I Stopped Waiting for the Don, and He Begged on His Knees

As the Don of the Renzetti family, Antonio lived by one rule. Time is money. I watched him pull the trigger on one of his own men for showing up thirty seconds late to a meeting. He was just as stingy with his time when it came to me, even though I was his fiancée. I was always the one who accommodated him. I waited four hours for him at the bridal salon, and all I got was a single cold line over the phone. "Elena, sitting through a fitting is a waste of my time. Go on your own." I put a smile on for the salon staff and finished the fitting alone. That day, I was on a job at the underground casino when I saw Antonio—who was supposed to be at a meeting down at the docks—standing in front of the new bartender, Franca Bellini. "The ice for a Long Island iced tea has to be chipped by hand. I'm afraid this will take a while." Franca clumsily shook the cocktail shaker. I waited for Antonio to turn her down flat. Instead, he pulled up a stool and sat down. "That's fine. I have all the time in the world." Half an hour later my phone buzzed in my pocket. [Job done? Too many attacks lately. Go back to the estate. Don't wait for me.] I stared at the cold instructions, then looked down at Antonio. He had willingly spent half an hour waiting for one drink and still had enough patience to laugh with Franca. I laughed at myself. Antonio, I'm done waiting for you. Chapter 1 At the Renzetti estate, I waited until it was almost dawn before Antonio returned. "You texted me to go back to the estate, so why are you only getting home now?" Antonio pressed his fingers to his brow, looking worn out. "I was handling family business. Elena, I'm tired. I need to sleep." I sat on the couch and watched him drop his coat and go straight to the bar to pour himself a drink. "I saw you at the underground casino on the south side. You were sitting across from a bartender who was all dressed up." "Are you having me watched?" He set the glass down with a sharp clink against the marble. "Elena, you're my fiancée. You should trust me more than that." He paused. "You're the one I love. Do you understand that?" Then he pulled a dark blue velvet jewelry box from his pocket. "This is to make it up to you. I kept you waiting. You have a right to be angry. "Elena, don't look at me like that. You know I don't like being questioned, and I don't like wasting time on something so small." So my questions weren't worth his time, but waiting for Franca to mix a drink was? I gave him a thin smile and opened the box anyway. Inside was a ten-carat diamond necklace, but its clasp was broken, making it impossible to wear. He had obviously grabbed it from somewhere on his way home. I turned it over and over until I found a set of initials engraved in a well-hidden spot. Franca's initials. He couldn't even spare a few seconds to check it. He'd just tossed it at me, the same way he'd tossed me an engagement ring that didn't fit. "Antonio, you gave me a necklace with someone else's initials on it. Do you think I'm that easy to brush off?" I asked. "Franca. Is she your new lover?" He froze, and guilt flashed across his face. "I might have picked up the wrong one. "Franca is an important informant. That's all she is. "Elena, I'm sorry about the mix-up. I'll have the latest pink diamond from the auction house sent over." I listened as he tried to smooth things over, nodded, and said nothing more. He looked relieved and went up to the study on the second floor. That was how the last five years had gone. No matter how it started, it always ended with me giving in to him. I went to my room, reached under the bed for a second phone, and called the only number saved on it. The phone rang once before someone picked up. Nobody spoke. There was only steady breathing on the line. "Father, you win. I lost the bet, and I'll keep my word. I'm coming home." Chapter 2 "Elena, you will always be the princess of the Cesari family." My father's voice came through the phone. A car would arrive in a week to pick me up. He was the Don of Sicily's most powerful and secretive mafia family, and he had never approved of my decision to hide my identity so I could date Antonio. He had given me five years. If Antonio still loved me at the end, I could tell him who I was. If not, I would return to the Cesari family. But the five years weren't up, and Antonio had already changed. I put the phone away, looked around the room, and started deciding, item by item, what I would take with me. The next morning the Renzetti family held its internal audit meeting in the top-floor conference room. I put on a sharp suit and pushed the doors open. Antonio sat at the head of the table. Franca was in the seat beside him, the