by Bethany-Kris
“Can I trust you to be honest?”
Cat laughed lightly. “I would tell you if I did. Though I couldn’t help myself with the kitchen. I had to look around and admire the setup.”
“You cook, then.”
“When I can. We Italian women have a way about that. I’m sure you understand.”
“You could say that,” Dante muttered, opening up the third door down in the long hallway. “Ladies first.”
“I’m a woman, but I wouldn’t go so far as calling myself a lady, Dante.”
Dante grunted something unintelligible under his breath, waving at the open doorway. Cat went inside without question, finding the first comfortable thing she could, which just happened to be a leather couch against the far wall. Instead of sitting, she laid across the black leather and crossed her heeled feet on the armrest.
“What did you find out about me, Dante? I’m dying to know.”
Dante took a seat behind his oak desk, pulling a file from a drawer before tossing it to the top. “Sicilian descent, born in America to an Italian mother who came over on a green card but returned with you to Italy shortly after your birth. I suspect she couldn’t continue working here with no one to help after you were born and so she went home to her family.”
“All true,” Cat noted, impressed with his thoroughness.
“You’re twenty-eight-years-old—”
“Hey, now. Just recently turned. Give me a bit of credit, bello.”
Dante’s gaze surveyed her from across the room. “You seem to like calling me that.”
“It fits. You’re very handsome. I think so, anyway.”
“Don’t play games with me, Cat. I will not be the puppet to your master who bends to your whims and control. If we’re going to sit down together and have a discussion about why you approached me and what you have to offer, I expect you and your intentions to be as clear as a fucking crystal.”
“Your language is terrible.”
“It’s just goddamn fine for my business. Suck it up, no one’s looking for your approval. Certainly not me.”
Cat huffed. “Whatever you can find on me legally or even professionally is who I am, Dante. I rarely, if ever, give people a glimpse into the real me, but you can trust when I say something, I always mean it. I never lie unless it’s absolutely necessary. And I follow through on my deals and promises every single time. Is there more you’d like to question me on in that regard?”
“We’ll see,” Dante said, his lips drawing thin as he went back to his file. “Recently turned twenty-eight.”
“Thank you.”
“Any information from Italy about you or your family was difficult to find.” Dante’s head lifted and he met her gaze, unabashed. “Why is that?”
“My family was quite poor. We lived in what is still considered a small village miles from the city. Neither my mother nor my sister was born in a hospital, though I believe they had papers filed later. I left home when I was nearly sixteen to do my own thing, came into the hands of some interesting characters, and grew from there.”
“Explain that,” Dante said quietly. “After you left home, I mean.”
The corner of Cat’s mouth lifted into a smirk. “I’m beginning to feel like this may be the start of a therapy session. I don’t need my head shrinked.”
“Tell me what I want to know or go, Catrina.”
“Fine.” Cat sat up on the couch, crossing her legs in the process. She didn’t miss Dante’s stare zoning in on the shape of her thighs beneath her dress or the heels she wore. “Shortly after I left home, I was working in a bar under an assumed name, lying about my age. An older gentleman offered me cash to do work for him and I said yes.”
“What kind of work?” Dante asked.
“Deals, things of that nature. Delivering substance, or whatever, to certain clients that wanted a pretty face to look at. The better I got at my job, the more difficult clients were pushed on me. Eventually I had enough contacts and clients in my book to do my own thing, so that’s exactly what I did.”
“And that’s where you showed up on the American side again,” Dante filled in, tapping the paper below him. “You used your dual citizenship to get you into America at twenty-five.”
Cat grinned. “First time on American soil since I was a baby. It took a couple of weeks until my contacts from Italy bled over to here with the people they knew. I had a few men who came with me, and we started from the ground up all over again.”
“The same men who met me at my brother’s club?”
“Some,” Cat admitted. “I only have five men working under me now. Only two are men I keep near me. The three others work out of state, supply certain demands, and always keep me informed as to the market on their end.”
“Two,” Dante said, raising a brow in disbelief. “There were three at the cub last week.”
“Yes, well, Carlos pushed his luck and is now at the bottom of a ravine. Or so Gaetano tells me. What more do you want to know?”
Dante didn’t give a single thing away at Cat’s confession. “You’re fine with killing men who work for you when you have so few who actually do?”
“Men like them are easily trained for my purposes. He’ll be replaced in a month if I want him to be.”
“I see. Moving on, then.”
“Please do, Dante.”
“The information my sources gathered on the down low for Queen is where it gets interesting,” he said simply.
“It always is.”
“You’re very successful.”
“I am.”
“I want to ask how, but I don’t think I would understand.”
Cat smiled, shrugging. “Our businesses are not the same, you see.”
“I realize that.”
“Then, you should already know why you can’t understand my success. We may deal in the same kinds of things occasionally, but your family manages men in the hundreds, your focus is everywhere at once, while mine only needs to be on the clients.”
Dante sucked in a harsh breath. “Clients, huh?”
