“Valentina, is that you?” She rolled her eyes as she walked into the house; her dad knew who it was but he just liked to pretend that he couldn’t see her walk in. But their house was protected, that would be something any mob boss made sure of, so of course he always saw who walked on his land or through his front door.
“Yes, it’s me dad.”
“Good,” he said as he walked out of the living room. “Come join me, I want to talk to you.” Val sat her purse down on the table by the door and followed him into the cozy room. Most of their house was formal, as befitting who he was, but mom made sure there were rooms of comfort and coziness and not hard and cold. Her mom often felt that more people would open up if they were in a comfty place, unlike her dad, who believed hard was better. He sat down on the couch and she followed suit.
“What’s up dad?”
“You know there’s been a long standing war between us and the Constantini’s right? A war that was started by your grandfather.”
“I’m aware, probably why Vinny and I have issues.” He sighed at that. He knew about them, that wasn’t news. Hell, their issues with each other stemmed as far back as their playing on the school field. Vinny was one year older than her, so for them, they really had been around each other forever. And hell did he remember the phone calls they would get about the two of them fighting.
“Well, those issues need to stop.” ‘Stop,’ she questioned to herself, they just had a show a couple hours ago in fact!
“Why dad?”
“Donatello and I called a cease fire.” Her eyes opened wide. A cease fire? That was unheard of. But, then her eyes narrowed. They were mob bosses, and you didn’t do anything for free.
“What’s it costing us?”
“It’s sad that you can’t be my heir, your mind is so ready for that.” Yes, it’s a bitter pill to swallow that she was a female, but no female was allowed to be in control; they couldn’t make those tough choices.
“I know, it’s a shame, now answer the question.”
“You.”
“What do you mean ‘me’? Hai intenzione di massacrarmi prima di loro? Lasciando che il mio sangue corre per le strade invece?” (Are you planning on slaughtering me before them? Letting my blood run down the streets instead?) She was furious. He was willing to do that to his only child, female or not.
“No! You are to marry Giovanni.” Oh, that was not any better. She’d rather take a bullet to the chest than be led to the other version of slaughter, holy matrimony with the biggest play boy around; yeah no thanks on that. She clenched her teeth as she stared at her dad.
-----
“Join me son,” Donatello said as he took his eyes off the pool table and glanced at his son. At 24, Giovanni was a good looking man who had all the women at his feet and his dad knew that. And knew that his son would never think about settling down, now or anytime soon. So, as much as he hated being a controlling son of a bitch with his kids, this time he needed too. Sure, the cease fire was great, but he could admit the other motive; marrying his son off to a damn good family.
“What’s up papa (dad)?” Donatello sank the nine ball and tossed the stick to Vinny.
“Had a meeting with De Luca.” Giovanni nicked the table at those words, not even hitting a ball.
“And you didn’t kill each other?”
“No, actually figlio (son), the De Luca’s and the Constantini’s have a cease fire.” Donatello watched his son, watched as his eyebrow’s scrunched together, watched as his jaw clenched and watched as his hands fisted.
“Why?”
“Because enough is enough. Too many lives have been lost. Who is to say you weren’t next?”
“I can’t of course, but really? How did you manage that? I mean, De Luca isn’t the type to just say, ‘here, we are done, what now’.”
“No, he isn’t,” Donatello said as he took another cue stick and lined up a shot, sinking the ball and looking up at his son. Giovanni moved to sit on the stool as he watched his father.
All his life, all he had heard about was this war; was about the anger these two families had. And, yeah sure, it spilled out on their kids; Giovanni could admit there was a time or two he wished he could have punched Val, but there was also times that he wished he didn’t have to be so cruel to her. Valentina was a smart woman, and there were times he would have loved to just talk to her. Granted, those times were few and far between. And yet, here was his dad, talking nonsense.
“So, you called a truce, what’s the cost? Are we paying him? Giving him run over our streets?”
“De Luca’s empire needs none of that. What he does need is a stable and strong hand for Valentina.”
“Marriage?”
“Yes.”
“To who? I have all sisters and my cousins wouldn’t work for that princess. Are they taking one of your men?”
“No, not unless you are one of my men and not my son.”
“Me, why…I’m too marry her?” Giovanni bellowed as he got off the stool, his eyes wide. “Non puoi essere fottutamente serio? Preferirei prendere un proiettile alla testa.” (You can’t be fucking serious? I’d rather take a bullet to the head.)
“Fermarsi!” (Stop). Giovanni’s nostrils flared at his dad yelled, but he shut up. “You have no choice son. This truce falls on the heads of you and Valentina. You are to make the next world better.”
“Or her and I could start the war all over again. Don’t you see that we don’t like each other?”
“Is that you or years of hate?” Giovanni went to open his mouth to answer, but couldn’t. Could they really make an alliance work? Would that ever be possible? Could their streets finally see peace? After all, these were the strongest families who were drawing the lines and calling a truce; on the heads of their kids, of course.
