Twisted Hearts (The Camorra Chronicles 5)

“How did it go?” Serafina asked before I could say anything. Of course, Remo had told his wife about my plan.

“Are you really going to fight for Gemma’s hand?” Kiara asked wide-eyed while she rocked three-month-old Massimo against her chest. Nino was trying to feed Alessio. Serafina was cutting the spaghetti for Greta while Remo tried to stop Nevio from getting up to play.

Fuck. Only a few years ago, my brothers and I would have spent the evening with pizza, booze, and a few hookers for entertainment. Now hookers were banned from the mansion, even from my wing. Instead the little monsters started to outnumber us slowly.

“Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet already?” Serafina taunted me with a knowing expression. She might look like an angel with her blonde hair and fair skin, but she was far from angelic.

I smirked. “Even after winning the fight, that doesn’t mean I’ll have to marry Gemma soon. It only means I’m the one who’s getting her.”

“Her parents probably want her to marry once she turns eighteen,” Nino drawled.

That was in less than two years. Eighteen months to be exact and never going to happen. I heaped spaghetti on my plate, shaking my head. “I’m going to tell Daniele that I want to wait for Gemma to finish college before I marry her. That should give me at least three more years.”

Everyone stared at me as if I’d grown a second head.

“I doubt her family will allow her to go to college, considering it’s not common in traditional families,” Nino said.

“My word’s going to be law once we’re engaged. If I want my fiancée to go to college, then she’s going to go.”

Serafina’s brows shot up. “You want to wait five more years to get into a girl’s pants?”

I chuckled. “Nobody said anything about that. I want to wait with marriage, not with sex.”

“Sex!” Nevio shouted, flashing his little devil smile.

Remo narrowed his eyes at me. As if the kid was learning the bad words only from me. He used the words fuck and pussy more often than I did.

“She’s only sixteen,” Kiara said worriedly.

“I realize that,” I said, getting annoyed with their interrogation. “I didn’t say anything about getting into her pants right away. I can wait.”

“Really?” Serafina asked.

“There are enough other girls around who can keep me entertained.”

“Gemma will be ecstatic to hear that, I’m sure.” Serafina’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

It was a miracle that Remo hadn’t throttled his wife by now. She was a piece of work.

“Her upbringing has been traditional. Her family is one of the most traditional in the Camorra. If you coerce the girl to sleep with you before your wedding night, that will cause trouble I’m not in the fucking mood for, get it?” Remo said.

“Nobody has to know. It’s my and Gemma’s business what we do when we’re alone.”

Nino shook his head in disapproval. “You assume she wants to break with her traditions, but that might not be the case.”

“We’ll see.” They hadn’t seen how Gemma looked at me. Maybe her upbringing had been traditional, but her body still functioned like everyone else’s.

“I’m going to say this only once,” Remo said. “Once you win this fight, you’re going to marry that girl, and if you pop her cherry before the wedding night, you better make sure nobody finds out, or I’m going to castrate your bull. Got it?”

I flashed him a grin. His expression remained stone. “Don’t worry.”

“Pop cherry?” Nevio said to Greta, who smiled in return.

Serafina sighed and sent me another scathing look.

“It wasn’t me. You can blame your husband.”

“It’s a waste of time. You two do what you want anyway,” she said.

“That’s right.” And it would stay that way. No engagement or marriage would shackle me down. Gemma was too in love with me to control my life like Serafina and Kiara did with my brothers.

Toni came over the same night. We had too much to discuss handling it over the phone.

“This is so bad boy of him,” Toni whispered, almost beside herself from excitement. I wasn’t even sure who of us was more excited. Toni never liked to fight herself, but watching the cage fights in the Arena, that was her thing. One day she’d follow in her father’s footsteps and manage the Arena, that was clear.

“That’s because he is a bad boy.” I’d only occasionally seen glimpses of his darker side, but it was there and probably scarier than I could even begin to grasp. It didn’t make me want him less though. To be honest, it thrilled me in the most disturbing way.

I glanced toward the open door of my room. Since the Arena incident, I wasn’t allowed to close my door when Toni was over. It was ridiculous. Mom and Dad wouldn’t budge on the subject, though. “Do you know anything about his tattoo?” I asked the question I’d meant to ask forever.