Page 109 of Bene

Better not to play with fire.

“How long until they’re out?”

“Hard to say—some of them are already released. Not the boss, though.”

Mario whistled low, turning around slightly to eye Vanna, and give her a look that screamed for her to keep quiet, and say nothing. “Sounds like something that might be good for our business. When the Guzzis are away, other families can play.”

“Want me to call the boss, and—”

“Nah,” Mario said, turning around again and taking a bite from his pear, saying as he chewed, “I’ll call my father and let him know. See what he wants to do—there’s a racket the Guzzis have on the east side with a distribution company that he’s been trying to find a way into for a while now, and with them in an uproar, the company might be willing to switch to our side of things to keep the cash flow coming in for it.”

Yeah.

She bet he was enjoying this.

Snakes never missed an opportunity to creep in.

“And we should celebrate this turn of events in the city,” Mario added after a moment, taking another bite of that pear, “because business should always be celebrated.”

The only time Vanna could leave Mario’s home now was when he wanted to show her off. It could be a dinner at his parents’ home with the rest of the clan, or taking her to a party at someone else’s house, but it all came down to the same thing.

Showing off his beautiful thing.

His thing he won.

Vanna didn’t get a choice either way, but she had learned quickly enough that the better her behavior on these little trips out, the easier Mario was to deal with when they returned to his home. His home because it still wasn’t hers. She didn’t care—it would never be hers.

Tonight, he’d brought her to a restaurant opening. A business that he’d apparently decided to invest in, and because he wanted to show off his growing status to the people that would eventually determine his fate after his father stepped down as the boss of the Camorra clan, the majority of his people were there to celebrate, too.

Vanna hugged a drink at the bar, trying her best to stay civil as each new person who had yet to see her ring, although they all knew of the engagement, came around to get a peek, and congratulate her once again. Thing was, no one seemed surprised about the marriage, even if it had been announced a month ago, but more like … this had been inevitable to them.

Perhaps, that bothered her the most.

She’d lived in delusions.

The other thing no one noticed?

How all her smiles were fake and forced. The way she angled her body away from Mario when he stood at her side. And that despite her efforts to join conversations because that was polite and expected of her, she had little interest in these people or their life.

She’d always thought of it as her clan, too.

Even if that came with pain.

She no longer thought of them as hers at all.

“What are you doing over here again?” Mario asked as he came to stand next to her at the bar.

Vanna tipped up her glass for him to see. “Getting another drink.”

Bullshit.

She’d been nursing this glass for fifteen minutes.

He didn’t call her out on the lie.

“Well, my mother wants you to show her the things the designer picked out for the wedding. Indulge her for me, would you? It’ll keep her happy, and then Senior will get off my fucking ass, maybe.”

Ah.