The Accidental Mafia Queen Book Tour & Giveaway

Forgiveness of sin…
My sins…
That was the part where I’d become stuck. The concept popped up several times as I’d read the
Holy Bible.
Right from Genesis. Wow my parents, my mother in particular would have been proud.
The circumstances for which I’d read it however would have overshadowed the triumph. But still
she would have been proud, both of them.
Even though I’d gotten nearly to the end and had now decided to park it. It wasn’t for me.
This… this me reading the bible was like a methaphor for my life. I was nearly at the end of it.
Nearly at the end and wondering what I could do to change things.
I still had the power, but with power came responsibility.
So, did I spend the rest of my days using what little time I had left to gain God’s forgiveness?
Is that what the Don of the Rossi family should do?
Forgiveness of sin… my sins.
Last night I think I’d hit a stumbling block when I realised that it was a little too late for me, and
there was better use of my time.
Trying to get forgiveness was better reserved for those who had the standard normal family.
Vanilla life.
I could imagine a man with a wife, two kids, a dog like the one from Peter Pan. They’d live in a
neat little house that didn’t show indulgence. The garden would be immaculate because the wife
would tend to it herself. The flowers and all that other shit. The husband would cut the lawn.
They’d go to church on Sunday and be the goodly neighbours the Good Lord intended them to
be.
Most of all they would be classed by all as good people.
I did not have that and sometimes it really was too late to change things.
The change had to start in the heart and mine had been filled with darkness years ago.
Probably from birth.
I had a wife once. I think she loved me at some point before she died. And I had a kid. A
daughter.
That child was the apple of my eye. She loved me at some point too, until the day when her
eyes were opened to something else that was beyond my control. When truly loved someone
you had to know when to let them go. To me though, you also had to know when it was time to
bring them back to the fold.
Here lay the reason for my state of flux.
When a man was dying he had time to think about his life. Suddenly it was all he would think
about. Did he change his ways so that he could go back to meet his maker with a clear
conscience, so that his records would be white as snow? Like the bible put it. Or, would he do
what he could to make sure his
family got taken care of?
That was the question on my mind last night as I closed my eyes and when I woke up this
morning the answer came to me.
A knock sounded at the door.
I straightened up in my chair and rested back against the padded leather.
I couldn’t look as sick as felt in front of these people.
They’d known me forever but were like sharks and would turn on me at the first sign of
weakness.
I was passing the torch but I still had to maintain the presence of power and control.
This was my choice, to take care of my family. To make sure the control and power passed in
the way that I wanted it.
This was the only way that I knew she would be safe.
My daughter, my Amelia.
It was a nice thought to think I could change. But I had to sacrifice God’s grace for her.
It would be my last act as her father. A father that had to step outside of the relms of what was
normal to do what he thought was best.
“Come in.” I called out, templing my fingers and holding my elbows at my side .
The door opened and Marcus came into my office with Lucian and Cladius, his two sons.

Marcus was my oldest friend, we went through life together and bore each other’s secrets. Too
many secrets.
His sons were like my own. I’d known them from birth and they’d stepped in at a time when I
needed to play father.
The brothers, however, could not have been more different if they tried. Both were leaders. That
was a truth. They both had strong qualities. But there was only one that I had in mind for a
number of reasons.
They sat in the three chairs before me.
Marcus smiled and nodded his head in reverence to me.
“This won’t take long.” I announced. “We don’t have time for any length of discussion.”
“As you wish Raphael,” Marcus replied.
Claudius straightened up with that smug attitude I’d grown used to for the last fifteen years. I
liked the way he thought I was going to chose him, even though he’d given me no real reason
to.
Lucian… Luc, as we called him, on the other hand sat in a similar fashion to me with his fingers
templed and a contemplative look on his face.
He wanted this more than Claudius and so…
“Luc, I chose you.” I said that relly slow and purposefully.
While Marcus looked pleased, Claudius bolted up straight, anger filling his face and turning his
pale skin red.
“Luc, how could you chose him?” Claudius challenged.
All I did was give him the look, and the man immeadiately knew his place. I watched the anger
simmer as he tried to control himself in front of me. He knew that it didn’t matter who he was,
but challenge me again and he’d end up with a limb missing, or dead.
I didn’t like those who had no respect, and I didn’t tolerate insolence either.
I focused my attention back to Luc who still had that contemplative look on his face.
“Luc, what say ye?” I asked.
“Thank you.” Came his simple reply. And that was the difference between Luc and Claudius.
Luc could control himself for good or for bad.
I knew this choice would drive a wedge between them as brothers and they weren’t exactly
close as it was.
They were like oil and water but did their best when Marcus was around.
Luc the oil and Claudius the water.
Oil stayed in control of itself and did not bend at the will of emotion. It only mixed itself out when
the contions were right, and at the right moment. Water on the other hand flowed everywhere
and tried to overpower everything in its wake. There was no control, just movemet.
I needed oil, not water. I needed Luc, not Claudius.
Because when it called for it he would only take care of himself. Jump ship and leave those who
mattered to sink.
Luc on the other hand would be a true captain and go down with the ship if he needed to.
He knew how to handle a situation. He thought first before he acted. That was the person I
needed here because this whole thing with me simply choosing who would take my place had
become a lot bigger than me in the last twenty four hours.
I couldn’t even tell them that. Because I didn’t know the full extent of the situation at hand.
As leader of the most powerful family in Chicacgo I’d come to trust my instincts and feelings.
That was how I still kept us going. That was how I kept us in power and out of the hands of
those who would take it.
“Any questions before I continue?” I asked Luc.
In the corner of my eye I could see Claudius’ anger.
“No.” Luc shook his head.
I smiled. “Nothing whatsoever Lucian?”
Again he shook his head.
“I’m good. When do I start?”
At least that was one question.
“There are some terms I’d like you to meet, and you will only become leader once you’ve met
them.” It was show time.
Marcus instantly looked thrown. He didn’t expect me to say that.

