Mafia Kings: Valentino: Dark Mafia Romance Series #6 by Olivia Thorn

Mafia Kings: Valentino: Chapter 2

I was the middle child of five kids. Our house was crazy – total chaos. The only peace I found was with my grandmother in the kitchen. She lived with us and cooked for the entire family.

My father was a bricklayer, and my mother was a schoolteacher. With so many mouths to feed, their salaries didn’t stretch nearly far enough.

My father was very serious. People used to joke that he was more German than Italian.

Always be early. If you’re on time, you’re five minutes late.

You owe your employer your very best efforts.

Never, EVER give less than 100%.

My mother prized getting good grades above everything else.

I was not serious at all, which irked my father – and I was terrible in school, which exasperated my mother.

Me?

I just wanted to cook.

My grandmother passed away when I was 11, and it was the saddest day of my life…

At least for another ten years.

But I kept on cooking and preparing all the family’s meals by myself.

I didn’t mind. I actually loved it. Working in the kitchen made me feel close to Nonna, like she was still with me.

I’ll say one thing: my parents never complained about my cooking. That was the one thing they didn’t criticize about me.

When I hit 12, I developed another obsession:

Boys.

I went boy CRAZY.

All I could think about was the cute boys at school. I would fantasize about kissing them.

I dreamed up ways of getting them to notice me. At first I tried making cannoli for them – hard pastry shells stuffed with sweet ricotta cheese and things like chocolate or nuts. They loved them, but they didn’t do anything but ask me for more cannoli.

When I finally got the attention I craved, it didn’t come from the boys in my own class – but older boys in school.

Much older.

I’m joking! They were only two or three years further along than me.

But they still seemed so worldly and cool.

Some of them even smoked.

Oooooh!

Real bad boys.

And I got plenty of their attention!

All it took was getting boobs.

I ended the school year flat-chested and came back the next fall more developed than every other girl in my grade level. All the older boys came flocking to me after that.

It was uncomfortable dealing with grown men leering at me, which felt icky and gross –

boys a couple years older

Bring it on.

the first time when

sex for the first time when I was 14, with

was all downhill

and cooking and cute boys… that was all I could think about. Which distressed my

romantic activities secret by sneaking out at night.

boyfriend, which –

hell couldn’t get pregnant. As a result, I always used condoms, and I got on birth control as soon as I could, just to be

of candy to me and my sister so we wouldn’t snitch on her. Once she moved out, the candy stopped. But when I started sneaking around, I had to bribe my younger sister again, who demanded her cut every Friday afternoon. I used to tell her she was worse

around… but I couldn’t hide my terrible

me non-stop, telling me I was ruining my life. But I already knew I didn’t want to go to university. University was for people who wanted to read and study – to become doctors, lawyers,

Bleh.

if you don’t want to go to university, you choose a profession while you’re a teenager and go to a school specifically for that. You

– an istituto professionale. That was the closest I could get to being able to

there would be tons more cute guys at university,

eventually found out about my ‘extracurricular activities.’ We lived in a small town, and people talked. Probably some boys bragged about sleeping with me, their parents

hear from other people that my daughter’s the

That stunned me.

he’d found out

that he would ever

was horrible to hear him

it was totally unfair. Yes, I’d slept with a few more guys than other girls had – but almost everyone in my class was hooking up. It’s not like I was the lone sinner in a sea

stay in

my parents knew, they clamped down hard. I

– my grades, my behavior, the way I dressed

your sister and marry a nice boy?”

did, but got knocked up by one of the guys she

mother slapped me in

stared at

ran back to the bedroom I shared with my little sister

I thought. Nonna NEVER would have hit

that moment, I vowed to move out as soon as I possibly

the way, all Italians who aren’t on

job so

that I came from a small town in Tuscany, the vast countryside in central Italy.

why I moved to Florence, the nearest big city with tons

They made a lot of snarky

was overjoyed to move to Florence. I lived with two roommates in a tiny apartment, but it was still

I could date as many cute guys as I wanted. And there were plenty

discos, drank too much, had fun with

Except for one

tourist trap and make 2000 gallons of spaghetti per day – but I didn’t want that. I wanted to work in

up, but that wasn’t even a possibility. Everybody I interviewed with

from my

to cook from her

culinary institute, and

owe them anything or give them any sort of control

me a cent. They’d say that if they gave me

they didn’t have

of spaghetti a day and tried to save my money to go to

I was as good at saving as I’d been at

really did! It’s just that what little money I had left over every

Florence, life was great… until it

felt trapped in my horrible

fun with boys, but I never fell

began to get