Omerta Book Two
Page 18
“What about Lorenza? What happens to her without a father?”
“She’s going to be reunited with Marietta.”
“I don’t understand? Is he going to give her back to them? Has he changed his mind? Is that why you are listening at my door and delivering his news?”
“That’s the point. It’s not for us to understand. It can’t be what we want Giovanni to do. It’s what he knows is best for us. No more calls to Lorenzo, and no more plotting against Gio. You have a baby coming. We have a family of our own to protect. And it took me years to understand that our family is only protected by our total faith in him. Let him end this his battle between him and Lorenzo his way. Okay?”
Catalina closed her eyes and tears slipped down her cheeks.
“What is it Catalina? Just tell me?”
“When I was a little girl I used to wonder what my father did that made so many people afraid of him, including my mother. He never said a mean word to me in all my life. He was just Patri. Now I’m a woman and I know who my father was.” She opened her eyes and looked at Mirabella. “I know who Giovanni is. And I know how this ends. What you are asking me to do is give up. Because that’s what you’re doing. Giovanni didn’t marry you so you could be silent. No matter what he says to you, Mirabella, he needs your voice. Just like my Patri needed my mother’s. I trust you. I wish you trusted yourself again. You are betraying Gio by standing up for what’s right. Saving Lorenzo and Marietta is the only way we save this family.”
Mirabella didn’t blink. She sat there as if nothing Catalina said registered. But Catalina hoped somewhere in Mirabella’s heart it did. She had to believe that they weren’t all monsters.
“Gio will need help. Someone to care for Lorenza on the trip,” Mirabella said.
“I know a young woman who can go with Gio to take care of Lorenza while he hunts for our brother and kill him. Okay? Happy? I’ll call her.”
Mirabella lifted Gino into her arms from her lap and stood. She walked toward the door and then paused. She looked back at Catalina who was hyperventilating and crying. Catalina looked up at Mirabella with a hand to her heart.
“I was listening at your door. I came to warn you, to tell you the truth. That’s all.”
“Don’t you feel anything for Marietta?”
Mirabella nodded. “I feel a lot of things. I feel everything. I’m not a monster. I’m only human.”
Catalina was aghast as she watched Mirabella leave and close the door behind her.
Houston, Texas
ABOVE THE RAMBUNCTIOUS noise of the house Shae heard her name being called. She’d just checked the two pot roasts and carrots she had baking. Feeding eleven hungry girls was an ordeal. But she was managing. She closed the oven door and listened again to be sure. Several girl’s laughter and singing along with the television could be heard.
“Miss Shaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeee! Telephone!”
“Okay! I go it,” she chuckled. “This is Shae?”
“Thank God,” a woman sighed.
“Excuse me? Who’s calling?”
“Shae? It’s me.”
Shae paused. Her heart raced so hard she felt a numbness spread through her chest as she uttered the word: “Marietta?”
Marietta laughed.
“Yes! It’s me girl.”
“I—how—?”
“How have you been?” Marietta gushed.
“Ah, um, fine, I guess.”
“Good. Good.”
An awkward pause cut through the conversation before Marietta spoke again.
“I guess you’re wondering why I haven’t called you in a while? It’s a crazy story.”
“I’ve been trying to reach you. Are you okay? The baby? Where are you? Not in Italy. They said you don’t live with the Battaglias—”
“They?”
“The media says you haven’t been seen since last summer. What the hell is going on? There are all kinds of tabloid stories about Mafia wars, and killings.”
“Slow down. I can’t answer all of your questions at once,” Marietta chuckled.
“This isn’t funny. I thought you—I thought the worse.”
“Last we talked I didn’t think you cared what happened to me,” Marietta said.
“Are you kidding me? You called me a whore.”
“I didn’t. I said we were both whores. Relationships didn’t last for us.”
“Oh go to hell. You said more than that and you know it. You told me it would never work with Carlo that I wasn’t wife material. You said— “
“Okay! Chill, geesh.”
“Where is he?” Shae asked. “Is he with you?”
“Yes.”
