Marco

"I am waiting."

"For?" Lorenzo smirks and lifts an eyebrow.

"A lecture? A punishment?"

"There is no need to tell you that you were an utter fool and that I am disappointed. I have been wondering how it came to that because, amazingly, you seemed unusually calculated in comparison with the rest of your family. I thought you got something from me after all, but then you steer such havoc in the first of many meetings. You sure know how to make yourself memorable; how come you managed to stay anonymous for so many years?"

I look out the window annoyed.

"And I didn't think Stefano Messina has any leverage over you. I mean, had. I hope we are past that embarrassing point." He rolls his eyes slightly to emphasize his disapproval. 

"He thinks I murdered his daughter. It looks like I murdered his daughter. Of course, he has leverage over me, because..."

"Because what? Because he is your brother... I didn't think you were so sentimental."

"I am certain you cannot understand that. You gunned your own brother down and lectured me not long ago about the thickness of blood. Now are you not a double standards-bearing hypocrite?"

Lorenzo's frown deepens and he clenches his fist. 

"That is however not the point of this discussion. Who is she to you?"

"Who is who?"

"Oh please. The blond girl that made you start a fistfight in the meeting and shoot ten of Buonavota's bodyguards. Who she is per se is rather irrelevant, because after a superficial check, I saw she is rather insignificant but we often give meaning to rather meaningless things, don't we? So? Who is she?"

"If she is that insignificant why are we even talking about this?"

"Because as a capo it is not good to have any weaknesses. How do you think I survived so long and preserved my position?"

By being a ruthless, heartless prick?

"So it's better to eliminate a budding one before it escalates," he continues.

"Don't you dare!"

"Or, what, Marco?" he says walking closer with steady steps and his icy gaze bored into mine.

"Or I will act exactly as you would when you don't get what you want."

Lorenzo just scoffs and walks back to the chair behind the massive desk.

"Stop being overly dramatic and let's discuss how we can control the damage you did."

"I don't have time for that."

"This is the highest priority. What other plans do you have, huh?"

"I will go to Sicily to talk to Stefano."

"Most certainly not, you silly boy!"

"I don't care what you think and I am not your employee to command."

He just keeps looking at me sternly and mightyly annoyed.

"If you get too close, Stefano is going to shoot her. You know that, don't you? If you insist on this stupidity, everything is only going to get worse for her."

Not like it's not bad enough. Being Stefano's girlfriend is awful, being whatever she is to him now, because girlfriend is not it, can only be worse.

Oh, Roxi, we bitterly need to have a conversation; I am mighty curious how it came to this.

Unfortunately, Lorenzo is right; it needs to be in a diplomatic manner, not by force. I need to think about it because there is literally nothing I have that Stefano might want.

"Fine. I won't do anything." Today while you are watching at least.

"Very well. Finally. I must say the little show can bear some fruit after all."

Now it's my turn to raise an eyebrow.

"You see, Marco, many men in this milieu understand and respect sheer force and violence a lot, for whatever reason. I guess it's inherited from our ancestors and some didn't grow out of it. Anyway, it is not good or bad, just how it is, and you showed a massive display of force. This gained you a bit of respect from most of them."

Now who would have thought that I appeal to cavemen, by accident there is.
That can be useful... and I sound like the old asshole.

"OK, go on. And by the way, what is my schedule for today? I was not emailed by your secretary as usual. I thought it was because of the impending lecture."

Lorenzo looks at me a bit wondrous and somehow bemused, for a change.

"You indeed don't remember? My goodness, your mother would have reminded me at least six times already, every day of the week."

"OK, whatever, just email me and I will adjust. If I have the day off, even better."

"No, you don't have the day off. The guests will arrive in a few hours; you should prepare. It's black tie again."

"So what's the occasion?"

"I can't help finding this amusing." He suppresses a small smile. "I have organized a birthday banquet."