one that had always been mine. I stopped and looked at her in silence. Antonio seemed to sense my gaze and looked up at me. "Franca may be a bartender, but she has a head for numbers. "As my informant, she needs a chance to get close to family business. Take the seat on the opposite side today, if you don't mind." A dozen or so senior members of the Renzetti family were watching me. Some of them frowned. Some of them were enjoying it. I didn't say anything. I pulled out a chair at the far end of the long table and sat down. I was leaving anyway. Soon the Renzetti family would have nothing to do with me. Why would I fight over any of it? Once the meeting started, Franca stood up with a file in her hand. "Don, I've found major discrepancies in the books of the charity foundation Elena runs. "Three transfers totaling fifty million dollars are unaccounted for, and there are no invoices to support them." A murmur ran through the room. Inwardly, I laughed at them all. The foundation was the Renzetti family's most closely guarded money-laundering channel, so where every dollar went mattered. Franca is an idiot. Not understanding something complicated is one thing. Having the nerve to question me about it is another. Antonio turned to me, tapping a rhythm on the table. "Elena. Explain." I met his gaze calmly. "I don't know what there is to explain. Those are special disbursements made by the Renzetti family. Each one bears your signature." "Even the Don's signature can be forged," Franca shot back, meeting my gaze defiantly. "Elena, do you think the Don has been so lenient with you that you dared to touch records this important?" "That's enough." Antonio raised a hand to cut her off. He hesitated for a while, but then looked at me anyway. "Elena, hand over the foundation seal. If even Franca can spot problems in the accounts, this project will be good practice for her." I sat there, staring at the man I had supported and loved for five years. To protect his new favorite informant, he didn't even defend me. "All right." I opened my bag, took a black seal engraved with the Renzetti crest out of the inner pocket, and handed it to Franca. Antonio's expression relaxed. He gave me a satisfied look and ended the meeting. As the others filed out, Antonio came over, rested a hand on my shoulder, bent down, and kissed my forehead. "Elena, I was wrong. Once things are settled with Franca, I'll make it up to you." He didn't wait for an answer. He walked out with Franca, who deliberately bumped my shoulder as she passed and let out a soft laugh. I stood alone in the empty room and scrubbed my forehead with a handkerchief. You really do make me sick, Antonio. I sat down, logged in to the encrypted system on my laptop, and froze all the secret funding I had asked my father to channel into the Renzetti family over the past five years. If Antonio didn't need me, then he didn't need anything I had brought with me either. Chapter 3 After sorting everything out, I pushed open my bedroom door and found Franca lying on my bed, turning a porcelain figurine over in her hands. It was the one thing my mother had left me, and Antonio knew that. "Who let her into my room and allowed her to touch my things?" I asked coldly, looking at Antonio, who was sitting off to the side. He looked up, still looking guilty. "Franca's blood sugar had dropped, and she didn't have the strength to make it downstairs. Your room was right here, so I told her to lie down for a while." "Antonio, I don't care what your reason is. She needs to put down what my mother left me and get out right now." I didn't move an inch. He frowned, walked over, and reached out to pat my shoulder. I stepped aside. His hand stopped in midair, and disappointment crossed his face. "Elena, why can you never learn to think about the bigger picture? "The informant network behind Franca determines the Renzetti family's standing in Sicily. As my fiancée, you should support me in this." I scoffed and was about to answer when Franca sat up and slid off the bed, swaying as her bare feet touched the floor. "If Elena is unhappy about it, I can leave right now." I kept my eyes on the figurine in her hands and reached out to snatch it back. Franca pretended to be terrified and backed away. The figurine slipped from her hands and fell to the floor. The figurine shattered on the hard floor. I tried to gather the pieces with shaking hands, but it was hopeless. Franca immediately ducked behind Antonio and clutched his sleeve, her voice trembling. