* * *
Stepping into Nico’s apartment, Eve was struck by how pristine everything was. There was the fresh scent of bleach everywhere and the mildest whiff of vinegar. Not a thing was out of place in Nico’s cozy, Italian abode. Nico locked the door behind them and pressed a button that must have been on his keys or something. Every open window shade in the house closed and they were enveloped in darkness.
* * *
Nico flicked on a warm yellow light that gave the room a comfortable clean glow of a café. Nico led Eve to the couch and then motioned to her bag.
* * *
“I’ll take this upstairs… I have a guest room.”
* * *
Eve nodded, appreciating that Nico wasn’t so presumptuous as to assume they’d be heading to bed together. She heard his feet climb the stairs slowly and then heard her bag thud to the ground overhead. Nico seemed to be checking each of the rooms upstairs before returning downstairs to where Eve sat.
* * *
“Should I take a look at that bruise again?” He asked.
* * *
Eve nodded. Nico hiked up her blue dress and observed the bruise on her leg under the light’s warm glow. The purple seemed deeper and there was even some yellow forming around it.
* * *
“You bruise quick.”
* * *
“Don’t think I’ve ever seen a bruise on my skin before.”
* * *
“Goodness…”
* * *
Nico’s hands grazed the bruise and Eve shuddered again.
* * *
“Should I put anything on it?”
* * *
“Just try to take it easy. It will be fine. I could kill those bastards for what they did to you.”
* * *
Eve stopped herself from saying, “Well, you might have killed ‘em.”
* * *
“Water?” Nico offered.
* * *
“Yes, please.”
* * *
Nico got her water and then sat next to her.
* * *
“I’m sorry for not telling you about my father.”
* * *
“It’s fine. You don’t owe me anything.”
* * *
“But I do… You’ve given me… a new interest in life.”
* * *
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
* * *
“You remind me that there’s life outside of all of this.”
* * *
“Outside of crime?”
* * *
“Outside of my family… The Riccardi’s claim to be very loyal people but when it comes down to it, that loyalty is more like oppression.”
* * *
“So what? If you could change things, you’d never pick up a gun? You’d never…”
* * *
Eve trailed off when she realized that she had no clue just how far Nico had gone. She believed everything he’d said about his brother, but what if there was still more. What if Nico had more beneath the surface — and what if it was more sinister?
* * *
Nico seemed to see the question written all over her face.
* * *
“Ask me what you’d like to ask me Eve.”
* * *
“I… I feel like it’s rude.”
* * *
“I promise you, I will not be offended. I just want to know what you are thinking. I want to quiet any fears you may have about me…”
* * *
“I want the truth! I want to know how far you’ve gone for your father,” Eve blurted out.
* * *
She expected Nico to change his mind and clam right up. Instead, he seemed willing to share with her. Nico opened up his stance and prefaced his honesty, “I want you to try to reserve judgment from me alright? Remember that I grew up in a life that you couldn’t begin to understand…”
* * *
“Just tell me. I’ll listen,” Eve said softly.
* * *
“I started working for my father when I was ten. It was odd jobs. I’d collect money from people, I’d deliver packages, I’d do small things. He kept me in the dark about what I was doing. I figured out later that I was selling drugs for him or helping him move counterfeit bills — things like that.”
* * *
Nico took a deep breath in.
* * *
“Luca did the same thing except I think he knew. He’d extort men for more money and pocket it,” Nico grinned as he remembered his brother’s misbehavior. Eve couldn’t put her finger on why.
* * *
Nico continued, “When we were older, we led small groups of teenagers. We recruited, we threatened, we fought. And there was still drugs. A lot of drugs. I never touched any of ‘em myself, but I sold to people who I shouldn’t have sold to…”
* * *
Eve realized that her eyes had widened considerably. Her childhood had been pleasantly mundane compared to this. Before she’d gotten to know Nico, she would have judged him for this. But Eve could see the sorrow in his eyes. She could see that at one point, he’d really found this all normal, but he knew a better way now.
* * *
“I’m not proud of this,” Nico interjected.
