The Mafia

Chapter 4

Just friends, just friends, just friends... over a fortnight later and she was still repeating the phrase to herself so she wouldn't forget. It came in handy every time she saw Demetrio with Celia, which was almost always. She told herself the jealousy she felt towards the other woman was not only petty, it was irrational! She didn't have any claim on the man, prior or otherwise, so he could do whatever... and whoever he liked. She didn't have a say in it. With that thought she threw the magazine she held in her hands halfway across the room in frustration.

Curious, April took it upon herself to get up from the edge of the bed and check out what it was that had aggravated her sister. She smirked when she saw a picture of Demetrio and Celia together. As usual she looked stunning in a floor-length red evening gown. It was taken at a gala they'd attended the week before, and he looked absolutely debonair in his black tuxedo. They looked perfect together.

"Is someone feeling a little green? April asked softly as she joined Raven on the chaise longue.

"No, I'm just peachy," Raven returned with a sarcastically bright smile.

"I don't understand why you like him so much," she reasoned. "And don't try to deny it. Raven I've grown to love these guys, but at the end of the day you have to realise that they're criminals. They've done stuff we couldn't even imagine. Even if I was in love with one of them, as reckless as I am, I wouldn't do anything about it. Demetrio and Celia deserve each other, Sweetie. You, on the other hand deserve so much more."

Raven smiled at her younger sister and nudged her shoulder with her own. "When the hell did you get so smart? Hey do you think coming here altered our personalities? I mean if one of us had to fall in love with a mafia boss, I'd have guessed it'd be you."

"Did you know Ciro is trying to set me up with his son? I heard Damian wants to set you up with his."

Raven snorted. "Everything about these people is disgusting! They don't care about what we want. It's like we're in a modern-day 18th century."

"Anyways, I was thinking we could talk to Dad about it and see if he'd..."

"April, he's one of them. These are their politics. I don't think it'll help."

"I mean I wouldn't mind marrying Zander," April continued, completely ignoring what her sister had just said. "Hell he's nice enough and easy on the eyes. But I heard Damian's son, Bartolommeo is a huge jerk."

"Look April, it doesn't matter, because no matter who these people are they can't force you to say 'I do'. They can stuff you into a dress, drag you down the aisle, and force you to stand before a minister, but not to say I do."

"Yes they can."

They both whirled around the sound of Celia's voice. "You two have no idea what you're up against. These 'people' always get what they want. They murder for sport. If one of you has to marry my brother I suggest you do it without fail. You two are one of our own, and we don't kill one of our own. Your mother, however, isn't."

The threat hung in the air for a few seconds before April launched herself at Celia. Raven wasn't fast enough to stop her before she back handed the taller woman swiftly. She shoved April behind her after the blow landed. "You threaten my mother again and I swear you'll regret it," April hissed.

"Celia I think you should go. Now," Raven said firmly. She didn't miss the look of pure malice that she fixed on April before she left.

"Don't lecture me," April said after the door shut closed behind Celia.

"I wasn't going to. Nice shot."

April chuckled mirthlessly. "Yeah, I guess. There's gonna be trouble tonight isn't there?" 1

"You can bet on it. It's been pretty boring around here lately, anyway."

"You're just trying to cheer me up," April smiled.

"Hey, it worked."

***

For the rest of the day April and Raven stayed locked up in their room, trying to keep as low a profile as possible. Fortunately for them, Demetrio usually came home in the evenings. Despite the facade of nonchalance she showed towards her sister, she was freaking out. She knew, first hand, how mule headed Demetrio could be. Even though Celia deserved the slap, he could very well blame it all on April. Worse yet, he could blame it on her. She knew it was possible.

Cosmo burst in their room in the early afternoon. She so rarely saw him in a negative mood; she was shocked to see the fury stamped so blatantly on his usually adorable face. He had obviously heard what had happened.

"What did that b***h do to you?" he knelt before Raven, gently cupping her face and turning it around in his hands to scan her for any injuries.