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Elena looked so angry that she scared me." Antonio glanced at the pieces on the floor, then turned to me. "Elena, it's not a big deal. Let it go, all right?" "No!" I looked up at him, my eyes burning. "She barged into my room and destroyed the only thing my mother left me. Why should I let it go? She's a bitch!" "Elena, have I spoiled you so much that you think you can insult my informant however you please?" Antonio's patience was gone. He raised a hand, and the two bodyguards at the door stepped forward and pushed me down hard onto the broken porcelain. Pain shot from my knees through my entire body. I gritted my teeth and kept silent, never taking my eyes off him. "Antonio, you're going to regret this." That look made him pause. Something like pity crossed his face, but as Franca trembled and pleaded beside him, his attitude hardened again. "Until you learn how to be a proper fiancée, you won't be allowed to go on any more jobs." He led Franca out of the room. Weak with pain, I slumped where I was, drenched in a cold sweat. The phone in my pocket buzzed. It was a text from my father. [My princess. I hear you cut off the funding to the Renzetti family. Want me to add fuel to the fire?] I answered with shaking hands. [No need.] Asking my father for help now would only make me feel better for a moment. Franca was so stupid that I would rather sit back and wait to see what surprises she had in store for the Renzetti family. Chapter 4 Just as I'd expected, word came that a weapons shipment had been seized. It had been sent along the route newly assigned to Franca. "Franca was the one who entered that route into the system. That idiot bartender leaked family secrets. Under family law, she has to be executed!" The atmosphere in the room turned grim. One of the Elders fixed Antonio with a thunderous glare. Eighty million dollars' worth of cargo had been impounded, and he had lost nearly half his men. The Renzetti family had never taken a hit this hard in its entire history. Franca had gone pale and was shaking hard. Antonio looked at me instead. His expression shifted, but he spoke anyway. "Elena has always been responsible for that shipment. It has nothing to do with Franca." Hearing him try to dress it up that way almost made me laugh, though none of it was funny. Anyone with eyes knew I hadn't touched family business since that meeting. Antonio was lying through his teeth. To protect Franca, he was even willing to pin the blame on me. "Don, Elena had nothing to do with..." Antonio cut the Elder off before he could finish. "None of you need to deal with this. We're done here. We have a charity dinner to attend tonight." Antonio gave me an apologetic look. I turned my head away. After the meeting, he came to my room anyway and held out a couture gown. "Elena, I'm sorry about earlier. But I did it to protect Franca. You understand, don't you? "Put it on and come to the dinner with me. You'll be the most beautiful woman there tonight. All right?" As I watched him apologize, I scoffed. The dinner was at an expensive restaurant in the center of the city. Antonio kept Franca at his side the entire evening. I couldn't figure out why he'd brought me. Maybe he'd brought me so people could laugh at my expense. I checked my phone. The car my father had sent was half an hour away. In half an hour, I would be free. Distracted, I turned toward a quiet corner just as every light in the room suddenly went out. Then a burst of gunfire ripped into the middle of the room. "Attack!" someone shouted from the crowd. I watched the crystal chandelier crash down from the ceiling. Then chaos erupted. My knees still ached, so I could only limp along with the crowd. Someone slammed into me. My knees buckled, and I fell hard to my knees. It was Antonio. Franca had gone limp with fear nearby. Acting on instinct, Antonio rushed to her, pulled her tightly into his arms, and knocked me over to do it. Bullets flew past us from both directions. Before I knew it, a stray round grazed my arm. Antonio's hand froze on Franca's back. He saw the blood on my arm, and alarm flashed across his face, but Franca's sobs quickly drew his attention back to her. Before he carried Franca out, he left me with only these words: "The informant operation ends tomorrow. Nothing can happen to Franca before then. Elena, I'm sorry, but you'll have to go back on your own. There's a car waiting for you at the back door." At some point, the shooting stopped. I watched him walk away, and the last of my feelings for him died. I didn't go looking for that car at the back door. I walked out the front. A black armored car was already at the curb. The man at the front rushed over and caught me before I fell. "Princess! I'm taking you to the hospital!" Leaning on him, I climbed into the back seat, then stopped him. "No. The Cesari estate. "Tell my father it's time for the Renzetti family to disappear from Sicily."