Ethan shook his head, “We don’t kill blindly, brother. We find out who he is, and his connection to Grandmother…then we kill him.”
Our family didn’t do well with outsiders for a reason.
They ruined everything.
GABRIEL
“How was day one?”
“She pulled a gun on me, and I think bruised two of my ribs,” I said as I came out of the shower, using the towel to dry my hair. Noticing the red marks from her legs on my neck. “All of that happened after she shattered a champagne glass with her bare hands… So, not as bad as I was expecting.”
“Why? Because she didn’t shoot you?”
“Exactly,” I answered, cleaning the steam off the glass in order to see my reflection. “From here on out, any day she doesn’t shoot me, I consider a win.”
“That’s a low bar.”
“And yet it’s still higher than where your son started off,” I said, lifting the phone off the counter and closer to my lips, “A bullet through the thigh, correct?”
“He at least kissed her before she shot him,” she corrected me.
“I’m sure you were proud, Evelyn,” I said coldly. “But I’ve already spent the last month waiting on the sidelines. I’m done waiting; I’m taking what was promised to me.”
“Nothing was promised to you but an opportunity. My granddaughter will make you work for the rest.” She hung up on me, and I couldn’t help but grin. The old woman had bite to her, even when half-dead on bed a thousand miles away.
From what I could see, all the Callahan women were the same: beautiful and dangerous. However, Donatella… I couldn’t help but grin as I placed my hand on my chin. I loved a woman who could fight back both physically and mentally, who wasn’t afraid of a little pain, but best of all, she was awe-inspiringly beautiful. When I’d held her to me, I felt the curves of her body, the warmth of her skin, how she smelled like Mediterranean lilies… If I had kissed her, we’d make a scene in a very different sort of way.
The day isn’t over yet…
NINE
“You either like me or you don’t.
It took me twenty-something years to learn how to love myself,
I don’t have that kinda time to convince somebody else.”
~ Daniel Franzese
DONATELLA
I hadn’t straightened my hair in a while so when I finally let it down, it was a thick mess of curls. I would have just left it up until I could get it done professionally tomorrow, however, tonight was our first family dinner in a long time. That, plus we had a guest.
“I never thought I’d see the day you were worried about what to wear…”
Looking up from my mirror to the door; there stood Nari, in skinny pink trousers and a deep blue V-neck blouse, a single gold bar necklace around her neck. Beside her, dressed in a yellow and white above-the-knee floral print dress was Helen, who frowned while looking me up and down.
“Are you trying to look nice for Gabriel?” Helen asked.
“I don’t try to look nice, I do that naturally,” I corrected her, looking back to the mirror and brushing my hair. “Looking nice isn’t my goal; I need a look that will make him want to approach me.”
“You want to seduce him?” Nari questioned, coming up beside me, her pale face appearing in the reflection of my mirror. “Isn’t it a little soon after—”
“He’s here for a reason,” I snapped at her, cutting her off before she crossed the line. “And I’m positive it isn’t a good one. The faster I can get rid of him, the faster we can avoid the shit-storm that’s coming after him.”
“But didn’t grandma invite him to stay?” Helen came over to the mirror with a few dresses, holding them up to my body. When she found one she liked, she held it in front me before looking and saying, “He can’t be that dangerous if she—”
“Maybe he has something on her?”