Ruthless Empire: A Dark Mafia Collection

I popped in the rest of my bite and shrugged. “You can’t really stop it, can you?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m the best lawyer in Philly.” He slapped on his signature crooked smile. “I’m gonna convince grandma to put the rest of their estate in a formalized will, attaching most of it to a bond in mom’s and our names with restrictions that not more than a certain dollar amount can be pulled at any time. We’re gonna meet about it after she’s recovered from all of this a little bit.”

“Wow. That’s a great idea. Can she donate some of it, too? I know she’d like that.”

“That’s an awesome idea.” Ricky pulled out his phone, made a note to himself, and then put it away. “You should join us.”

“If I have any say over it, I’ll be back in California by then,” I retorted.

Ricky grumbled. “You can’t stay longer?”

I had intentionally refrained from booking a flight home just yet on the unlikely chance that I’d need to stay longer than the weekend. I knew Ricky had a good handle on making sure my grandparents’ affairs were well sorted legally, but he wasn’t good at the emotional support stuff. I had marginal faith in my mother to make sure my grandmother was doing okay, but only because she’d be spending the rest of my grandmother’s life buttering her up to get the biggest chunk of her will. I had to hope that Ricky really could make sure she couldn’t gigolo her way into my grandma’s pocket. As long as she seemed to be doing well emotionally and Ricky was confident that he could deal with the estate, I’d like to be on a flight home within forty-eight hours.

I looked over at Ricky. “Come on. I mean, you know I don’t want to be here.”

“You can’t keep running from us,” Ricky said. “Me, mom, the Varassos. Being in California doesn’t make this not part of your past. No one’s asking you to do any of the work, but whether you like it or not, we all love you and are always going to be a part of your life.”

He raised his eyebrow at me, looked directly into my eyes to cement his statement, and then turned and walked away, leaving me dumbstruck and frustrated. I didn’t ask for any of this, so why would I accept it? I wasn’t running from anything, I was only not acknowledging something that had never existed for me. That didn’t make me a bad person, it made me a realist.

“He’s right, you know.” I jumped a little, sick of people sneaking up on me. I turned around and my heart sank. Standing there with a pair of champagne glasses, one outstretched toward me, was Alessandro. “Looks like I finally cornered you.”

4

Alessandro

I immediately hated the words as they left my mouth. I wasn’t attempting to corner Willow, per se, but it was clear she’d been avoiding me all afternoon. I didn’t have any intentions of trying to convince her to take me back or anything, but I knew I owed her an apology for more than a couple of things, and I didn’t know how long I had to give them to her.

It was partly my fault that coming back to Philadelphia made her so uncomfortable when that should have been the last thing on her mind while she was trying to celebrate her grandfather’s life. Willow and her grandfather had always been close. Just as she had said during her farewell words at the funeral, he’d become a surrogate father to her after her dad went to jail to protect my family. Back when we broke up and she tried to get me to pick between her and the life, I’d taken it personally. She knew what family meant to me, meant to all of us. How could she suggest that I leave it all behind for one silly relationship? I was angry at her for a long time, but once my dad died, everything shifted into perspective. She’d lost her dad, too, and it was worse because her dad had a choice in the matter. I’d reject that life, too.

Willow took the glass of champagne from my hand, and I was taken aback at how much more stunning she looked than what I remembered. I’d convinced myself that six years hadn’t been that much time and that people’s appearances don’t change that drastically after they graduate from high school, but it was as if I was looking at an entirely new person. Her cerulean eyes still sparkled like a sea in sunrise, and her freckle peppered cheeks still puffed out slightly more than the rest of her slender face, but she stood with a new level of confidence that I didn’t recognize at all. She was wearing a black dress that flared out from the waist and ended below her knees. Her dark brown, layered hair framed her face perfectly, and she had a set of small, white pearls dangling from her neck.

How is she so beautiful? I thought to myself.

The only thing worse than how unbelievable she looked was how she w

as looking at me with the same heartbroken expression she’d looked at me with the day we parted ways. There was no anger, no malice, only an expression tapped straight from the tree of disappointment, like she couldn’t believe, after everything we’d been through, that I’d let her down.

“Sorry,” I said immediately. “I know you’re busy, and I know you probably don’t want to talk to me.”

Willow shifted uncomfortably. “I have to mingle.”

She disappeared in the blink of an eye into the throngs of people ambling their way around the estate. Strike one. I might have expected it wasn’t going to be that easy. Funerals weren’t easy already. I of all people should know. I hated funerals and everything they stood for. Not including the fact that when you’re an active member of an underground organization, funerals were typically par for the course, I’d had to attend both of my parents’ funerals in the past ten years, and that was two too many times for any person. I distinctly remembered when I lost my mom, Willow was with me every step of the way. We hadn’t yet admitted to having any feelings for one another, but even then, I think I knew. I remember panicking and not knowing how to handle the hundreds of people walking up to me, hugging me, kissing me, apologizing to me, offering me condolences in every shape, form, and fashion; I was overwhelmed.

Willow walked up to me, grabbed my hand, and held it. She didn’t say a word, and she didn’t try to push me to do one thing or the other. She simply and silently said, “I’m here for you.” It cracked the hard shell I’d built around me and made me realize that Willow had always been my rock. I was a scarecrow, and she was the rod holding me up. I never would have made it through that without her.

When my dad died, it made me feel like a piece of crap that I almost missed her more than I missed him. I would absent-mindedly hold out my hand, expecting her to grab it the same way she did the first time. To stand next to me unwaveringly and be my rod, but she wasn’t there, and I had no one to blame for that but myself.

I made my way over to where Gabriel was being a wallflower near the door and stood next to him.

“Swing and a miss, huh?” he asked.

“She needs some time.” I was hoping that was true. My heart was still racing in my chest. Even after six years, I was still head over heels.

“Maybe you should kidnap her.” Gabriel started laughing like he’d made a groundbreaking joke, but all I could think about was Luca giving him a right hook and Molly giving him a left. His face went fearful in an instant. “Don’t tell Luca I said that.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to watch him murder you, so I’m not going to tell him the joke you made about him and his wife.”

Anytime Willow made eye contact with me, I lifted a hand and gave her a smile. I wished I could do the same thing for her that she did for me during my mother’s funeral. I could see in her eyes that she was stressed, and she didn’t stress easily. I watched as she walked over to one of the waiters and started to engage in conversation with him. Eventually, the conversation got tenser and tenser, and their voices slowly started to get louder and louder.