Ranieri Andretti: A Second-Chance, Enemies-to-Lovers Mafia Romance Novella (The Five Syndicates Book 3) Read online

  Copyright © 2018 by Parker S. Huntington

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Ranieri Andretti

  Other Books By Parker

  Playlist

  Author’s Note

  Foreword

  Resentment

  Resentment

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  SNEAK PEEK of ASHER BLACK

  Chapter One

  Purchase Links

  The Five Syndicates Series

  * * *

  Asher Black

  Niccolaio Andretti

  Ranieri Andretti

  Bastiano Romano

  * * *

  Marco Camerino

  Rafaello Rossi

  Damiano De Luca (#5.5)

  Lucy Black (#1.5)

  “If It Means A Lot to You” - A Day to Remember

  “Take What You Want” - One OK ROCK ft. 5SOS

  “Kelsey” - Metro Station

  “River Flows in You” - Yiruma

  “Ghost” - Ella Henderson

  “Brother” - Matt Corby

  “Wild Horses” - Natasha Bedingfield

  “Before the Storm” - JoBros ft. Miley Cyrus

  “Black Keys” - JoBros

  “Set Me on Fire” - Bella Ferraro

  “Monsters” - Timeflies ft. Katie Sky

  “Jealous” - Labrinth

  “Broken Strings” - James Morrison

  “Fly Before You Fall” - Cynthia Erivo

  “I Don’t Want to Be” - Gavin DeGraw

  * * *

  Hey, readers!

  I hope you enjoy this novella, but before you do, here’s some useful information. This book takes place concurrently with Niccolaio Andretti and Bastiano Romano. It can be read as a standalone novella, but most like to read it within the series.

  With so, so, so much love,

  For Chloe,

  and all the pure souls whose

  candles extinguished too soon.

  A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a colony of peaceful humans lived in harmony. They cleaned after themselves, cared for the Earth, and never stole what wasn't theirs. One day, a ship crashed into the ground, burning the forest beneath it. The peaceful dwellers banded together, fought the fire, and saved the woman in the spaceship.

  “Pirate,” she called herself when she exited the ship.

  The humans welcomed her with open arms and taught her their way. They taught her how to grow food to make money. They showed her how to spend it on clothes and introduced her to books, and Kindle, and Amazon, and the famous “One-Click” she had heard so much about in space.

  But one day, Pirate ran out of money. Oh, no! she thought. Parker S. Huntington’s newest release just came out. So, she ventured into the dark, dark web and stole it. And when a human asked her how she got the book, she taught him how to steal it. Pirating, they called it. Soon, a new world emerged, where no new books released, because Earth had turned into a filthy realm of pirates.

  Don’t pirate.

  It only takes one, folks.

  Resentment

  Re·sent·ment

  /Rəˈzentmənt/

  Noun

  Bitter indignation at having been mistreated.

  * * *

  Disappointment. Anger. Fear. All lonely, painful emotions in their own right. Combined, they form resentment.

  As the surprise of injustice fades, so, too, does anger and fear, leaving disappointment. But the thing about disappointment is, it's all in your head. Disappointment is your brain adjusting to the end of an old reality, discovering the end of the way you once thought things were. And maybe that's a good thing.

  Make your own reality. Never settle for less than you deserve. And if someone disappoints you, never blame yourself for expecting too much from them. Resentment and disappointment fade. True love doesn't.

  * * *

  Resentment is like

  drinking poison and waiting

  for the other person to die.

  - Carrie Fisher

  * * *

  When you're a kid, betrayal is when your best friend partners up with someone else for a school project. Or your Kindergarten crush doesn't invite you to his birthday party. Or you find a twenty-dollar bill on the ground during recess, and your dad makes you give it to the school’s grumpy Lost and Found lady, who will probably end up pocketing it.

  What it shouldn’t be is the person you thought you could depend on, your best friend in the whole wide world, becoming your tormentor. Ranieri Andretti was supposed to forget about me. I thought he had. We hadn’t talked since I’d left for college, and as far as I knew, he had forgotten I’d ever existed.

  But no matter how hard I’d tried, I could never forget my former best friend.

  Turned out, neither could he.

  * * *

  Anger, resentment and jealousy

  doesn’t change the heart of others

  —it only changes yours.

  Shannon L. Alder

  * * *

  11 Years Ago

  “Did you get your fall schedule yet?” I pulled mine from my hot pink binder and slid it across the table.

  Amusement lined Ranie’s lips as his eyes skimmed my schedule. Always stylish, his dark hair was cropped short at the sides and longer at the top in a gentleman’s cut that flattered his emerald-green eyes, and he was so classically handsome, it made my stomach feel like a bag of Pop Rocks had exploded inside.

