Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER TWENTY

Mimi

I’ve finally gotten to the stage where I’m thinking of menus.

It’s exciting, and exciting to brainstorm my ideas.

I’d decided that I wouldn’t make the restaurant an Italian bistro because I want to have a combination of different dishes from across the world. I want to do all the dishes Mom taught me to make and incorporate them somehow.

Mom was born and raised in Illinois. The same as my grandmother, but my great grandparents were Irish.

I want the restaurant to reflect everything that makes me, me.

I’ve been at the building today doing that and guiding the workmen in the redecoration.

The place is big enough to seat two hundred people and there are two smaller rooms that seat fifty, that can be used for private bookings. I have an office to myself which needs some adjustments and a break room for staff. I couldn’t be happier with the place. If I get business going like I planned for two months’ time, I’ll be looking at making my first fortune by Christmas. I would be so excited. It would be the first time that I would have truly accomplished anything in my life.

I was in the office earlier but decided to come out on the floor and sit behind the bar to make my notes and brainstorm.

It was a good thing I did that too or I probably would have missed the man standing at the door.

Dad.

He was trying to peer through the frosted glass then he started twisting the door handle. It was locked. He couldn’t see me but I could see him.

I could see him and for the first time ever I contemplated not seeing him.

I hadn’t told him about the restaurant yet.

At dinner the other week, I just acted like I’d moved on from the idea. The fact that he’s here clearly means he knows, and he’s gonna know that other than robbing a bank someone just as rich and powerful as him must have helped me.

I’m not in the mood to be bitched at today. I had a plan to focus on the menus then go to my grandmother’s to get the old recipe books Mom had there.

But can I leave my father outside just like that?

I feel myself getting up even before the answer can filter into my head.

He was about to leave when I opened the door and the look on his face is none other than disapproval.

“Hi Dad,” I say and he sighs.

“Can I come in?” he asks, not even bothering with pleasantries.

I swing the door wider and he steps in. He looks about the place which looks close to being ready, then he returns his gaze to me.

“Where do I even begin?” he asks.

“What do you mean? I got the place. I did it.”

“How?” he throws back, but he already knows the answer to that.

“Salvatore invested.” That’s the best way that I can say it, but he knows it for a lie too.

“Mimi, I’m not stupid. I’m not fucking stupid and I really hoped you wouldn’t be either. Those guys don’t just invest. I can’t stand that you work at The Dark Odyssey, I hate that I know what that place is. But you have to do this too? This is more than just working for them.”

“Dad, I came to you and you said no. You made me feel like shit. Like nothing. You more than have the money to invest in me and you said no.”

“So you thought you’d spread your legs for the Giordanos to get what you want?” His nostrils flare and his eyes blaze.

My lips part. He’s never spoken to me like that before and if he wasn’t my father I would have slapped him by now.

“How could you say that to me?” I fume.

“Oh, so it’s not true? Really Mimi, tell me you aren’t sleeping with Salvatore and then I might think it really is an investment.”

I’m stunned and stumped because what am I supposed to say to him? What the hell am I supposed to tell him. It’s true. If I were to pick the situation apart it would be true. Salvatore made me an offer and I’m sleeping with him.

My silence is enough and he looks disappointed and worried all at the same time.

“Mimi… Jesus Christ girl. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. You never do. You follow them blindly. You follow him blindly and it’s dangerous. How I wish you would stop, but you just keep going deeper and deeper.”

“It’s not like that Dad. He cares about me.”

He shakes his head. “Sweetheart, you barely understand men, let alone men like that. Men like me. Once you’re in the mob you’re in for life. It means danger and I never wanted that for you. I tried to send you away to school and you stayed here. I tried so hard to get you away from the lot of them and now you’re involved. Three million Mimi. You are priceless. Priceless and precious to me and I wish to fuck you didn’t sign your body away to a criminal.”

“It’s not like that Dad,” I say again sounding like a broken record.

