I wanted to wipe that smirk off her face. If she fucked with Dominic, she deserved to be turned over my knee and whipped until she screamed, but I couldn’t do anything without the Padrino’s permission.
“You’re gonna pay for that.” I grabbed her arm and wrenched her off the couch.
“Get off me! Let go! Ow! That hurts!”
“Good. I hope it does. Now march.” I jerked her over to the table and flung her into a chair. “Sit down, and shut up.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You can’t treat me this way.”
“What are you gonna do—run crying to Padrino? Go ahead. You’ll wish you let me deal with you when you see what he can do. Now shut up. You stepped out of line with Dominic, and now you’re gonna pay the price.”
She shrank into her chair. “What are you gonna do?”
“Behave yourself, and I might take it easy on you. You don’t want to find out what I’ll do if you don’t.”
She cast a sidelong glance at me. She seethed in her chair, but at least she didn’t mouth off to me again.
I went into the hall and came back with my laptop. I set it on the table and sat down in the next chair. “Now, listen up. Luca is taking you to a masquerade gala on Saturday night, and you need to make everyone there believe you’re his girlfriend.”
She rolled her eyes to Heaven. “I can’t imagine a worse fate.”
“You’ll do it if you don’t want Padrino to send out the hit squad on you and your parents. Now shut up and listen.” I opened the spreadsheet on the Vittorios. “Michael Vittorio is the Padrino of the Vittorio crime family. He’s sixty-five, the same age Don Antonio would be if he was still alive.”
All the color drained from her cheeks. “You mean… He’s dead? Luca’s father… is dead?”
“He died in prison after Matteo La Rosa set him up.”
She gulped. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that. You’re here to do a job just like the rest of us. Michael is Padrino, and he has four children. Alessandro is the oldest and stands to inherit his father’s title after the old man dies. Alessandro works in the business and runs Michael’s Atlantic City operation.”
I looked up, and she shrugged. “So, what? Why are you telling me this?”
I smacked my lips. “When are you going to pay attention? The Vittorios are hosting the masquerade ball.”
“So?”
I gritted my teeth and willed myself not to overact. “If you don’t start taking this seriously, I’m going to have to come up with some negative reinforcement to make you pay attention. You’re going to this masquerade ball as Luca’s date. Your one job in all this is to convince everyone you know enough about the mob world that he might actually consider you more than a casual weekend fuck.”
Her expression went black and dangerous. “How dare you!”
“This isn’t rocket science. Everyone at the ball knows who you are. The only reason Luca would consider dating someone like you is for your mob connections—or your family’s mob connections. You have to know all these people by name and face. Understand?”
She clamped her mouth shut and glared at me, but at least she was listening now.
“Niccolò Vittorio is the second son, and he’s his older brother’s chief enforcer. They’re making their presence felt in Atlantic City, but they still haven’t been able to carve out enough of our territory to threaten us there—unlike up here in Boston. Romola is Michael’s daughter, and she’s married to Armani De Leo. He’s the son of Silvestro De Leo, Padrino of the De Leo crime family in Paloma.”
“Paloma… You mean in Italy?”
“Of course, I mean in Italy. The De Leos are our allies, and Romola and Armani live in Venice, so you don’t have to worry about them. They won’t be at the ball.”
She made a face. “That’s a relief.”
“Giovanni Vittorio is the youngest of Michael’s children, and he’s a scum-sucking playboy. He isn’t good for anything but spending his Padrino’s money and making an ass of himself with the ladies.”
She burst out laughing. “Sounds like a real winner.”
I looked up. “Now, let’s hear you repeat all that back to me.”