Ninette led that brigade, teaching her daughters lessons no girl should learn. Frankie was the only one opposed to them. The other two sucked that shit in and turned that shit out, not only in look, but in deed.
He’d never liked them, Nat or Cat, and not because they dressed like trash. Because they acted like it.
The brothers were a different story. He’d briefly met her brother Dino, and he knew Enzo Junior well.
Dino seemed an upright guy, affectionate with his little sister, pleasant to be around.
Enzo was a fucking crazy man, but he adored Frankie and didn’t have much time for the other two, so Benny had always liked him.
Now, with her showing out of the blue, he knew he’d be reminded why he wasn’t Nat’s biggest fan.
He just did not know she was bringing her A game.
When the Stratus screeched around the corner at the end of the block, she turned to him. Just like he wasn’t even fucking there, she picked up one of the three massive duffels sitting on his stoop and heaved it right by his legs into his foyer.
Oh no.
Fuck no.
“Yo!” he barked, and her eyes snapped to his.
“Hey, Ben,” she greeted. Either not processing or ignoring his tone, she twisted and snatched up another duffel, dropping the strap on her shoulder and then shouldering her way right into his goddamned house.
She had to be joking.
“Get the last one, would you, big man?” she ordered, then stopped in the foyer and shouted up the stairs, “Frankie!”
She was. She was absolutely joking.
He turned to her, leaving her bag outside and the door open, and bit out, “Have you lost your mind?”
She drooped a shoulder, the duffel thudded on the floor, and she looked to him. “Heard Frankie was crashing here. Just scraped off my douchebag of a husband so I need to crash at her place.” She finished this outrageousness with even more outrageousness, “I could use a ride when I get her keys.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” he whispered, and he whispered because, if he didn’t, he’d shout.
“Say what?” she asked.
When she asked that, he knew she wasn’t ignoring what she couldn’t possibly miss: that Benny did not want her or her shit in his home. No, she was in her own world and she didn’t give a shit he didn’t want to occupy that world. And he sure as fuck didn’t want it landing in his foyer.
So he decided to give her that information.
“You are not here,” he told her, then explained, “And by that I mean, get your ass out.”
Her eyes narrowed and it was not sexy-cute and full of attitude the way her big sister did it, mainly because he’d never liked the bitch. She was rough in a way there was no smooth. She was loud, she was obnoxious, and with this shit, she’d proved she could take selfish to extremes.
“You don’t wanna give me a ride, that’s cool, but keep your pants on, asshole. I just need Frankie’s keys,” she snapped.
Benny felt his body get tight, which was good. That meant it’d make it hard to move.
He didn’t have the same problem with his mouth. “You’re tellin’ me you shouldered your way in my home, I haven’t seen you in fuckin’ years, and you’re callin’ me an asshole?”
“You just told me to get out,” she shot back.
“It’s my house. I can do that shit when someone who isn’t welcome is in it,” he returned.
He knew Theresa and Vinnie Senior were in the back hall.
Unfortunately, on his words, Francesca entered the space by walking slowly down the stairs.
Further to that misfortune, she was wearing a light pink baby-doll tee that was tight at her tits and a light gray pair of those loose but clingy drawstring yoga pants women wore that showed no skin but gave it all away in a way every man liked if his dick worked and he wasn’t into guys.
So no turtleneck or sweatshirt.
Fuck.
Her eyes were on her sister and her mouth was moving to ask, “What’s goin’ on?”
Nat looked up at her sister, and before Ben could say a word, she announced, “Just got shot of the douche, soon to be formerly known as my husband. Need a place to crash. Heard you were here, which means your place is empty, so I’m gonna crash there. I need your keys, and quick, ’cause Benny’s decided to be a dick and I’ve had a bad morning. I don’t need that shit.”
Benny was pissed. Absolutely.
But he instantly had another problem on his hands.
This was that he knew, with the way Frankie’s face changed, his house was about to turn into a Concetti war zone. He’d seen it, more than once, but had been removed from it. Vinnie had to put up with that shit and that was one thing in all that was Frankie that he did not envy his brother.
But now, the woman on his stairs was not one hundred percent and she had no business throwing down with her sister. Not the way the Concetti women threw down.
Therefore, he made a move to the stairs just as Frankie replied, “First, you think of askin’ to crash at my place?”
To this, Nat retorted, “I don’t need hassle from you either.”
Frankie made her way down the rest of the stairs and stopped on the last step where Benny was standing at the bottom, barring her from going further, thinking distance was key in this scenario.
She ignored her sister and kept with her list. “Second, you come to Ben’s and call him a dick right to his face, right in his damned house?”
“Think I called him a dick to you, not to his face,” Nat fired back. “He just happened to be standin’ there.”
Frankie ignored that too.
“Third, you show at Ben’s house, layin’ your shit at my feet and his door, when I can’t take a fucking shower by myself, doctor’s orders, ’cause I got a hole in me?”
Her voice was getting louder, so Benny murmured a soothing “Frankie” that he knew no way in hell would soothe her.
“Babe—” Nat started, a change coming over her face. What Frankie said, by some miracle, got in there.
But for Frankie, it was too little, too late. “No. Fuck no,” Frankie hissed. “Get your shit and get gone.”
“Got no place to go, sis. Need you to help me out,” Nat told her.
“Why?” Frankie returned immediately. “’Cause you screwed around on Davey again, he found out again, and I’m up on the rotation when he kicked your ass out and you need somewhere to wait it out until he loses his mind and takes your cheatin’ ass back?”
Nat’s face, which had gone soft with guilt at Frankie’s earlier comment, went hard in a shot. “I’m not discussin’ my marital woes with you in front of the fuckin’ Bianchis and whoever that bitch is.” She jerked her chin toward the stairs.
Benny looked that way to see Asheeka three steps up. When he did, he also saw Asheeka didn’t take kindly to being called a bitch.
Fuck.
He had to wade in. Immediately. The Concettis were bad enough. He didn’t need the unknown Asheeka throwing her hat into the ring.
“This is what’s gonna happen,” Benny stated, eyes back to Nat. “I’m gonna call a cab and give you some cake so you can put yourself up in a hotel for a coupla days while you sort your shit.”
Frankie instantly fucked with his plan by declaring, “You absolutely are not doin’ any of that shit, Benny Bianchi. And you” —he saw her finger jab out toward her sister in his peripheral vision— “do not ever call one of my sisters of the heart a bitch.”
He cut his eyes to her face. “Babe, just let me deal with this quick so we can get you some breakfast.”