  Pretty soon, he’d be too cool to hang with me at the back of my dad’s dinky convenience store. I wouldn’t admit it if he asked, but I wasn’t excited for our freshman year at Diavolo High. I was worried. Worried that Ranie would figure out just how much cooler he was than me, and our nine years of friendship would spiral down the drain.

  Irrational? Probably.

  Ranieri Andretti was the best person I knew, incapable of disappointing me. My insecurities were unreasonable, but Dad liked to remind me every chance he got precisely how dramatic and unreasonable fourteen-year-olds could be.

  Ranie spoke in a slight Southern drawl that I'd never picked up in all my years living in Florida, “Here.” He reached into the back pocket of his fitted black jeans, pulled out a sheet of paper, and tossed it in front of me.

  I unfolded the paper, flattened out the crinkles, and read his schedule:

  O Period: Men’s Varsity Soccer, Coach Kevin

  1st Period: AP Human Geography, Mr. Schlesinger

  2nd Period: Honors Algebra II/Trigonometry, Mr. Franks

  3rd Period: Health, Ms. Rutgers

  4th Period: AP Biology, Mrs. Slight

  5th Period: Honors English, Mr. Richards

  6th Period: Spanish II, Mrs. Gutiérrez

  Ranie was smart, and I was sure he could handle these classes, but I didn’t kno
w why he was taking them. He hated school. Hated anything that took his time away from hanging out with his older brother during the two years he had left before Niccolaio high-tailed it out of Florida for college.

  “I don’t understand, Ranie.”

  His name formed on my lips, so unique and perfect and mine. I loved that I could say it every day, and he would answer without fail.

  “What’s there to understand?” He smirked, and it was the same smirk he’d had since he was a kid. The same smirk that graced his face when we became best friends, and he’d told me he was mine and no one else’s. And he’d kept that promise every day for the past nine years.

  “This is my schedule. Like, literally identical.”

  “You made the men’s varsity soccer team? Congrats, babe.”

  “Oh, you know what I mean.” I scanned the schedule again. “I’m talking about everything else. How… how did you even do this?”

  That Devil-may-care smirk of his widened, so cocky and smug that I’d hate him if I didn’t already love him. “Lacy Ryan’s mom is the head administrator of Diavolo.”

  My heart lurched. Lacy Ryan loathed me, and while my dislike of her wasn’t as emphatic, I’d happily accept a restraining order if offered.

  “Oh.”

  He rolled his eyes. “She’s not that bad, Gallo.”

  Not that bad? From pre-school through middle school, she had taken every possible opportunity to bully me. I was a forgiving person, but I wasn’t that forgiving. The only reason I hadn’t told Ranie was because I knew how he’d react.

  When someone he loved was hurt, Ranieri Andretti was an unpredictable hurricane, causing ruin like he’d been born to do so. His nickname on the soccer field was “Chaos,” but the nomenclature was far more appropriate off the field.

  The last thing I wanted was for him to get himself into trouble while protecting me. His dad already disapproved of our friendship, which was why we were slumming it in the break room of Dad’s North Beach shop instead of Ranie’s mega-mansion in the hoity-toity parts of Miami Beach.

  “Whatever.” I handed him his schedule back.

  He squeezed my hand as he took it from me. People assumed we dated. We didn’t. The moment our friendship began had been the moment we’d formed a bubble around us, because we didn’t need anyone else but each other. He owned my heart, but I owned his just as much.

  “You didn’t get into your cooking class.” He knew how badly I wanted to become a chef when I grew up.

  “It’s not available for freshmen.” I shrugged. “There’s always next year. And don’t change the subject.” I studied him. “Seriously, though, what gives? Why’d you copy my schedule?”

  The mirth fled his eyes, and he stood, rounded the table, took a seat beside me, and grabbed my hands. “Carina,” he only called me that when he was serious, “I lo—”

  A booming thud halted his speech. I rose to my feet and sprinted into the hall towards the front of the store. A strong arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me into Ranie’s chest. He lifted me and carried me into Dad’s office with one arm.

  “Put me down!” I struggled against his hold. The shouting outside had gotten louder, and I was starting to worry for Dad’s safety. “I need to help him!”

  Ranie covered my mouth with his hand and whispered in my ear, “Calm down, Carina. You can’t leave. It could be dangerous.”

  All the more reason to get out there and help Dad. I struggled harder against his hold.

  He tightened his arms around my waist, and in any other situation, those Pop Rocks would burst from my chest to my belly. “Calm down, and I’ll let go. Okay?”

  I jerked one last time in a Hail Mary attempt to get loose, but when it didn’t work, I stilled, relaxing my body against his. He released me, spun my body around to face him, and held a finger to his lips, the message clear: shut up.

  He flicked on the monitor, and I jerked when an image of Luigi, holding my dad by the collar of his shirt, filled the screen.

  I turned to Ranie, the betrayal broadcasting loud and clear from my face. “What the heck is this?”

