After leaving Lucia’s room, I took a long shower then fell face-first into my own bed, not straying an inch from my original position. Waking feeling more refreshed and satisfied than I could remember feeling in months and months, I sauntered into our family’s dining room and settled in for breakfast. Marcello and Savio were already there; Marcello shovelling in food like there would be no tomorrow and Savio mumbling to himself.
As a white and black dressed servant placed a fluffy omelet before me along with the strong black coffee I always drank, I clapped my hands, making both of my brothers jump. “It’s good to be a Cavetti,” I spouted, feeling almost high. That’s what a combination of having Lucia get me off and gunning down our competitors had done for me. Savio shot me a strange look while Marcello continued to eat.
“Hey, fratello, what’s got you so cheerful?” Savio asked.
I almost told him the truth. I was just in that kind of mood. I fucked the hell out of Lucia Bonifacio’s mouth and hand last night, was right on the tip of my tongue, but I held back. Not because I cared about propriety but because it wasn’t any of their business. Instead, I bragged about something else more appropriate and just as pertinent. “What’s not to be cheerful about? We leaped to the top of the food chain last night.”
Savio made a gesture that was half nod and half shrug. “True.”
All Marcello did was raise a single contemplative eyebrow, but then, he had never been much of a talker.
“Our futures are shining brighter than ever before. We can write our own tickets from now on, dictate our fates. Hell, I don’t even see a reason to stick with the original plan anymore,” I told them, taking a huge bite of egg and mozzarella cheese.
“What do you mean?” Savio asked me.
“I mean, we can basically do whatever we want. The old dinosaur traditions the Bonifacios and other ancient relics have lived by are obsolete. Ancient history. Things like marriage for the sake of truces or alliances are unnecessary. And heirs? Why waste our young adult lives creating children who have to be reared? We can just enjoy our time. Once we’re used up and ready to retire, then we can knock up whoever, and wham bam… There’s our legacy.”
I even had Marcello’s interest now. “Are you serious?” he questioned me in his deep resonant voice. “Father would skin you alive if he heard you say that.”
I huffed out my indignance. “Why? He’s never lived by the rules, either. Which other crime family is here to enforce those archaic rules and codes of conduct? Anyone gets out of line, and we’ll do what we did yesterday. Done deal. We have no one to threaten us now. We can do whatever we wish.”
“I agree with Marcello,” Savio put in, lowering his voice. “Just because we’re on top today doesn’t mean we’ll automatically stay that way. We’ll need to work at it. Propagate the right type of alliances and increase the size of our family. Otherwise, we could die off early and the Cavettis could be no more. Besides, isn’t Father putting together a wedding for you and Lucia Bonifacio already?”
“Whatever,” I popped off, feeling invincible. “So what if he wants to throw some party. I think marrying her is unnecessary.” Especially when I could simply slip into her room and have her for real tonight, which I was seriously contemplating. Things had been explosive between us in that way since day one, and most of what we’d done last night was merely rub off in each other’s hands. I couldn’t wait to watch her come again as I plunged my cock inside of her.
The blow came from out of nowhere and absolutely blindsided me. I wound up on the floor of our dining room, my chair overturned, and the right side of my face stinging from the vicious backhand my father had just delivered to me. The taste of pennies washed through my mouth, and I touched my already swelling lip, my fingers coming back with a few droplets of blood.
“How dare you mouth off like you’re the king of the known universe, you little asshole. Who the fuck do you think you are? I’m the head of this family, and I say what goes. Have you forgotten that?” He raised his hand as if to strike again, and I stood.
“No, Father. I haven’t forgotten.” I faced him unflinchingly. It was what was expected. Cowering or wincing at punishments would always be considered unmanly and not befitting mafia royalty. He remained noticeably outraged, so I prepared myself for whatever else he might throw at me.
“Going on about not having to get married when I have half your wedding arranged already? It’ll take place in a couple of months, and you’re acting as if you don’t have to go through with it.” He grabbed my plate still half-filled with my breakfast and chucked it across the room, smashing the fine china into the decorative rock fountain bubbling sedately in the corner. “Perhaps you need a reminder of who’s in charge around here. Perhaps you could use a taste of the medicine the Bonifacio boys are so enjoying right now. Wasn’t it your bright idea to utilize tougher punishments to get the job done? Maybe that means you’ll hear the lessons I’ve taught you all your life better if there’s a whip-cracking against you to help it sink in.”
I kept my voice steady, always presenting strength, even though I knew going through something like that would be immensely unsettling. Not to mention physically debilitating. Rage boiled within me, but I had no choice but to backpedal. “I apologize, Father. I was disrespectful, and I take it back.”
“Damn right you were disrespectful.” He took me by the shoulders and shoved me backward into the wall, banging my head off the plaster. Right then, despite our blood ties, I loathed Angelo Cavetti. While he was our patriarch, I was no longer a child and hated being treated as such. My only consolation was these two violent actions had been enough to leave him out of breath. He’d let himself go and was out of shape as well as over the hill. Though we as his sons were only in our twenties, his first wife had been infertile. Our father had only married our mother Dahlia after his wife had died, and he’d been thirty years her senior. What a disappointment it must’ve been for him to lose Dahlia so young.
I know it was disappointing to me.
But now wasn’t the time for that.
“Now you listen to me, Romeo Dante Cavetti. As long as I am alive, you will continue to do what I say. You will enforce my command and live by my rules. You will marry Lucia Bonifacio in the ceremony I have orchestrated for you, and you will impregnate her as soon as possible so the next generations of heirs can be fostered. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Father,” I muttered, envisioning myself pitching him off our roof.
“I said, do you hear me?” he shouted, almost wheezing, and I responded more clearly.
“Yes, I heard you, Father.”
“Are we going to have any problems during your wedding?”
Inwardly, I sighed. “No, sir.”
“Then, get out of my sight. You are banished from this house for the next two weeks. I need you out from underfoot.”
“Banished from the house?” I parroted back at him. What the fuck was this?
“Yes. You will go yourself to all the new sites that have been divulged to us and make sure the finances and transition to our leadership is running smoothly. Once that is done, you will go to our distribution warehouses and make your presence known. Ensure all our people are loyal across the board. Make an example of anyone you suspect might be doing otherwise. I don’t care where you stay, but you are not to return here during that time. Perhaps some distance will give you an appreciation for what I have afforded you. You have fifteen minutes to pack, and then I expect you gone. Go.”