Relief rushed through Shae with the force similar to a surging tide. She put her hand to her chest. Melody walked into the kitchen carrying Jewel. Her baby girl nibbled on her teething ring content to ride on the young girls hip. Shae felt tears well in her eyes and tried to suppress them. They spilled despite her best effort. She covered the phone with her hand to block out her voice. “Take her out of here, now Melody.”
“Yes, Miss Shae,” the young girl said and left.
“I need to speak to him.”
“You can’t. He’s in trouble, Shae. He needs you.”
“Trouble? What happened? Who hurt him?”
“Giovanni Battaglia. Shae, he doesn’t know I’m calling you. We’re in danger. Serious danger.”
“I don’t understand. Why would Giovanni hurt you or Carlo?”
“We found out that Lorenzo is Giovanni’s brother not cousin. The first born of Tomosino Battaglia.”
“Why would that matter?”
“In their culture it does. Giovanni stole everything from Lorenzo. He should be the true heir to the Battaglia fortune. If everyone in the Mafia finds out the truth they will turn on Giovanni. It’s what Carlo did. He tried to help Lorenzo and me escape. He took a bullet for Lorenzo. Now we’re in Spain and we’re hiding from Giovanni.”
“Carlo was shot?”
“Yes.”
“Let me talk to him! Please!”
“No. I can’t. They don’t know I’m calling you. You know how Carlo is. He wouldn’t want you involved.”
“Why are you calling me?” Shae wiped the tears from her eyes.
“You need to come to Spain. You need to be here with him. He needs you, Shae. He loves you.”
“Let me talk to him. I must tell him. I need to tell him the truth.” Shae sniffed. “Please. Just put him on the phone.”
“What truth?”
“I need to talk to Carlo. He needs to hear it from me!”
“What truth, Shae?”
“You’ll know soon enough. Giovanni does,” Shae sighed. “I went to Sorrento to find Carlo a few months ago. He sent his men after me to force me to leave. I begged them to tell Carlo that I was pregnant.”
“Pregnant? Was?” Marietta stammered.
“Yes, it’s a miracle, girl. Turns out I didn’t have a hysterectomy!” Shae laughed through her tears. “Turns out I’m one stupid bitch, because my man is a healer and I let him go. I had a baby girl, Marietta. We have a daughter.”
“What is this? Are you working with the Battaglias? Is that it?” Marietta seethed. “You trying to set me up?”
“Huh?”
“You can’t have a baby. I had a baby girl. Not you!”
“Wait, what do you mean had? What is going on? Where is Carlo?”
“Fuck you, bitch!” Marietta said and hung up.
“Marietta! Marietta!” Shae yelled into the phone. Shae tried to star-69 the call. She couldn’t connect the line.
“Damn it!” she cried out in distress.
“Shae? What’s wrong?” Doris asked. She went to the oven and turned it off to keep the pot roasts from burning. Shae dropped against the wall weeping. Doris came over and took the phone from her hand. She held her up. “What is it? Tell me?”
“It’s Carlo. He’s been shot. Somewhere in Spain. Giovanni is trying to kill him. I
have to help him. This is a nightmare.”
“Shae? Stop. Listen!”
“I need to book a flight. Me and Jewel need to... go... I have to get to Spain. I have to find him.” She reached for the phone.
“Stop it!” Doris shoved her back into the wall. The force of the push snapped Shae out of her panic and she looked at Doris confused by the anger on her friend’s face.
“Do you hear yourself? Do you remember what those Battaglias told you when you went to Italy? Do you remember what you told me when you came back!”
Shae wiped her tears.
“You can’t help him. You have Jewel to protect. Would you really run out of here and chase a man who could harm your child and you? Would you? A man? After everything men have done to you? To those girls we rescue. A man! It’s not supposed to be this hard to love someone. And sure as hell isn’t supposed to be this dangerous!”
“He could die!”
“So could you and so could Jewel! You need to decide whose life means more? Hers or his?”
