His Tesoro: An Arranged Marriage Age Gap Mafia Romance (Empire of Royals Book 1)
His Tesoro: Chapter 15

Giuseppe caught my eye the moment I entered the Star lobby. He was slightly out of breath when he met me at the private elevator. The short, stocky Star manager wore a blue and white pinstripe suit today. Absurd attire for a Made Man, as was his cheerful smile.

“Good evening, Boss.”

I gave him a curt nod.

“Your usual, or something new?”

“Surprise me.” I tapped my fingers against my leg, impatient as I waited for the fucking elevator. It finally dinged.

“Very good. I’ll send her up right away,” Giuseppe said. “And, might I say, congratulations on your new bride.”

I clenched my jaw, but the doors closed, saving me from responding.

I adjusted my sleeves. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I had every right to be here, to do what I wanted. But the strange, tight feeling in my stomach didn’t go away as I entered my private penthouse suite.

I poured myself a glass of whiskey and looked out at my city. The city I’d bled and killed for. Nothing could be more important than the Family. I might have thought something different when I was young, but that Matteo had been killed alongside my parents.

I turned around as the door opened and a woman entered. She was tall, her black dress highlighting her long legs, and blonde. I took another drink. Giuseppe usually sent up dark-haired Italian women. Was this a coincidence, or was he trying to replace someone reminiscent of my wife?

Except this woman was nothing like Sofiya. Her lips were painted red, her expression confident and sultry as she approached me.

“They told me you were handsome,” she said, stopping so close in front of me her large tits brushed against my chest. “But handsome doesn’t cut it.” She trailed her fingers down my jaw.

My wedding band weighed heavily on my finger.

My father had been loyal to my mamma. He always said, “The Family’s life revolves around the Don. The Don’s life must revolve around his wife.” It was no secret he’d allowed mamma to have an opinion on Family matters. She’d even convinced him to ban the skin trade in our territory, an unpopular decision that lost a few of the capos a significant amount of money. My father had also come down hard on husbands who abused their wives. His actions stirred dissension in the ranks from men who felt they had the right to do whatever they liked in their own homes. My uncle capitalized on that dissension to gain power.

My father’s devotion to my mamma had destroyed them.

Almost destroyed Sienna and me.

But now, faced with the opportunity to cheat on my wife, I found I couldn’t do it. My cock was soft, my skin crawling with discomfort. My father was the man I’d admired most in the world—steady, strong, and loving in his own way. It was a hard thing for a Made Man to raise his heir because he could never fully be a father—he would always be Don to his firstborn child. But my papà had been a husband first, above all else.

My hand reached out and seized the woman’s wrist, pulling her off me. “Get out.” My voice was harsh, but I didn’t care. Her touch felt like poison.

Her eyes widened. “Sir?”

I released her wrist, and she stumbled back a few steps. “Get. Out,” I repeated.

She turned on her heel and rushed out of the room.

My hands shook as I downed the last of the liquor. What the fuck was wrong with me? Why did I have some misplaced sense of loyalty to a woman I didn’t even know just because I had signed a sheet of paper?

“Fuck!”

I threw the empty glass against the wall, bits of glass and liquid shattering against the floor. I needed something to distract me, to make me feel in control again, and I wouldn’t replace it in this room.

I picked up my phone and dialed.

“Romeo, meet me outside the Star. We’re going hunting.”

It was dark as Romeo turned the car off the road, concealing it behind a copse of trees.

He cut the engine, and the night’s silence surrounded us.

“This is one of the more stupid ideas you’ve had recently,” he said.

I pulled another gun from under the seat and checked that it was loaded. “Stay here, then.” The cool night air cleared my head as I got out of the car. This was what I needed. Focus. Control.

Romeo followed me, muttering curses as he cocked his gun. “You know, some men buy sports cars when they’re having mid-life crises. Or a private jet. They don’t go ambushing Albanian safe houses for the thrill of it.”

“I already own a private jet.” I set off towards the small house ahead, a lone light in the window the only thing illuminating the way.

“Oh, he’s practicing his comedy routine now,” Romeo huffed.

“If anyone else spoke to me like that, I would have killed them by now.”

“Yes, but if I were anyone else, I’d be tucked away in bed with a sexy woman on my cock. Not here on some suicide mission.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s only a suicide mission if you fuck things up.”

We kept to the shadows as we approached the house, but there was no one outside and no visible alarms. Franco’s intel suggested this previously abandoned house was being used by the Albanians—probably low-level soldiers. They were unimportant, unlikely to have any helpful intel. Arben might be an idiot, but even he wasn’t stupid enough to tell foot soldiers his plans. That didn’t matter, though. I wasn’t here for intel.

I shot the door’s lock and burst inside, Romeo covering my back.

Three men sat in a dingy living room—two in just their underwear and the third in a dirty t-shirt. They shouted, reaching for the weapons they had carelessly set to the side, but I was too fast. I shot the first in the hand, the second in the knee, and the third in the shoulder. Screams of pain filled the air.

“Why the fuck did I even need to be here if you were going to get all of them yourself?” Romeo grumbled.

“Go clear the rest of the house if you need something to do. You three, on the ground.”

