Dante (17 page)

“Well,” Carl drawled, bringing Dante’s focus back to the table and off Cat, “… I’m glad you’re aware of my disapproval on your wife. Or at the very least, your willingness to allow her to mingle in business. Our families have worked together—we still do in some aspects—on many things, Dante. I will not have a woman infiltrating my men.”

“Why? Scared that her womanly ways might corrupt your men?” Dante asked, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “She doesn’t have a bag of fucking pussy dust she’s tossing around, asshole. She’s just a woman, one that happens to be very good at her job. You don’t have to approve. It’s not your family.”

Cat barely held back her snort. Her respect for Dante climbed a notch or two. 

Anger flashed in Carl’s eyes. “Cosa Nostra doesn’t allow women in.”

“She’s not in; she’s providing a source of revenue. It’s not the same thing.”

Before the man could respond, Dante’s phone started ringing in his pocket. He pulled the device out, checked the caller ID and frowned.

“I have to take this.” Dante passed Cat a look. “You’ll be okay for a minute, yeah?”

“Sure, hon.”

Dante left the booth as Felicia excused herself to the ladies room. That left Cat alone at the table with Carl. The way he stared her up and down had her skin crawling. Without a word, he slid down the booth until they were side by side.

“Tell me, sweetheart, what’s a beautiful thing like you doing messing around with a man like Dante Marcello?”

Cat smiled. “Is he all that different from you?”

“Well, that depends on how you look at it. They say age makes all the difference to experience.”

Cat disagreed. Carl had at least thirty-years on her husband, an aging body with extra weight he could afford to lose, and a creep factor that reminded Cat of his son she met months ago.

When his hand slid onto her knee and moved higher, Cat’s role playing was done. She removed his hand with a snap, slamming the appendage into his chest before he could react. At the same time, she pulled her favorite knife from the sheath at her inner thigh. Cat didn’t have to move a whole lot in the booth to make her point. She simply turned enough to hide her motions under the table and drove the edge of the blade into his groin as her fingernails dug into his throat. No need to scare the poor restaurant goers.

Cat’s accent was back as she whispered, “Very nice to meet you, Carl Calabrese. If you put your hands on my body again, I will make sure my husband gets the pleasure of cutting them off before he shoves them straight up your ass.”

Carl choked on nothing as Cat drove her knife harder into his slacks. “Shit—”

“Seems to me, your son’s behavior is a learned trait. One he clearly picked up from you. And here I was thinking Cosa Nostra men knew how to properly treat a woman. Don’t worry, I’m not offended at your disapproval of me, or even your disgusting character, because we both know the truth, don’t we?”

“You little bitch,” he spat.

“That truth, Carl … is how appallingly intimidated you are by me.”

“And you should be,” Dante said from behind Cat. “Let him go before someone walks around the partition and sees,
dolcezza
.”

Reluctantly, as she was quite enjoying the shock and fear in Carl’s eyes, Cat released the man. She slid out of the booth, unafraid he might come back on her. Dante reached inside his suit jacket and openly pulled out a brick of the cocaine Cat had given him earlier for the sit-down. He tossed the brick to the table before leaning over it and grabbing on Carl’s tie.

Dante yanked the man forward until he was leaning over the table as well and they were face to face. “That right there is grade-A blow supplied by my wife who you so easily dismiss because she is a woman. It comes cut with nothing, and because of the cheap cost to import it, the selling price is enough to have it flying off the streets.”

“What is your point?” Carl wheezed.

“Take the blow and run with it,” Dante ground out, his fist grasping tighter to the man’s tie. “I’ll even give you and the fucking Donati family—because I know those bastards are in a fit about Catrina, too—all the contacts they need to keep a good supply on hand.”

Carl coughed on his laughter. “What is this, Dante?”

“I’ll give you access to this, and I’ll even overlook your disgraceful actions tonight and your behavior toward my wife …”

“For what?”

“For your word at the Commission and the promise you will never speak out against my wife again, not in business or privately. Is that understood?”

“I—”

“Let me make myself very clear,” Dante said, not relenting his hold for a second. “If you refuse any of this, I will tear through your streets and rid New York of your name in a week. And if you think I can’t get away with it or that I don’t have the power to see it through, go on and test me.”