“I need to check out her car Valentina.” Val lifted her head and looked at him, the fire flashing in her eyes and he had to smile, for no matter what, she really wanted nothing to do with Celeste. “Do I need to go with you?” “No, we can drop you off and you can invite Luciana over if you like.” Vinny brushed her hair away and she nodded. “Good, maybe you girls can go for a dip, and spend the day as you wanted.” “You don’t mind?” “Well, you know I don’t have many women around, but I’ll let it slide this once.” She gave him a smile and for that beauty, he would give her anything she wanted. After the day she had, she deserved to have something good today. Frankie closed the door on them and then walked around, climbed into the driver’s seat, and took off. Vinny kept his arms around Val the whole time, who kept her head buried in his chest. He wanted answers and badly, and though he was going to go talk to Celeste, h
Vinny blinked a couple of times as he stared at Valentina, his anger deflating like a balloon, all the air gone, at least towards her. Why would her dad call them to come home when he knew his daughter was out? And he knew he couldn’t be mad at her enforcers; when the Boss calls, you answer, and you don’t ask why. Vinny let out a breath and walked over to Val to hold her, but she pushed him away, her eyes glaring at him. “Leave me alone Giovanni,” she whispered, stepping away from him. His brow wrinkled as he watched her walk over to Joey who wrapped his arms around her. “Do you know why her dad would call them?” Vinny asked him and Joey shook his head. “No, this is news to me. I knew he was upset last time so I can’t see why he would do this.” Vinny watched Val, his gut twisting at the sight. Family or not, it should be him holding her and comforting her, not Joey. “Val, have you ever had anything like this happen
“You don’t think Val would have done something, right?” Vinny looked over at Frankie. “Like spy and then ratted us out? No, not at all.” “Your dad thinks that.” Vinny took a sip of his whiskey and shrugged. His dad could go on thinking whatever he wanted, so long as he didn’t say anything. However, if he did, then Vinny would have a problem. “What would Val have gained? It’s not as if she has a lot of offers for marriage or a lot of time for anything anyway. And if not that, then what, freedom from me? It wasn’t as if I was there. And she’s smart enough to know that if this was her, this would only start back up a war we are trying to stop.” Frankie laughed and Vinny just stared at him. “What is so God damn funny?” “Never thought I would see the day that Giovanni Constantini would claim that Valentina De Luca was smart; usually you were pretty good at putting her down.” Vinny would actually agree with that. Not that
“Are you okay?” Val looked up from her menu at one of her long-standing friends, a daughter of another family that worked under her dad. “Yes…no…I don’t know Luciana.” “Is it the prick again?” Val looked at her friend and shook her head. Throughout all the history with her fiancé here, Luciana knew it all. And the night that Val got the news; she had to call her best friend. To say that Luciana was livid was understating it. Every mafia child knew their place in the world; very few got to marry for love. Your one hope was that the man was kind enough to you. And well, they had both never thought that Val would be married off to her enemy. And here came the fun part, trying to change her friend’s mind. Some were way more open but some, like Luciana, believed Vinny to be the devil and as such could never be good to Val. Of course, some of their moments were still tense, but overall, they had seemed to be working on it.
Vinny ended the call and tried to control his anger once again. How the fuck did this go wrong? That was the biggest question. But he didn’t have time to dwell on that right now. He needed to call his dad and their doctor to have them both come here as Salvatore couldn’t go to the hospital. “It’s going to be okay,” Vinny said, reaching out his hand to a trembling Val. He wrapped his arms around her once she stood up, her hands clutching tightly to his suit jacket. “They will bring him here, so I need to call my dad and our surgeon. Will you want to go to bed?” “No, I….want to stay, make sure he’s okay. My dad has had problems in the past and I would stay to make sure everything was okay.” Vinny nodded, reaching for the phone to call his dad, praying that he wouldn’t get the yelling then.----- “Che cazzo è successo (what the fuck happened)?” Donatello asked as he burst through Giovanni’s front door. Valentina glanced up at him
Vinny walked into the house, almost tripping over the shoes that were left by the door. He glanced down at the problem, his teeth clenching. God, what a spoiled ass if she thought she could leave her shit lying around and he wouldn’t be upset. He bent down and moved the shoes and walked further in, finding a jacket on the floor. His eyes finally glanced up and he saw the trail of clothing leading down the hallway. He quickly picked everything up and tossed it in her room but frowned when he didn’t see her. “Val?” He waited for a response but heard none and headed back down the hallway and to the library, seeing her in a pair of shorts and a tank top, sitting on the couch, a tumbler of amber liquid in her hand. She kept her gaze outside the window that overlooked the backyard. “Val,” he repeated. He knew she had heard him, knew that she knew he was there, yet she did nothing but lift the glass to her lips and took a small sip. “Yes, Giovanni?”