The Albanians collapsed to the floor, their cries filling the air. I quickly removed their weapons. They were obviously young and unskilled. Of no real value to me.

I would still enjoy toying with them.

“Matteo.” Romeo’s voice carried from one of the back rooms. “Ci sono due ragazze qui.”

Shit.

Romeo returned to the living room, fury in his eyes. “Fucking scum.” He spat at the soldiers and trained his gun on them. His eyes flashed to mine. “Back room to the left.”

I braced myself for what I would replace as I pushed the door open, revealing two girls huddled together in the corner. They looked young—seventeen? Eighteen? Their clothes were torn, and long, dirty hair fell in their faces. Metal cuffs were attached to their too-thin ankles.

A dirty mattress was the only thing in the room.

Only a lifetime of practice hiding my emotions allowed me to keep my face blank as white-hot rage churned in my stomach. My uncle had revived the skin trade for the brief time he was in power, but I had put a stop to it when I ascended as Don. This was a direct affront to my authority.

I crouched down, hoping it made me less intimidating. The girls’ blank stares met mine.

“What are your names?”

They said nothing.

“I’m going to get you to safety,” I murmured. “How did you get here?”

The girls looked at each other as if silently communicating before turning back to me. One said something in a hoarse whisper, but she wasn’t speaking English.

“What was that?”

The girl repeated her words, her voice growing stronger. It sounded like she was speaking an Eastern European language—Russian, possibly? For a second I considered calling Sofiya to see if she understood them, but I dismissed the idea. I needed to keep her separate from my life, my work. She might seem sweet and innocent, but I couldn’t trust her.

“I’ll be back,” I said, even though they couldn’t understand me, and returned to the living room.

“Well, this gives us some clarity on why the scum is trying to take control of my city,” I said to Romeo.

“You think it’s more than the two girls?”

“Yes.” I’d suspected Arben was dealing in the skin trade in Boston, but I’d stayed out of it—that was Irish territory. But now he was not only trying to take control of my city, he was preparing to bring in the skin trade.

My eyes flicked to the three pathetic men huddling together on the ground in front of us. “Congratulations, you three just became much more useful to me.” I took a step closer, savoring their whimpers of pain as their injuries pooled blood on the gray carpet.

“Who are you?” the man I’d shot in the knee spat out.

I crouched down in front of him. “I’m the one you’ll beg for death before the end.”

His face contorted with rage before he lashed out with a shout. A glint of steel came towards me. I jumped out of the way but wasn’t fast enough to fully avoid his knife slashing a shallow gash in my side. I barely felt it as blood dripped down my skin.

In one swift movement, I kicked the man’s injured knee, flipped him over on his stomach, and pinned him to the floor by putting the knife through his hand. I brushed off my jacket as I stood and looked at the two other soldiers. “Are either of you feeling brave? Now’s your chance to attack.”

Their eyes were wide as they shook their heads, stealing covert glances at their wailing companion.

“Good choice. Where is the handcuff key?”

One soldier gestured at the man I’d stabbed. I reached into his pocket and fished out the key, making sure to grind his knee against the floor as I did.

I turned to Romeo. “Call Domenico and Stefano to take out the trash.”

I returned to the back room, crouching down again as I approached the girls. The younger of the two had tears streaking down her cheeks, but both remained silent.

I held out the key and pointed at the cuffs. “I’m going to remove these.” They seemed to understand what I meant, staying still as I unlocked them. I let out a loud curse when I saw the bloody red marks left by the metal, causing them both to jump.

I reached deep inside myself to the soft voice I used to use with Sienna when she was younger, when I would wake in the middle of the night to replace her curled up on the floor by my bed after having a bad dream. Before my heart had turned cold.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” I reached a hand out to them, but they cowered away. “That’s okay. I won’t touch you. Can you walk?”

I slowly stood and took a few steps to the door, gesturing at the girls to follow me. Their movements were stiff as they got up. They clutched each other’s hands and hobbled to the door.

“They’re on their way,” Romeo said when the three of us entered the living room. He’d hogtied the Albanian soldiers on the ground and bound their bullet wounds to prevent them from bleeding out. I wanted them alive for a good, long time. “Where do you want to bring the girls?”

I ran my hand through my hair and gestured for the two girls to sit down at the lopsided kitchen table. I got them water and found packages of crackers in one of the cupboards.

“I’ll ask Aria if they can stay in a clinic room until we figure shit out.”

Aria was my cousin on my mother’s side. She’d been allowed to attend medical school, rare for Family daughters even now, and she ran our private clinic.

The girls gulped the water, their eyes fixed on their three captors. I leaned against the kitchen countertop, wondering what Sofiya was doing. I felt the strange urge to check on her, but it was late. She was probably in bed, and Enzo was stationed at the apartment, anyway.

Romeo pulled out his phone and nodded at me. “They’re here.”

I gestured for the girls to follow. Romeo went out the front first, signaling when all was clear. Stefano and Domenico passed us on the way to the car, and I lifted my chin at them. I would meet them in the basement after we got the girls to the clinic.

The Albanians could wait. They would wish I’d stayed away by the end.