by Cora Reilly
After our hike, I headed into the kitchen to see if we had something I could turn into a proper lunch, but Nino and I had forgotten to go grocery shopping.
The kitchen door swung open, and glancing over my shoulder I saw Remo stepping inside. I closed the fridge, considering what to say that wouldn’t lead to a fight, so I said the first thing that crossed my mind. “We need to go grocery shopping. We have nothing for lunch.”
Remo raised his eyebrows, amused that I thought that was his business. “Then order something.”
“How’s Serafina doing?” I asked pointedly.
Remo smiled twistedly and came toward me. “I didn’t know Nino had turned into such a gossip.”
“I hope you treated her right.”
Remo leaned down so we were eye-level. “If you want to know details about my fucking then you’ll have to share too. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” His smile widened at the look on my face. “No? Then what I do with Serafina is none of your business.”
He stalked toward the door. “If you order food, order something for me as well.”
I grabbed a flyer for a new sushi restaurant and ordered enough to feed everyone in the house. Then I headed into the communal space. Nino sat on the couch, talking to someone on the phone.
“We have it under control. A truce doesn’t entitle you to meddle in our matters. Mind your own business, and rest assured Cavallaro won’t bother attacking your territory in the near future.” Nino paused. “Why?”
I stopped at the underlying warning in his voice. His eyes settled on me. “I’ll ask her.” He lowered the phone. “Luca wants a word with you.”
I was surprised. Luca and I had never been close. He was Capo and a scary man, not to mention that we had plenty of cousins. Swallowing, I nodded and took the phone from Nino. “Hello Luca?”
“Kiara, how are you?”
“Didn’t Cassio keep you updated? I assumed he reported whenever I talked to Giulia on the phone.” My cousin’s husband was Luca’s trusted Underboss, so it was highly unlikely that parts of our conversations, at least, wouldn’t reach Luca’s ear.
Silence. My words had been on the verge of insolent, nothing a man like Luca usually tolerated, but I resisted the urge to apologize. Nino and Remo wouldn’t approve of me submitting to the Famiglia Capo.
“I’m aware that you seem to be doing fine in Camorra territory,” Luca said tightly. “Of course, I asked for updates. The Falcones are...difficult.”
“Did you only want to ask for my wellbeing? I’m doing fine.”
“The recent development with Dante’s niece has been unsettling. It raised new worries.”
“I’m not going to tell you any details about Serafina. Remo and Nino know what they’re doing.”
“Loyal,” Luca said with a dry laugh. “That’s not why I wanted a word with you. I want you to know that the Famiglia will always take you in, if you need protection. I failed you once, but this time you should come to me if something’s the matter. Call Giulia and she’ll inform me in case you need to be discreet.”
“Thank you, but that won’t be necessary.”
“Maybe you’re right, but you should know.”
“Do you want to talk to Nino again?”
“No, everything’s said. Goodbye, Kiara.” He hung up and I lowered the phone, still surprised. It had almost sounded as if Luca felt guilty for what had happened to me, which wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t have known.
Nino took his cell from me, frowning with suspicion. “What did Luca want? He tends to forget the borders of his territory.”
“He told me I could return to the Famiglia if I needed to escape the Camorra. He told me the Famiglia would protect me.”
“You are part of the Camorra now,” Nino said tightly.
“I am, and this is my home.”
Nino relaxed slightly. Did he really think I’d ever consider returning to the Famiglia?
The bell rang.
“I ordered sushi for us,” I explained.
Nino glanced down at his phone to check the camera at the gate then nodded and headed for the door. “I’ll get it.”
He returned, carrying three bags and raised a curious eyebrow.
“I ordered for all of us. Our fridge is empty.”
Nino set everything down in the center of the gaming room table. “I’ll see if I can find Remo, will you look for Adamo and Savio?”
