Out of Bondage

by Jamila Jasper

  * * *

  “Yes, you are,” Nico replied, “But you came too close to danger. As my wife, my duty is to protect you, not to fling you into harm’s way.”

  * * *

  “You did everything that you could,” Eve said, “And I’m here.”

  * * *

  She squeezed Nico’s arms as if to confirm she was really present. Her husbands eyes gazed at her in a mixture of love and confirm. They could both feel the tension on their relationship, not just because this was difficult but because in some ways, the possible end to their relationship was out of their hands.

  * * *

  They face the question every couple faces at some point in their lives: What am I going to do if something happens to you? Will I be a good parent? Will I be able to survive this without you?

  * * *

  And the truth was, neither knew the answer to those questions. As such, they were both compelled to make it out of this alive and survive Luca and Giuseppe Riccardi’s madness. Survival was imperative not just for their own lives or their son’s life, but for their relationship and the life they’d planned together.

  * * *

  “Soon Edoardo will have answers,” Nico said, “And then we’ll talk.”

  * * *

  “Why are you brothers so well connected?”

  * * *

  Nico shrugged, “You get good at making friends when you grew up the way I did.”

  * * *

  Eve stroked her husband’s arms and drew him in for a hug again.

  * * *

  “And does it still hurt, Nico?” Eve asked him.

  * * *

  “Does what still hurt?”

  * * *

  “That they are your family and they treat you like this.”

  * * *

  Nico shook his head. Long ago, he had pleaded for answers about his brother and father. He’d never received them. He had always been slated to be the black sheep. It was as if he had slipped neatly into his mother’s role from the moment she’d died. He possessed much of her temperament and that seemed to make him an easy target to the rest of his family.

  * * *

  Nico had never understood why his father and brother were like this. He’d lost plenty of loved ones in pursuit of that question. Now that he had Eve, the African American girl that had changed his mind and his heart about loving again, the last people Nico cared about were his family members.

  .

  He wanted love. He wanted to raise his beautiful son. And he wanted to spend all his days in bliss with the gorgeous wife that had made all of this possible.

  * * *

  “No Eve,” Nico finally answered, “It doesn’t bother me. I don’t look to my family for love anymore. And after all they’ve done for me, I must still finally put an end to it.”

  * * *

  Eve tiptoed upwards and kissed Nico’s lips. They shared a long slow kiss that threatened to wipe all their negative memories from the day that had just passed. The sun was beginning her slow journey towards setting and a kiss between lovers was just the thing to close out a traumatizing day.

  * * *

  Edoardo emerged from the house looking satisfied.

  * * *

  “Finally,” He announced, “One of my contacts pulled through.”

  * * *

  “We’ve got somewhere?”

  * * *

  Edoardo nodded, “For now we do.”

  * * *

  “Great. Let’s get out of here.”

  * * *

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay the night?” Edoardo asked, “The rental lasts until tomorrow.”

  * * *

  “No,” Eve asserted, “I think it’s best if we just hit the road.”

  * * *

  “Signora, let us leave then,” Edoardo said with a smile.

  * * *

  They all got into the car together. Eve enjoyed the spacious backseat alone again while she watched the two half-brothers enter the front seats together. This time Nico drove. Edoardo had explained the directions to him in Italian. Already, Eve could feel her Italian getting better. Edoardo and Nico’s conversations were no longer totally mystifying.

  * * *

  Soon, Eve wondered if she’d be fluent and her son would be raised in a truly bilingual household. The thought pulled her out of the world of high speed chases and fighting for her life.

  * * *

  Eve didn’t snap out of it until they were getting close to the destination. The roads started to seem less developed and it became clear that they had traveled deep into the countryside. The houses started to get further and further apart. Eve realized that some of the houses were farmhouses and that was likely where they’d be staying this time.

  * * *

  She was right. Edoardo pulled the car into an updated former farmhouse’s parking lot. No animals lived there now and it was clear the home had been redone to become more of a guesthouse than a fully functioning farm.

  * * *

  “This is the place?” Eve confirmed.

  * * *

  “Si,” Edoardo replied.

  * * *

  Edoardo looked around the front door as they stood outside of it and saw a large black urn, filled with dirt.

  * * *

  “Nico I’ll need your help.”

  * * *

  Nico moved to the other side of the urn and Edoardo helped him scrape it across the ground, revealing a large key.

  * * *

  “There we go,” Edoardo muttered.