“It’s a better title than user, and honestly, I don’t manage addicts well. If I find a particular client is becoming too demanding of me or the substances I provide, I drop them without notice or a promise to return. I am successful because of my persona—this innate ability to be a beautiful ghost in their world with no name, no connections to their real lives beyond what I bring to them, and my talent of leaving as quietly as I came. They never have to worry about me staining their reputations, but I do deliver.”
“You deal in big names,” Dante said.
“Would you like a few?” Cat asked softly.
“I have more than enough from my sources to know you’re very much sought after in the socialite, high-society, political, and celebrity worlds.”
“Does that intimidate you?”
Dante laughed, the deep sound striking Cat straight in the gut like a sledgehammer. “No, I find it admirable, actually.”
“Because I’m a woman,” Cat assumed.
“No, because you’re successful at all with people who have enough money to have any kind of drug dealer they want on speed dial.”
Cat appreciated the fact Dante didn’t dance around what she truly was beneath her beauty and title. “Yet, they want Queen.”
“They do.” Dante rested back in his chair, the papers in front of him seemingly forgotten. “How did you come about that name, anyway?”
“Queens are untouchable. Someone thought it fit me and it caught on, I suppose.”
“Who?”
“It’s not important,” Cat replied, having no desire to explain the family similar to Dante’s she left behind in Italy.
Thankfully, Dante didn’t push it. Instead, he went in a direction Cat hadn’t expected at all. “Why do you need a husband, Catrina? Seems to me settling down as a wife might hinder your ability to gallivant from state to state like you do, never mind you don’t seem like a woman who wants a man at your s
ide as a partner.”
“You read people well.”
“I have to. I’m intended to be a boss of a major crime family. My success depends on my ability to pick people apart, weed through their bullshit, and cull the weak links before they can hurt me. Answer my question, regazza.”
“My reasons for needing—not wanting—a marriage is purely selfish and partly for business security. I want to remain on American soil. This is where my clients are and where I have built the majority of my name. Unfortunately, my dual citizenship makes my standing shaky. Should I be arrested, which is unlikely, or if legal issues arise because of my Queen Pin status, I will be deported, and I won’t be invited back. A marriage would insure my stay here no matter what.”
“That all sounds like business to me. Where’s the selfishness come in?”
“Your last name, of course. Not only would it offer me a great deal of protection, as we’re always amassing enemies in our line of work, but it would also open up a few layers of new clientele in New York on my end. I’ve not touched a lot of New York, you see. There’s enough organized crime here without me causing a ruckus. As a leader’s wife, on the other hand, no one would say a thing.”
Dante didn’t bat an eye. “Funny, when a woman wants to get close to me because of my last name, it’s usually because of the money that comes along with it.”
“I have my own money, bello. I certainly don’t need yours.”
“True.”
“And if I’m honest,” Cat continued with a shrug of her delicate shoulders, “I’ve had a few close calls over the last year with the officials. It’s unusual. I need to take a step out of the limelight as the main woman for a while in my trade and let a few other girls I’ve had under my wing fly on their own. So yes, more assurance and protection for me.”
Cat could hear the soft pat-pat-pat of his heel stomping to the hardwood floor beneath his desk. Even if she couldn’t, the way he quieted gave her every indication Dante Marcello might actually be considering Cat’s offer of marriage.
“That’s all fine and great,” Dante said, his gaze snapping back to hers in an instant, “… but what do you actually have to offer me, Catrina?”
“Quite a bit, actually. In the business of importing specific substances—”
“Coke, you mean.”
“Exactly. I tend to have the upper hand on you, which is obvious enough by the price I put on the blow in your streets. My contact is a direct line to the product. I don’t pay nearly as much as you do, it doesn’t go through as many hands as yours does, and it’s a purer substance at a cheaper cost. Practically unheard of.”
“True,” Dante mused. “Where is your supplier located?”
“Italy, actually. I never go back now, but it’s one of the few links I’ve kept.”
“Interesting, but not enough for me to believe it’s worth the price of a marriage license, Cat.”
“I wouldn’t think so, either.” Cat stood from the couch, pulling a small four-inch by four-inch leather-bound notebook from her clutch. She tossed it onto Dante’s desk, hoping his interest would be peaked before he even opened it. “I also offer power in the form of connections. That book is filled with them. I’m sure you have your own, but I suggest you take five minutes to consider mine.”
Dante’s jaw clenched, although he didn’t give a book an ounce of his attention. “I don’t think your clients would appreciate being blackmailed by a mafia boss.”
“They’re not all clients. And believe me when I say the ones who are, wouldn’t be surprised by it. It’s practically second nature for people in my profession to use who they know for their own gain, even if it’s a little dirty.”
And for every name on that list that he used, Cat would lose a client. It was the nature of the beast. She was giving up so much for this, but she couldn’t tell Dante Marcello that.
Cat knew things would never be the same for Queen, but she didn’t care. She needed a marriage.
