Nothing Else But You

by Elle Wright

  So engrossed in the photographic display, Natalia jumped when Gio wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.

  “Like what you see, baby?” he whispered as he nuzzled her neck.

  “You have a beautiful family. Lots of love.”

  “You two,” Nonna yelled. “Turn around. I take a picture for Cesca to put on the wall.”

  Gio spun them around and left his arms exactly where there were but pulled Natalia flush against him. She tilted her head up to tell him to behave when the flash went off. She lowered her head and put out one hand to tell Nonna to wait, but more flashing. By the time Nonna was done, she must’ve taken a dozen photos, all of which had Natalia in some form of protest. In the last few, Gio was leaning over Natalia, he was laughing so hard.

  Bed

  Their suite

  Fairmont Hotel

  Gio

  Thank God Nonna had made them huge sandwiches stuffed with prosciutto, provolone, and roasted peppers, ’cause Gio had fucked Natalia so many times since they hit the door of the suite, he’d burned off all of dinner.

  They were sitting against the headboard, huge pieces of wax paper on their laps, paper towels in their hands, as they fed their faces.

  “How can I be hungry after that huge dinner?”

  Gio grinned. “Thank you, baby.”

  “Don’t get a big head, sports fan.”

  He looked down at his groin. “Well, not until I finish my sandwich.”

  “Do you think we broke the table?”

  “Which one?”

  She gave him big eyes. “The coffee table. Wait, you think we broke the dining room table too?”

  “Might’ve loosened a few screws and washers.”

  “Whoa. Look at you. Mr. Hardware.”

  “I too have a varied skill set.”

  She smiled. Wide. “So I’ve noticed.”

  Yeah. His chest puffed out a little. And his dick stirred.

  She put down half her sandwich and began to wrap it up, then looked over at his empty hands. “You want to finish mine?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve got room. Sure.” He took the rest of her sandwich, pushed back the wax paper, and took a big bite.

  “So. A couple of months back I began to think about the best way to eliminate the threat hanging over my head.”

  Be cool. Let her talk.

  “You know. Get myself really free and clear.”

  Don’t say a word. Keep chewing.

  “So I wouldn’t have to worry anymore.”

  Right. Ah-huh. So you could be with ME.

  “You know, you’re shit at holding your smug in.”

  “Not one of my skills, apparently.”

  “Apparently.”

  He wadded up the paper towels inside the wax paper and put it on the nightstand. “So what did you come up with?”

  “It’s more a case of what I didn’t come up with.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I can’t do any version of a repeat performance of money movement.”

  “Too obvious.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And I can’t go to the cops with what I know about him and his businesses for obvious reasons.”

  “You know about his businesses?”

  “Please. The asshole was over at our place all the time talking to his idiot son like my mother and I didn’t have working ears.”

  He shook his head. His father never discussed business in front of the family. Gio couldn’t swear to it, but he’d guess his old man rarely talked business when he was in his study. Even though everyone knew to leave him alone when he closed those massive wooden doors. More to the point, his father had the house wired for sound. There were security cameras everywhere, inside and out, and Tommie and his cohorts swept the house, the trees, the bushes, the pool house, and the twenty-foot wall around their property for listening devices every day. Somehow they could tell their bugs from uninvited bugs, and real bugs of the insect variety. A couple of years ago, they’d started scanning for drones.

  “What’s that saying? When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the solution.”

  “Not to split hairs, but Spock said that quoting Sherlock Holmes. The real line is, ‘How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?’”

  “Now you’ve made me hard all over again.”

  She looked down to see the tent over his lap. “Sherlock Holmes makes you hard?”

  He laughed.

  “Spock?”

  He pushed down the blanket and pulled her so she’d straddle him. “Nope. Only you, baby. You and that wicked smart mouth.”

  “You mean brain.”

  “That too, but the words come out of that mouth, and you know how I feel about your mouth.”

  She grinned.

  And then proceeded to help him burn off the sandwiches.

  Bed

  Their suite

  Fairmont Hotel

  Gio

  “Get up, baby. We have to leave for the airport.”

  She pulled the pillow over her head.

  He smacked her ass and said, “Shower. Three minutes.”

  Thirty minutes later – of course he’d built in time for sex – as he massaged shampoo into her hair, he said, “I checked. We didn’t break either table.”

  “I’m glad. And a little surprised. Especially about the coffee table.”

  “It’s a little wobbly, but nothing that can’t be fixed. The dining room table had one leg that’s loose. Next hotel we’ll find a place that does ultra-modern and has industrial steel tables as furniture.”

  She reached back and grabbed his dick. “I don’t think there’s a place like that in Boise.” Then began stroking.

  “I take it we’re staying over.”

  She turned around and went to her knees. “We’ll want to eat dinner, and after that, I’m thinking we’ll be too tired to drive.” She sucked him into that fan-fucking-tastic mouth of hers.

  “Oh, oh, ka…ay.” He leaned back against the wall and prayed his legs would hold him up.

  Their Lyft driver was a chatty woman who asked how they enjoyed their stay in Boston, as if they were tourists. Natalia played along, making the stop-and-stall more tolerable while on their way to Logan Airport.