  * * *

  He picked the key up off the ground and opened the door. The guesthouse/farmhouse smelled musty and old. And it was getting too late for them to begin airing it out — not without leaving themselves vulnerable again.

  * * *

  “How the hell did you find this place?” Eve asked, letting out a cough as a lungful of dust made its way up her nostrils.

  * * *

  “Contacts. Crazy ex-military assholes always have off the grid bunkers like this for when they get too paranoid and stop trusting the state completely.”

  * * *

  “Of course,” Eve muttered.

  * * *

  “Listen,” Edoardo said, “I know it’s not much but we’ll try to be out of here soon.”

  * * *

  “Fine by me,” Eve asked, “How are we going to eat?”

  * * *

  Edoardo pointed north west, “There’s a small café up the road downtown. I’ve been through here before. I’ll head up in the morning to get us some grub.”

  * * *

  “And tonight?”

  * * *

  “There’s canned soup in the trunk,” Nico offered.

  * * *

  “I guess that will have to do.”

  * * *

  Eve prepared the canned soup for all of them. They ate in relative quiet. The day had been exhausting and the end result of their mission had discouraged the group. Eve felt further away from Matteo and the longer she spent away from her son and the more dangerous everything grew, the angrier she became. Eve had cracked open a part of her soul that she didn’t know existed.

  * * *

  Her desire to get revenge on her husband’s twin had deepened. They’d tried the legal route and nothing had become of it. Eve knew it was against her nature but everything that had happened to her had changed her.

  * * *

  Where had being good gotten her? She was still here, in Italy, on the run from criminals. If the justice system worked, they would have been behind bars long ago. Eve knew that Nico didn’t like it when she talked this way. He didn’t want to think that she was different. And worse, he didn’t want to think about the fact that he’d made her different.

  * * *

  But Eve thought it was foolish to deny that he’d changed her. Of course he’d changed her. Love changed people whether you wanted it to or not. And through love, Eve had learned how to be fierce and how to fight for w
hat was hers.

  * * *

  Edoardo tried weakly to begin planning again but it was clear that no good ideas would come to fruition without a good night’s sleep. Eve doubted that she could get to sleep, but she knew that both Edoardo and Nico had mastered the art of sleeping through their terrors. Edoardo washed up dishes and then head outside for another cigarette.

  * * *

  Quitting on the run wasn’t working out for him.

  * * *

  Nico led Eve upstairs to their bedroom where they sat back in bed and just took in the events of the day for a moment. They were quiet for a long time to the point where every sound Edoardo made was clearly audible to them. They heard him come in from his cigarette. They heard him praying softly downstairs (Eve didn't know to which God he prayed to). They heard the floorboards creak as he went upstairs and the sound of the shower.

  * * *

  They only spoke to each other once they heard Edoardo enter his own bedroom and start talking on the phone to Martina who was hours behind them and thousands of miles away.

  * * *

  “I’m glad you were safe today,” Nico said, turning to face his wife.

  * * *

  Eve saw the gravitas in his blue eyes — his fear and worry that somehow, all of this would kill her.

  * * *

  “I’m glad too Nico, but this isn’t over yet.”

  * * *

  Nico’s brow furrowed, “It could be. I should just send you on a flight out of here and get you away from all of this mess. It isn’t right to have you here.”

  Eve chuckled.

  * * *

  “Nico,” She started, “I make my own choices. Even if you wanted me to leave right now, I wouldn’t. Matteo is safest without me and we’re already here together. We’re going to handle this together.”

  * * *

  “Hmph,” Nico grunted with displeasure.

  * * *

  “Hmph all you want,” Eve said, “Back in high school we called that being a ‘ride or die chick’.”

  * * *

  Nico seemed to have never heard the phrase before.

  * * *

  “Ride or die?” He repeated with concern.

  * * *

  Eve chuckled. These moments when the cultural differences between herself and her husband made their way to the foreground were often amusing.

  * * *

  “Yes,” Eve explained, “It means that we ride together or we die together, but at least we’re together. Nothing will tear us apart, not even your brother.”

  * * *

  Nico’s brow furrowed even more, “I despise hearing you talk like this. I won’t allow you to die, not on my behalf.”

  * * *

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Eve clicked her teeth, “I make my own choices Nico.”

  * * *

  “You’re insufferable, woman,” He grumbled.

  * * *

  “Well I think that’s why you love me,” Eve teased.

