Free Lust for Danger: A Mafia Romance -- Book One: The Family [Erotic Mafia Romance Book] by Angela Jordan Page B

think anything different? But you gotta think, Rocky. Is this really the life you want for yourself?”
     
    Rocky stayed silent, not allowing himself to admit his brother’s point.
     
    “Look what happened to me,” Carlo said softly, turning his eyes out to the ocean. “I hate this shit, and I’m still here eight years later.”
     
    “You can leave,” his brother said suddenly. Carlo turned to him, a questioning look on his face.
     
    “You can leave,” he said again, putting a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Talk to Dom, Carlo. He trusts you – he respects you. He knows you’ve done your time. See what he has to say about it.”
     
    Now it was Carlo who was on the defensive. “He’ll never agree to it,” he said weakly, but both of them knew that was a hollow excuse. He looked into his brother’s eyes.
     
    “Okay,” Carlo said finally. “I’ll talk to him. Happy? But you gotta promise me, brother – when the time’s right, you’ll walk away too. We work for the Pirellis, but that’s it. ”
     
    He thought back to that conversation with his father over the kitchen table, eight long years ago.
     
    “That’s what I told Dad when I started, you know. I told him I’d go to work for them, but I’d never forget who I was.”
     
    Rocky nodded quietly, not saying anything. It was a rare moment of candor between them, and each felt a newfound understanding of the other. They spent a few minutes like that, Rocky’s hand still on his older brother’s shoulder, both of them thinking about their father.
     
    “Come on,” said Carlo, “let’s get out of here. I’ll drive you to pick up the shipment, and then we gotta go back to Trastevere. Dom sent me her personally to come get you. You know anything about that?”

Rocky’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Dom sent you?” he said, thinking for a few moments. “…No, brother, I have no idea.”
     
    Carlo smiled, shaking his head. “That guy’s a nutjob. Who knows what he wants. I guess we’ll find out when he wants us to.”
     
    “I guess so,” Rocky laughed. “Come on, let’s go.”
     
    As they headed back to the car, Carlo checked his cell phone – to his surprise, there was a missed call from Jessica. “Shit,” he muttered, and quickly re-dialed while walking a few steps away from his brother.
     
    Three rings… then four. But just as he was about to hang up, the line opened, and he heard that beautiful voice of hers once again.
     
    “Hello?”
     
    “Jessica!” he replied, a little too enthusiastically. He collected himself. “Is everything all right?”
     
    The guilt in her voice was audible. “Hi, Carlo,” she groaned. “Listen, I’m so sorry about this morning. I… wasn’t feeling well. But I’m better now.”
     
    “That’s great,” he said, his heart beating lightly all of a sudden. “I was worried something had happened. I thought maybe you decided the museum wasn’t worth your trouble.”
     
    “No, no,” she giggled, “nothing like that. I’m dying to see it, actually. And I want to see you again.”
     
    “…You do?” he asked, and then grimaced at how stupid that sounded.
     
    “Of course I do,” she said. “But, Carlo, um… I can’t make it today… can we maybe meet sometime tomorrow?”
     
    He’d stopped walking, and he now realized Rocky was staring back at him with his hands on his hips. When Carlo met his eyes, he contorted his face into a comic expression and began thrusting his hips obscenely. Carlo turned away abruptly, and Rocky burst out in laughter.
     
    “Ah... tomorrow’s perfect!” he said, walking hastily away from his brother. “The museum closes early on Saturdays, actually. Can you come at 5 o’clock? We’ll have the place to ourselves… it will be beautiful.”
     
    “Sounds great,” she said. “I’ll see you then, Carlo. And I promise not to stand you up this time.”
     
    “Stand…up?” he said, confused at the English expression.
     
    She laughed.