by Penelope Sky
After minutes of silence, I drifted off to sleep.
5
Cato
Winter slowly turned to spring, and now that Siena was well into her eighth month, she became more uncomfortable—and more stressed.
“We don’t have a crib, a car seat, diapers—nothing.” She marched around our bedroom with her hand on her enormous stomach. “Which bedroom is going to be hers? We don’t even know that. We’re so unprepared.”
“Baby—”
“We need to get this stuff now. Because I could pop at any moment.”
“We still have at least another month.”
“But babies come early all the time. We need to do this now.”
“I have work.”
She flashed me a look more terrifying than Satan’s.
“I could have someone else take care of all that for us—”
“I don’t want someone else to take care of this stuff for us.” She stomped her foot. “I want to do all of it. I want to pick out her crib, find the perfect toys, buy an obscene number of diapers. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s our first child.”
That made it sound like there would be more to follow. “Alright.” I had an important meeting today, but Bates could take care of it. Siena was becoming more irrational with every passing day, probably because she was in pain most of the time. Her petite frame made carrying a child strenuous. “We’ll take care of it today.”
She finally relaxed once she got her way. “Let me change and we’ll go.”
I stepped into the hallway and called my brother.
“Where are you?” he barked. “You should have been here fifteen minutes ago.”
“I can’t come in today. I need you to handle this.”
“Are you kidding me right now? This is a huge deal for us. Your balls better be stuck in the vacuum or something.”
“I have other priorities I have to take care of right now.”
His silence was a sharp indication of his rage. “The only other priority you have is Siena—and that’s not a priority. You’ll see her after work.”
“We need to get stuff for Martina. She’s having a meltdown about it.”
“Do it after work.”
“Bates, I’ve worked for our company day and night for the last decade. I’ve worked weekends and holidays. I’ve lived for our company. But right now, this is more important. I’m going to be a father, and everything is going to change. When you have a kid, you’ll understand. And I’ll handle the office then so you can address it.”
He sighed into the phone. “I’m never having a kid, so we don’t need to worry about that.”
“Whatever. I need to do this. I know you can handle it.” I hung up before he could rip into me again.
We sat in the back seat of the car and headed to Florence where we would do our shopping. We were buying everything we might possibly need, and we had a separate car that would hold all our things.
I wore my black leather jacket with a green shirt underneath. Spring had arrived, but it was still cold as winter overshadowed the new season.
Siena was cozy in her jeans, an olive jacket with a fur hood, and a blue scarf. Tan boots were on her feet. Her distended belly was enormous now, and she constantly rubbed it like she could feel Martina move deep inside. She sighed every so often, like she was breathing through the distress.
There was nothing I could do for her at this point. No amount of back rubs or foot rubs would take away the discomfort she felt every single moment. She peed several times during the night and had morning sickness when she first woke up. Sex had become less appealing to her.
Which sucked for me.
I grabbed her hand and held it on my thigh, doing the only thing I possibly could in that moment. Affection was all I had to offer.
She rested her head against the back of the seat and sighed. “I loved being pregnant through most of this. But now I just can’t wait for her to come out.”
“You’ve done a great job, baby. You made it look easy.”
“Liar.” She smiled at me. “But thanks for saying it anyway.”
My phone vibrated in my pocket, so I reached for it to check the message. I grabbed my pack of cigars by mistake and put them back before I retrieved my phone. It was a message from Bates, a quick question about the numbers. He should be in the meeting right now, so he probably hoped for a fast response. I typed back my answer right away.
Siena lifted her head and stared at my pocket. “Cato, do you smoke a lot?”
“No, not a lot.”
“When do you smoke?”
“Mainly at work. Sometimes in my office.”
“Well, you can’t do that anymore.”
No one ever told me what to do, so I gave her an incredulous look. “I don’t smoke around you, and I always give my suit to Giovanni the second I get home. I’m not exposing you to it.”
“That’s not why, and you know it.” She shot me that fierce expression, a warning of a bloody war. “Martina needs you to live as long as possible. Smoking cuts down your life expectancy by ten years. I understand why that wasn’t important to you a year ago, but things are different now.”
“I don’t smoke cigarettes. I only smoke cigars for—”
“A cigar is the equivalent of seven cigarettes. Don’t try to fool me, Cato. You aren’t as smart as you think you are.”
We hadn’t had a fight like this in a long time. The last few months had been spent in comfort. Like most couples, we had a routine. I went to work, came home, we had dinner, and then we went to bed and had sex. It sounded boring, but it was actually very comfortable. It was a lot more fulfilling then heading to the bars and clubs like I used to.
“Promise me you’ll never smoke again.”
“For the rest of my life?” I asked incredulously.
“Yep.”
