Chapter 13

I reluctantly pull away and guide him to sit next to me. We get settled in our sets and I take his hand. "We need to get married within a week. I had just got off the phone with Donya when you came back downstairs. I told her we were going to get married, she is getting the plans started as we speak. We will go over thee details back at the mansion." I tell him.

He nods then asks, "What about a wedding gown? You will only get married once, you should have everything you can dream of."

"I called Donya to say we have decided to marry, while you were upstairs. I decided to say yes in the car before I got out. My wedding dress as well as your wedding band are in my grandfather Sam's possession. You will be wearing my fathers wedding band and I will be wearing my mothers wedding gown. The family seamstress will be at Papa's tonight after dinner to measure for any alterations and the family tailor will be measuring you for your tux. Donya informed me that they all assumed we would get married and started planning when we left."

I notice he seems to be thinking so I stop talking and ask, " Are you alright? Are you having second thoughts about marrying me?"

"God no Lex, I am worried about being capable enough to take over a mafia family. I got shot not so long ago, I could have died. I could turn out to be a weakness." He exclaims

"Listen, our dads were great assassins, both trained for this life yet, both are equally dead. This life is and will be dangerous but we will be a force to be reckoned with. We have a great team, the Williams mafia has surrounded themselves with the best guards and allies on top of my own strong allies and team. Do not underestimate our abilities. I personally think we will be a power couple." I state bluntly.

"Thank you for saying that but our first job as mafia heads will be taking down our mutual enemy that put hatred in your heart, but fear in mine. Our lives are about to get really messy really fast, I don't want them messing things up before they get to begin." he says lowly looking at our intertwined hands.

I put my free hand under his chin, lifting his face even with mine and say, "You are allowing them to control the narrative. You are more skilled than you should be and I am an uncharted dynamic. They have no way of preparing for us, we have a clear advantage."

He nods his head and I feel his body relax. He brings his hands up to cup mine and turns his head kissing my palm before standing up and pulling me to my feet with him and saying, "We should head back to the Williams' mansion, now. We need to get involved with the planning of the war, our wedding and our crowning ceremony, this week is going to fly by."

I take a deep breath, gather my things and nod to him. He doesn't waste a second interlacing our fingers together as we walk to my car together. I hand him my keys so he can drive us back and I can focus my thought processes on our way. We ride in comfortable silence both lost in our own thoughts. I dial Donya just before we pull up to the mansion gates to see where they are so we can go right to them. I hang up with her as we are waved through the gates.

"Donya says they are in the library, we can go straight in. They are waiting." I tell him as we park.

We get out and go in walking hand in hand quietly making our way to the library. We walk in and take our seats at the large table.

Donya smiles at me widely then starts to fill us in on our wedding plans quickly, "Ok we have the wedding planned for Saturday. The family jewelers, the seamstress and a tailor for Branton's Tuxedo will be here at 7. The jewelers will be sizing you for your crowns as well as Branton's ring. We will be holding the wedding here and the Don Cattaneo of the Italian Mafia will be officiating your ceremony as well as the Mafia Crowning Ceremony."

I listen until I can finally interject when she pauses to breath, "Don, breathe honey. Did you say Saturday? As in five days from now?"

She nods excitedly and papa speaks up, "It was the best day for all the mafias to attend. We need strength in numbers. A Mafia wedding and Succession Ceremony means all tiers of mafia, allies and enemies will be in attendance. These events are considered neutral zones if anyone dare to interrupt or cause problems the will be dealt with quickly by the highest ranked Mafia Don, the king of kings if you will. The Cattaneo Family is the highest ranking mafia, the primary Italian Mafia, which is why he is master of the Ceremonies. The Williams family, the primary American Mafia family, is second in hierarchy. The mafia crowning ceremony will be after the wedding but before the reception. You wear same gown and tuxedo for the entire day from wedding to reception. After the wedding Lexa's you will take off your veil and you both will be presented with your family ceremonial crowns you must wear for the rest of the festivities."

Branton looks like his face is frozen in fear before he masks it and speaks, "So basically our wedding will be a little royal, a bit of politics and a large amount of trying our best to provoke enemies in hopes they will do something stupid to get themselves killed for violating mafia neutrality rules."