“It is Mimi. It’s exactly that. I’ve worked for the Giordanos for over forty years. So I know it’s exactly that. Like father like sons from one to the next. It’s all danger and distrust. They lie and they cheat. You can trust them as far as you can throw them, ” he points out. “Your mother hated our world, hated me, hated me so much she didn’t value her life. I don’t want that for you. I don’t want you to be with a man you can’t trust because he can’t tell you his secrets or anything. I didn’t want you to be with a man who is the essence of danger, let alone holding this building over your head so he can use you.”

“Dad…” my voice trails off. There’s no point repeating the same mantra.

“I don’t approve, Mimi. I don’t approve of any of it.” He shakes his head and my breath stills.

He walks away from me, continuing out the door. I stare until I can’t see him anymore.

Numbness fills me at the thought of Mom and all he said. Everything.

Numbness and sadness.

That conversation there was filled with a lot and part of me doesn’t want to accept that there were some elements of truth to what he said.

There was though.

Especially what he said about Mom. She wasn’t part of our world and I remember them arguing. She hated the constant threats. The need to keep watch. The threat to me and our family. Dad’s not the everyday mobster but he’s an associate. His links were enough to get him and everybody he knows killed if things went wrong.

It’s enough to hate our way of life.

Dad knows Mom killed herself. He blames himself for it. That’s why he said what he said. He wouldn’t let her go when she wanted to leave. That talk is because he doesn’t want the same thing to happen to me. Or worse.

I know being with Salvatore is dangerous but I never think of it like that and … as for trust…

I trust him.

I do trust him with more than just my body.

My heart, mind and soul do too and those haven’t just come suddenly over the last few weeks we’ve been together.

The time that we’ve been together has made it feel like it was safe to unlock those parts of me.

Yes, I’m still scared from what happened with Gabe. However, I’ve truly, truly been able to trust myself in distinguishing between what happened with him and what I have now with Salvatore.

It’s the real deal.

That’s the difference.

So I have to believe that Dad isn’t right about the distrust, lies or cheating.

Not with Salvatore.

Never. He wouldn’t lie to me or cheat. I know it.

He wouldn’t treat me the way Gabe did. I actually know it.

I know I can trust him, and if I trust him I know he’ll keep me out of danger.

At the thought something unlocks in me and pieces of that wall crumble, allowing me access to what I feel for him.

Trust and love.

Love…

When I think of it now my heart squeezes.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I don’t want my relationship to be like Dad said so I know what I have to do.

My heart makes me pack up my stuff and go to Salvatore. I head to Giordano’s Inc. and go straight to his office.

His door is open and he’s inside talking with Georgiou who I haven’t seen in months, and Christian.

They don’t see me at first so I linger by the door frame.

Georgiou and Christian are brothers but I swear they could all look like they’re cut from the same cloth as Salvatore. They all have a very prominent look. It’s called handsome.

They all look alike and similar. The differences are very subtle but you can tell they’re all related.

They’re talking about some business contract. Salvatore stands and sees me first. Dressed in his white button-down and tailored pants he looks different to how he dresses for the club.

I smile when I see the wild sexual energy come into his eyes and remember him saying that I’d know when he looked at me that he wanted me. That’s what I see now.

“Hi boys,” I say to them but I’m looking at my boy.

I barely register that Georgiou and Christian answer and then they’re leaving. I did hear the little comment though that Christian made about me to his brother as they walked away. Something about how hot I looked at the club the other night.

I’m still looking at my guy whose smile turns up a notch when I walk in.

“The Lord is real,” Salvatore says.

“I believe that but with the type of sins we’ve been getting up to aren’t you scared he might strike you with lightning?” I counter.

“Nah, nah, nah he doesn’t see me that way Babygirl. I just prayed I could see you before tonight and here you are.”

I laugh and he reaches for me, pulling me into his lap as he sits on the edge of the desk. His lips find mine and he kisses me but I pull back, aware of where we are.

“Baby, what the fuck, you not gonna kiss me?”

“Not the crazy way we kiss.”

Old man Giordano is scary enough on a good day, there’s no way I want him coming in here and seeing me making out with his son in the middle of the day.

When Salvatore and I get together even the kissing is best reserved for the bedroom unless we’re at The Dark Odyssey.