  * * *

  She trailed her fingers up and down the length of Nico’s arm, lingering on his massive biceps to give them a tight squeeze. They had to take these few moments of intimacy when they came. Their wedding had come and gone; the event itself felt a million lightyears away. The fires of their love were still broiling beneath the surface and ready to erupt at any opportunity.

  * * *

  Nico nodded, “I think you’re right Signora Riccardi. I always did have a thing for trouble.”

  * * *

  The two giggled, breaking the tension between them for a moment. Nico still resented Eve speaking in such a manner as if her life were expendable to him. He wasn’t going to allow her to get into trouble any longer. If they had to find another way to use the law to solve the problem of his twin brother, they would. This time, Nico refused to go back to the way he’d always done things.

  * * *

  Eve had changed him; wasn’t that what she’d wanted? She’d wanted him to not always jump to violence. She’d wanted him to put his family first. As soon as he’d done that, she’d gained unmitigated eagerness to jump into the crocodile’s jaws.

  * * *

  “What are you thinking about?” Eve asked him.

  * * *

  Her fingers kept up their repetitive motion against his arm. He felt his desire to kiss her mounting in his chest.

  * * *

  “I’m thinking about you, my love,” Nico whispered.

  * * *

  He tilted his head forward and kissed Eve on the lips. She closed her eyes and kissed him back, tugging gently on his lower lip as he pulled away in a subtle attempt to beg for more intimacy.

  * * *

  “Mm, you liked that didn’t you,” Nico suggested.

  * * *

  Eve nodded and closed her eyes to lean in for another kiss. This kiss was rougher and faster. Nico plunged his tongue into her mouth, surprising her with the depth of his passion. Eve clutched Nico’s cheek, grazing her palms along the stubble of his angular jawline.

  * * *

  Love. This was love. It didn’t matter how much they disagreed with each other. At the end of the day they could climb into bed together and shower each other with kisses and other such displays of their potent intimacy.

  * * *

  Nico climbed on top of Eve and she wrapped her legs around him. He pressed his body into hers and they just lay there kissing each other. Eve ran her hands through Nico’s thick brown hair that had grown even longer since the wedding. His blue eyes glistened with the peculiar mixture of exhaustion and desire.

  * * *

  Everything that was going on around them meant the tension they needed to work off was at an all time high.

  * * *

  “Everything will be okay babe,” Nico whispered into Eve’s ears.

  * * *

  “Mm,” She mumbled, “Let’s hope so.”

  * * *

  Nico kissed her again. He didn’t want to hope that things would be alright. He needed both of them to trust in that simple fact. If they didn’t, then they would have nothing gluing them together here.

  * * *

  “Shh,” Nico whispered, “Just kiss me and stop thinking of tomorrow.”

  * * *

  Eve was pleased to oblige. She kissed her husband again and again until she could feel his hardness thickening in his pants and pressing against her body. Nico had become revved up quickly. His desire for Eve’s body had risen to a fever pitch. He craved watching her bosoms heave with each kiss. He hungered to watch his massive hardness disappear between her slick pussy lips. He needed to hear her moans pulsating through the walls of the house. And finally, Nico needed to empty his seed inside her.

  * * *

  The timing might have seemed horrible, but nine months from now, Nico hoped and prayed they’d be ready to handle a second child. They both wanted it and they’d been trying and trying. Tonight, Nico knew it would be the night. He could feel virile energy pumping through his veins, directly to his bulging staff. He knew that tonight when he erupted and coated Eve with his seed, they would be conceiving another beautiful biracial Italian baby.

  * * *

  “Take your clothes off,” Nico growled.

  * * *

  Eve was more than happy to oblige him. She stripped off her pants and underwear first, exposing her slick, hairless pussy to Nico. His cock stiffened as he watched her flowery scented wetness. Eve removed her shirt and Nico ogled her chest as she unclasped her bra and let her dark, sepia toned bosom swing into view. Eve’s blackberry colored nipples were hard and begging for Nico to plant his lips on them.

  * * *

  “Please…” Eve muttered as she saw him staring, almost uncertain of where to start with her.

  * * *

  Nico clasped his arms behind her back and pulled her breasts towards his mouth. He bent his head and flicked his tongue across her nipple a couple of times, as if he were testing the waters. Eve whimpered as his tongue flicked ac
ross a sensitive part of her breasts. Nico placed her entire nipple in his mouth and sucked hard. Eve whimpered again.