“I only smoke once a week—”
“If you smoke so little, then it should be no problem to stop altogether.” Blood lust was in her eyes, the same expression I wore when I manipulated my clients into agreeing to my outrageous terms. She wouldn’t settle or negotiate. She made her demands, and I could meet them—or face the consequences.
“Baby, I appreciate what you’re trying to do—”
“Cigars or sex. Pick.”
Did she just give me an ultimatum? “You’re being—”
“I’m serious, Cato. I love you too much to watch you slowly kill yourself. Smoking is the number one cause of premature death in the world.”
When she tossed her love for me into the mix, I was blindsided. She hadn’t mentioned her feelings for me in several months, and then she dropped them when I least expected it. It always made me lose my footing. It made me feel good and terrible at the exact same time.
“No more.” She snatched the cigars out of my pocket and threw them on the floor. “Promise me.” She stared into my face until she heard the words she desired. She knew I wasn’t the kind of man to make a promise I couldn’t keep, so my word was good enough.
If she were someone else, I wouldn’t comply out of principle. If we weren’t having a daughter in a month, I probably wouldn’t care about giving her what she wanted. But I wanted to be around as long as possible so I could always take care of Martina—and Siena. So, for the first time in my life, I folded. “I promise.”
It was the vow she wanted to hear, so she sighed in relief then looked out the window again.
This woman could make me do anything.
And I hated that.
We spent the entire day shopping. We got everything Martina could possibly need, from toys to bottles and all the other products I had no idea were required to take care of a baby. Siena had fun picking out all the clothes Martina would get to wear, and even though she was on her feet all day, she didn’t complain once.
I’d never spent more than five minutes shopping. My personal stylist picked out my wardrobe then had my tailor customize it to my measurements. Then one of my men picke
d up the clothes and placed them in my closet.
I didn’t even go grocery shopping.
After the long day, we headed home, taking the entire store with us.
“Should this be her bedroom?” Siena stepped into the guest bedroom next door to mine. My office was on the other side. “It’s right next door.”
“I don’t think our daughter is going to want to be right next door to us.”
“Not forever. Just for now. That way when she cries in the middle of the night, I don’t have to go far. I think the smart thing is keeping her close.” She stepped into the room and looked at the furniture that was already inside. “I guess we could donate all of this. Everything looks to be of exceptional quality. Unless you have somewhere else to put it?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Then we’ll donate it to someone. I want to paint the walls and set up the crib next to the window. Do you think your men could get rid of everything tomorrow?”
“They could get rid of it now if that’s what you wanted.”
“God, no. It’s seven at night.”
“This shift is on until midnight regardless.”
“So you have men working constantly?”
I nodded. “They work twelve-hour shifts.”
“Do you pay them well?”
“Of course. You can’t expect men to put their lives on the line unless they’re giving their families the best quality of life possible. That’s all they care about, making sure their wives don’t have to work and their kids get the best education. Any honorable man would do anything to give his family a better life.” That was all I ever wanted for my mother when my father ducked out. I wanted to erase what he did and prove what being a man really meant. “So they’ll do anything I ask.”
“Well, it can still wait until morning. Then we’ll set up the crib and add a new coat of paint.”
“I’ll bring someone in to do all of that.”
“Why? We can do it ourselves.”
“Because rich people never do anything themselves.”
She rolled her eyes. “I want to be part of the process every step of the way. I want to put my love into the paint, build that crib with my bare hands. I thought you would feel the same way…”
I hated it when she guilted me. “I have work to do, Siena. You seem to forget that a lot.”
“And you seem to forget that you already have billions. You don’t even need to work anymore.”
“It’s not just about the money.”
“Whatever,” she said. “I’ll do it myself.” She walked into our bedroom and started to undress.
I followed behind her. “Could you at least wait until I get home from work tomorrow? The guys will move the furniture during the day, and then we can take care of this when I get home.”
Since I’d offered a compromise, she seemed more receptive. “Okay, that sounds fair.”
“I got the deal—with no help from you.” Bates sat in the leather armchair and lit a cigar.
“You texted me, and I texted you back.”
“And you think that’s work? Did you have fun picking out diapers and shit?” He tossed a cigar at me.
I caught it and set it on the desk. “I didn’t mind it.” I didn’t care about picking out all the essentials, but knowing everything was for my daughter made it a lot more interesting. I selected a few toys for her, along with one or two outfits. It hit me more with every passing day that I was going to be a father—in a month.
He glanced at my cigar then tossed a lighter at me.
I caught it and put it on the desk next to the cigar.
Bates took in the smoke then blew rings toward the ceiling. “What’s your problem?”
“Just not smoking.”
“Because…?”
I shrugged. “Don’t want to.”
“All we ever do is smoke and drink.”
“Maybe we should branch out more.”
His eyes narrowed. “What’s going on, Cato? We’ve never had these little conversations without a cigar in our hand. What gives?”