Emo bursts out laughing as Sam chuckles and nods, "I knew you would fit right in to your new role as Don. Seriously though, we can hope for them to get stupid but you and I both know they won't do anything that will cost them their lives. We have a diplomatic solution to offer the Gidalo cartel that will both get them out of this territory while forcing them to break ties with the Bowen brothers but we will get more into detail as the week progresses. The goal is to give the Bowens' allies a reason to leave the brothers defenseless then give you both the freedom and revenge you deserve."

I look up to make eye contact with Sam before I ask him, "Will killing the Bowens cause a mafia rift?"

Donya answers for him, "No, once their allies break from him, the whole collective of mafia families wants him gone. We have spoken with them about it as we informed them of the wedding and succession. They prefer it to done quietly so the brothers just simply disappear, but they are collectively on board no matter what."

"Why would they do that? Do they know our motives? How are they so accepting of me as your heir?" I ask turning my attention back to Sam.

Sam nods his head and purses his lips, "Let me explain. You and Donya have made quite the reputation in our world since your fathers death, the collective respects you both. I even found three families in which you assassinated someone in their employ but they respected you more because of your reasons and methods. Donya explained to me that before you take an assignment that crossed into mafia business, you always talk to the Don of the mafia, primary or secondary, to get their side. If it interfered with mafia business you would not accept the jobs but if it was personal reasons that involved a mafia member but was unjust you would accept it but keep it as clean as possible. Your business thrived because you live by a code, do a deep dive into the real story before accepting a job, don't kill unless necessary, if necessary do not leave a mess, hold no grudges it is just business. I have had every mafia Don repeat your code to me today. They had no idea who you were until I told them you were The Guardian Escort but as soon as I did they would quote me your business code of conduct. It was amusing at first then became quite annoying after the tenth or so time. They had no idea of your lineage but knew of my daughter and your father. Though some families flaunt their heirs, it is common practice to keep children secret because heirs are automatic targets, it is how a mafia family maintains their business over so many generations. The unfortunate but obvious distinction being the first son to the Don and Dona of a mafia family. That is celebrated because it is the birth of the next generation. The Don of each mafia family sends a gift if they can not personally visit, luckily because we did not know of Cane at birth, he was never celebrated as the next generation. The heir is who I, Kirk, Carlos and Jonas say it is, but our allies are who they say they are. You have been fully vetted and wholly approved by every single family in the mafia hierarchy without any hesitation. They are simply returning the kindness and respect you have given to them, they are not going to cross into your Mafia business and they assume it is bad enough for elimination because of your code."

The entire room is silent for several moments after he finishes speaking. Branton finally breaks the silence, "I am a nobody, besides being Lexa's childhood best friend, my dad being Leif's best friend and my grandfather being their mentor. I have no accomplishments to make them comfortable with accepting me as Don."

I start to protest his words but before I can Kirk speaks up, "Branton, I don't think you give yourself enough credit. There are way more reasons than anyone can give you at one time but the most important reasons are your loyalty, your obvious love for Lexa and you have the abilities to protect her and protect this family. The rest is just paperwork and politics."

Then Sam spoke up quickly, "This week leading up to your wedding we will be spending a lot of time together. I will lead you both through our files and maybe we can fill in some holes for you. We have assumed you would not want to change residences and neither would we so we will maintain this as the base of operations here and we will stay on as Consigliere."

Branton straightens his back and turns his attention to Sam, "We will live in our house, I mean her house..."

I snap my head in his direction, "No, you had it right, our house. I agreed to marry you that was me agreeing what is mine is yours so continue what you were going to say now that we have that straight."

Branton lightly chuckles before continuing, "What I was going to say was, we will live in our house and you will stay here but you will not stay on in advisory roles. I want Kirk to be our Underboss with Carlos and Sam sharing the Consigliere role."

Kirk looks at me and I give him a short nod in agreement with my soon to be husbands statement before adding, "I may be your soon to be Queen but he is going to be our King. I not only support his decision but also agree with it if you will only accept."

Kirk smiles, a tips his head slightly, "I would be honored to be your Underboss, besides with you two bad asses out their taking care of things I can be in the office safe doing the paperwork you young people forget exists."

Sam abruptly stands up, "Good, now we have a good breaking point. It is Six we should have dinner waiting on the table in the dining room. We will pick back up later. It is going to be a busy five days."