Indebted to the Mafia King
Best-Laid Plans

Dante

The next morning, Eleni lies splayed across my chest, her naked shoulders peeking above the blanket. Her hand lays open, and the ring I picked out for her glitters on her finger. I smile. It was time. Being "just a girlfriend" in this life put her in so much more danger. At least, that's what I told Tony and the other guys. But who the fuck was I kidding? The birds are singing, the sun is shining, and my fiancée is drooling a little. My ribs hurt with how full my heart is.

Or with the weight said fiancée is putting on my still only mostly healed bullet wound. But I'll let El wake up in her own time. I brush a few curls back off her face.

She wakes up with a snort and blinks up at me in total confusion for a second. Then, she touches the corner of her mouth where the drool was coming from and turns bright red.

"It's okay!" I try to say before she can freak out.

She buries her head beneath the pillow. "Forget the proposal. I'm moving to Alaska."

I roll over top of her, caging her with my arms. "It's okay, really. I think it's kind of cute."

She peeks one eye out. "Think? Not thought? As in, this has happened more than once?"

I open and close my mouth helplessly. She groans and hides deeper underneath the pillow. But today, of all days, I'm not letting her run away from me. I pull the pillow off and expose her to my eyes, sleep-rumpled hair, drool, and all. She's still red, but she's giggling a little now. I kiss her and barely notice neither of us have brushed our teeth yet. Forever like this. I could get used to that. She winds her arms around my neck, and the blankets shift, allowing me to feel her bare skin. Fuck, waking up to her naked is even better. I run my hands up her rib cage.

Eleni pulls back. "I have a small confession."

My heart skips a beat. "Yeah?"

"I saw the ring box a couple weeks ago." She bites her lip. "Were you planning a proposal for weeks and the best you could come up with was 'while you were inside me?"" My mouth falls open. "You have notes already?"

"No, no!" She kisses me before I can move away in mostly mock hurt. "I was just curious."

I shake my head and roll off of her. By the amusement in her face, she really is just teasing. A few weeks ago. When did I fuck up? How is she so much smarter than me?

"I had a much bigger plan," I admit. "There was dinner, dancing, a trip to the back room where I bought you in Piacere."

She laughs. "How romantic."

I nudge her playfully. It would have been. "That's why I brought your mom here." I sit bolt upright. "Fuck. I was supposed to ask her permission."

"Old-fashioned." She plays with the hair on my chest. "Baba would've liked that."

She gets a faraway look in her eyes, and I kiss her once more.

"My parents would've loved you."

"Really?" She smiles. "I imagined your mom would've been the 'no one's good enough for my son' type."

"Oh, she was." I get out of bed and pull El with me. Our rings clink together. It feels a little silly, already wearing mine, but I promised, and I never want to break a promise to her. "I just think you'd have won her over anyway." She starts getting dressed. "Is it my total mental breakdown after you got shot, or my lack of homemaking skills that would impress her?"

I smack El's ass as she pulls on a long, loose skirt. "Your blistering intellect, and the fact that you take no shit from me."

She laughs. "Mama will like you better if you curse less."

I mime locking my lips with a key and put on my suit as quickly as possible. Despite everything, work awaits. The very idea pains me. When we're both dressed, I grab El.

"Seriously," I say. "The impulsive proposal was good? Because we can still do the whole thing and not tell anyone you already said yes."

She meets my gaze, and her beautiful blue eyes overflow with emotion. It's not just protection for either of us.

"It was perfect." She kisses me. "I love you."

"I love you too." I grin and take her hand. "Now let's go see if I can impress your mom."

Maria is already awake and leaning over something sizzling on the stove when we come down.

"I'm making omeletta, zouzou-" She turns and sees the two of us, hand in hand. "Ah. Good morning, Dante."

"Good morning, Mrs. Calimeris." I resist the odd impulse to bow. Fuck, if I didn't already know I was in deep. I want this woman to like me so badly.

"Mama." El takes her hand from mine. "You know what you told me to tell Dante?"

She turns back to the stove. "That he ought to marry you if he wants to keep staking his claim like this."

Eleni holds out her hand. A beat of silence passes. Then another. Maria turns and sees the ring. She looks from it, to me, to El, to it again. She drops her spatula on the floor and swoops Eleni up in a hug.

They exchange a rapid, high-pitched mix of Greek and English that I can't parse, but it seems excited. While they celebrate, I wander around the kitchen island and pull out another spatula for when Maria inevitably notices the oven is still on. Abruptly, she turns to me and looks me up and down. "Eleni tells me you have no family."

I swallow and set the spatula on the counter. "I have a cousin, and some friends I've grown up with."

She stares at me a moment longer. "What do you want out of a marriage?"

I glance at Eleni over her shoulder, who nods. No cursing.

"My mom and dad loved each other very much, but they were always on different pages," I say. "They lived their own lives in the same house. I don't want that." I look between the two women and realize for the first time that they have the exact same blue eyes. "I want a partner in life. Someone I share everything with. Who I lean on, and who leans on me."

Another beat of silence. Then, Maria sweeps me up in a bone-crushing hug.

"You'll call me Mama," she says. "I won't accept anything else after the wedding, but you should practice now."

I was wrong. My chest could ache with more emotion. I hug her back and don't consider the last time I hugged my own mother.

"Mama, the omeletta!" Eleni says.

Maria Mama releases me instantly and turns to the stove.

***

After breakfast, Gianna arrives. The ring is greeted with much squealing, and she whisks Eleni and Mama away for a spa day before I can get a word in edgewise. For a moment, I think I've lost my cousin to the allure of actually having women in my house, but she pauses at the door and punches me in the shoulder.

"Took you long enough," she says.

I laugh. "Did you really think I would let this one go?"

"If she asked you to." Gianna shakes her head. "Congrats. Don't fuck it up."

With that good luck, I head back inside and dial Tony.

"Dante," he answers quickly.

My news hums on my tongue, but I have something more important to ask first. "Did you figure out what Camila was doing?"

His sigh is harsh over the line. "She didn't make it back to the apartment. I put a couple other guys on her tail, but she knows these fucking streets. Dumped her convertible and lost them on foot."

"Motherfucker." I spin my ring around my finger as the heavy mantle of boss settles back on my shoulder. The news can wait. I have to figure out what the fuck Camila is doing talking to the Russians.