Arranged marriage to the princess of the Red Scorpions

Well. At least Richard no longer had to worry about when he might bump into Marcus. The man decided to take that matter into his own hand.

"Aww is this our baby cousin? I remember seeing him once before. I don't remember him looking this cute and innocent, though." Marcus strolled into the room as though he owned the place. His eyes fixed on Samuel as though he were surveying a new toy.

"Marcus. You're not supposed to be here right now." The words came out through clenched teeth. This was Jovani's idea of taking care of him. Surely not.

"Rich. I think that you best mind your own business. You didn't come and see me before now. I think that leaves you outside of the realm of being able to tell me what to do." The words came out in a simple, slow, passive voice. Anyone who didn't know him wouldn't have thought much about it. Not Richard, though. He could read the threat from the other's tone loud and clear.

Marcus was the type who could kill without even raising his voice, let alone expressing anger. It was necessary at best and a game at worst. The kind of game that Marcus never lost. Unless he wanted to, that is.

"I'm not telling you what to do. I am giving you a warning. So long as I'm here, Samuel is under my care. Besides, I don't believe that Jovani would allow for the two of you to meet." Richard didn't mind putting himself between Marcus and the younger cousin. They have been at odds but at least the mafioso knew how to handle the Vedova Nera man.

"Under your protection?" Marcus stopped short of the other as a sharp shrill laugh broke free from his lips. The kind one emitted when they'd heard the funniest thing. It was almost enough to cause the other man to double over.

"Protection from me? Surely you must mean that as some joke." When their gazes connected, Marcus didn't find a shared myth in Richard's eyes.

"Rich. After all the time we spent together, I thought you'd know me better. Everything that happened before is done and dusted. My priorities are different." The charming tone and the way Marcus placed a hand over his heart hardly felt convincing to Richard. No way had the other man changed. People like him, like Jovani never changed.

Richard flexed his injured hand. He didn't feel much like picking another fight but he knew better than to think he'd get what he wanted. Rarely in the scheme of things did that happen for him.

"I would rather Samuel not know about that until everything else is sorted out. Jovani needs to be the one to talk about that with him." Richard swiped at the other, causing Cain to back up only to realize that the other had gone for the cigar.

"You don't' need to be having any more of this either." He needed not to be the only one with a clear head at the current moment.

Would he be able to go and see Jovani if he pushed his way about it, or would that leave too much of a problem from the other side? Richard didn't even know where Marcus was at the current moment.

The thought alone was enough to give the other a pounding headache. The kind that made him forget about the ache in his hand from hitting Jovani.

"We also hadn't come here to talk about all of this other stuff right now anyways. The important point of discussion was your relationship." Richard stopped pacing long enough to stand next to Samuel's chair. The other looked up at him; clouded eyes made it hard to read the other's expression.

"I don't' think that there is much else for us to talk about in that matter until Lena contacts me. I told you everything that I know about." Samuel shrugged his shoulders, moving to get up from the chair until Richard pushed him back.

"Be that as it may, there are still some more aspects of that I want to clarify with you." Richard couldn't tell Samuel that he was better off not going anywhere. Marcus wasn't something that could be explained in five minutes or less.The complicated man needed a whole novel written about him if anyone outside of the family were even to begin to understand him.

"You can ask questions about whatever you want later. I want to go and talk with Jovani so I can better understand what is going on." Samuel pushed Richard's hand aside as he tried once more to get up. He didn't care about the fuzzy feeling in his head that made it hard to focus or the fact that his feet didn't feel properly attached to his body.

There had been too many things going on that he didn't know about. New to the family or not, it certainly wouldn't hurt for him to have additional information. It wasn't like such things would cause the world to end.

After all, hadn't Jovani been the one who said that sometime in the future, Samuel would be taking over the family? Knowing all the players he had to keep an eye on would only benefit him in moving toward that goal.

"You should already know after what happened earlier that Jovani is in no place to be talking right now. That conversation will have to wait for some time in the future." Richard tried to reason once more. He didn't want to use force on the kid who didn't know what he was trying to get involved with.

"Oh not in a place to talk? I think that you will find that Jovani is plenty capable of talking. Maybe too much even. His conversations bore me still. Just as much if not even more than they used to. I do hope that someone here might be able to keep my attention better?"

The unexpected voice and presence made the hair on the back of Richard's next stand on end.