Indebted to the Mafia King
Branching Out

Dante

Earlier than expected, I walk in the front door of my house. Piacere actually ran smoothly for once, and I have high hopes they won't even need me there for another day or two. El and I haven't spent a ton of time together since our day of errands, and I miss her despite falling asleep next to her every night. Sometimes, I think it might be better if she was involved in high-level operations again, but that might just be a side effect of wanting to see her more often. No, some of the capos still look around for her when I give an order. I know a handful of them text her nearly everything. They'll answer to me especially because I suspect she told them to-but she's won their loyalty forever. I can't say I don't understand.

I wander through the house until I find Eleni in the living room at the back of the house, sprawled out on the leather couch with a laptop on her chest and a mostly empty pitcher next to her. "Hey-"

Pitcher. With a little bit of something yellow at the bottom. The wives were here.

"How was your day?" I ask wincingly.

She blows out a long breath and looks at me. "Did you know they were coming today?"

I circle around the couch and sit in front of it, at eye level with her. "I swear, I didn't. I would've warned you."

She sighs again. "They've got a real...energy."

I nodded. "Nicky scares me a little."

Eleni looks at me for a second, then bursts into laughter. "I've watched you walk through a gunfight with a straight face, and she scares you?"

"What?" I put up my hands, grinning at the lightness in her face. "She reminds me of my dad's mom. Scary lady. Just because Nicky doesn't have a wooden spoon yet, doesn't mean she won't get one. The backs of my hands hurt just thinking about it."

That only makes Eleni laugh even harder. My chest warms. It's barely been a week, and already, she looks completely different from the frozen woman I met at the warehouse, my first day back in the world. That time apart left its marks on both of us, but every time I see her smile, healing feels a little more possible.

"What are you up to, then?" I shift to see her laptop screen as her laughter dies out.

The sorts of fitted tops and skirts all the mafia wives wear cover the screen in every shape and color. Bizarrely, my stomach sinks. I don't want her dressed like the other wives.

"I didn't exactly fit in today." She plucks at her oversized T-shirt, then gestures to the skirt I'm pretty sure she told me her mother brought over from Greece.

"I think you look wonderful," I say, trying to figure out why I don't want my gorgeous girlfriend in sexier clothes.

She snorts. "Tell Nicky that."

The pieces click. I don't want to tell anyone about her body. It's so perfect I want to keep it all to myself, under her modest shirts and skirts. The way she hides herself makes her feel so much more like a treasure I'm discovering. Dressing up for the gala or other occasional events is one thing, but I can read the labels of most of the wives' clothing from the outside. I want Eleni to be mine.

But that sounds like something I'd say in bed, not something to admit to in midafternoon daylight. Here, it's possessive. Borderline creepy. I want Eleni to be happy, and if a closet full of spandex makes her happy, I'll figure out how to live with

it.

"She wasn't too bossy, was she?" I trail my finger over El's shoulder. "You're supposed to be in charge."

"They were very clear about that." She turns back to her screen. "I don't know how I feel about being in charge of those women just because we're sleeping together." That stings. "What?"

She shakes her head. "I just mean...I'm good at this. It feels like bullshit that a week ago, the whole city was scared of me, and now I'm a dick-appointed event planner."

I kiss her cheek and sigh. "I know it's not fair. And we'll work on that, I promise. But the barbecue is only a few weeks away. Can you dick-appointedly plan one event so the wives don't tear either of us to shreds?"

She laughs. "You sure have a way with words."

Tony leans into the doorway. "I hate to inter-no, I don't. I have news."

I snort and stand. "Duty calls."

"Dinner at seven?" she asks.

I kiss her on the head as an agreement and leave with my second. He waits until we walk all the way down the hall to my office and I sit to say anything.

"I've been watching Cal like you asked," he says.

I open my laptop and sigh. "So then news would mean you've seen something."

"No, I figured I'd call you in here for a chat. What are you two crazy kids doing for dinner?" He rolls his eyes. "Of course, I've seen something."

I gesture for him to continue and try to fight through the new filters Eleni put on my shit to reach the document I want.

"Cal's smarter than I thought," he says. "At first, I thought he wasn't doing anything more than testing boundaries. A couple of Kings here and there, barely doing anything more than starting fights." Finally, I open the document. I'm going to need to talk to El about disabling some of these. I know she's the tech whiz, but there's no way these programs are worth how goddamn irritating they are." "Then I saw the pattern." Tony starts pacing back and forth. "The incursions are all equally spaced out. Geographically, and in time. And they're all on territory the Lombardis or the Coppolas held." "Multiple Coppola incursions?" I look up. "They barely had more than Benny's."

Tony pauses, inclines his head. "Just two on ex-Coppola turf."

"So, you're telling me another player in the city has been testing the security of newly ceded territory at pretty much exactly the level as to be expected?" "Yeah," he says slowly. "All right, it's probably normal. The timing just seemed fucked, and I don't trust those Irish bastards as far as I can throw them."

I lean back in my chair. "Me either, Tone, but that's no reason to go inventing conspiracy theories. What if things are actually just quiet?"

He huffs a breath. "I'm not going to stop watching."

"I wouldn't expect you to. Just don't watch so much you piss him off anyway."

Tony scoffs. "What am I, some fucking Cugine?"

I grin. "If you don't have anything else, I'm going to get back to my beautiful girlfriend who spent the day in the clutches of the wives."

Tony nods quickly and, if I didn't know better, hurries out of the room. I stare after him for a second, wondering what the hell lit his ass on fire, then decide he'll tell me if it matters. Eleni waits. Maybe I can convince her to do some other kinds of shopping as well....

I wander out of the office just in time to almost run into her.

"Shit!" She startles back a step. "Sorry, Gianna just texted me. We're going to go shopping for a little before dinner."

I can kill a few hours on my own. I pull out my wallet and hand her the credit card with the highest limit. "Buy whatever you want."

She grins and plucks it out of my fingers. "Done. And I promise I'll be back in time."

With a quick kiss, she disappears upstairs to change, and I head back into my office. Fuck, I need some hobbies.