With a nod and smile, I headed toward Adamo’s part of the house. I hadn’t been there before, but it was slightly smaller than the other three and all except for one door were open and empty. I headed for that one and knocked. Nothing happened for several moments until finally Adamo opened the door. A plume of smoke wafted toward me and I coughed. Adamo was only in sweatpants, his hair tousled. I took in the mess behind him. Bottles and dirty clothes on the floor. Only a narrow path led from the bed to the desk and to the door. “Oh, Kiara, hey,” he mumbled.
“If you want, I can clean your room for you,” I said without thinking.
Adamo glanced over his shoulder and rubbed his neck, considering my suggestion. He shook his head and gave a sheepish smile. “Nah, it’s fine.”
That didn’t look fine to me, but it wasn’t my business.
“I ordered sushi for lunch. If you come down, we can all eat together.”
“I’ll get dressed then come down.”
Tearing my eyes from the mess, I turned and headed to Savio’s wing. For some reason I was more nervous to enter his territory because I had a feeling he was more private than Adamo, and I was worried about the state his room would be in. If it was worse than Adamo’s place then I’d ask Nino to send pest control.
It wasn’t difficult to find Savio. The door to his room was open and he hung head-down from a bar he’d attached in the doorframe, doing crunches. He stopped mid-air when he noticed me, then finished two more reps before he gripped the bar and swung himself down. Like Adamo he was only wearing sweatpants. I really didn’t understand what it was with the Falcone brothers and their aversion to wearing shirts.
“Booty call?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow as he reached for a weight sack and squeezed it between his knees before he began doing pull-ups at the bar.
“You wish,” I said with a laugh, trying not to stare at all the display of nakedness and muscle.
“No, trust me, you wish.”
I shook my head at his arrogance. Relief filled me when I saw the room behind him was impeccably clean, and everything was white and beige—stylish.
“Are you looking for something?” Savio grunted out between pull-ups.
“I’m just relieved your room is cleaner than Adamo’s.”
Savio scoffed. “That’s not difficult. He lives in a fucking dump.”
I really couldn’t defend Adamo in this case.
“I got sushi for all of us.”
Savio dropped the weight and lowered himself to his feet, reaching for a towel on the ground. “What kind?”
“The kind you’ll like,” I said with a teasing smile.
Savio rolled his eyes. “That means only greens, right?”
I gave a small shrug, turned and headed back down. If they didn’t order their own food, they’d have to live with my vegetarian choices or starve.
When I entered the gaming room, Nino and Remo sat on the couch and I sank down beside Nino. Scanning the sushi boxes, I picked up one and set it off to the side.
“Are you trying to bribe Serafina with sushi so she’ll spill the beans?” Remo said. He was in a strange mood.
“Feeding her is not bribing.”
Adamo and Savio joined us in that moment, both still without shirts. I shook my head. They plopped down on the sofa across from us and reached for the chopsticks and boxes without a word.
“How about you leave the boxes in the middle so we can all share?” Remo snarled.
I chanced a glance at him.
“Considering that you got into the bitch’s pants, you’re in a shitty
mood,” Savio said.
Remo’s face flashed with anger. “That’s the fucking last time you call her bitch, got it?”
Savio raised one eyebrow and even Adamo froze with his chopsticks against his lips. I looked at Nino who was frowning at his brother.
We’d all heard it. That was protectiveness in Remo’s voice.
“Come on, she earned the name,” Savio said.
Remo rose, his body shaking with barely restrained fury. What had gotten into him?
“What?” Savio said. “Now you want to hit me because of a woman? She’s your captive and the enemy—or did she get under your skin?”
Remo gave a twisted grin. “As if that’s ever going to happen. You just piss me off.” He sank back down as if he hadn’t been on the verge of attacking Savio a moment ago.
I snatched up an avocado maki and pushed it into my mouth while the men pounced on the California rolls and summer rolls. I kept sneaking at look at Remo, trying to figure out what had gotten into him, but attempting to glimpse behind his mask was bound to fail.
Nino and I settled at my piano in the afternoon to play together. It had become a ritual I enjoyed tremendously, and something we tried to incorporate into our daily routines.