“You have my word,” Carl said low.

Dante smiled a cruel sight. “Good.”

“
Bello
,” Cat said, tapping her heel to the floor.

Dante let the man go and stood, fixing his jacket. “Yes, Cat?”

“I want a drink.”

“Let’s go to the restaurant bar,
Amore
. I hear they make those apple martini things you like pretty damn well.” Dante gave Carl a single nod. “We’ll be off, Carl. What my wife wants, she gets. Have a good night.”

• • •

Dante’s hands slid into Cat’s hair as the bartender readied their drinks. She let him pull the awful bun out, shaking her hair around her shoulders to reset the curls. Laughing all the while, Dante held out a napkin for her to spit the gum into.

“Never wear your hair like that again, kitten.”

Cat hid the way the pet name reminded her of their wedding night, but barely. “It’s not really my style, anyway.”

“
Mmm
, I like your curls down.”

“I know.”

“You were fucking perfect,” he said, smiling wide.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d have kept it going, but he crossed a line when he tried to feel me up.”

“I don’t expect you to take any kind of shit from a man just because he’s made in the family or even a boss, for that matter. Stand your ground, Catrina. Always.”

“You know I will,” she replied.

Dante chuckled. “Of course.”

Cat fell into easy conversation with her husband, almost like they were old friends. Their quiet laughter filled the bar as they chatted and drank. A sense of comfort seeped into Cat’s blood steam the longer they sat there together.

“Do you think we’ll have to do this again for the Donati family?” Cat asked.

Dante shook his head, putting his whiskey glass to the bar top. “No, they’re much easier to handle than the Calabrese family and smarter, too. Carl will pass along the word, and we’ll get confirmation of their agreement, but little else.”

“Good. I know you’re worried about the Commission.”

What Dante did explain of the upcoming meeting in a couple of months made her involvement in business tricky for her husband. This dinner tonight had been one more duck lining up in their favor.

“It’ll be fine. Drink,
bella
.”

Cat did, slipping back into conversation with Dante about other things easily. While they talked, she kept her eye on the restaurant floor, watching the guests coming in and out and being directed to their tables by the Maître’D.

Finally, someone Cat recognized and had been waiting for was escorted to one of the semi-private tables near the back of the restaurant. She wasn’t sure if the man had seen her, but she was able to catch a glimpse of his profile as he sat down at his table.

Cat placed her hand to Dante’s wrist, drawing him from his thoughts. “Yeah?”

“You weren’t the only one with business here tonight, Dante. And now I have to go take care of it.”

His brow furrowed. “You’re going to have to explain that, Cat.”

She pointed out her client at the back. The recognition came to Dante’s eyes almost instantly.

“I had an ulterior motive for asking to choose the restaurant tonight, you see. I knew he was going to be in town and this is how most of our meetings usually go. In a public, but private place, a quick meeting, and then a goodbye until the next time.”

Dante still seemed stunned. “That’s …”

“Well, his father did just win a second term,” Cat said offhandedly. “I’m surprised his men in black aren’t on him like white on rice tonight. They’re probably all over the outside. You know how the Secret Service is.”

“The President’s son, Cat,
really
?” Dante forced out. “Don’t you think that’s a little like juggling fire?”

“Not all of my clients are in that book, Dante. For obvious reasons like Travis Johnston’s delicate situation.”

“The Presi—”

“Yes, and I have to go. The longer I leave him waiting, the more likely someone is to really take notice of his presence and our exchange. I’ll be right back.”

Dante nodded and Cat left the bar. She crossed the room quickly with her bag in hand, smiling when her oncoming presence caught Travis’ eye. The man stood, ever the gentleman, at her appearance.

“Don’t you look good, Queen,” Travis greeted.

“Smooth talker. We both know I always look like this.”

Travis laughed. “Even in the midst of sleep,
hmm
?”

“So the rumor goes.”

Looking over her shoulder, Travis said, “I noticed you had a man with you. I never knew you to bring along guests, Queen.”

“Catrina,” Cat said softly. “Tonight, you can call me Catrina.”

