Chapter 17 - ASeat at the High Table
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Two months later, just before Christmas, a heavy New England snowstorm blanketed Boston in two feet of powder, turning the gas-lit cobblestone alleys of Beacon Hill and the North End into a quiet winter postcard.
Jade’s life had transformed beyond recognition—yet she had flatly refused to become a pampered mafia trophy wife sitting in a penthouse buying designer shoes.
Instead, as the rightful blood heir to Lorenzo Conti’s seat and the owner of the East Boston maritime terminals, she had stepped directly into the legitimate shipping and port-security operations alongside Enzo, using her razor-sharp situational awareness and fluent Russian and Italian to clean out every corrupt customs broker and lingering Volkov contact along the Eastern Seaboard.
Around the waterfront, the dock bosses and union captains didn't call her "Enzo’s girl." They called her La Lupa—the She-Wolf of the North End—because everyone in Boston had heard the story of how she had dropped Enzo Moretti flat on his back in a diner, shot two Spetsnaz killers between the eyes, and put a bullet through Rocco’s forehead on the Charlestown pier.
On the Friday night before Christmas Eve, Enzo hosted the annual winter summit of the New England syndicate captains at the Beacon Hill townhouse.
While snow swirled against the tall bay windows of the first-floor library, Jade stood beside the marble fireplace in a sleek, floor-length midnight-blue velvet gown that left her back bare and showed off the lean, sculpted strength of her shoulders, a diamond bracelet sparkling over the faded scar on her left wrist.
Across the room, Don Castellano raised a crystal glass of Brunello toward Enzo and Jade.
"To the Conti and Moretti bloodlines," the old captain toasted warmly as the twelve men in the room raised their glasses. "For the first time in thirty years, the docks are clean, the profits are doubled, and nobody from New York dares cross the state line without asking permission!"
As the captains murmured their agreement and moved toward the dining room for dinner, Enzo caught Jade’s hand behind the velvet curtain of the library archway, pulling her back into the quiet shadow of the alcove and pressing his lips to the bare slope of her shoulder right below the scarred Roman numeral IX behind her ear.
"Bored yet?" Enzo murmured huskily against her skin, his large hand spanning the curve of her waist over the midnight-blue velvet.
"Actually, I just convinced Don Santini to fund a two-million-dollar youth boxing and trade scholarship center in South Boston so kids from Dorchester don't end up running numbers for bookies," Jade smiled, turning in his arms and adjusting his black silk bow tie. "And I checked ऑन Jenny at The Rusty Anchor this afternoon—she got an A in her anatomy final, and Mack’s new diner has a line out the door."
Enzo looked down at her, his slate-gray eyes warm and fiercely possessive as his thumb traced her lower lip. "Remind me never to get on your bad side, tesoro. You’re taking over my city faster than I did."
"Wait until after dessert," Jade whispered, her green eyes glinting with playful heat as she reached into her small velvet clutch and pulled out a small, silver-wrapped rectangular box no bigger than a fountain pen, pressing it into his palm. "Merry Christmas, Enzo. Consider it payment for the broken coffee pot in booth six."
Enzo’s dark eyebrows drew together with curiosity as he slipped a finger beneath the silver ribbon and lifted the lid of the small box.
Lying inside on white cotton wasn't a watch or a pair of cufflinks.
It was a digital pregnancy test with two bold, unmistakable pink lines.
For five full seconds, the most feared man in Boston forgot how to breathe.
His slate-gray eyes dropped to the two pink lines in the box, then lifted slowly to her face, raw, unguarded wonder breaking through every wall he owned as his hand came up to rest gently over her flat stomach.
"Elena..." Enzo whispered, his voice cracking with a fierceness that made tears prick the corners of her eyes.
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"Looks like your twelve-year-old self finally gets to build a new nursery in the North End," she whispered softly.
Enzo crushed her against his chest, burying his face in her neck with a low groan of pure joy—until a sharp, urgent knock rattled the side library door leading to the security office.
