by J. L. Drake
Contents
Pronunciation of Main Cast
Main Cast
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Acknowledgments
A peek at what's to come in
About the Author
Books By J.L. Drake
When Two Wolds Collide
QUIET SECRETS
QUIET MAFIA SERIES
Copyright 2021 © J.L. Drake All rights reserved
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons— living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
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Cover Design by Deranged Doctor Design
Editing by Lori Whitwam
Formatting by RedDoor Author Services
To my girls,
Elizabeth Clark, Jamie Johnson, Kim Kelchner, and Veronica Nelson for being there for me when I really needed you during this difficult year.
Elio Capri
Ell-e-o Ca-pre
Sienna Giovanna
See-enna Gio-vanna
Francesco
Fran-cesco
Piero
P-ero
Mariano
Mari-ano
Niccola
Nee-cola
Capri Family
Piero - Don
Andrea
Elio – Underboss
Francesco – Consigliere
Niccola – Caporegime
Vinni – Caporegime
Donatello – Solider
Gain – Solider
Ernesto – Solider
Harris – Solider
Bosco – Uncle (brother to Piero)
Noemi – Aunt (married to Bosco)
DeSimone Family
Roberto DeSimone – Don
Bria DeSimone
Mariano DeSimone – Underboss
Sides
Wyatt Burn – Sienna’s best friend
Gail Burn – Wyatt’s sister
Aldo – Elio’s trainer
Cara Di Vaio – Sicily house friend
Anna – Capri family friend
Aurora – Capri family friend
Georgio – Sienna’s boss
Donte – Capri cook
Jacob Raine – NYC mobster
Certi segreti è meglio che restino tale
“Drop your guns!” Francesco yelled. “Stop!”
Nothing registered as I pulled back the hammer and my finger twitched on the trigger. I kept it pointed at the man holding Sienna. A dark storm swarmed my head and filtered out all rational thoughts.
“For the love of God, stop!” Francesco was now in my face, and I struggled to see around him. “Elio, put the gun down.”
“Why?” I shouted, annoyed he was interfering. “Get out of my way!”
“Elio,” he pleaded as he studied my face. When he realized I wasn’t going to lower my gun first, he whirled around and faced the woman. “Elenora, lower your gun.”
“Him first!”
“I didn’t start this,” I shouted, not moving my eyes off Sienna’s terrified expression. She was mouthing something, but I couldn’t follow.
“Don’t test him, Elenora. You have no idea what he’ll do for her,” Francesco pleaded.
“Let me go!” Sienna tried to rip her arm out of the man’s hold, but he yanked her back, and she fell to her knees with a cry. “Elio, stop.” Her scream burst through my murderous state. “She’s my mother.”
Mother? What the hell is happening here?
My gun wavered slightly, and the man holding her pulled her around behind him. To what, shield her from me?
A cloak of red filled my vision, and I blinked back my rage. Sounds came and went in waves while my head calculated the wind speed versus my bullet finding its way into the main artery running through his neck.
“Stop!” The desperation in Francesco’s voice as he held his arms out straight between us began to seep into my consciousness, but I was a hair of a second from staining the road with blood. “Hey,” he directed his attention to the man who held Sienna, “let her go, or I can promise you he will drill a bullet into your head.”
He’s right. I will.
The man looked at Elenora for direction.
“Sienna, do you know them?” Elenora snapped.
“Yes!” Sienna tried to find her footing.
After a moment’s hesitation, Elenora gave him a nod to let go. Sienna shoved his shoulders, making him step backward on the uneven ground.
“Get off me!” She raced over to me and flung herself into my arms. I wrapped my free hand around her back and held her close, but kept my gun pointed at him.
“What did you do?” Elenora glared at Francesco, but she lowered her weapon and ordered her men to do the same.
“What I had to.” He looked back at us, and I could see the pain of whatever was happening wash over his face. “Elio, this is Sienna’s mother.”
“Hey,” Sienna put her hand on my arm, “it’s true, she is. Please stop.”
I tried to make sense of what was happening. My brain seemed to be struggling with just how we got to guns being pulled, and Francesco suddenly being here, and knowing Sienna’s mother.
I waited a beat more, then lowered my weapon with a growl. It took all my strength not to pull the trigger. I never lowered my weapon until I knew the entirety of any situation, but when Sienna was involved, I broke all my rules.