"I'm fine, stop fussing!"

She watched with glee as he did the same with April. "Yeah, it's Celia that needs the check-up," April joked.

"What happened?" Cosmo asked settling down next to April on the couch.

"She threatened to kill our mother... among other things." April reached over to clutch his arm, halting him when he would've marched out of the room.

"Leave it. It's no big deal."

"No big deal?" he sputtered in disbelief.

"Yes. I know girls like that. Now that she knows she can't scare us she'll back off. It was a dumb power play," April reasoned, and for the first time Cosmo saw her as more than just a pretty face.

Raven changed the subject after that, hoping to keep her mind off of the impending argument... and she was sure they would argue... with Demetrio. It was a gloomy day. Usually Cosmo would have cheered them up, but the frown that etched itself on his face seemed to reflect on everyone else's.

Later that evening, Cosmo managed to coax them into going downstairs. Well he literally had to drag April down, but he got the job done. As they passed Demetrio's study the door swung open to reveal a bloodshot eyed Celia. She had been crying. She walked past them without a word. They each shared puzzled glances. Demetrio came to his door and grasped Raven's hand. He silently pulled her in the study and firmly closed the door behind her.

Obviously, being a gentleman wasn't on the curriculum of thug school, she thought bitterly as she noted the pinch of his fingers. She wrenched her wrist out of his grip and rubbed the sore spot left behind. "What did you do to Celia?" she asked carefully.

"Are you kidding me? What did she do to you?" She tried not to flinch when he did the same thing Cosmo had earlier... except he didn't let go. He kept hold of her face, and she was surprised such large hands were capable of being so gentle.

She pulled away from him reluctantly. "She didn't do anything to me. She said some nasty things and April slapped her. That was all. I'm sorry."

"What do you have to be sorry about?" he asked, clearly confused.

She shrugged and smiled hesitantly. "I don't know. It seems I always have to apologise for something when we talk." She explained.

He bent his head forward and ran his hand over his head in frustration. It was then she noticed he'd shaved his hair off and had a buzz cut. She really didn't mind since more of his face was on display now. How was it even legal to have such prominent cheekbones?

"That threat she made is rendered moot."

"Believe me, I know. We didn't take her seriously. You might want to warn her about going near April, though. She took boxing classes when she was sixteen for two years.

"You don't have to worry about that. I've made it clear she isn't welcome here anymore."

"Was that why she was crying?"

"Did you think I hit her?" he gaped. "I'm a violent man, Raven, but I would never hit a woman, no matter how vindictive she was."

"I didn't think you hit her," she admitted. "But a death threat did cross my mind." Does that mean you aren't together anymore? She wanted to ask. "So how does that affect your relationship? Is she okay with not being allowed to visit her boyfriend?"

Demetrio's face darkened with a fierce scowl. "I was not her boyfriend. We didn't have a relationship. She was my mistress, but that's over."

Raven smirked. "You keep telling yourself that." She was glad, but she didn't plan on doing anything about it. He was single now, sure, but the man didn't even believe in dating. A mistress he called her! No wonder Celia was so grumpy.

Other than that, it would be a huge mistake to become involved with a criminal... just like April had said. She didn't even want to think about what they did behind closed doors. It was already difficult enough to believe that they were capable of doing the things they did.

She sighed and sat up straighter in her seat. "May I go now?"

Demetrio stared at her thoughtfully for a moment. "Sure, but I was about to go for a walk in the garden maze. Do you want to join me?"

Everything in her was screaming no. Her head, her conscious, her heart, everything. Yet somehow she found herself in the garden with her hand firmly enclosed in his. It was a comfortable silence; neither of them felt the need to break it, a rarity between the two of them. Usually, if she couldn't think of something to say to him, she just avoided his company all together. She faltered in her steps when they reached the opening of the hedge maze.

