The night that happened almost half a decade ago.
It had just been another night in my wild escapades, but for Tizzy it’d been the night he’d let one of his enemies in on his secret.
Dirt, old school Italian, Tizziano Rossi is bisexual, or at least something that isn’t straight.
The Kinsey Scale isn’t something that I give a fuck about and I’ve never made a secret of my own sexuality, which doesn’t allow gender to come in between what or who I want. The Rossis are old, traditional Italians though and Antonio Rossi is definitely homophobic. The one time I’d crossed paths with the old piece of shit at a party, he’d nearly spat at my feet, muttering a slur. My own brother, grabbing my gun off the holster before I could, was the only thing that had kept me from shooting the old bastard down.
Funny how the asshole is old school and yet his new wife is black.
The incident had happened the same night that I found Tiziano with a male waiter’s mouth wrapped around his dick in a back room. I could see the panic on his face the second I walked in the room. Being the good voyeur that I am, I’d only intended to watch at first but when I saw how panicked Tizzi was, I decided I wanted a piece of the action.
Who doesn’t want to fuck a tense, closeted Italian man?
I hadn’t actually gotten my dick in Tizianao, but I didn’t care. I’d touched him, kept him on edge, and drew little whimpers from his mouth that would denote any denials that would come later. If I’d been thinking, I would have recorded the whole thing. It wouldn’t have only been good blackmail but something I’d keep in the spank bank vault.
The waiter ended up pinned between the two of us, but the second it was over Tizzy had gotten the hell out of dodge, with a warning for me not to tell anyone. I’d almost ran my mouth just because I didn’t appreciate the man thinking he could tell me what to do. But I figured a day like this would come around one day… when we’d need the Rossi family to become our ally.
And I knew as long as I had Tizzy’s secret, I’d be able to leverage it over his head.
I hadn’t even told Giovanni about it, but the second he started inquiring into the Rossi family potentially working with us, I’d told him to let me handle it.
I recline in my seat, propping my head up in my hand and smirking at Tizzy.
His face hardens.
Yeah, motherfucker, I’ve got you now.
“I suspect you’ve come to discuss an alliance,” Tomasso says, bringing my attention back to him. His face is once again pressed into that blank expression. He’s the calmest, most level headed Rossi. But still calculating and colder than the Artic.
“Why would you say that?”
“We may not have been there but I heard about what happened between Sheffield and Giovanni. Everyone knows that you have a future alliance with them, pending the marriage of Giovanni to Sheffield’s daughter. You suddenly wanting to meet with us tells me that deal is likely on the rocks.”
He isn’t wrong.
I suspected that the alliance between us and Sheffield wasn’t going to work from its inception and Giovanni had finally clued in on it as well. He’d already started looking into the Rossis before he and Sheffield even got into it in public that night.
My gaze flits to Winter, who’s sitting in her chair like a good girl. Her legs are cross at the ankle and she’s keeping her lips shut, her gaze not lingering on anything in particular. When she feels me watching her, she turns to look at me.
Yeah, the deal was broken as soon as Sheffield ordered Giovanni to kill her.
My brother doesn’t listen to anyone else first of all, and secondly, he isn’t going to dispose of Winter until he’s good and ready.
Sheffield kidnapping Winter had been the icing on the cake and my brother didn’t like how it tasted.
“And we’re also aware that he kidnapped Giovani’s…” Tomasso’s eyes roam over Winter and his brows pinch together slightly, “I’m actually not sure what to call her.” His gaze moves back to me. “I’ve heard from some that she’s Giovanni’s mistress, but I know what a mistress is and you don’t set her up with some bullshit job and allow your brother to fuck her in someone else’s driveway.”
He’s got a point there.
I’m not sure why Giovanni ever thought that dumb ass lie of Winter being his mistress was going to work, but that’s not my problem.
I shrug. “You can just call her Winter.”
Tomasso pauses for a moment before he taps a finger on his desk. “Giovanni’s Winter,” he says after a breath. “Sheffield kidnapped her, which likely ended the agreement the moment he nabbed her.”
“So, that’s why we know you’re here for an alliance,” Tizzy dips in.
Tomasso peers over his shoulder at his little brother but he doesn’t say anything. I suspect this is a battle he’s having with both of his brothers at the moment, the problem of deciding who’s in charge now that daddy dearest is in jail.