  “Car—”

  “What’s your dad’s consiglieri doing threatening my dad?”

  The consiglieri was the top advisor to the mafia boss. No way would he act without permission from Ranie’s dad.

  “Babe, I—”

  “Did you know about this? Is that why you stopped me from running out there?” I shook my head, disgust and adrenaline surging through my veins, and headed for the door, intent on helping my dad.

  Ranie grabbed my arm, his grip firm yet gentle. “Don’t go out there.”

  I pushed him away. “That’s my dad!”

  “I didn’t know. I promise, Carina. I grabbed you to keep you from putting yourself in danger.”

  His eyes pleaded with me, and I wanted to believe him—I needed to believe him—but this was my dad we were talking about. After Mom had left us, he and Ranie were all I had left. But Ranie never tucked me in at night and checked under my bed for monsters. That was all Dad, and he was out there. Alone.

  “Let me go, Ranie.”

  “He’s dangerous.”

  “Exactly!”

  “Shh!” He lowered his voice. “Keep it down. If something happened to you, Carina, I couldn’t live with myself. I’ll go out there. Okay? Let me talk to Luigi.”

  I nodded my head, but inside, I was already worrying about him, too. “Fine.”

  As soon as he left, my head pivoted to the screen. I turned the volume up as much as I could without drawing attention to my presence.

  Luigi had Dad leaning forward, pressed against the glass counter as far as his body would allow. “Do you know what happens when you miss your protection payment? We’ve given you leeway before because of your daughter, but you can’t keep fucking us over.”

  That didn’t sound right. Ranie’s dad, Cristiano Andretti, hated me. If anything, being related to me should have hurt Dad’s cause.

  Dad wheezed. “I’ll get it to you tomorrow.”

  "You do that because if you don’t, your other hand will be the next to go.”

  “Next? What are you talkin—ahhhhhh!”

  As soon as Dad’s screams reached my ears, I sprinted out of the back office and into the central area of the store. Luigi had already abandoned ship, and Ranie was at the soda machines, wetting a thick towel. I ran to Dad and took in his left hand. Past the blood and burgeoning bruises, two fingers bent awkwardly to the right.

  “Oh, my God. What happened, Dad?” I grabbed the towel from Ranie’s hand and dabbed it against Dad’s palm as gently as I could.

  He fought to keep his winces at bay, but they tore through his stoicism and broke my heart. “Don’t worry about it, darling. It’s nothing.”

  “Nothing? Nothing?!”

  Ranie slid the towel from my shaking fingers.

  I tried to yank it back. “Don’t even talk to me, Ranie. Protection money? From my dad? Are you insane?!” I pressed the towel to the worst of the bleeds. A bloodied hammer laid on the counter to the side of Dad’s hand. I averted my eyes and glared at Ranie. “You were supposed to be out here! I trusted you! What happened, Ranie?!”

  “Carina, I—”

  “You know what? I can’t even look at you right now. Leave.”

  “But—”

  “Get out!” I shouted, dropping the towel onto the counter and pushing Ranie as hard as I could.

  It was the worst fight we’d ever had in nine years of friendship. I knew now that I’d been unfair. Ranie had always been good to me, my fiercest protector and one of two people I could always count on.

  I’d tried to apologize.

  And tried.

  And tried.

  And tried again.

  Fast forward five months, and it was starting to seem like I was the only freshman at Diavolo without any friends. And Ranieri? I’d been right. He’d figured out that he was too cool to be hanging with me, and those nine years of friendship I
cherished might as well have never happened.

  With every passing day, Ranie had only gotten more… more everything. More admired. More handsome. More popular. He was the freshman that hung out with the seniors and juniors, Niccolaio always on one side of him and a revolving door of beautiful girls on the other. And his latest conquest happened to be Lacy Ryan, my childhood bully.

  Lunchtime at Diavolo was the worst. I sat at the furthest end of the cafeteria, at a table mostly shadowed by the dark. That was the way I liked it. The less visible I was, the saner I was. After Ranie dropped me as a friend, everyone I’d thought was my friend had taken it as permission to bully, belittle, and torment me behind his back.

  I tried to hide in this corner.

  Sometimes it worked.

  Sometimes it didn’t.

  A lunch tray dropped beside me with a loud smack! I jumped in surprise and turned to face the perpetrator. Green eyes that reminded me of Ranie’s met mine. His chiseled chin, prominent cheekbones, and aquiline nose were handsome like Ranie’s, but while Ranie had dark hair and a gentleman’s cut, this stranger’s hair was blond and longer.

  “Hey. I’m Brody.” He reached a hand out.

  My eyes swept from side to side, trying to figure out if anyone else was seeing this. I hoped not. “You might not want to do that.”

  “Shake your hand? Are you sick or something?” The grin he gifted me was good-natured. “I’ve got a pretty strong immune system.”