“Oh, thank God.” Francesco heaved forward, resting his hands on his knees.
“What the hell is happening here?” I barked at everyone.
“We need to talk,” Francesco, my father’s loyal consigliere and second father to me, said quietly, “but not here in the open.”
“I’m not leaving.” Sienna madly brushed her tears away. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”
“And I understand that,” Francesco moved closer to her so he could lower his voice, “but not here, not like this. We need to get somewhere private, not here on the side of the road. Remember everything else that’s going on right now.”
<
br /> She blinked and studied him, knowing he was right, then stepped around to address our visitors. “Will you come and talk?” Elenora gave a nod. “No guns.” Elenora nodded again.
“All right.” Sienna turned her gaze to me, and I took a moment before I finally nodded. “All right,” she repeated and turned to take my arm. We walked back to my car. It was still running and was parked in the middle of the road. Her hand shook as she gripped her purse, no doubt reeling from what the hell just happened.
“Vinni, take Wyatt with you,” I ordered over my shoulder for him to take Sienna’s best friend, who still seemed to be stuck in a trance.
“Yeah, boss.”
“Are you okay, Sienna?” She nodded but didn’t speak. “Don’t check out on me.” I kissed the top of her head. “I have a feeling another storm is about to hit us.” I opened the car door and helped her inside.
Francesco came up next to me.
“What the hell is going on here?” My rage still idled at the surface, ready to blow at any moment.
“Let’s take this to your uncle’s.” He glanced over at Elenora, who was getting into her car. “Mariano is at the Hill House.”
“Are you insane?” My jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
“Trust me on this.”
Normally, I wouldn’t ever question Francesco, but taking strangers to my uncle’s home to hold an unplanned meeting was just not how we operated. Especially without background checks on any of them.
I cleared my throat and rubbed my jaw as I stepped closer to him and spoke quietly. “I have always trusted you, my friend, but this makes me very nervous.”
“I know.” His eyes pleaded with mine.
“Fine.” I nodded once, unsure what else to say to him at this point. The whiplash from the last fifteen minutes had done a number on my head.
I eased behind the wheel and left Sienna to her thoughts while I slipped into a memory of my own.
“Ah!” I sent the ceramic sculpture across the room, bursting into a billion pieces as it hit the marble floor.
“Elio!” Aunt Noemi came racing in the room with her hands on her mouth. I saw my Nonna in the doorway behind her saying a silent prayer and grasping her rosary beads.
“It’s okay, Mama.” Niccola directed her out of the room before turning to face me.
A fierce storm whirled inside my chest. My heart fought to contain itself as hot blood coursed through it like the blast from a stick of dynamite.
“Cousin,” Niccola stepped further into the room, “I know you’re suffering, and I won’t even pretend to know what you’re going through, but this isn’t good for you. Your heart can only take so much.”
“I know that!” I shouted and whirled to face him. My fingers itched with the need to hurt someone as my anger raged. “I know my heart can’t take it.” I used my fist to bang on my chest, and tears stung my eyes, “I know this isn’t good for me. I never asked for any of this!”
“You didn’t, but sometimes it’s just not in the stars.”
“What about the moon?” I shouted louder. “What about the gods? Do they have no sympathy for love? No sympathy for the souls that walk this Earth?”
“Niccola.” Francesco had appeared and motioned for my cousin to leave. He approached my Nonna, who still stood near the door, and assured her everything would be all right. He quietly closed the door and turned to me.
“No.” I held up my hand, not needing anyone else inside my head. I breathed heavily and tugged at the top button of my dress shirt, needing more air. There wasn’t any.
I kept picturing what her face must have looked like when she discovered the house was empty and we had left her.
“Son,” he stood in place, knowing better than to approach me, “what happened that has you this upset?”
The room tilted, and I felt a sharp hit to the stomach as my anger surged again.
“Ah!” I swept the glass knickknacks off the table next to me. The sound was deafening. “I left her with those wolves! I left the only person I truly loved behind because I didn’t want to subject her to this life. What’s so bad about this life?”
“You were being selfless, Elio. It was noble of you.”
“Noble?” I gripped the edge of the table. I needed something to hang on to before I caved inward. “Tell me something, Francesco. Is it noble to knowingly rip the heart from the one you love and then leave her all alone to pick up the pieces, without even an explanation?”