"Do you know your way through this thing?" she asked cautiously. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a maze in the middle of the might with Demetrio Lombardi of all people.

"Of course. I've lived here my whole life, how could I not?"

Raven opted not to tell him she sucked at directions, and would probably get lost every single time she went into the thing. "You know," she mused out loud. "I bet I remember the last time you smiled."

He raised a seemingly disinterested eyebrow, but he wasn't fooling her. "Oh?" he said simply.

"Yes. It was two weeks ago when I accidentally sneezed on Cris. Before that it was on that video chat when you were in London. Before that was that awful horse ride. Before that-"

"Horse ride?" he snorted. "You didn't even get on the damn thing!"

She started to scowl, but stopped when he chuckled heartily. His deep throaty laugh charmed her so completely, she ended up laughing along with him. "My point is," she got out through giggles, "you don't smile a lot, do you?"

He instantly sobered up and shrugged. "Don't have a lot to smile about, I suppose."

Raven rolled her eyes. "You're alive. What more reason do you need?"

"You've been counting my smiles," he commented huskily. "Now why would you do that?"

She put some space between them, noticing it had shrunk to virtually nothing, but didn't completely let go of his hand.

"I study people, okay? It's no big deal."

They walked for a bit more without a word passing between them. Even when his hand tightened around hers and he pulled her closer once again so there was no space at all between them, nothing was said. She honestly expected them to come to a dead-end at some point during the walk, but true to his word, he knew the maze like the back of his hand. He eventually walked them back to the main house, and the closer they got the more she felt as though she was about to wake up from the best dream of her life.

"I was going to kiss you," he calmly said as if they were discussing the damn weather. "But then I realised you would just freak out and build an impenetrable wall between us. So when we do kiss, you'll have to initiate it."

As if she were in some sort of daze, his words sunk in slowly. This time, his hearty chuckle didn't have a single effect on her scowl. "You delusional bastard," she spat. "There will be no kissing at all. Believe me I wouldn't want those lips within a hundred mile radius of mine."

"Are you sure? He casually leaned against a see-through doorframe as he let go of her hand, and she shook herself from the daze to see they had stopped right outside the patio doors of the main house. As usual, there were a bunch of shady looking guys patrolling the perimeter discreetly. She knew they were armed. "Because I'll remind you of this moment when you do decide to kiss me."

"In your dreams, Lurch. I don't do egomaniacs." She shoved the door open and ignored the deep laughter that followed in her wake as well as the shocked faces of the house help. She knew they weren't accustomed to seeing the big boss man smile, let alone laugh, the big jerk.

She walked in the kitchen to find Cosmo throwing kernels of popcorn in the air and catching them with his mouth, one at a time. It was nice to see he, at least was back to normal. "Oh, you're alive. We put it to a vote. Cris and I thought you'd be dead by now."

"You're so melodramatic."

"So where did you two go?" Cosmo asked, popping yet another kernel into his mouth.

"The moon."

"What did he do to you? You're almost as grumpy as he is."

"I so don't want to talk about it."

"Leave her alone. She spent nearly an entire hour with Demetrio. By the way, I voted you'd come home grumpy from spending that long with him. Pay up, sucker,” April demanded.

Raven smiled at their attempt to cheer her up. She scooped a handful of popcorn from Cosmo's bowl and ignored the frown he directed her way.

A heavy arm settled itself comfortably across her shoulders. She looked up and smiled at Cris. "I haven't seen you all day. Where've you been?"

"I had to work."

She sucked in a breath of air sharply and glanced away. She really didn't want to even think of what 'work' meant to him.

All activity ceased abruptly when they heard Demetrio's voice echoing the halls of the mansion. They heard his heavy footsteps move purposefully towards the kitchen. He strode into the room and scanned every face that was present silently. When he locked eyes with Cris and saw his arm around Raven the anger in them intensified. He determinedly stalked over to the two only to wrench his younger brother's arm from Raven's shoulders before he brought his closed fist towards his chin.