“What sort of terms?” Luc asked, his bright blue eyes staring into me with keen intrests.
“This has always been a family busoness. The Rossi’s go way back. I never had a son to carry
on my name, and as you know my brother and his son died years ago. That left me in sole
charge and I’m willing to pass the Rossi name, but not the tradition of keeping the business in
the family.”
It was now that Luc looked unnerved. Marcus looked upset. I think he realised where I was
going with this conversation.
“And how do you propose we do that?” Marcus asked.
It was a challenge but his tone was kept under control unlike when Claudius lost his temper.
“Amelia.”
“She wants nothing to do with us.” Marcus replied.
“She may have had a change of heart.” I nodded firmly knowing that my answer was bull shit.
Amelia wanted nothing to do with us indeed. Nothing to do with me.
But that didn’t change anything.
She needed to snap out of her hated, and disregard for our way of life.
“Amelia? What about her?” Luc asked.
Of course he would want to know that. I’d known Marcus for many years and his family but they
were based in LA for a many years and came to Chicago a year after Amelia left. The need at
the time called for it.
Luc was five years older than her and they’d never met.
They would have to get on though, or else I wasn’t passing anything.
I needed to make sure she would be safe. If what I thought was happening was indeed
happening I needed to know that my girl was safe. I didn’t care by what means or that she hated
me.
I needed to make sure that my last act in this world in my God given right as a father was
making sure that my child was safe.
My girl was twenty eight years old now, not the little girl who used to run around in the garden
with her mother, or see me as the best thing in the world. But, she was still my child.
Luc was the best man to take care of her and do what he saw fit with the business.
“Amelia, my daughter.”
“I thought she left years ago, never to return. What plans do you have Rapheal?” Luc said.
I really liked this guy and I wished this meeting was taking place under better circumstances.
I liked that he had the ability to adapt to my ever changing emotion and not piss me off like his
brother always did.
“Luc, in order to be leader and take over our cherished family business, of which you have been
a part of for the last fifteen years you will have to marry my daughter.”
That was the plan. My plan. My task.
Luc narrowed his eyes and pressed his thin lips togehther.
“I have to marry amelia in order to take over from you.”
I laughed and the winced at the same time as a bout of pain rushed through me making me
double over. I opened my mouth to talk but started coughing.
Marcus moved over to the mini fridge and grabbed me a drink of water.
I sipped at it straight away and whipped my mouth with the back of my hand.
Something red dripped on the table.
Blood.
Shit.
That started yesterday. I thought I’d bit my tongue or the inside of my cheek but quickly realised
that I hadn’t.
This was from the cancer and the weakness it was causing all over my body.
While Claudius watched me trying to find a piece of tissue, Luc got the box of tissues from the
bookshelf and handed it to me.
He didn’t look like he relished in my demise. In fact he looked sad for me.
“I have to marry Amelia in order to take over from you?” It was a question this time.
“Yes, those are my terms. Do you accept?”
Luc held my gaze with those bright blue eyes and nodded. “I accept.”
Good.
It was time for action.