Bound By Blood Anthology (The Camorra Chronicles 7.50)

Eventually everyone sat at the table, and the food was even still moderately warm.

Soon we all dug in and chatter filled the table. I cut Isa’s steak and she eagerly wolfed it down, much to Matteo’s delight. The girl loved meat and her dad’s motorcycle but she never missed our weekly mother and child yoga either. I brushed a few of her reddish-brown curls away from her forehead and she gave me a grin around her fork, those bold blue eyes getting me every time. So far Isa hadn’t encountered any restrictions. She was allowed to brawl with her cousins. The older she got, the more people would speak up to tell her what she could and couldn’t do because she was a girl. I’d make sure they all shut up, and if necessary, I’d even let Matteo use his particular scary talents to keep anyone at bay who’d try to make Isa believe her potential had limits only because she didn’t have a penis.

Matteo leaned over to me. “You got your fierce mother bear expression. Worrying your pretty head about Isa’s future again?”

I gave him an annoyed look but didn’t deny it.

“Trust me, babe. I’ll make sure our girl has all the freedoms she wants as long as she never brings a date home, unless it’s her lesbian lover.”

“You are impossible,” I muttered, trying to stifle a smile.

“That’s why you love me, admit it.” Matteo kissed me briefly until Valerio let out an ewww.

“Your mom and dad are being disgusting again,” he said with a scrunched-up nose.

“I know,” Isa said as if she had to suffer under our PDA all the time.

“You wouldn’t be sitting here if your mom and I didn’t enjoy being disgusting,” Matteo said. I rammed my elbow into his side. Marcella shook her head in disgust and Amo let out a laugh.

“What does that mean?” Sara asked, and the younger kids all looked from Matteo to Romero then Luca.

The latter sent Matteo a death glare. “Ask Matteo.”

Matteo leaned back and opened his mouth. He would explain the birds and the bees in every detail if anyone let him so I wasn’t sure why Luca provoked him like that.

Aria hit her palm flat on the table. “No disgusting topics at the table. We’re having dinner now. Can’t we act like a well-behaved normal family for once?”

I shrugged. Luca seemed only amused by her outburst but tried to hide it.

At least the kids all sat up a bit straighter and focused on their food again.

“That’s how she got Luca in line,” Matteo said.

I snorted. And all hell broke loose at the table again.

I mouthed sorry to Aria, but she shook her head with a badly disguised grin. A normal family we were not, but none of us really cared.

The end

Romero

It was past eight in the evening when I returned home from a long day doing business. The negotiations with our main distributor of high-quality absinthe and whiskey had taken longer than expected.

Since Luca had made me Captain five years ago, I’d often worked long days. As the son of a mere soldier, not to mention after the war my love for Lily had caused, I had to gain the respect of my men and fellow Captains. I’d come a long way. The men working for me were a loyal lot and they didn’t need any more convincing, unlike some of the Captains and Underbosses, but they weren’t my main concern. My men appreciated that I didn’t mind getting my hands dirty instead of just showing my face at the clubs on the Eastside in my responsibility. Partying wasn’t part of my job description after all.

I preferred to deal with the drug and alcohol distributors myself to make sure the prices and quality were right. You needed to know the details in your establishments if you wanted to control them.

Of course, that meant I often returned home later than I wanted. Lily never complained though. As usual a soft glow came from the windows of our home, a cozy brownstone townhouse in a tree-lined street in peaceful Greenwich Village. When our neighbors had found out who was moving in, they’d avoided us like the plague, terrified we might bring war into their midst. That was the farthest thing on Lily’s and my mind. We’d moved here to find peace not destroy it. We wanted a normal life despite our background and my job.

Lily had done her best, with tea invitations and homecooked meals for one of the elderly neighbors who’d broken her hip, to improve our standing in the last six months. People still avoided me, which was fine, but I wanted them to like Lily, because it was important for her.

I opened the front door. The scent of a homecooked meal, something meaty from the oven, greeted me when I stepped into the foyer. I hung up my jacket when Lily came into the foyer, her cheeks rosy with excitement. She wore a beautiful long-sleeved blue dress, her dark blond hair framing her gorgeous face.