* * *
“I know.”
* * *
He continued, “But it got worse. Fights. Violence. School became harder. I had to do crazy things just to finish. And my father always wanted more from us. I knew that he’d sent Luca to kill on his behalf, but he’d never sent me. I think a part of him knew my limits…”
* * *
“So the only time you’ve killed… was…”
* * *
Nico sensed her hesitation.
* * *
“No, he’s not the only person I’ve killed Eve. I’m sorry but… my life has been fucked up. It’s been beyond fucked up. You don’t want to hear any of this.”
* * *
“Wait!” Eve said, resting her hand on his arm, “I do want to hear it. If I’m going to believe that you want to become a better person, I’m going to make sure I can hear it in your voice.”
* * *
“Of course I want to be better. You think I like living like this? Always running?”
* * *
“Then prove it to me. Tell me what else you’ve done Nico.”
* * *
He hesitated, trying to postpone speaking for as long as possible. Eve could tell that he was still afraid of how she’d respond. He still worried that she’d leave him if she knew who he really was. But the truth was, Eve wasn’t afraid. She knew that she was in the right place at the right time. This was where she was meant to be, listening to Nico tell his tale.
* * *
“I’ve killed two other men. One was a couple months before I left Italy. He threatened to betray my purpose to my father. It was rash… But I needed to protect him. And the other was… He was my ex-girlfriend’s abuser.”
* * *
Eve’s eyes were still opened wide. Technically, Nico was a murderer. Hell, he even had a body count. But it was in the past. It had to be all in the past.
* * *
“No one since Luca?”
* * *
“No. I’m not some cold-blooded killer you know.”
* * *
“I know.”
* * *
“I want to get out of this life Eve. Before I met you, I couldn’t see a way out.”
* * *
“Can you see a way out now?”
* * *
“Run away with me.”
* * *
“Very funny.”
* * *
Nico just smiled.
* * *
“I’m sure I’ll see a way out of it soon,” He replied.
* * *
His hands clutched Eve’s. She could feel the clamminess in his palms. She could sense that Nico really did hate being on the ru
n and he hated the way his demons had followed him all the way across the Atlantic.
* * *
“I have more to show you Eve…” He whispered into her ears.
* * *
“Show me.”
* * *
Nico kissed her neck and then lifted his head upwards.
* * *
“Not yet. Can you be patient with me?”
* * *
“Yes, I can be patient.”
* * *
“Good.”
* * *
Nico kissed her lips. Eve closed her eyes and for a brief instant she forgot the immense pain in her thigh. She forgot that they wouldn’t have long before there was a manhunt against them. She forgot about her store and how vulnerable it was. She forgot about everything except Nico’s lips — and were his lips ever so sweet.
* * *
Eve pulled away from him and looked into his eyes. Icy blue, containing a globe’s worth of pain, suffering and a desire for freedom. In a way, they both wanted the same thing, a chance to escape.
* * *
Eve kissed Nico back, his words running through her head a second time. She considered that maybe he hadn’t been joking. Run away with me. Run away with me. Did he really want that, or was that just the fear talking? Eve ran her hands over his crotch as she considered an escape with Nico, and what that would truly mean.
* * *
Nico pulled away from her and whispered, “We can leave… We can leave if you just say ‘yes’ Eve…”
* * *
She didn’t reply and Eve had a feeling that Nico didn’t expect her to. He knew that he was asking a lot of her, almost too much. He knew that leaving would mean uprooting her whole life on the chance that he would change. He understood that Eve didn’t have much faith in men’s power to change.
* * *
“Come upstairs, let me show you the rest of the house,” Nico said.
* * *
Eve stood up; her legs still ached a bit but they were functional. Her fingers weaved through Nico’s and they walked around his house. The townhouse had a humble size, yet somehow each room oozed wealth. Nico had expensive furnishings — all of them looked like they’d been selected by a designer. It was just too put together to be the workings of a young bachelor on the run.