“Baby you can’t do that. You can’t come here with your fine self and torture me, what did I do to deserve that?” He’s talking all lighthearted and I smile but as I look at him I remember Dad’s words and it gets to me. I remember my state of mind weeks ago. I remember what this guy had to do to be with me. Just to get a chance with me.

There were some things Dad said that were right, others I have control over. Like looking like I sold my body and my life away for three million. It’s not the case because I know what I feel for my boy is real, and him for me too.

“What’s wrong Babygirl?” Salvatore asks.

I touch his face and run my fingers over his beard. “I don’t care about the restaurant,” I tell him.

“You don’t like it anymore? I’ll get you a different one.” He smirks but without the humor.

“It’s not that. I don’t want you to have to think that the only way for you to be with me is if you wave the restaurant in front of me. Yes I want it, but I want you more. I wanted you more and that’s why I agreed.”

He smiles down at me. “And you don’t think I knew that?”

I stare at him. “Did you?”

“Mimi Babygirl you and me go way back. I know you and we have this…” he motions from me to him. I know what he means, I feel it. “We have that thing. So I know you.”

“I know you too. Salvatore, I want you to see it as an investment. Please. Please… I’d feel better if it’s something you invest in.”

“So I can’t give it to you?” He smiles and brushes his nose playfully over mine.

“Not the way you said. I don’t want you to just give it to me. I want you to have a part in it. And I pay you back, or you get a percentage of it. Something.”

“Doll I gotta say not a lot of chicks would turn away a building worth three million.” He grins.

“I’m not though, I’m just including you. If this is about us then I want you to take the restaurant out of the equation.”

He contemplates it and looks uneasy. “Alright. Let’s call it an investment, but as long as it doesn’t take us back to square one.”

“It won’t. It’s not. I promise. I’m with you and that’s how it is.” I nod with determination and he grins at me.

“I like hearing that. But…what’s brought this on baby?” he asks.

I dare not tell him my father made me sound like a slut spreading my legs for him so I could get money. Salvatore would go crazy. So I call on another truth.

“It will make me feel better, because with or without the restaurant I would still be with you. Maybe I would have taken a little longer than I wanted but I would have come to this conclusion. That’s why.”

He holds my gaze and looks me over. “Okay…”

I smile and kiss him quickly. “I better go.”

“Hey, Babygirl. Looks like something else is bothering you.”

I look at him and think of the danger. He himself said that I know what he is and who he is. Mobster and not just any old mobster either. He’s a Giordano.

“Salvatore, I know you guys like to keep women out of business and you probably can’t answer me but you…” I feel really uncomfortable talking about this. We never talk about anything to do with business other than the club and he knows the business I’m talking about isn’t that. It’s the thing that’s been drilled into me from birth to never speak of.

“What is it Babygirl?”

I look at him and I see him as my boy, but I know he isn’t a boy anymore. Frankie was killed then Vincent became underboss and capo. That’s the way it works in their family. Very traditional. Something doesn’t have to happen to Vincent for Salvatore to have to take the lead. He’s not like Vincent. He’s here doing the books but I’ve seen him in action. He’d take the lead if he needed to. He’d become capo when the time called for it.

“You’re careful, right… I mean if there was danger you’d be careful.” I nod like I’m giving myself the answer, the reassurance.

He stares at me. “I’m careful. Are you worried about danger Mimi?”

“No… um I just wondered. I worry for you. It’s not like danger hasn’t come for us all before.”

“You know what? If danger comes I have a plan. It’s Giordano protocol. Do you want to hear what it is?”

“Yes.”

“Protect your woman first. You are mine Mimi and I will protect you first always.”

I can’t lie and say I don’t feel touched by that, but what about him? “Thank you…but will you keep yourself safe too?”

He smiles at me. “Baby… don’t you worry about me. Don’t. I don’t want you to.

“I do though. Salvatore… please promise me you’ll be safe.”

“I promise…Come here baby, I miss your lips and the taste of you.” He crooks his finger and I go to him.

I go to him. My lips touch his but I still worry.

Dad’s words are still in my mind.