Marry Me Mafia

Dangerous Dinner

Thankfully, the ride to the restaurant was uneventful. If by uneventful you mean, Nico kept finding excuses to touch her. He would hold her hand, bring her fingers to his lips and brush them softly against his mouth. He would play with a loose strand of her hair and stroke her neck. Renee was trying to remember faces and names and Nico was making her brain into soup. When they finally arrived, the restaurant owner, a slender man named Marco, in a dark suit with a red tie, was waiting to greet them. There were hugs, cheek kisses and congratulations. Nico introduced Marco as an old family friend of his father's. Renee just smiled politely and blushed as he kissed her hand and bowed over it respectfully, remarking, "Signora, you are most welcome, and if I may say, Magnifica!" He turned to Nico, patting his cheek. He continued, "Nicolas, she is perfection." Nico's smile was genuine. He clapped the man on the shoulder, "Thank you, Marco, I am very lucky. Are we late?" Marco shook his head, "Of course not, Nico. Right on time." Marco held the door for us, and ushered us silently through the main dining area, to the back room reserved for parties. Several people in the dining area looked up from their meals, and Renee saw a few with a quick look of recognition flashing across their faces. Marco opened the reserve doors to at least 30 people and 5 kids, all talking, laughing, and drinking. The welcome was overwhelming, with uncles, aunts, and cousins all standing to come over and hug the two of them. Nico raised his arms, waving to everyone to be seated. He and Renee sat down at the head of the table. Marco and several wait staff started passing out menus and taking drink orders. Nico ordered two bottles of '92 Amarone della Valpolicella for the table, a single malt scotch for himself, and a Negroni Sbagliato for Renee. Two waiters brought out huge platters of several sliced fruits, cheeses, cured meats, sliced breads, pickled vegetables, and several bowls of olive oil mixed with minced herbs and black pepper. Marco announced, "Antipasto familia!" Nico leaned over to whisper in Renee's ears, "Appetizers, don't worry Bella, it's all delicious." Renee blushed as his lips brushed her cheek when he straightened up. Several of the wives gave each other knowing looks. One, Aunt Vanessa, who was sitting a few chairs down, asked the first question, "Renee, I understand you are from Louisiana, yes? What do you do there for work, darling?" Renee glanced over at Nico, thankfully they had rehearsed everything before. Renee leaned over and answered her confidently, "I am a military veteran actually, but I'm retired now." Vanessa, smiled again, "Military? How did you and Nico meet?" Renee replied, "I was visiting family in New Orleans, and I went running in the City Park every day. One day we almost ran into one another, then we started talking and texting, going to dinner, and then I met the twins. Honestly, I fell in love with the girls first. I started coming around to help Nico with them. We fell into an easy rhythm. Now I can't imagine him not being beside me." Nico looked down for a moment, but smiled, looked up into her eyes, took her hand and kissed her fingers gently. "Ti amo, Bella." he said in a low voice. The aunts seemed to approve of her answers. Uncle Tomas, who was sitting beside Nico, had his "girlfriend" Nina, seated beside him. She looked 20 years his junior, with caked club-style makeup. She was wearing a thigh-high, strapless pink sequined dress and platform heels. The entire outfit read "hooker", but Renee tried to be friendly. Nina leaned over, noticing the slightly puckered scar on Renee's chest. She smiled, but nothing about her smile was friendly. "Oh dear," she exclaimed, pointing to the scar, "How did you get that!" Renee didn't flinch. She just looked down briefly at the scar before replying, "Oh, that I was shot when I was working in Memphis, TN." The entire table went silent at once. "I was walking to have lunch downtown, and a crackhead came out of a rundown building and tried to rob me. I didn't have anything, so he shot me," Nina paled. Renee continued unfazed, "Thankfully, I managed to walk a few blocks to get to the hospital. A collapsed lung, three broken ribs and two emergency surgeries, but I'm still here." Uncle Tomas seemed impressed. He leaned over his plate, trying to examine the scar. ".357," he asked? " Renee looked up and replied, "No, I was told it was a .45 ACP." "Jesus," Tomas said, making the sign of the cross on his chest, "Nicolas your girl is tough, and beautiful." Then uncle Michael's daughter, a bratty twenty-something, named Diana looked over and simply made a comment, "The military, eww. What were you stupid for college?" She laughed under her breath. Her father, Michael, snatched her arm hard. "You will respect the Signora." He looked at Renee. "I'm very sorry, the young people have no respect." Renee just smiled, "No, it's alright." Renee looked up at Diana. "I did go to college actually, I have a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Syracuse University, and a bachelor's degree in Culinary Arts and Nutrition from the CIA". Renee added, "Neither has anything to do with my job in the military, though. In the military, I was a cryptologic technician, with a specialty in anti-ship missile defense systems." Diana just sat quietly after that. If the girl thought she was going to embarrass Renee, she needed to try harder than that.

