished the knife out from under her pillow, and picked up the mace from where it had fallen on the floor before finally peeling back her blanket and sliding my arms under her body.

I expected her to pitch a fit when she realized I was holding her. I didn’t anticipate the way she softened into me. Like she wanted to be there.

Exactly where I wanted her too.

It was too short of a walk to the bedroom, no matter how much I slowed my pace. And before long I was lowering her down onto the mattress.

But before I could turn and walk away, I found my wrist snagged in her hand.

I turned back, finding her watching me with something in her eyes that had my chest feeling tight.

“Stay.”