* * *
Once they were upstairs, Nico led Eve to her room. The small guest room had white walls and all white bedsheets with navy throw pillows. The white distressed dresser in the corner of the room had a solid gold ashtray on it and a small exposed-bulb lamp with a bulbous round bulb protruding from it.
* * *
Eve noticed her bag resting on a small white chair with navy cushions that matched the ones on the bed. The old-fashioned metal heater hissed quietly.
* * *
“Like it?”
* * *
“Yes. Thanks.”
* * *
“I think you should stay for a few nights if you need to. Come along, let me show you my room.”
* * *
They walked past a guest bathroom and then into the second bedroom upstairs. The first bedroom had been crisp and clean, but lacked personality. Nico’s bedroom was different. Eve entered his room and was struck by the coolness. He’d opted out of turning on the heater and his room felt almost as cold as the outdoors. His bed looked soft and inviting, with almost silvery-grey bedsheets and a large down comforter.
* * *
His bedside table was hardwood with a soft candle and a Bible resting atop it. Eve didn’t know why but she suddenly intuited — no, she knew — that in that top drawer, Nico had a firearm. The last thing on his bedside table was a small silver flask. Eve wondered how often he drank; she wondered if he drank to quiet the demons that had chased him across the Atlantic. It couldn’t be easy to lose a girlfriend and child. Even if it was a step-child. You still bonded.
* * *
There was a large armoire in one corner of Nico’s room. The armoire must have been old because the smell of old wood occupied the room just as strongly as the scent of sandalwood. Nico was a fan of burning either incense or essential oils because the cold air yielded a different scent from the rest of the house.
* * *
“Welcome to my humble abode.”
* * *
“The decor is lovely.”
* * *
“My friend’s wife sorted me out. She’s a designer.”
* * *
“She must have known your taste very well. This place is very… you.”
* * *
Nico smiled, “Ha. I wonder what that means.”
* * *
Eve shrugged.
* * *
“Maybe it doesn’t mean anything.”
* * *
“I have more to tell you,” Nico interrupted, changing the subject again.
* * *
Eve didn’t mind. She thirsted to know more about Nico. Any detail that helped her paint a picture of who he really was interested Eve.
* * *
“Go ahead.”
* * *
Nico sighed, “I have some of the diamonds. From the Carcanet.”
* * *
“Here?”
* * *
Nico nodded. He took Eve’s hand and thrust it into his pocket. She felt a smooth velvety bag with small pointed pebbles in it. Except they weren’t pebbles. They had been around since the 1200s and they were worth a lot of money. Eve’s hand darted out of Nico’s pocket almost as if she were afraid.
* * *
“Nico…”
* * *
“Once I handle Giuseppe, I will give you half of them — for your trouble.”
* * *
“Nico you don’t have to…”
* * *
“Yes, I do have to. Before you met me, you were just a girl with a shop. If you want to return to being a girl with a shop, this is the only way.”
* * *
“How much are they…” Eve trailed off.
* * *
“Don’t worry about how much they’re worth. You’ll find out when you’re ready, alright?”
* * *
“And until then.”
* * *
“Until then we lay low… I’ll have my boys working on a way to get you out of the city.”
* * *
“And what about you?”
* * *
Nico smiled, “I’ll take care of myself, just like I’ve always done.”
* * *
Eve found his response cryptic. For a fleeting moment she worried that Nico was on some kind of suicide mission. He didn’t care how this ended, as long as it did end. Eve knew that’s not what she wanted. She knew a part of her wanted to run away with him wherever he went. She just couldn’t say it. Not yet. Whatever doubt had lingered in her mind was too strong for her to just run away. It wasn’t that easy. It couldn’t be that easy.
* * *
Eve had wanted adventure, she’d wanted the kind of guy who could sweep her off her feet. But through the adventure she’d already been through, she realized she had a more important need for stability. She wanted to wake up on a morning and know that her man wasn’t lying dead in the streets or locked up in a jail cell. Eve needed to be sure that Nico really was going to leave the life of crime and murder. And if he did, how would they survive? How would they have money? How would they avoid getting sucked back into it all?
Mad Mafia Love Page 10