Mafia

Complications

"You are not telling Tony anything," Letty gave me a look like I was crazy, which led to me throwing a grape at her head, then she threw two back and thus commenced the "War of grapes" as it would forever be referred to in the future. Through all of this my mother sat at the end of the table, partly laughing and partly scolding us for our childish behavior, it wasn't until my cousins and my aunt Maria came that things took a turn for the worse.

"Why is there a scary-looking mafia dude sitting in a car on the front curb?" This was Tony, and before I could stop Letty, she shared everything that was my crazy life and I sighed as I watched dark scowls appear on my cousins' faces as they turned their eyes on me.

"You think you should have told us this?" Folding my arms, I glared between the two of them.

"So you could do what? The only thing that would do would make you worry, and there is nothing to worry about."

Tony turned to Carlo who's scowl was even more profound after my lame excuse, and pulled his phone out of his back pocket.

"I'm calling Luca, telling him we're in on Ariana's protection detail," My eyes bugged out at this declaration and I shot out of my seat while shouting, "You are not!" before lunging myself at him in an effort to get to his phone. This was halted by Carlo who stepped right into my path and wrapped his big burly arm around my middle and shuffled me back towards the table while I fought him as I watched Tony walk away with his phone to his ear.

So, now it seemed Gio and Casper at least had some time off, because for some asinine reason, Luca had agreed to my cousins' stupid ideas. That night me and Luca had our first fight as an engaged couple, which ended in me hanging up on him after telling him exactly how I felt about him agreeing to the asinine plan. He didn't like that very much, the me-hanging-up-on-him-part, so he showed up at my parents house to tell me this in person and to explain things more thouroughly to my idiot overprotective-cousins. So, in the end I now had two more bodyguards and I was right and Letty was wrong, Tony did not think my situation was hilarious.

That was yesterday, now I was in Luca's bathroom, done with brushing my teeth and decided to do inventory. I figured I'd be spending a lot of time there eventually, and it was probably a good idea to pack a bag and double up on stuff like shampoo and conditioner, and definetely I needed to buy a toothbrush, I was thinking pink.

I had no idea how much time had passed when I finally left the bathroom and crossed the hall to the bedroom, I could still here Luca on the phone and he didn't seem happy. Closing the door behind me, I turned on the lamp on the nightstand and flicked off the overhead before climbing into his ginormous king-size bed that had the softest sheets I had ever felt on my skin. His mattress felt like I was lying on a cloud and I figured this was bad, because with a mattress like this I might never want to get up and I was already not a morning-person. Whatever. Maybe I could put a rock under the mattress or something, that would probably get me up in the morning. At this thought, I turned off the light, snuggled into the soft pillows and felt my lips curve up in a smile as I smelled Luca all around me. Yes, I could definetely get used to this, and that's when my eyes fluttered closed and I drifted off to sleep.

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"This shit is not good," Luca growled into the phone as he prowled to the windows and stared out at the city, his jaw clenched as he heard Ana leave the bathroom and twisted his head to see her disappearing into his bedroom.

"I know man, with Romero Villanueva pulling unsanctioned moves this isn't just war anymore. Vigo told me Volkov offered Carlos a deal, he'll back off the cartel if he hands over Romero. Problem with that is, seems not even the old man knows where his fuck-up of a son is, the asshole has gone to ground and it's likely he's making moves to get out of the city." Luca wasn't so sure about that, but he didn't voice his worries because he didn't fucking like having this conversation on the phone in the first place.

He'd had dealings with the Villanuevas and while he respected the patriarch, Carlos Villanueva and his oldest son Franco, he'd never liked Romero. He was a sick powerhungry spoiled brat who thought he was untouchable, and he was fucking stupid. What he couldn't wrap his mind around was why the fuck Romero would take out Mikhail, it didn't make a lick of sense and Luca had a bad feeling this shitstorm was just beginning.

"Fuck, I don't want to do this shit over the phone. We'll talk more tomorrow," Gabriel had been working his ass off trying to get a handle on this situation and Luca didn't like it, because Gabriel had enough shit to deal with without all this fucked up war-business to add to it.

"Si, one more thing Luca; Carlos has asked for a meeting with both you and Volkov, he wants you there as a mediator," Closing his eyes, Luca wrapped his free hand around his neck and pushed out a breath. He'd been expecting this, had been warned by Dmitri himself that it might come to this, that didn't mean he was happy about it.

"Set it up. I've got to go, Ana's here and she's right now asleep in my bed."

The line went quiet and Luca waited with strained patience before Gabriel said quietly, "I'll take care of it fratello, go sleep with your woman." Then the line went dead and Luca stoved the phone in his pocket before spending another few seconds staring blankly out at the city, knowing deep in his gut that things were about to get ugly and he hoped to christ he'd be able to keep the people he loved safe. Then he turned off the TV, flicked off all the lights and made sure the front door was locked and the alarm was set before he walked to his bedroom and joined his woman in bed.