“Love is a tricky thing.”
“Love is the root of all pain.” I felt my expression darken as I looked over at him, exposing my soul. “It embeds itself in you and lays dormant like cancer, and when you think everything is wonderful and just how it should be, it squeezes its tentacles around your heart and lets you bleed out a slow, miserable death.”
I closed my eyes and gave in to the anger, letting it smother me in a toxic cloud.
“What can I do for you, Elio?”
“Go get her for me,” I whispered.
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Can’t or won’t?” I slowly opened my eyes to see a pained expression on his face.
“The last I heard, she left the Di Vaio house, but then I lost track of her after a few days. I’m not sure if she went back or not.”
I stood at his news, shocked that he had not told me this yet.
“So, she could still be there?” I marched toward the door, but he stepped in my way and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Leave if you must, Elio, but maybe get some rest and wait until morning. Take a breath and search your heart again. You made the decision against having her live in this kind of family, remember? Yes, we love all of those around us, but we also shed blood and take lives. All I ask is that you really think, once again, about what’s best for her. Your father just survived a hit. Who is next? It isn’t safe for any of us right now.”
I shifted my jacket on my hot skin and headed for the door. He was right. I should take the night to think.
With a glass of scotch in my hand, I sat in the dark in my new home just below my parents’ Hill House. The place still smelled of fresh paint. No matter how many times I went back and forth, I knew I couldn’t walk this Earth without Sienna by my side.
By six a.m. I had my bag packed and a flight to Sicily booked for nine. I tossed my belongings in the back of my car, and as I went to ease behind the wheel, I spotted a square envelope tucked under the windshield wiper. Plucking the contents free, I found a photo printed on a piece of card stock of Sienna in the city. The photo looked to be taken from a bit of a distance. The words at the bottom had my hand on my weapon while I scanned the property’s perimeter.
“If you go after her, we’ll kill her before you can ever reach her.”
At that moment, Francesco arrived and caught wind of my mood.
“What is it?”
I handed him the photo and watched his facial cues to see if he knew anything about it.
“I’ll make some calls.” He pulled his phone out, and I sank to the hood of my car while a sick realization hit me. She could get hurt because of me.
When we parked at my uncle’s, I shook my head to clear the memory and focus on the now. I glanced over at Sienna, who looked more annoyed than anything. Her fists had her skirt bunched up between her white knuckles.
“Hey,” I turned to face her and gently broke her hold on the fabric of her suffering skirt and twisted her to look at me, “whatever is going through your head right now, stop your thoughts. Don’t go there, at least until we know more, okay?”
She swallowed and took a deep breath and seemed to shake herself out of it. “I’m okay.” She flexed her fingers. “I’m just trying to follow what happened back there.”
“Me too.” I kissed her freezing hands and looked out the windshield at the greenery that covered about half of the stone manor in front of us. “Let’s go inside and wait for the others.”
“Okay.” She reached for the doorhand
le.
Buttoning my jacket, I held out my hand and took hers, then we started up the huge marble staircase. I didn’t have to worry about hiding who we were to each other here; this was our safe place. A place to conduct business. Anyone who might be a threat to us wouldn’t be leaving the property in one piece, anyway.
“Where are we?” She eyed the electric fences and the giant maze I had recently used with Stefano Coppola’s men. That reminded me, I should pay my new informant, Samuele, a visit soon.
“A place of business,” was all I offered.
She raised a skeptical eyebrow but didn’t press the issue.
“Elio,” my aunt caught us in the doorway, “what are you doing here?”
“Aunt Noemi, this is Sienna Giovanna, a friend of mine.” My aunt glanced quickly at me. I could see she was wondering if Sienna really was just a friend, or perhaps something more. The mere fact that I had brought her here would have raised her curiosity. I just smiled warmly and let the topic be.
“It’s lovely to meet you.” She held out her hand and welcomed Sienna to the house. My aunt had never met Sienna and knew nothing about our past. I tended to be very private, and I knew Aunt Noemi would welcome anyone I brought to meet her with open arms. If only because it didn’t happen often.
“We’re meeting some people here.”
“Oh? I didn’t get a call.” That would be strange to her; we always called in our visits. My Nonna, Greta, lived here full-time, and my aunt and uncle would often come and go between our two properties. It was our number one rule to call ahead. I filled her in as best as I could as we drew further inside.