  Twenty feet into the terminal, Gio stopped, and saw him standing next to the check-in kiosk.

  She tugged on his sleeve. “Isn’t that –”

  “Yeah. Tommie. Dammit.” Gio took her hand and they walked over to their personal in-flight protection. “Hey, Tommie.”

  “Gio. Natalia.”

  “Hello.”

  “He moved us up to first class.” Of course he did.

  “Yep. Safer that way. I’m a couple of rows behind you, if ya need me.”

  “Thanks, Tommie.”

  “Never been to Boise, or Oregon.” He shrugged. “Something new, heh?”

  As Gio and Natalia moved to get in line to check in since their tickets had changed, Tommie held out his hand to carry Gio’s bag. He knew better than to fight it, and handed over the long duffle but kept his backpack.

  “I’ll take that, Natalia.” Tommie held out his hand for her backpack.

  “Thanks, Tommie. But I put my clothes in Gio’s bag, so there’s not much in here.” She took it off her shoulder and let him feel its weight. He nodded and handed it back.

  Gio had to hand it to her. She slid right into what needed to be done like she’d been raised with this shit.

  After they got their boarding passes, Natalia stood on her toes, leaned in, and said, “I have to pee something fierce.”

  Gio nodded and walked her over to the bathroom. He and Tommie leaned against the wall waiting for her.

  “Sox are playing the Yankees tomorrow.” Tommie shook his head like a tragedy was occurring.

  “Yeah. In New York.”

  “Fuckers.”

  “Yea
h.”

  At the same time Natalia was walking out of the ladies room, a huge man with bushy hair and a short beard, wearing a long leather coat for fuck’s sake, rounded the corner and slammed into her, knocking off her BoSox cap. Gio moved, but Tommie was like lightning, putting himself between her and the guy as she bent down to get her cap. The guy walked around Tommie but stopped to look back over his shoulder at Natalia. Gio felt a growl come up the back of his throat and was about to say something to the asshole when he caught the expression on Natalia’s face. She was holding her breath, and her eyes were wide with fright. The guy looked at Tommie, then Gio, and took off.

  Tommie had caught the exchange and seemed torn between going after the piece of shit and staying with Gio and Natalia.

  “Let him go,” Gio told Tommie, then went over to Natalia and wrapped her up in his arms. “You okay?”

  She nodded against his chest.

  “You know him.”

  She nodded again.

  “Let’s get through TSA and head to the gate. Then you’ll tell me who the fuck that asshole is.”

  Fifteen minutes later, sitting in the chair closest to the windows, three rows from their gate, Gio took the phone Tommie was handing to him. Of course, the old man had been updated on what had happened.

  “Dad.”

  “Who was that man, Giovanni?”

  “He used to hang around with Natalia’s stepfather.”

  “I heard he abused her mother.” How the fuck his father knew all the shit he knew boggled the mind. Gio tried not to scramble his brain about it too much, but when he was growing up, it kept him from doing a lot of stupid, and fun, things with his friends. “I was happy to hear he died in prison.”

  He’d be fucking thrilled to know Natalia put the bastard there. “Yeah, me too.”

  “He didn’t hurt Natalia, did he?”

  “No.”

  “Good.”

  “How’s everyone?”

  “Sofia is adjusting. She and Mia seem to be getting along well. Aurora is uncharacteristically subdued, which is welcome. Your mother is enjoying being with her family.”

  “Give them my love.”

  “Safe flight.” The line went dead and Gio handed the phone back to Tommie.

  Gio put his arm around Natalia, and she laid her head against his chest. Tommie moved about fifteen feet away and leaned against the short wall next to the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  Gio knew she had told him the bare minimum about that sonofabitch because Tommie was right there taking mental notes so he could give the don a full report. She’d tell Gio the whole story later. He’d make sure they were in the shower when she did. Gio would bet his Ferrari that Tommie had bugged Natalia’s backpack and Gio’s luggage. Better to play dumb and leave the bugs in place, but Gio would warn Natalia on the plane, and tell her all the ways he’d learned to get around listening devices.

  Back room

  Demko’s Dry Cleaning - Store #5

  Providence, Rhode Island

  Marko

  “I’m telling you, she’s hooked up with Di Caro’s son. The kid looks like the don, but younger. It’s fucking creepy.” Marko was leaning forward in the uncomfortable chair in front of Ivan Demko’s beat-up desk. The old bastard was as cheap as he was ugly.

  “Where were they going?” Ivan spoke in Ukrainian and expected everyone to do the same.

  “I don’t know. I bumped into her near the ticket counter and I couldn’t follow them because one of Di Caro’s goons was with them. Big fucker. Looked like a former heavyweight boxer.” Probably was.

  “Fuck.” Ivan pounded his fist on the desk, making the piles of papers jump. “I thought she’d fled the area, but she was under our noses the whole time.” He stared at Marko, cheeks mottled red with purple broken blood vessels shooting out above his black and gray beard. “How did that happen?”