Doris shook her head in disgust. She backed away and then turned and left. Shae walked over to the kitchen table. She set the cordless phone down and pulled out a chair. Once seated the weight of it all crashed in on her again and she broke down in tears. Crying into her hands she remembered everything she loved about Carlo and she remembered everything she feared.
“Ms. Shae?” A soft voice spoke. A hand went to her shoulder. “Don’t cry. I heard Ms. Doris. She’s wrong. I can go to Spain with you and we can find him. Together.
Shae lowered her hands and looked up at Jilly. The sweet smile from her ward thawed Shae’s pain. She pulled Jilly down into a hug. “No, no, we won’t go. You and Jewel are whom we need to protect. That’s what Carlo would want. For us to be safe.”
“Is he going to be alright?” Jilly asked. “What about his wife?”
Shae paused. She looked at Jilly and then the phone. Marietta had told her some elaborate story of Giovanni hunting them. But when she gave birth she had learned that Carlo had taken a wife and the Battaglias were celebrating.
“She lied to me.”
“Who?” Jilly asked.
“Why would she call me and lie? Oh my God. She lied to me.”
“Who are you talking about, Ms. Shae?”
The shock of the phone call and the story about Lorenzo being an heir to the Battaglias threw Shae. She had forgotten about Carlo’s marriage.
“Wait a minute. She didn’t know. She didn’t know that Carlo is married? What the hell was Marietta trying to do?”
“I wish I understood but I don’t,” Jilly said. “Do you feel better?”
Shae stared at the phone. When she and Marietta were dancers they did their best to avoid prostitution and pimps. Being so young it wasn’t easy. The only way to keep the men off them was to be more useful to them as co-conspirators instead of whores. They set traps, and back then they called them ‘licks’. It was quick money by turning one monster against another. The hustle became addictive and Marietta was far better at it than Shae. So, she did most of them. Telling men what they wanted to hear to lure them into danger to be robbed or worse. Shae used to envy Marietta’s hustler gilded tongue. Hell, she could flip from English to Italian in a second and men were always addicted to her exotic beauty. It made her a deadly weapon against anyone she deemed an enemy.
The phone call was Marietta at her prime. She was laying a trap and she was going to use Shae as the bait. But why? What was going on with the Battaglias?
“Ms. Shae? I’m hungry,” Jilly said.
Shae smiled. She grabbed some paper towels from the table and dried her face. Doris was right. She had to protect her daughter. She had to let the Italians or Sicilians, or whomever they were go.
“Okay Jilly. Tell the girls to wash their hands. I’ll fix your plates.”
“But are you okay? Why were you crying?”
“I’m going to be fine. Because I have you and Jewel to take care of me.”
Jilly grinned. She nodded. Shae turned her pain inward and focused on what she could control— her girls.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
La Famiglia
Palermo, Sicily - Later that Night
MIRABELLA SAT UP. HER baby-girl, so tiny and needy, slept on her breast instead of in the bassinet next to her. And though the hour was late Mirabella secretly looked forward to the next feeding. It was the time reserved for just her and her child.
There was a soft knock to her bedroom door and then it slowly opened.
“Mama?” Eve whispered.
“Why are you still up?”
The door opened. Eve rushed into her room. She jumped on her mother’s bed and crawled over. “I couldn’t sleep. I miss Boo-Boo,” she said. “Papa is making her sleep downstairs because she keeps peeing in the bed and the staff told on me.”
“Come closer, sweetheart.” Mirabella opened her arm to her daughter. “We’re leaving in the morning and Boo-Boo can pee all she wants at home.”
Eve scooted in close to her mother. Mirabella helped her get under the covers.
“Where’s Papa?” Eve asked.
“Outside with your Uncles. He’ll be up here soon. Do you want to sleep with us?”
“Can I?” she looked up at Mirabella.
“Yes,” Mirabella said.
“Did Papa tell you. The new rules. We had a meeting to discuss them,” Eve said.
“I heard about this meeting. Papa says you are in charge of the kids. What you say goes?”
“Mmhmm, I’m boss,” Eve yawned. “I’m the boss of them and Papa is the boss of you.”
