“Wait,” Ma shouted, her tone frantic. “Wait, Lorenzo.” I halted, my gaze focused on the office door. I couldn’t turn around, not with how I felt at that moment. I needed time to process everything that had happened over the last few days. And I needed to drink this entire bottle of alcohol, and possibly another one just to numb all of my swirling thoughts.
Rules? Fuckin’ rules?
“Lorenzo,” Dante said, his voice so much like mine. “Listen to what they have to say.” Dante had always been the calm brother, the one who took it easy, but that was because he didn’t have to do what I did. Things weren’t expected of him, the second son. He hadn’t seen what I had, but now Dad was gone, and he wouldn’t have a choice but to do more, just like I hadn’t for my entire life.
“Three rules,” Uncle Antonio said. He was the stricter uncle. The one who didn’t take an ounce of shit. He was also married to the gentlest woman I’d ever known, my auntie Vivianna. Both of my uncles weren’t blood-related but were married to my dad’s sisters. They’d come up in the business and knew it inside out, but they were also in here, trying to steer me in a direction I had no idea existed.
I took a breath, trying to sort through my scattered thoughts. I took another gulp of the burning alcohol, winced, then turned to face them.
“The Enterprise needs to agree to you becoming boss,” Uncle Antonio continued, standing. He brushed off the lapels of his jacket, his lips spread into a thin line. He looked stern now, but I knew how quickly that sternness could turn to terrifying anger. I’d watched him torture a man for twenty hours straight without a flicker of emotion. “They have all agreed, as we knew they would.” I nodded, trying to take it all in. I’d known The Enterprise had to be unanimous because my father had already told me that. The Enterprise consisted of five bosses of differing organizations, each working in tandem with each other.
“Okay,” I ventured, stepping toward everyone. “What else?”
Uncle Antonio kept his gaze locked on to mine. “You need to be thirty to take over as boss.”
“What?” I sneered. “Why?”
“Have you heard of the 1924 massacre?” Uncle Alonzo asked, and I frowned. Dad had told me about it once upon a time. The Mafia boss who killed his wife and two young kids. He’d said the pressure of being boss at twenty-four was too much, right before he pulled the trigger and killed himself, leaving behind a bloody mess that authorities couldn’t explain, at least not publicly.
“Yeah. Dad told me about it.” My shoulders drooped. It made sense, but…
“I don’t turn thirty for another three weeks.”
“It’ll give us the time we need,” Uncle Alonzo said, a small smile on his face.
“Time for what?” Everyone was suspiciously silent, their gazes flickering everywhere but at me. They’d said that there were three rules, but they’d only told me two, which meant they knew I wouldn’t like the final rule. A rule I had no choice but to follow if I wanted to continue my father’s legacy. “Tell me,” I demanded, using the tone that I knew would get me answers.
“You have to get married,” Ma blurted out. I blinked. “To an Italian girl.”
“What?” I wasn’t asking her to repeat what she’d said, but she did anyway. I couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Bullshit,” I growled. “That’s fuckin’ bullshit.”
“Doesn’t change the rule whether you think it’s right or not,” Uncle Antonio said, his voice easygoing for the first time. It sounded so unlike him. “Arranged marriage. It’s the old rules.”
“Wait.” I laughed and stepped toward them. “You’re saying that it has to be arranged?”
“Well, I’m guessing you don’t have anyone ready to marry you, son,” Uncle Alonzo said, wincing at the last word. He’d always used that name with me, but it held more right now—more on this day, more when my father dying meant I had to get married to a good fuckin’ Italian girl.
I didn’t want to be weighed down by a woman at home, waiting to see if I survived the violence I faced every day. I didn’t need her to be in the back of my mind as I was dishing out punishments to men who tried to break our rules.
Fuck.
Rules. It shouldn’t have surprised me what was happening right now, not when we were surrounded by rules and hierarchy.
“Fine.” My nostrils flared as I agreed to it all. “Bring me options, and I’ll get married on my goddamn birthday. Then we can get on with business.” I paused, realizing that until I turned thirty, I couldn’t be boss. “Who’s gonna take over until then?”
“Me,” Uncle Alonzo said, and it made sense. He was my dad’s right-hand man, he had been for more years than I’d been alive, and most importantly, he was the underboss. You couldn’t jump ranks in the business, so he was the only one who could be acting boss. “You keep doing what you normally do, and I’ll just act as boss until you can take over.”
“Good.” I stared at each person in the room. My younger brother, whose life would change more than it ever had. My mother, who had lost the love of her life. My uncles, who were determined not to let the business get into someone else’s hands. And finally, my best friend, the man who had been by my side every step of the way. But right now, I didn’t want to look at any of them.
I needed to be alone.
I needed to drown my goddamn sorrows.
I spun around, leaving them in the office that would be mine in three weeks.
LORENZO
The roar of the engine vibrated through me as I pulled through the open, vast, metal gates and into the property that was now my home—again. I looked around, trying to see if the truck delivering all of my things from my penthouse had turned up yet, but from the looks of things, it hadn’t.
The mansion we’d all grown up in was now officially mine, but if I was honest, I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to be back in my own living room, looking out at the entire city with my floor-to-ceiling windows. Ma’s words echoed in my mind: You need a house with protection. The penthouse apartment I’d lived in since I was eighteen wasn’t good enough, apparently. No. I needed a mansion now to house the staff, security detail, family, and of course, my new wife.
So, here I was, back in the same place I grew up, only now things were different. I was the boss—well, nearly. Thirteen days. I only had thirteen days to get married and turn thirty. Then I would become the boss. The head of the family.
Christian’s car pulled up behind mine, and I stared in the rearview mirror as he got out, but I didn’t make a move. Instead, I just stared at him as he waited patiently for me. He’d done that all morning while I took my frustration out on a soldier who’d tried to double-cross us. He’d thought that my father’s death would allow him to jump on opportunities presented to him from other organizations. He was wrong. And he’d learned that lesson slowly and painfully.
I’d left the underground bunker near Uncle Antonio’s house feeling some of the pressure lifting off my shoulders, but as I stared at Christian, it all came tumbling back, almost taking my breath away.