The dinner continued to evolve; several courses of pasta, fish, osso bucco and more. Coffee and tiramisu followed. Everyone was, for the most part, friendly and welcoming toward her. The aunts asked about the wedding. Some were offering locations of their private homes back in Italy to hold the wedding. Nico's hand had disappeared under the table halfway through coffee and dessert. Renee was doing her best to smile, laugh and talk. All the while, Nico had his fingers playing under the edge of her panties. Her blush could be played off by too much wine, but the little coils of pleasure that were currently making her toes curl inside of her shoes, and her breath becoming increasingly shaky, nope. She had already tried only to pull his fingers out, and got a glare from Nico for it. The owner, Marco, had walked around the table several times since Nico began, so he had to have seen him, but he wasn't saying anything. Renee bit her lip, she looked over at Nico, and gave a brittle smile. She leaned closer to him and whispered, "Baby, it's getting late, and we promised to call the girls before they went to sleep?" Nico knew her game, his watch was currently on the hand that was playing in her lap. "Hmm, you're right. What time is it getting to be?" he replied. Slowly, he pulled his fingers from her swollen lips, brushed them on the napkin in her lap and drew his hand up to check his watch. "Yes, my love, you are right, it is getting late." He looked over at Marco, and motioned for the check, drawing out his black card he passed it over. Marco gave a brief nod, taking the card, he walked out into the main dining area. Nico stood up to address everyone. He raised his glass as he began, "Mi familia, we all had a beautiful night, and I hope you all come to love Renee as much as I do. We are going to leave you now. My fiancée reminded me that I have other responsibilities." Renee stood up and took his hand. The family stood and hugged them both, shaking hands and wishing them both health and happiness. Marco met them as they were walking through the dining area. He passed the card back to Nico as they shook hands. Marco clapped him on the shoulder, saying, "Your father would be proud of you, and I think he would like your girl, Nico." Nico smiled and hugged Marco, "Thank you old friend. Finché Ce Vita Ce Speranza." Marco put his hand to Nico's check, and nodded. "Buonasera, mi familia." They stepped out of the doors of the restaurant. The security team was there waiting beside the SUV. They opened the door and stepped inside. Nico pulled Renee into his lap and smiled when she resisted him. "Nico, no, not here, damnit," she protested. " Nico pressed the button and drew up the privacy screen. He held her fast against his chest and smiled wickedly. "But Bella, you were so wet for me. I want you now." Renee wasn't going to let him get his way all the time; she pushed against his chest again, hard, "NO... I am not your personal fucktoy, fidget spinner or otherwise." Her face was red, her red eyes let Nico know she wasn't playing anymore. "Fine!" Nico said, and shoved Renee off his lap, to the floor harder than he meant. Renee's hip hit the floorboard with a crack. She winced at the sharp pain, tears began to pinprick her eyes, but she wouldn't cry. As quickly as Nico's temper flared, he realized his mistake and became all apologies and promises. "s**t! Renee, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it, are you OK?" He tried to pull her onto the seat beside him, but Renee shook his hands off, she ground out, "Don't touch me! I can do it myself." She took off the red heels and pulled herself into the seat beside him. "Renee, please, I'm sorry. It was an accident," he kept saying. She just stared out the window into the night, "I'm fine." A tiny piece of Renee's heart cracked that night. When they returned to the hotel, she was silent and walking a step ahead of him to the elevator. The ride up to the top floor was awkward. Nico kept whispering to her, "Please talk to me, Renee. I'm sorry." She didn't even want to look at him, afraid she might forgive him or worse, start crying. When the doors of the elevator opened, she walked into the second bedroom, shut and locked the door behind her. Nico tried the handle once, it wouldn't budge. "s**t," he muttered, rubbing his face. "Congratulations Nico, you just royally f****d up," he said to himself. He knew he had f****d up the second he touched her in the SUV. He had read an email from his security team captain just before going into the restaurant. There had been a serious threat to their lives posed by the Moretti family that evening. He hadn't said anything to the family, or to Renee, mostly because threats were common among his peers. He texted the crew outside to surround the SUV and do a full sweep for explosives just to be sure. Five minutes before Renee reminded him to call the girls, the security team lead texted him a photo of the undercarriage of the car. Someone had placed a bomb beside the fuel tank, with a cellphone to activate it. The guys had driven the car out of the area immediately and replaced it with an identical one they had swept clean. He was so angry and on edge at the thought of losing Renee and the girls that he'd done something worse, and hurt Renee without meaning to. Now the feared mafia Don was sitting on the floor outside her bedroom, listening to her cry so softly and it was breaking him. God, I'm an i***t, was all he could think. He pulled out his cellphone and made a call. There was only a handful of people he knew that would tell him how he could fix this, so he made the call. Antonio answered and gave the phone to the twins.