Nino started playing a soft tune, barely audible, frowning in concentration. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was trying to focus on the music or make sense of his emotions. I leaned my head against his arm, listening to the melody he created. I loved listening to Nino, because his music always reflected the feelings he couldn’t understand or was unable to express. The music flowed louder, an uneven staccato. It filled my body, engulfed my heart, every fiber until my pulse sped up, living what the melody tried to convey. “Are you worried about Remo?” I whispered.
Nino regarded his fingers on the keys with a calculating expression, as if he didn’t trust them to show his true feelings. “Remo is too emotional. He lets whatever he feels consume him. He and Adamo are similar in that regard. Until now Remo mostly thrived on anger and hatred ... whatever connects him to Serafina, it can’t persist and I worry that it’ll tip him over.”
“Remo’s got you,” I said, propping my chin up on Nino’s shoulder. The frown eased. Nino and Remo had survived so much together, they’d get through this as well.
I grinned when I saw the set-up in the living area in our wing. Nino had bought a TV and set it up across from the sofa. The small table was loaded with dips, chips, veggie sticks, sushi and Leona’s favorite cupcakes—raspberry with a cream cheese frosting.
The bell rang out in the main part of the house. I hurried toward the gaming room and when I arrived, Fabiano and Leona were already waiting. The men would be watching fights and races while Leona and I would have some girl time. I hugged her and she smiled, looking as excited as I felt. With a wave, we left the men to their own devices.
“I hope you had a wonderful birthday yesterday?” I asked. I’d sent Leona a text, congratulating her from Nino and me, and today was our evening to celebrate a bit.
“Fabiano and I had a late breakfast in a cute café not too far from our apartment, and in the evening, we drove to our favorite stop and had a picnic there. It was really romantic.”
I grinned, then pointed at her necklace, a beautiful gold chain with a diamond pendant. “Fabiano’s gift?”
She touched the necklace and bit her lip. “Yeah. I bet it cost a fortune. How am I going to compete with that for his birthday in November?”
“Fabiano doesn’t expect you to buy him anything expensive.”
She shrugged. “I know. He gave me a card for his bank account, but I always feel strange using it. Though it doesn’t even matter anymore. Fabiano’s paying so much for college and for everything else. I can never pay him back.”
“He doesn’t want the money back. He wants you.”
Leona flushed and didn’t say anything. Then she saw the cupcakes. “You baked my favorites?”
“I hope you’ll like them. It’s the first time I tried this recipe. The frosting I tasted was delicious.”
We settled on the sofa, shoulder against shoulder, and I turned the TV on. “I chose Jane Eyre, The Devil Wears Prada and After You.”
“That’s so great. I don’t even remember the last time I watched a romantic movie. Fabiano hates them and refuses to watch them with me no matter how much I beg him.”
“I never ask Nino to watch them with me,” I said with a giggle, taking a piece of sushi. “He doesn’t really like fiction or movies. He prefers documentaries and that sort of thing.”
“With him I get it. He wouldn’t really understand all the emotional stuff, but Fabiano could if he wanted to.”
I shrugged. I hadn’t told Leona about Nino’s recent development, about how he’d told me he loved me and meant it, how he didn’t have to simulate emotion for me anymore. It seemed like such a personal thing that sharing it would have felt like betrayal.
Leona dipped a carrot stick in the sweet potato hummus I’d made, then her gaze went to the ceiling as if she was looking at something above us. “It feels weird that we have a girl’s night while another girl is locked up in Remo’s bedroom somewhere on the upper floor.”
“She’s got her own bedroom,” I said, as if that made things better.
Leona raised an eyebrow and we both started laughing. Leona covered her eyes, shaking her head and her smile fell. “I really can’t believe this is reality. My life’s always been different but now it’s reached a new level of weird.”
I sobered. “I know. But Serafina is well, considering everything that’s going on. I wish she could be down here with us, but Remo and Nino would never allow it.”
Leona nodded. “Fabiano warned me not to talk to Remo about it. He says his Capo is a bit tense at the moment.”
“He is. Things with Serafina are complicated.”