Since I would never smoke again, I might as well tell him the truth. “I quit.”
He laughed like it was absurd. “Quit? You? Why?”
“Smoking kills,” I said simply.
It didn’t take long for my brother to figure out the real reason on his own. “Siena forced you?”
“She didn’t force me. She asked me.”
“My god, you’re pussy-whipped so fucking hard.”
I didn’t deny it because it was true. “She made valid points. And she wasn’t going to let it go unless I caved.”
“What valid points?”
“That I should live as long as possible for Martina’s sake. She’s going to be born into a violent world. I’m the only one who can really protect her. Now that I’m having my kid, my priorities are changing. I wouldn’t have made these sacrifices before, but now that there’s something more important than me, it’s easy to make these changes. Maybe one day you’ll understand.”
“I highly doubt that.” He kept smoking. “I’ve been keeping an eye on Micah and Damien. Still nothing.”
“If nothing has been going on this long, maybe they are shutting down the business.”
“I don’t buy that. They’re doing something, and they don’t want anyone to know about it.”
“Isn’t that true for all criminals?”
“But to completely disappear?” He shook his head. “That’s shady.”
“We’re all shady,” I reminded him.
“I’m not gonna drop this, man. I’m telling you, something is up.”
“Maybe something is up,” I said. “But maybe it has nothing to do with us.”
“Everything has to do with us, Cato. We’re the top of the food chain—and everything beneath us is our business.” His eyes drifted away as he continued to enjoy his cigar. He pulled the smoke into his mouth then let it slowly seep out between his lips. “So, one month to go, huh?”
I nodded. “One month.”
“Are you gonna kill her?”
The question surprised me. “I thought we were past this?”
He shrugged. “She still did terrible things that she wasn’t punished for. Damien and Micah might suspect she means a lot to you, which would make her and your daughter primary targets.”
“So killing her is the solution?” I snapped.
“Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe you could just give her a scare. Punish her for everything she did. Prove to your enemies she means nothing to you.”
“So, don’t shoot her?”
“Just go through the motions and make her think it’s happening. That terror will be punishment enough. Then she can really have a blank slate.”
I actually liked that idea. People talked, so the world would know that I’d seriously considered killing her. It would make her look expendable and less valuable as a target.
“She still should be punished for what she did. Just because she has a magic pussy doesn’t make her immune to justice.” He sucked on his cigar again. “That’s my two cents. It will give you the closure you need, and she will forgive you because she’ll know you’re even.”
A part of me felt terrible for considering such a thing, but another part of me felt it was justified. The beginning of our relationship was a complete lie. To top it off, she ran away from me—and took my baby. They were two offenses that both deserved the death penalty. “I’ll think about it.”
“You’ve got a month—so take your time.”
I snuck out of bed at two in the morning and headed back to Florence. Bates met me on the way, and we descended into the Underground where the Skull Kings operated—nearly in plain sight.
The security checked us at the front and made sure we were unarmed. Under my special agreement with various factions throughout the country, I was allowed to bring three armed men anywhere I went. Each one carried an assault rifle that would annihilate everyone in that room before they could dr
aw their pistols.
We took our seats at a round table, and a topless waitress fetched us our drinks.
Bates watched her lean over and set our glasses in front of us, his eyes eating up the sight of her tits. When she walked away, his eyes followed her like he’d never seen anything more beautiful. He took a drink as he continued to watch her.
“They’re just tits, Bates.” I looked at the stage and saw the poor women up for auction. All naked, young, and afraid, they would be auctioned off to the highest bidder for an unspeakable existence. I knew how the Skull Kings made their money, and even though I was opposed to it, I didn’t intervene. Unless a woman explicitly wanted sex, I wasn’t interested. I didn’t get off on the idea of forcing a woman to please me. Sex with an eager partner was so much better. But all the sick fucks in this room didn’t agree with me, and even if I had the power to save the lives of these women, I wouldn’t bother.
“But nice fucking tits. Probably fake but who gives a damn.”
I looked into my glass and took a drink, ignoring the auction that carried on around us. An older man bid on a woman who couldn’t be a day over twenty. Another man raised his paddle and increased the stakes. Back and forth they went until the older man won his prize.
Claw lowered himself into the seat across from us, the scar still visible down his left cheek. He was the top dog of the organization, the cruelest one of the bunch. “Glad you could make it, gentlemen. We have a lot of beauties for sale.”
“Is she for sale?” Bates nodded to the waitress.
“Ask her that, and she’ll cut off your balls.” Claw laughed maniacally before he drank from his glass—straight vodka. “So, how can I help the Marino Brothers? I heard you’re expecting a little one, Cato. Congratulations.”
I didn’t appear disgruntled by his knowledge. “Thank you. I’m having a girl.”
“Not a boy to take over the empire?”