By Virtue I Fall (Sins of the Fathers #3)(24)

I chuckled as if this was completely unrealistic. “Trust me, neither Anna nor I are at risk to lose sight of any boundaries. Anna is very driven and dutiful. She’ll focus on her studies, and if she fawns over a boy, it’ll be some Frenchman who’s into drawing and the opera. But even if Anna suddenly had any interest in me, I’m not in the slightest interested in her. I’ve always been more drawn to older women.” That was the absolute truth. All of my affairs and even short-term girlfriends had been older. Arturo, in a rare moment of being funny, had called me the MILFinator once. I wasn’t sure what it was about Anna that was different, that made me show even the slightest interest in her. But it sure as fuck wouldn’t be enough to make me land in bed with her. I’d go looking for a nice French MILF to keep me company. “My Dad was more worried about me making the moves on your wife than Anna when I started working here,” I said in a true foot-in-mouth moment. One day I’d end up with a bullet in my head, because of my dick or my mouth.

Dante’s eyes flashed, and he raised one eyebrow. “That’s certainly reassuring,” he said in a low voice.

I decided to keep my mouth shut before it spewed some even stupider shit. Dante was a controlled man and even more controlled Capo, which saved my life right now.

“I don’t think I’ll have to tell you what will happen if I find out you acted in any way inappropriate to Anna, or my wife, in Paris or at any other place.”

“I’ve been your Enforcer, Capo. No need to give me any details. And knowing Arturo’s freaky brain, he’ll probably see it as an even greater challenge to torture me.”

“Rest assured, I’d handle you myself in this case.”

I chuckled and nodded. “While it would be an honor to die at your hands, I assure you it won’t come to that.”





Today was Clifford’s eighteenth birthday, which meant it was the beginning of August and only two more months before our engagement and six months until I’d move to Paris temporarily.

I already had a list of events I’d have to fly to Chicago for to uphold my social responsibilities but I was still excited.

As promised, I snuck Leonas, Rocco, and Ricardo into Clifford’s party. Clifford didn’t mind. It was a huge party with over two hundred guests so nobody would notice three pot-headed tweens.

Santino pretended he didn’t care. He’d hardly talked a word to me since I made him help me with Paris a few weeks ago. When I’d thanked him for helping me, he’d given me a murderous look and growled, “Don’t thank me.” That was our longest interaction since then.

Mom’s words had been replaying in my mind constantly. Well, her warning. That was why I’d respected Santino’s desire for distance. Breaking my promise to Mom wasn’t something I could do lightly, and I’d sworn myself to at least try to stay away from Santino. Of course, that had only fueled my nightly fantasies of him. But there wasn’t any harm in that, right?

Right.

I was determined to have as much fun as possible at Clifford’s party, without wasting a single thought on Santino. He was off limits.

Off limits.

We picked up Luisa first. I grinned when she got into the back seat beside me and Leonas. She’d never accompanied me to a party before and I was glad to have her at my side. She could talk some sense into me in case I forgot my own limits…

Luisa was as usual a bit shy when she greeted Santino. She was a good girl through and through, and I loved her for it. Since she’d found out about our forbidden kiss, she had even more trouble interacting with Santino, though he had always intimidated her. “I’m nervous. This is my first real party.”

I gave her an encouraging smile. “You’ll be fine. Just have fun.”

She nodded, clutching her purse as if it were her lifeline.

Santino headed to the Scuderi mansion next. It was where Riccardo and Rocco still lived with their mother after their father had died. They were already waiting in front of the door and raced down the stairs with huge grins. Of course, they didn’t have to sneak out of the house like Leonas had done. Their mother had enough to do getting past her marriage trauma to take care of them properly.

There wasn’t any room for them on the back seat, and Santino snarled at them when they tried to get into the passenger seat, so they had no choice but to sit in the legroom in front of us. Riccardo grinned and exchanged a look with his brother when he pressed up to my legs for lack of room.

“You better keep your excitement down,” Leonas muttered.

“Oh he will,” I said. “Or he’ll find out how sharp my heels are.”

Riccardo exchanged another look with Rocco but they didn’t get a chance to say anything because Santino hit the gas.

If he thought driving like a madman would ruin the party for me, then he was very wrong.

Luisa and I ditched the boys as soon as we arrived at Clark mansion, except for our shadow Santino of course.

We picked up drinks right away and headed toward the dance floor.

Luisa took a hesitant sip from the white wine bowl.

“Take it slow,” I told her. I didn’t want to be responsible for her passing out from too much alcohol. I’d never seen her drink before. I took out my phone. “Selfie time. I want to send a few photos to Sofia to cheer her up.”

Her marriage with Danilo was still a bit bumpy, and I was sad that she couldn’t be here with us. With her now living in Indianapolis , we’d hardly see each other often, especially now that she had wife duties. We made funny faces into the camera and I sent the five most ridiculous ones to Sofia.