Birthday. It hits me like thunder. I had completely forgotten. It's not like I did something special for my birthday for the last, I guess, ten years. Stefano always tried to organize something, I give him that, it's just that it was always cocaine, alcohol and hookers and I am no fan of any of these. Mind-blowing, I know, after having been raised among the mob, but I never do drugs, I rarely drink and I need at least a minimum of emotional attachment before having sex.

I remember how Stefano made fun of me because the first time when he forced me to go with him to a brothel I tried to talk to the girl in question and she ended up leaving and complaining that I was weird and wasted her time. I was much younger back then and naive in that sense. Never heard the end of it from Stefano. 'Marco you don't go to see hookers for a coffee chat'.

Yeah well, banquet it is tonight. I am curious about who is invited and I am somehow in awe that Lorenzo knows when my birthday is. Then again he has a whole folder on me in his office under lock and key. I need to pick that lock on occasion. The existence of that damn thing makes me feel stalked.

The water in the shower makes the cuts and the bullet scraps stinge. They obviously didn't heal in two days but neither is it so bad, and my face looks mostly fine. That makes me think about Stefano and a part of me does hope I shattered his nose bridge. He just behaved beyond awful. I understand his circumstances and his hate for me but somehow this time his usual cruelty hit closer to home.

He never raped a girl, to my knowledge at least. It helped that he mostly interacted with escorts, girls who wanted to nail him down for cash and the occasional service person who could be seduced with promises of a better life. I mean he is by no means a saint but I think I have rarely seen him this purposefully cruel.

Roxi, how did it get to that, for fuck's sake? I have to find that out. I mean I almost choked on my wine when I saw her there dressed like that and dancing in that way. 

I can't help hearing a whisper in my head, in the tone of Lorenzo's voice, asking if she is not there like all the others to live a luxurious life, as Chiara did. Seems unlikely. She looked profusely miserable. And if she let Stefano do whatever he wanted he must have some leverage.

But they did have interactions of a sexual nature before, even during our, whatever it was, that she never told me about. Generally, you don't really have to unless you are committed but if you shag the brother you should maybe mention it at least briefly.

Can it be an act and I am just an idiot that brought a lot of trouble upon himself for a girl who doesn't care one bit about him? I guess I'll have to find out. Lord, I really want a boring life, but I guess that's not in the cards for me.

At half past six, I walk down the stairs to my first birthday party in a long time. It's as lavish as one would have imagined but to my surprise among a sea of unknown people, I also see a few familiar faces.

"Yamato?!" I ask surprised. And not only Yamato alone but also his brother Minoru, his wife Sayuri and his concubine Erica. Not Hitomi though. It would have been nice to see her. Nice and strange. 

"Marco, it is an honour to be here!" he says bowing in the traditional Japanese way.

"It is an honour to have you here!" I am just surprised how it came to that.

I can't dwell on that thought because Lorenzo comes over and I get dragged into a long round of presentations. Seemingly his business partners, black and white, of the whole world came to this event.

"I need to talk to Yamato," I whisper to him.

"You have time; he is here for a few days." I nod and make a mental note, but can't catch my breath. This evening seems full of interruptions. Rosangela's voice sounds in my ears.

"The man of the hour, of the week if I think about it, maybe of the year," she says and gets on her tiptoes to kiss both my cheeks.

"Rosangela, Don Giovanni, I want to formally apologize for how I acted in our last encounter."

"It's all good boy, we were all young once, " says Giovanni and shakes my hand merrily. 

Okay weird.

"Marco, walk with me a little," says Rosangela and gestures to me to follow her.

She grabs two champagne glasses from a tray and hands me one.

"Have a drink and tell me everything there is to know about your friend of sorts."

"Friend of sorts?"

"Don't play dumb; it's overdue. About Stefano's new acquisition. She said you are friends of sorts. Are you?"

"Mhm," I answer reluctantly.

"A friend with breasts and all the rest? A friend that's dressed in leather?" she asks, humming that song and grinning mischievously.

"Shut up, Ros," I answer and unwillingly mirror her smirk a little bit.

"Make me," she whispers and leans closer to press a kiss on my cheek.

