The Mafia's Good Girl
The Mafia’s Good Girl – Chapter 75

~ Violet ~

– – – – – Two Weeks Later – – – – –

“How about Greece? Or Croatia!” Talia squeaked as she showed photos of Dubrovnik on her phone to Violet.

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Violet replied as she examined the photos.

“Oh, I know. The Maldives!” Talia exclaimed and did another Google search. Seconds later, a slew of photos of pristine beaches popped up on her screen.

“This is nice, but what are we gonna do in the Maldives for two weeks? There’s nothing but beaches there,” Violet said as she scrolled down the pictures. The Maldives would make a great place for a honeymoon, but Violet couldn’t imagine spending two full weeks with Damon there doing absolutely nothing but sunbathe and swim.

We’re just not that kind of people. We want more… action.

“Well, hey, it’s your honeymoon. I’m sure you can find things to do to fill your time,” Talia laughed and shoved Violet playfully.

Blushing bright red, Violet quickly defended herself. “No, I’m saying I wanna go somewhere where we can actually do stuff, you know? Like when we went to Italy. We could go to museums, try coffee shops, and sure… we can go to the beach every now and then too,”

“Yeah, you can,” Talia winked naughtily.

“Alright, so focus!” Violet glared and bit her l*p to stop herself from smiling too much. “Other than Italy, since we’ve already been there, what do you think is the perfect honeymoon destination for Damon and me?”

Talia thought for a moment before answering, “Well, Adrian and I went to Japan for our honeymoon. The food was great, we got to learn about other cultures, and oh—there’s even a Disneyland. Needles to say, it was amazing!”

“Japan… hmm… that could be on the list,” Violet said as she scribbled down ‘Japan’ on her pros and cons list of countries to visit.

So far, the wedding preparations were going great and it was time for them to decide on the honeymoon. Damon agreed to take two weeks off from work right after the wedding and they would fly to any destination Violet wants. He gave her full control of the place and things to do, which Violet gladly accepted.

“What about Damon? Does he have any request?” Talia asked.

“No, he just says to pick anywhere in the world where I’ll be with him,”

“Wow, I refuse to believe that those sweet words could come out of his mouth,” Talia rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“He’s such a sweetheart, right?” Violet giggled. “He knows I really want to travel and he has no requests or demands for that matter. Everything related to the wedding and the honeymoon is up to me. He says he completely trusts my choices,”

Smiling from ear to ear, Violet continued Googling for the ‘best honeymoon place’ of the year. Talia took a moment to let this all sink in. A crease formed on her forehead, a sign that she was thinking hard about something.

“This is so unlike him. Normally, he’s such a control freak. But now he’s letting you make all the choices for the wedding, he’s letting you decide on the honeymoon, and he’s even willing to take two weeks off from work…” Talia paused for a beat before adding, “Did you drug the guy or switch him with some alien?”

“No!” Violet laughed and shoved her friend back. “I know this isn’t his style, but he’s the one who wants it like this. This is all his idea,”

It all started a few months back when Violet and Talia started the wedding planning process. Damon saw how happy Violet was to create her dream wedding, so he stepped aside and let her have everything the way she wanted. And when it was time to plan for the honeymoon, Damon again let Violet took the reign. He said the private jet would be on stand-by and it could take them anywhere she wants. Anything that made her happy would make him happy, so he got no demands.

“Wow,” Talia tsked and shook her head. “People really do change,”

Violet only smiled and continued scrolling. There were so many great places to see in this world, Violet didn’t know where to start. Paris and London were high on her list, but so were Hawaii, Australia, and South Africa.

This is gonna be our honeymoon. It has to be perfect and special. But what…?

“Ugh, I don’t know what to pick,” Violet sighed and put the phone down. “Should I just throw a dart on the map or something?”

“What?” Talia gaped.

At first, Violet said it as a joke, but the more she thought about it, the more made it sense. Getting up to her feet, she grabbed a piece of gum from Talia’s table of snacks and walked towards the wall. On the living room wall was this huge map of the world framed in glass. Violet studied the map carefully as she stuck the gum into her mouth.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Talia asked when Violet took a few steps back and plucked the gum out of her mouth.

“There’s so much pressure trying to pick out the perfect place. I don’t think I could it,” she replied. “Besides, anywhere with him is the perfect place for me. So, I might as well throw this gum on the map and let the universe decide,”

Talia snorted a laugh as she got up to her feet. “Okay. You’re officially nuts, but I’m with you one hundred percent!”

Smiling mischievously, Violet rolled the gum in her hand and closed her eyes. After getting the general direction of the map, she then threw the gum and it landed and stuck to the glass.

“Oh!” Talia gasped and raced over to see where it landed.

“What is it?” Violet asked.

“I think we got a winner!” Talia squeaked, unable to contain her excitement.

“What, what?” Violet couldn’t wait any longer. She raced over to the map and pulled out the little pink gum, revealing the place where it landed: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“We’re going to Rio de Janeiro…” she whispered, and then it hit her. “We’re going to Rio de Janeiro!” she yelled and jumped in excitement, and Talia jumped with her.