Mirabella chuckled. Her first born drifted in and out of comfort. She stroked Eve’s arm and let her stay as close as she wanted. “Eve?”
“Yes, Mama?”
“I know we have tutors that come to the house, and you do your studies. But I was thinking. Maybe we can start school again?”
“Really?” Eve sat up. “I can go back to school?”
“I’ll talk to Papa. I think it might be a good idea that you start as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, Mommy!” Eve leapt on her. She nearly crushed the baby. “Thank you so much, Mommy. I will love you forever if you do.”
“Your welcome, baby,” Mirabella smiled.
Giovanni walked in the bedroom. He paused at the sight of them.
“Papa! Say yes. Please! I will be the best daughter ever. I promise. I will be.”
“What is this?” he asked.
Eve stood up on bed. Giovanni walked over and sat to remove his shoes. Eve dropped on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck nearly choking him. He chuckled as he pulled off his socks. “What are you bargaining for now, lucciola?”
“School. I never get to go for long before I must stop and stay home. I make friends and I lose them. I want to go back. Please.”
Giovanni pulled Eve around from his back onto his lap. He gave Mirabella a questioning look from over his shoulder. Eve took her father’s face into her tiny hands. “Look at me, Papa. I want to go to school,” she said slowly. “I want to be friends with everybody. Okay? Say yes.”
Giovanni bumped his forehead to Eve’s. “You’re the boss.”
“Thank you, Papa! Thank you so much! I love you forever!” She hugged his neck. Giovanni tickled her and then flipped her over on to the bed. She crawled over to her mother and got under the covers.
“I didn’t know she wanted to go to school this bad?” Giovanni said.
“I think she’s just excited that you gave her what she wanted twice in two days.”
“How are my girls?”
“Happy Papa is here,” Mirabella said in a mockingly close imitation of Eve’s voice. She handed her over to Giovanni. He was very careful with her as he reclined in the bed and put her on his chest. Leeza squirmed and began to cry. He stroked her back gently and she soon settled on sucking her pacifier. Eve rolled into her mother’s arms so Mirabella could hold her.
“I take
it your meeting went well,” Mirabella asked.
“Things are better than well. It’s all falling into place.” He glanced over to Mirabella. “Are we okay?”
“We are. I’ve had time to think. I’m ready to take the kids back to Sorrento. To try to get our lives back to normal.”
“Where is Lorenza?”
“Sleeping with Zia Catalina,” Eve said.
Mirabella smiled. “The boys are with Zia, and Catalina took Lorenza. She’s grown very attached to her.”
“I see.”
“Also, she has found a young woman that will travel with you when you are ready.”
He reached over and touched Mirabella’s hand. “You still with me? We’re doing this together. Right?”
Mirabella nodded. “I’m at your side.”
“Your faith in me, means everything right now Bella. It’s kept me alive all this time.”
“I keep you alive!” Eve turned from her mother and looked at her father.
“Let Papa speak,” Giovanni said sternly.
“Yes, Papa,” she replied.
“Bella?”
“I don’t want to discuss this in front of our little parrot,” Mirabella said.
“I’m a parrot?” Eve asked.
“Let’s go to sleep,” Mirabella said.
“I’ll take Eve to her room,” Giovanni said and sat up.
“Mama said I can sleep here with you Papa,” Eve said.
“Did she?” Giovanni stared at Mirabella. She could tell he wanted more of her attention. Though she loved him as much that evening as she did any other day, she was grateful the kids separated them. What they had planned would be hard on them both and she didn’t want to fill him with her doubts.
“I love you, Bella,” Giovanni said.
“I love you too, sweetheart. That will never change.”
“Me too sweetheart!” Eve giggled.
Giovanni chuckled. “Sleep Eve, now.”
“Yes, Papa.”
“WE MISS YOU,” ADARA said.
Carlo took another long drag of his cigarillo. He stared out at the moon as he exhaled. He missed her and the baby too. But for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to say it or even think it when they were apart. He had to remain focused.