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

Mafia Kings: Valentino: Chapter 32

The hotel Nic and I had met Don Vicari in was straight out of The Godfather Part II.

Now, sitting outside Don Vicari’s house, I found myself in a scene from the first movie.

Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) is hiding out in Sicily. While he’s there, he sees a beautiful girl named Apollonia and gets struck by the thunderbolt. That’s the Sicilian way of saying love at first sight.

He immediately wants her – needs her – and the only way to do that in Sicily back in the 1940s was to get married (unless you wanted her father or brothers to shoot you in the head).

So Michael talks to her father and goes to visit the girl for the first time. While he’s there at the house, he’s surrounded by a couple dozen of her relatives, from great-grandmas to 5-year-old cousins.

That was pretty much what lunch was like.

There was a massive table set out on a back porch with tons of Sicilian food: caponata made with eggplant, risotto with peas and bits of meat in it, bowls full of pasta, and lots of cold cuts and peasant-style brown bread. Plus homemade wine in bottles without labels.

Everything was simple but delicious – and very different from the food I was used to back in Tuscany.

Around the table sat two dozen relatives, mostly women with a lot of little kids.

Servants flitted back and forth, filling glasses and bringing new platters of food.

And in the background stood a bunch of armed foot soldiers.

Don Vicari sat to my right. Across from me sat Isabella. Her great-grandma sat next to her and across from Don Vicari.

The old lady smiled constantly. She didn’t eat much, but she could really put the wine away.

Also, I noticed that Isabella’s servant girl hovered in the background directly behind her, watching with that same emotionless expression I’d seen on her face earlier.

“Those are my older daughters, Abriana and Marcella,” Vicari said, pointing out two women in their late 20s or early 30s. They both looked up and smiled dutifully, then turned back to yelling at their kids. “Everybody else are their in-laws – sisters, cousins, aunts. Their husbands couldn’t be here because they’re busy running my territories down south. After you settle in, you’ll go meet my son Rocco. Start learning your new job. He’ll show you the ropes.”

“My new job?” I asked, surprised.

“What, you think you’re gonna lounge around all day for the rest of your life?” Vicari said contemptuously. “No. You’re gonna work, just like everybody else. Rocco’ll show you the ropes.”

Then I looked up at Isabella. “Well, now that I’ve got a job, I’ll need to have fun when

“Reading, mostly.”

sure if

didn’t sound like fun to

going out with friends – those

Reading was homework.

“I love

everything Don Vicari had said about her being a bookworm really was

Great.

added, “there’s not much else to do around

glanced over my

it was rolling hills that went on and on for miles,

I said gloomily, then turned

Friend by Elena Ferrante,” Isabella said eagerly. “And I

not knowing who the fuck she was

she got very famous on Instagram, then started

you found

very seriously. “Papa won’t let me have

Okay, THAT’S weird.

your phone, though?” I asked. “I mean, that’s where most people use Instagram,

me have

just told me

to say, in retrospect, Don Vicari taking my phone seemed a little more

there these days,” Vicari grumbled. “The

great-grandmother crossed herself and

I

say to Vicari, Wait –

about how many

back of

you read?” Isabella asked

Men’s Fitness, I guess.

Isabella frowned. “What’s that?”