“Brazil’s got everything! Great food, great party scene, awesome coffee—I know you like those, and of course… Brazilian wax!”

“Talia!” Violet rolled her eyes as Talia did a little dance.

“For when you go to the beach in your bikinis, duh! What were you thinking?”

Ignoring Talia, Violet turned away to hide her blushing cheeks and went to her laptop. She started typing furiously, looking for the best hotels and fun things to do.

“Alright, now that we’ve picked the place, it’s time to book everything,” she said eagerly. “Thanks for doing this with me. This is a lot more fun than making a pros and cons list,”

“Of course,” Talia beamed. She watched as Violet scrolled through the best hotels and resorts in Rio, knowing full well that the newlywed couple would have a great time there.

“So, after all the honeymoon planning is done, what’s next on the to-do list?” Talia asked.

“Umm, let’s see…” Violet said as she flipped through her journal. “Uh-oh,”

“What?” Talia noticed the worried look in Violet’s eyes.

“It’s the thing I’m most worried about,” Violet sighed as she pushed the journal to Talia.

“What, what?” Talia impatiently pulled the journal closer and read the next item on the wedding prep list.

“The vows,”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

~ Damon ~

“This is some timeline. Are you sure we can pull this off?”

Adrian had that worried look on his face as he read through the proposal. He was sitting at his usual spot in Damon’s office. It was late at night and Damon had called him in for some official consigliere business.

“Meh, why not?” Damon shrugged and took a sip of his whiskey. He kicked his feet up on the desk and waited as Adrian finished reading the rest of the report.

“I’m being serious here, Damon,” Adrian narrowed his eyes and lifted the paper up dramatically. “You’re taking down the most powerful mafia family in all of Italy. This is not some extracurricular activity. We need time to plan things out,”

“Which is exactly what we’re doing now, isn’t it?” Damon replied casually.

Adrian wasn’t amused. He kept a straight face, somewhat disapproving. It took them years to plan their revenge against the Maranzano family. Years. But suddenly and out of nowhere, Damon came up with another plan to take down the biggest family in Sicily and he did it in a few months’ time.

“What’s with the rush?” Adrian asked. “It’s not like there’s a deadline here,”

“There is,” Damon argued.

“What?”

“Right after the wedding is over, so is Hugo DeSantis and his family,”

Damon said the word like it was a decree. It was an order. It might be a crazy one, but an order nonetheless.

“Are you fúcking kidding me?” Adrian scoffed. “You want to take DeSantis down in two months? Sixty days?”

Taking down Hugo DeSantis was a crazy idea on its own, let alone in two months’ time. Damon kept a straight face as an answer, and Adrian shook his head in disagreement.

“Damon, we spent almost five years planning against Victor Maranzano! We also had help from the strongest family in Italy. And now you want to turn on them and you’re only giving us a couple of months to do it?” the consigliere put the proposal down on the table and got up to his feet.

“We’re not the same people we were back then, Adrian,” Damon argued and stood up too. “We’re a lot stronger now. We have the resources and we have the perfect opportunity to strike,”

Adrian fell silent at the mention of this ‘perfect opportunity’. The difficult thing about fighting your enemy was that they were usually hard to reach. But the unique thing about their enemy this time was that they were very easily reached. And the perfect opportunity to reach them when they least expect it— like when they were celebrating an ally’s wedding.

“We can do it,” Damon said reassuringly. “You said it yourself. At the rate I’m going, I’ll get to him even before the wedding,”

“I was joking! It was a figure of speech!” Adrian g*****d.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m doing it anyway,” Damon stated matter-of-factly.

“Damon,” Adrian warned.

“What?”

The two men held a staring contest. Adrian clearly disapproved of this idea but Damon wasn’t taking no for an answer. The two of them were silent for the longest time, none of them flinched until Adrian finally did.

Letting out a sigh, Adrian raked his hair with his hand and said, “Look, don’t you think you’re being a bit too…?”

“Confident?” Damon interjected.

“Foolish?” Adrian corrected him. “Or greedy?”

Damon let out a smirk. The timeline was very ambitious, but he believed that he could do it. There wasn’t going to be a better moment for Hugo to let his guard down than at Damon’s own wedding.

“This will work out, consigliere,” Damon said as he straightened his suit, preparing to leave the room. “Trust me,”

“And what if it doesn’t?” Adrian asked, stopping Damon’s tracks before he reached the door.

Stifling a laugh, Damon turned around slightly and sneered, “That doesn’t sound like the kind of question that a trusting man would ask, does it?”

Checkmate. Adrian couldn’t argue any longer. He let out another exaggerated sigh before grabbing his coat and walking away.

“Ah, what the hell. You’re Damon Van Zandt. You’ll do what you want anyway, what’s the point of me telling you things?” Adrian rolled his eyes and opened the door for his boss. Damon smiled and stepped outside, and Adrian followed closely behind.

“So, you marry the girl and kill all your enemies. What’s next then?”

What do I do after I get everything in the world?

Damon couldn’t drop the smile on his face. This was something he’d been wanting to do for a long time but he never got the chance to do it. Until now.

Smiling meaningfully at Adrian, he patted his consigliere’s shoulder and said, “Then I can finally rest,”