Arianna POV:
She knew now. That meant he did as well, and if he had any brains at all he'd know I was gunning for him. The false cheer that she'd tried to force down my throat she was lucky I didn't set the dog on her. In fact, she's lucky I didn't do worse, when I first saw her I had half a mind to reach into Giovanni's coat and grab the 9mm I knew he had on him.
When we'd first found ourselves in this forced family, the guns set me on edge a constant reminder of my now unsafe world. Now I found them a comfort as hard as my father was trying to get me back all I had to do was reach over and I could end him.
That's what kept me sane as we went about and I kept my eyes peeled for her bright white convertible. Ever the one to stand out. Here and there I swear I'd catch glimpses of her. My life had been one whirlwind after another ever since my mom died, I hadn't thought when I had spent the night catching up with my sister that she could be doing recon work, but now when I looked back at the short time she'd been in my life again all of them had a warped view now.
Looking at how bad at acting she was I wondered how pathetic I had to be to fall for her doe eyes and believe she was worth giving my soul over to my father. Now I played the chess game of barring her from bullying the businesses of the city into giving her a free wedding. The other question lingering on my mind was, how was Gio still okay with his cousin marrying my sister?
"It's all about timing Arianna," He said giving me no actual reason why he was allowing his cousin to be slowly drowned by Giulia's siren song.
"How did they even meet?" I then asked at least hoping to get part of the puzzle.
"She seduced him in a bar," He shrugged.
The way he was so calm about their situation, the faith he had in it all working out. He had to know that the reason some of his men were missing was because Marco was blabbing to her. Only in the part of the city that Marco protected did these guys disappear and only when the cops were nowhere to be found, men on my father's payroll. I had no doubt it was them, but when I told Giovanni.
"Marco would never betray me," He stated, the bedrock resolution on his face shook my theory, but I had once had faith like that in people too. I'm sure you regain it here and there after a while, but I was still knee deep in the trenches of betrayal. I was comfortable here finding the need to second guess everyone a warm blanket to me.
Every day I went in and my sister had gone into another building demanding the extravagant and impossible for her wedding, there was another incident in Marco's territory that was a bono for my father, and all the while Giovanni seemed unfazed.
"He's not seeing the truth," I told Becca as I laid out a map of all the incidents since their engagement, and Marco's territory was covered in pushpins dotted like a cheetah in his indiscretions.
Ten men had been killed their bodies never recovered so they could be held for information or leverage, 15 cases of arson, and 5 cases of breaking and entering on Giovanni's buildings. There were also 20 cases of fighting on his streets as well that ended with both our men and my father's men spending a night in jail.
"Look at it I know Gio sees this but why is he ignoring it look it's spreading into John and Franco's territories," I pointed at the recent increase in crimes in their areas.
Becca looked puzzled for a moment nodding at the evidence in front of her. "I don't know but there's a reason he's ignoring it and-," she sighed shaking her head the same resolution fell on her face. "-Marco would never betray Giovanni,"
"How are you so sure?" I almost snapped.
"He owes him a debt that's why," Luca commented from his usual corner.
"What debt?" I spun around, but Luca had been trained well focusing once again on his phone and ignoring me.
So I faced defeat for the day and turned my focus back to ruining my sister's day. Gio was playing the long game against my father, and though this was a lesser evil, upsetting my sister was sure to distract my father. It also protected the innocent people of the city, so Giovanni not only enjoyed my efforts but encouraged them.
He came in every day at lunch asking what evil deed went punished today with a grin on his face. I knew this also had to do with his very strong dislike of her. It wasn't anything to do with his hatred of my father, no Giovanni's disgust of my sister came down to principle, he found her to be unrespectable.
Whether it was her greed, her pride, or the frivolous way she dealt with men, all of it left a bad taste in his mouth. He would let me throw whatever men, whatever resource, or whatever amount of money I wanted at businesses so they wouldn't fall to her whims.
She had tried to berate the baker today marching and demanding a tasting without an appointment and kicking out all other customers eating from their orders instead costing them hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Luckily Giovanni agreed to reimburse them and I had now hired them for her wedding day instead with a price tag they couldn't refuse. The best was this baker was in my father's territory, I was now taking ground from him.
I had at least five men watching them and driving them home every night. We had a fresh boatload of soldiers delivered courtesy of Giovanni's father, the ever gracious benefactor to our cause.
I must have struck a nerve because not long after confirming our reservation for the date of Giulia's beloved wedding did I heard tires screeching to a halt outside the building and the blast of pop cut short from the radio. An indiscernible yet distinguishable screeching tone hollering down on the pavement.
Giovanni walked in buttoning his jacket. "It seems taking her cake was the last straw, you have a visitor,"
I felt satisfaction rise in my veins and dusted myself off, she had caught me off guard last time but today I was ready for her.
I walked down on to the street hearing her wailing at the doormen from the top of the stairs. Becca and Luca followed me down and I did my best to wipe the smirk off my face.
I walked out of the building and leaned against the brick watching as she jumped up and down with each high pitched pterodactyl scream.
"Excuse me miss but this is a place of business and you're disrupting our workers," I sighed brushing my hair out of my face.
She focused on me her face turning crimson as she stomped forward only to be placed back to where she was by the gorilla we had in front of our building.
"You fucking bitch!" Her voice went hoarse as she yelled at me.
I covered my ear for a second looking over at Becca and Luca in feigning shock. "I'm sorry mam is there a problem?"
"AHHHH!" she grabbed at her hair and I held in a giggle. "Yes, I can't plan a wedding without vendors you moron stop stealing them! Stop getting in my way! Get over this pathetic revenge fantasy!"
I straightened as she threw her temper tantrum and looked up at the sky acting as unfazed as I could manage. "Well I'm sorry but it does appear to be my job as a financial consultant to the business of this city, and I have to see if their products are worth it so I'm testing them out it's not my fault if it falls on your-" I paused faking a forgetfulness.
"My wedding!" She let out another banshee scream.
"Ah, your wedding," I repeated her face flashing red again.
"You will give me my fabric back and get your ass out of our territory or I swear to god I will-"
There it was the line she couldn't cross but didn't seem to care about.
"You'll what," I stepped closer to her our men drawing their buns and she stepped back, her eyes looking over them and then over her shoulder. No beater car behind her this time. She had really fucked the dog, coming here all alone.
"You seem to be lacking some discipline sister, it's not my fault god is finally dispensing it," I challenged her. "As for your precious fabric, I've told you where you can collect it, come by Saturday and pick it up unless you're scared,"
She looked me in the eyes that evil grin spreading over her face. "Careful what you wish for sister,"
I looked behind her again before I reached out my hand and slapped her clear across her face the smack ringing between us, the fire in my belly to do more to her for all she had taken from me, the bruises on my mother's corpse flashing in my head.
She stood there mouth agape for a moment, holding her red and no doubt throbbing cheek,"
"You really need to start remembering which side of town you're on, threaten me here again and Luca will send you back to Daddy with as many holes as his gun can manage," I told her spinning and walking back inside the gorilla pushing her back towards her car and I heard the tires screech as she pulled off.
I shouldn't have hit her but god did it feel good, hopefully, Saturday would go just as well.