Travis’ cheery smile fell. “What is this?”

Cat placed her bag under the table. She’d already removed her personal effects earlier from it. “Take it to the bathroom and you’ll find the brick inside. Same amount as always.”

“Cat—”

“That man is my husband,” Catrina interrupted quietly.

Travis passed another look in Dante’s direction. “He looks familiar.”

“He should. He is Dante Marcello.”

Instinctively, Travis took a step back from Cat. She expected that subconscious reaction to the news of her being married to a man who was well known in New York, not to mention his involvement with Cosa Nostra.

“Catrina,” Travis said, his words a harsh, angry whisper. “You’re putting me in a world of dan—”

“I haven’t put you in any more danger of being seen than I ever have, trust me. I would never do that, but I’m aware my position as that man’s wife absolutely puts me in a spotlight, now.”

Because of that, she would lose client after client. Just like Travis.

It was worth it, though.

“There’s a contact in the bag, Travis,” Cat said. “Ask for Gaetano. He will direct you to a girl who will take my place with no one any wiser.”

Travis seemed as stunned as her husband had earlier, only for different reasons. She supposed the friendships she had forged with a few of her clients, ones like Travis, would hurt the men a bit when they ended. No, there had never been anything beyond business and a chat or two, but it was still a relationship each valued.

And it was reaching its course.

“You’re giving a lot up for a man, Catrina. That doesn’t seem like you at all.”

“I suppose not.”

“Why?”

“Power,” she replied.

Chapter Ten

“I thought I heard something back here.”

Dante’s shoulders tensed at Catrina’s quiet voice. Four months into their marriage and he could count on one hand the amount of times he heard Catrina speak like she just had. Maybe because it was so unlike her to be soft-spoken, especially where he was concerned. She was fiery—feisty, even—and he liked that about her, even if she did drive him nine ways to crazy most days. 

If nothing else, he knew he managed to find a good partner for a wife. Someone who made him competitive, but only to better himself. A woman whose strength and worth didn’t need to be determined by his praises and acceptance. She had become a friend of sorts to him and most definitely a confidant.

Those qualities were rare—beautiful, actually. They also turned him on like nothing else, but their agreement was clear. The marriage was business. She didn’t want a lover. Intimacy would ruin the very delicate balance they had achieved together as it was.

“Dante?”

He cleared his throat, turning on his heel to find Catrina standing in the doorway of his office. “Yeah?”

“It’s like … one in the morning.”

“No rest for the wicked, Cat.”

She grinned.

“
Mmm
, but this doesn’t look all too wicked,” Catrina said, nodding at the boards set up around the office. “This looks like work.”

“I do more than sell drugs, traffic guns, and extort money, Cat.”

“I know.”

Catrina sighed, dropping her arms to her side as she took a step into the room. The cream colored silk robe she wore did little to hide her shapely legs, considering it came to a stop mid-thigh. Dante’s gaze traveled over her hourglass figure. The black sash cinched at her waist made her trim shape more prominent. Even sleepy and her sleek, red hair mussed from tossing in bed, she actually looked as though she’d been rolling in the sheets with someone.

Catrina was a beautiful woman, and Dante found it harder every day to ignore his building desire. Control was his middle name—one this woman stripped away with just the barest graces of her attention.

Like now.

Dante licked his lips and turned back to the boards he was surveying before Catrina’s interruption. “These are a few choices in development plans I’ve been working on.”

“This is real estate development,” Catrina said.

“Yeah. I like to own things. The more I own, the more control I have. The more control, the more power. Because control and power are not the same. They may seem like it, but they’re not. The Marcellos dominate the board in a lot of things, but it’s only just started to occur to me it’s actually my father who dominates. He owns the properties, the businesses, and so on. He has the power, and that leaves us nowhere when he’s gone.”

“What am I missing here?” Catrina asked, coming to stand at Dante’s side. “I feel like there’s something you’ve left out.”

Dante chuckled. “A couple of weeks before we met, my father fired me.”

Catrina’s head whipped around so she could stare at him, her brow furrowing. “What? Fired
you
? But, you’re his son and it’s Marcello Industries. Right?”

