In the pit of his stomach, he already knew this is going to fall on his shoulders. There’s no way he can let Chase or Rory take this fall. Rory won’t survive a loveless marriage and Chase will get shot dead being an unfaithful husband or drown in the misery of being a husband.
“Stellina, this was the deal. I call, you answer. You have no further say,” Dominic says, waving his hand with finality. “YOU have given up the one thing that I granted you. Your safety in anonymity. You exposed yourself and you stepped into this business FOR THEM. YOUR KINGS! I could have forced you to come home,” Dom says harshly, jamming his finger onto the top of the desk to make his point clear. “But I did not! Now it’s their turn to show me that they can keep you safe!”
Because Kings have catastrophically failed at the task multiple times. He can hear Dom’s insinuation loud and clear from where he stands.
“Why does it have to be this?” Stella asks.
With all pretenses dropped, Derrick stands and walks over to comfort his wife.
“Stellina,” Lilliana speaks. “Don Vitali originally made a similar arrangement with the Romanos and his grandnephew. But with his passing and your grandfather stepping in instead, Lorenzo Vitali no longer has to uphold to that arrangement.”
“I don’t understand,” Stella says.
“Even without his granduncle, Lorenzo Vitali still ranks high up in the organization. He has the option of declining now. The man doesn’t need to get hitched to anyone to hold his spot in the organization,” he informs Stella.
“Adam is right,” Lilliana confirms.
“And if I don’t do right by the Romanos, Matteo might move to another of The Five. The move will bring questions and concerns about my leadership. I cannot have any unnecessary focus on me right now and you know why. Matteo Romano has too many ears to whisper into,” Dom tells everyone.
“I’ve thought about this many times over,” Dom continues. “It doesn’t bring me joy but this will solve many issues. Issues from the past and any issues that may come in the future. It brings you close to home but not too close to suspicion. Out of respect for my late friend, Micky Vitali, I won’t force Lorenzo.”
“Give it a chance,” Lilliana says and looks around the room. “Isabella might be a good match for one of you. She’s thirty-seven years old. She knows her place and she’s familiar with this life. She and her brother have been friends with Nico for a long time.”
“Nonna, this is a lifetime sentence,” Stella says before turning and facing Dominic. “This isn’t fair to any of them.”
“We’ll give you all a moment to discuss this. But this isn’t me asking a favor, Stellina. This is your family paying a price for your decisions. If they are the family worthy of your loyalty, then let them prove it,” Dominic says and gets out of his seat, leaving the room with Lilliana behind him.
Once the door closes, Stella’s eyes drop to the expensive flooring.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I-I’m…there’s nothing I can say. I don’t know how to make this right.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Derrick tries to console her.
“How?” he asks his twin. “Because for the life of me, I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this.”
He didn’t have to say it out loud to rub it in that Stella…that they all had been fools not to consider that Don Dominic Mazzilli wouldn’t use Stella’s choice as a bargaining chip to bring his only grandchild and great-grandson closer to home. He should have seen it coming the moment Mazzilli held little Rian King.
“Adam, I’m-I—”
“Stella, I know. But it doesn’t change the fact that we’re in this now,” he barks at her. He didn’t mean to sound like that but fuck this mess!
“So,” Chase, the circus clown that he is, starts up. “Are we going to draw straws or what?”
“Stop being a dick,” Derrick growls at Chase.
“Easy for you to say. You’re not getting forced into something you have no want or need of,” Chase barks back. “Ro, you like your women older. Maybe you should take one for the team.”
“This isn’t the time to fuck around,” Rory responds much calmer than he expected. “I think maybe we should at least go and meet the woman first. Then take it from there.”
Chapter Three
The car ride to the meeting is deafeningly silent.
Thankfully, Dominic and Lilliana were able to convince Stella to stay with them during this meeting. She didn’t need to be present. It’s already eating at her enough. The Don and his wife must know that if Stella had come along, she’d fight this every step of the way, no matter whose toes she steps on.
In hindsight, maybe she should be here then.
“Rory, are you seriously considering this?” he asks his little brother.
He can’t imagine Rory being happy in an arranged marriage but ever since his last failed relationship and the loss of many of their men, men who were close to his little brother, Rory has been different. Quieter and more drawn into himself.
“Shouldn’t I, Adam? If it has to be me, then I can step up.”
“Why would you think it has to be you?” Derrick asks.
Derrick hasn’t said much on this subject either. He knows Derrick is tripping over guilt with this just as much as Stella is.
“Adam has Jazzy to think about. He can’t just bring any woman into her life. You’re married already,” Rory answers. “And Chase? Well, Chase isn’t going to do it.”
Chase’s loud sigh of frustration is heard from the front seat.
“I’m not saying I’m mad at Stell for this,” Chase says. “But this isn’t right.”
“I’m sorry,” Derrick tells them all.
“It’s not your fault either, brother.”
He knows what his twin is thinking. Ever since the explosion that took a good chunk of Derrick’s memory, his brother has been struggling with his new life. One that includes a wife like Stella and an innocent son now too. The funny thing about that is that Derrick doesn’t know how lucky he is to fall in love with the same woman not once but twice in the same lifetime.
“We’re here,” Rory says, pulling into the parking lot of Eden, another Romano owned club if anyone can call it that. Olympus is supposed to be similar in business to Eden from what he knows.
Men immediately step up to open their doors for them when Rory comes to a stop in front of the building. He slips out of the back passenger door, slipping his business mask on.
The establishment is large, almost the size of a warehouse. For a members-only club, business seems to be booming with people hustling and bustling in and out.
“This way,” one of the men says, gesturing to a separate entrance than the one the line is formed at.
He and Derrick walk in together with their two younger brother’s close and on guard right behind them. No one stops to check them so either security is lax here or they are just that confident that shit isn’t going to go down. Most likely the latter. Romanos are within the circle, after all.
The music is a lot softer than he expected inside but the tables are filled with conversations and whispered innuendos. There are no scantily clad women dancing on poles but there are half-dressed cocktail waitresses and then half-naked goddesses roaming around the establishment hanging on arms of men and women who are undeniably members of high society.