"What did you, take, huh?"

"Just some snow. Relax. Sometimes I think Stefano is right and you are just too uptight. Maybe you should get laid."

"Mhm. You sound exactly like Stefano." And by mentioning him I can't suppress a sigh.

It would have been nice if he was here, and our relationship wouldn't be so damaged.

"Alexei Orlov and Natalia Lyk Orlov," announces a butler and both our gazes advert towards the door.

"My goodness, the infamous Count Orlov. I finally get to see him and I already feel bad for Aziz. This guy is smoking hot. Is he accepting concubines like Yamato?" says Rosangela laughing.

They head towards us and Rosangela walks away to have a better observation angle, I assume.

"Alex. Thank you for coming. I had no idea you were invited, to be honest," I say and give him a genuine hug.

"Happy birthday, Marco. It's good to see you... alive first of all."

"Marco! I brought you something. The most incredible pencils I found in a small shop in Paris and charcoal. I finally have someone to talk to about that because since Christoph is dating again we barely meet," squeaks the little ginger by his side and goes on tiptoes to give me a proper hug.

She is rather small, like Roxi. It's cute and it's a bit funny since Alex is so tall.

"Come on let's have a little walk on the terrace," she says linking our arms. Oh yeah, tonight is definitely no regular night. 

"And me?" asks Alex eyeing her funny.

"Go talk to Don Lorenzo; he is dying for you to have a chat."

"Okay fine... talk about pencils," he says smiling and kissing her gently.

I swear I have never seen a more devoted guy.

"Shoot."

"What?"

"Come on, Nate, I know you want to ask me something he should not hear so you better be quick."

"OK, so. Is my beloved husband planning to murder Aziz? And if he is would you tell me?"

"I don't know."

"To both?"

"Well if Alex decides to... He must know why."

"Bullshit. He is just frightened Aziz will hurt me. But Alex is not a murderer it's just everything that happened."

After a short moment of silence, she continues. "No offence though about the m..."

"None taken," I interrupt her. It's not like it's not true.

"So?"

"I will talk to him. How long are you staying?"

"A week. I love Rome so much and Alex wants to buy a house. I found a delightful one but it's almost a ruin. It will be enchanting to restore it. It's early baroque like your father's Castello. I loved that building also so much, too bad I will never see it again."

"No way to sway Alex?"

"No. Not since your brother grabbed my ass and I slapped him. What happened afterwards you remember too well."

"Well, better not. He wants to bone you ever since."

"Delightful that brother of yours. Oh my God is that Sayuri Yoshida?! The tattoo artist?"

"In the flesh. Want me to introduce you?"

"Most certainly."

The evening went by flying and would my mind not have been clouded by all the worries and aftermath of the current events it would have been quite enjoyable.

After the guests leave, I sink exhausted on the bed and my mind is again preoccupied with old worries.

A knock on the door disturbes the silence of the Roman early summer night.

Lorenzo doesn't wait for me to answer and steps in. A reminder that it is his house?

"I see you enjoyed today's event after all."

"It was okay. You managed to gather all my useful acquaintances," I answer a tiny bit spitefully.

"Don't be ungrateful."

"I am not. Thank you."

He smiles a little bit. It looks strange on him, as  I haven't seen this variety of expressions before on his face.

"Your mother would have been proud of how you handle everything that life throws at you. Good night, grandson. Enjoy your present," he says and walks out still smiling.

"Good night, Lorenzo," I answer and sink again on the bed, too tired to get undressed just now.

There is some noise outside and the door opens and closes again.

I need a few minutes to process the image before me. My lips are slightly parted in wonder and so are hers.

Roxi stares at me and I can't help observing the bare feet on the marble floor and the translucent, obscenely short, red nightgown with only a really tiny lace slip beneath. I am blushing; gods I haven't blushed in a long while, but it feels somehow forbidden to look and still I can't help it.

She is holding an open champagne bottle and two glasses and her hands are shaking.

"I, I think I am supposed to sing Happy Birthday Mr. President, or some crap like that."

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