“I know. That was my first reaction, too. Essentially, that’s what he did. Fired me. Paid out my shares in Marcello Industries though I didn’t take the money. And I won’t. Even if he tries to force it on me eventually, I’ll donate it. It seemed really pointless for me to take the money and start my own thing like he wanted if the money had actually just been given to me from the start as an inheritance, right?”

“I get that.”

“I have money,” Dante explained, waving at his office but really meaning his condo as a whole. “Obviously, I have money. The money that bought this condo, my vehicles, and anything else I have did not come from my father in the end. It came from me working my ass off for years. Both on the legal and the illegal side of things.

“Sure, I had a huge share in my father’s company, but I worked hours and hours every day in an office just like any other person in that building. And when I left that office, I had an entirely different job to do, too. I thought …”

“What?” Catrina asked.

“I thought I was doing my own thing, but I wasn’t. It took my father kicking me on my ass to realize I had simply been following his footsteps, not making my own.”

“So, basically, he stripped you of your things by taking away what you were using to identify who you were.”

“Exactly. And without things, I thought I had no control and therefore, no power.”

“What made you realize you were wrong?”

Dante shrugged. “I’m still a Marcello. I’m always going to be a Marcello. I just can’t be Antony Marcello. Once Marcello Industries is sold to the highest bidder—it will happen eventually—I need to have power for my family. As much as I can control, I will. Anything and everything that can be bought so the Marcello name can be attached, I will do it.”

Catrina surveyed the real estate development plans once more. “So, what’s all this about?”

“Slowly working back into the game, I suppose. The last few months, I’ve been focused on this marriage and what that all meant. In the process, I left this to the wayside in some aspects.”

“Oh?”

“In a way.” Dante sighed. “I have a meeting with a board of investors tomorrow afternoon. When I left my father’s company, I left all I gained for it behind. Well, except for a few things. My name, reputation, and all of my contacts. The only reason I managed to get in on the meeting tomorrow is because of my contacts.”

“You sound nervous. That isn’t like you at all.”

“It isn’t. But, it’s not just a meeting. It’s more like a bidding war between rival companies for, well—” Dante waved at the white boards, his plans on blueprints for Catrina to see. “—this. I don’t have the damn clout without Marcello Industries backing me, but I did have the contacts, and it might break my bank for a short time, but I’ve got the money.”

“A little risk is good for you. Playing things safe will get you nowhere, Dante.”

“I’m aware.”

“And yet, you’re still nervous.”

“Because one of those companies I’ll be bidding against tomorrow is my father’s. I’m almost certain he’ll be there. Especially knowing I will be, too. He might own the company and have teams who can do this sort of thing for him, but he’s always been hands-on with investors.”

Catrina fell silent.

“Am I allowed to be a little nervous, now?” Dante asked jokingly.

“Why would Marcello Industries need investor money?”

“Because they’re also an investor for many other smaller companies. It’s likely they’re involved in this plan for development through a third-party and are acting on behalf of them. Chances are, Marcello Industries would own a small portion of the contract, the third-party would own the same percentage or slightly larger, and then the investor gets their slice based on the amount of money signed over and the contract worth.”

“Seems simple,” Catrina said, rolling her eyes. “Not.”

“He’s not going to let me just have it,” Dante continued quietly. “Antony Marcello doesn’t give anything to anyone without making them bleed, sweat, and beg for it. I’ve witnessed him in bidding wars against other companies. He’s relentless.”

“You’ve never been the one across from him, I take it.”

“Nope. Why would I? I worked for him.”

“I think you might be making yourself nervous for no good reason.”

Dante cocked a single brow, eyeing Catrina from the side. “Did you hear what—”

“I’m a woman, not deaf. I realize
la famiglia
doesn’t look highly on women in business, so you likely believe you’re always right being a man, but in this case, you’re not, Dante.”

Ah, there she was. Claws and all.

“What did your father tell you when he fired you?” Catrina asked.

“To challenge him, rival him, and surpass him but not to be him.”

“Well, that’s exactly what you’re doing.”

Confusion settled in Dante. “Actually, I haven’t had the chance to do much where my father is concerned.”