“Power,” Dante murmured.
“I knew you’d like that.”
“How?”
“Because even if we’re different, we’re also the same.”
Dante sighed, eyeing the black book. “Why approach me?”
“I told you last week. I’d heard the oldest Marcello was looking for an arrangement of the marriage sort. At the time, I wasn’t interested. Now I am.”
“Fair enough, but that was quite a while ago, and my feelings have changed on the issue of arranging a marriage for myself.”
“And why is that, Dante?”
“My sister-in-law, my youngest brother’s wife, was obligated to marry a man she didn’t want and who abused her just for living. I couldn’t be the man who forced a woman into a marriage for my own gain.”
Cat blinked, astonished at the level of openness and emotion in his statement. “You think this would be the same thing? I approached you, Dante. I offered the arrangement to you, and no one is forcing me to do any of this.”
Dante’s fingers drummed to his desk. “How much information have you pulled on my family and business?”
“A lot. I needed to know who you were and who they are.”
“So, you know my marriage is compulsory to take over my family.”
“I understand a little about Cosa Nostra, their expectations, and the rules for the men who join and who lead the families. Yes, I’m aware you need a wife. It’s precisely why I suspected this deal would be of interest to both you and me.”
“Not just any particular time, Catrina. Soon. I need one very soon. My seat is not guaranteed without one, and my father is ready to step down. A Commission meeting is coming up and I need to fulfill their requirements or someone else will be chosen for my spot. I can’t allow that to happen.”
Dante nodded at the couch behind Cat. “Sit and we’ll talk more.”
Cat did as he asked. “I have a question for you.”
“Go ahead.”
“What is it about marriage you’re so opposed to?”
Dante’s jade gaze darkened. “What makes you think I’m opposed to it?”
“You’re not the only one whose business requires them to read people.”
“I have little to offer a woman by way of love or a life. In fact, my entire life is Cosa Nostra, has always been, and will remain so. I have no interest in finding love, settling a woman down into a world she can’t control or be a part of, never mind putting her second for my choices. Because she would be second—always. I think that’s incredibly unfair. What woman would want a future she can’t be certain of?”
“Yes, and because of that, I think we’re a good match, Dante. I don’t want a man to love me. I don’t want anything from him beyond business and mutual gain. I have no interest in settling into the life of a housewife.”
Dante chuckled. “A good match, huh? You’ve made me want to kill you twice now.”
Cat appreciated his honesty. “I have many effects on men. That is only one of them.”
“So I’m learning,” Dante said under his breath.
“It’s pretty simple. 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. I can provide you with the proper wife you need, you can give me the last name and protection I need to move forward. What’s the problem?”
“When you put it like that, nothing.”
“The only thing I really ask for is that you treat me as an equal, Dante. In life and business, that’s all. I have things to offer your syndicates in New York to make them agreeable if you mix business with me. I won’t seem diminished standing beside you as I am not the kind of woman who is intimidated by men. Your father is quite infamous in the Cosa Nostra world, yes?”
“He is. What about it?” Dante asked.
“Time for you to start making your name, too. What better way than turning everything your men believe on its top by bringing a woman like me into play.”
“W
hat else?”
“Pardon?” Cat asked, confused.
“What else would you want from this?”
Chapter Four
Dante surveyed Catrina where she sat on the couch, his keen eye trying to pick up on any hints she was deceitful or there were ulterior motives behind her offer. So far, he had yet to find one.
“I don’t understand what you’re asking,” Catrina said. “I’ve told you everything I want.”
“On a professional level, sure. Not a personal one.”
Catrina coughed, hiding her surprise miserably. “You mean physically or emotionally, that sort of thing?”
“For starters,” Dante answered.
“I don’t want a relationship with you. I have no interest in fucking you.”
Dante doubted her words, considering the way she looked him over. Women could only mask their attraction for so long before their disguises cracked. He wouldn’t deny for a minute that he thought Catrina Danzi was one of the sexiest goddamn women he’d ever had the pleasure of looking at, and if she gave him the chance, he would probably take her to bed no questions asked.
Dante was nothing if not honest.
“I like your bluntness,” Dante told her. Even if she was lying.
“It’s a learned trait. But if you really want to discuss those sorts of things, we can. Having a physical relationship leads to an emotional one, regardless if someone intends for it to or not. I don’t want an attachment to a man I won’t be able to love. I should also add I won’t act as your docile wife and I have no desire for children, so if you’re expecting that, it won’t happen.”
“Well, you need to have sex to make babies, don’t you?”
“Things happen, Dante. I’m just saying children won’t be one of them.”
“Doesn’t matter as I can’t have children.”
Catrina’s shoulders tensed. “I beg your pardon?”
“I can’t have children, which is yet another reason why I feel like a woman would be shortchanged when it came to marrying me. Something else I couldn’t give her that she might want someday.”
“If I asked what the problem is for you, would you be offended?” Catrina asked.