Leona tilted her head, regarding me with a confused look. “Complicated how?”
I bit my lip. “I don’t know. I think there might be feelings involved on both sides.”
Leona choked. “You think Remo Falcone has feelings for a woman?”
I reached for the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc Nino had opened for me and poured both Leona and me a generous amount. Leona didn’t know Remo as well as I did—not that I really knew him. “Maybe I’m wrong, but ... just forget it. Let’s not talk about it.” I raised my glass and Leona clinked hers against mine.
I turned on the TV. My own eyes occasionally strayed to the ceiling, wondering what Serafina was doing and feeling guilty, but eventually the amount of alcohol that Leona and I consumed made me forget everything else.
I wasn’t sure what time it was when Nino and Fabiano walked into the room. Leona and I still sat shoulder against shoulder, temple against temple, hardly able to hold our glasses. The Devil Wears Prada was running on the screen but I barely noticed anything, too drunk. Two empty wine bottles littered the table.
Nino and Fabiano exchanged a look before moving over to us. Nino picked up the remote from the floor where I’d dropped it half an hour ago but couldn’t retrieve it because my head swam the second I looked down. He turned off the TV while Fabiano tried to get Leona into a standing position. He gave up eventually and lifted her into his arms. With a smile at me and a nod toward Nino, he carried her out. Leona gave a small wave before she closed her eyes with a sick look.
Nino sank down beside me and gently pried the wine glass from my hand before he tipped my head up and scanned my face. I grinned, couldn’t help it.
“How much have you had?”
I nodded toward the empty bottles then groaned when my vision swam.
Nino touched my forehead then got up. “Wait here. Don’t move. I’ll get you some Coke to drink. It might help.”
“Don’t go,” I slurred.
Nino hesitated, then he unscrewed one of the water bottles we’d ignored and held it out to me. I only stared, too tired to even lift my arm. Nino hunched before me and brought the bottle to my lips. “Small
sips. I don’t want you to choke.”
I did as he asked, all the while watching his serene beautiful face. “In the beginning, your beauty almost terrified me. All that cold beauty, and the tattoos...it was almost too much to take in.”
With a small, amused smile Nino lowered the bottle. “You’ve drunk too much. I need to get you into bed.”
“I mean it.” I fumbled with the buttons of his shirt and finally got a few undone. “This one, it terrified me in the beginning.” I pointed at the skull swallowing the blade. “And the one on your back...that one too.”
“A phoenix rising from the flames is something positive, isn’t it?” Nino asked curiously.
“Show me.”
“You’ve seen it many times,” Nino said gently.
“Show me.”
He stood and unbuttoned his shirt then shrugged it off before turning around.
I stumbled to my feet and had to grip Nino’s hips to steady myself. “Now I think it’s beautiful.” I traced the intricate orange feathers of the fantastic bird, its parted beak, his fierce dark eyes, the talons dripping with red. Part of the tattoo disappeared into Nino’s waistband. I reached around and tried to unbutton his pants, but failed with my unsteady fingers. Nino’s hands came to my help and finally I could pull it down, revealing the long burning tail of the phoenix and the angry flames he’d escaped. They covered his ass cheeks. I swallowed thickly as I traced Nino’s muscles, the way they seemed to make his tattoos come to life when he shifted. My hands ghosted over every inch of his back then over his firm ass. Pressing closer, I kissed Nino’s shoulder blade then reached around, touching his chest, then lower until my hand curled around his erection.
I released a low breath, my forehead pressing against Nino’s skin as I pumped him. His breathing deepened and his familiar musky scent sent a wave of desire through my drunken haze. He turned slowly, leaving me no choice but to release him. I let myself drop back down on the couch, bringing me eye-level with his length.
Nino’s chest heaved as I leaned forward and took him into my mouth. Any hesitance evaporated from his face and gradually he began to thrust lightly into my mouth, never taking his eyes off me. Neither could I take mine off him, the way his abs flexed with every shift of his hips, his intense expression. I didn’t think I’d ever grow tired of admiring this man.