“You’re going against his company tomorrow. That’s certainly a challenging stance to take. Beyond that, if you succeed in getting the investors’ cash added to yours, these plans on the boards look as though Marcello Industries might have one hell of a rival in real estate development. Especially considering you’re a much smaller company as of now.”

“It’s work though, Cat, not
la famiglia
.”

“But it’s yours, Dante. Not his.”

“True,” he conceded quietly.

“I meant to ask before, but forgot. Now seems a good time. How old was your father when he took over the family as Don?”

“He was in his early thirties.”

“And you’re twenty-nine, Dante. Already you are surpassing him in certain aspects. That’s not to say you don’t have a great deal more to do, and your reputation in your family will grow the longer you hold power, but he also took years to make his name stand above others. So will you.”

Catrina turned to face Dante, smiling as she poked him in the stomach playfully. “You’re creating your own footsteps, Dante. The longer you walk, the more prominent they’ll be.”

Dante smirked. “I don’t tell you this often, but thank you.”

“I don’t need you to tell me it.”

“I know,” Dante murmured. “You don’t seek approval. It’s one of the things I like best about you.”

Catrina fell silent, her green gaze flicking away from Dante’s. But before she had, he saw it in her eyes. The barest hint of indecision. A wavering in her emotions. There was only one other moment he witnessed that from her. Their wedding night; the one time she let him have her. The memory of her beneath him—the only one he had—never really left the back of his mind.

Dante couldn’t help but remembering her words:
People like us, we’re not supposed to feel. We don’t get attached. It ruins us. Together, we’ll be the perfect pair. Together, we have nothing to lose.

The longer he knew Catrina, the harder those words were to believe.

“You should go back to bed, Catrina,” Dante said, turning back to stare at his plans.

“I—”

“No, you should go. You make it difficult for me to concentrate. I make it hard for you to be ... well, you.”

Let her make of that what she wanted. It was the only olive branch Dante would hand to her.

“You really do, Dante.” Then, Catrina reached out and snagged his pinky with her own, connecting them for a brief second. Standing on her tiptoes, she pressed a quick kiss to the underside of his jaw. “And I don’t know if I like it or not.”

Dante froze, unsure of what to do.

Catrina didn’t give him a chance to figure something out. She left his office and closed the door behind her without a word.

• • •

Dante’s fists pressed hard into the top of the long oak table, his anger rising. At the other end, his father sat cool and unruffled. More than anything, that pissed Dante off the most.

Out of three companies chosen to present their offers and plans to the board of investors, only Empire Developments and Marcello Industries remained. The third company bowed out gracefully after learning the other two companies had undercut their total amount by nearly twenty-five percent.

Dante and Antony, however, were nearly matched in costs and prospective payouts.

“Empire Developments is new to the game,” Antony said calmly, flipping through a folder and giving it all of his attention. “So new, in fact, they’ve not had time to fill their new offices with the appropriate work force to manage the company.”

“It’s in progress,” Dante replied, somehow keeping his tone level. “And if we consider these proposed plans are not expected to begin for another
thirteen months
, Empire Developments has more than enough time to finish the work needed on their end to meet the contract’s needs.”

“But, being as new as they are, will their contractors and personnel be able to keep the contract’s timeline and budget when it does begin?” Antony asked.

“That’s the …” Kaleb Trenton, an investor at the far end, glanced over his paperwork, “… seventy-million dollar question, isn’t it? For every month the contract goes beyond the deadline, we all lose out. Could it be made back eventually? Sure. Unfortunately, I for one want the investment to pay back as quickly as possible. Empire Developments is a huge risk on that end.”

Dante released a slow breath, watching his father carefully. This nonsense back and forth had been ongoing for two hours. He was tired and pissed off.

“You have nothing to show for yourself,” Antony said, finally looking up from his folder to stare at his son. “No proven numbers. No fulfilled contracts. And, most importantly, no standing to give you weight against the bigger players.”

Antony reached over and hit a few keys on his laptop. The projector illuminated the wall with graphs of growth on the development side of their company from Marcello Industries. “We, on the other hand, most certainly do.”