  “We searched for her for months. You know that. She’d dropped out of Brown. Left her apartment and didn’t give the landlord notice or nothing. She vanished, boss. Trust me, we looked in Boston, the Cape, all over Connecticut, and Rhode Island. We even asked our cousins in New York to search for her. Nothing.”

  “She look the same?”

  “Hair’s longer. And red. Otherwise, yeah, it was her. I’m sure of it.”

  “Goddamn it. Now we can’t look for her without getting the don up our asses. Let me tell you something, Marko, and you pay attention.” He banged the desk again for emphasis. “You do not want that man in your business even for a fucking moment. We clear?”

  “Yeah, boss. We’re clear.”

  Shower

  Their suite

  Inn at 500 Capitol

  Boise

  Natalia

  Everything had been upgraded. From the hotel they were staying in to the first-class seats on the plane. Which, truth be told, were essential for Tommie and Gio. Big guys should not fly coach. Their discomfort would be bad juju for them and everyone around them.

  They were seated in the first row and Tommie had been five rows back, in the last row of the small first-class seating area. Gio had taken their backpacks and put them in the overhead bin, then sat and whispered in her ear, “We’re bugged. Tommie did it at my father’s direction.”

  She gave him wide eyes, and he nodded. She’d decided to employ a trick she and friends had used in school when they didn’t want to get caught writing notes. Some teachers read the purloined missives out loud. Embarrassing.

  Opening Gio’s hand, she wrote with her finger in his big palm. “Why?”

  “Clever girl,” he whispered, then wrote in her palm. “Cuz. He. Has. To. Know. Everything.”

  “No. Privacy?”

  Gio laughed. “Only. For. Him.”

  “That’s not fair,” she spoke, figuring Tommie wouldn’t know what her comment was about.

  Gio wrote. “Fair. Only. Pertains. To. Him.”

  She frowned. “Do. Bugs. Work. On. Planes?”

  “Local. Receiver. Can. Hear.”

  “Tommie,” she mouthed.

  Gio nodded.

  She leaned in and whispered in his ear, “I can’t keep this up the whole flight. Let’s talk about something we don’t care if Tommie or your father overhears.”

  “Yeah. And I have just the thing.” In a low tone he asked, “Did you put in an official leave of absence with Brown?”

  She nodded and held up one finger.

  “A year?”

  “Yep.”

  “Good. First thing, email them and tell them you’re coming back starting the fall semester.”

  Her brows went up.

  “Worst-case scenario, you have to put it off. But I know you, Ace.” He made as if he was typing on a computer. “You’ll figure something out.”

  “Thanks for the confidence boost.”

  “I’ll always have your back, baby.”

  Well, he was at her back now, leaned over it as he was sliding in and out of her, slow and easy, building her climax with long, deep strokes, his arms wrapped around her waist. Damn, he was good at this. Expert, really.

  He was getting close. He picked up the pace and his puffs of breath tickled her ear. He dropped one hand onto her sex and squeezed her clit, then released it over and over. “Come with me, baby.” Happy to oblige, she put her hands against the tile and pushed back, countering his rhythm. His groan was low and deep, while she took up her favorite mantra, “Gio. Gio. Gio.”

  After he pulled out – she always missed that full feeling – and got rid of the condom, he sat in the corner of the shower and beckoned her to join him.

  “This week, we’re going to get tested. I hate having to use those fuckin’ things. I want to be inside you.”

  Again, happy to oblige. “Sure. There’s a clinic near campus.”

  He nodded. “You know, I’d been looking forward to joining the mile-high club. Tommie cramped my style.”

  She chuckled as she sat cross-legged facing him, the water spraying her back. “He di
d more than that.”

  “Just doing his job. I lay blame where it should go, on my old man.”

  “Your sisters get the same treatment?”

  “He pays those nuns a whack above and beyond tuition, to keep a close eye on them. And if he knew about Sofia’s ex, I’m sure they were followed when they went out. But, obviously, not close enough. Having Tommie shadow me to Oregon is new. Since Sofia, the old man’s going to be more vigilant than ever. While he’s never said it, I know he worries that people who want to leverage him will use hurting us as the currency to make that happen. It’s one of many parts of the curse of being his kids.”

  She sighed. On the one hand, she felt sorry for Gio. He had no control over who his parents were. And didn’t she know that better than anyone. But, on the other, and this was pure speculation, his father loved his family and did what he could to keep them safe given who he was. In this day and age, was it any different than being a politician’s kid, or a movie star’s kid?

  “There are tricks to avoiding the bugs.”

  “Like the shower.”

  “Yeah. There are all kinds of devices, but the ones that are hard to find are little dots. They stick to clothes, furniture, you name it. But they’re moisture sensitive, and a downpour,” he pointed to the showerhead, “knocks ’em out. There are easy things we can to do keep our privacy, like leaving the backpacks in a closest, changing clothes when we get home. Or birthday suiting it.” He smirked. “These portable devices have a short life since they’re their own power source. Stuff that can draw on electricity is more detectable, and often white noise machines fuck with their frequency.”

  “Wow. Wiki-Gio.”

  He laughed. “You crack me up, Ace.”

  “Aim to please.”

  “You’ll never have to worry about that, baby. As long as you’re breathing, and with me, I’m happy.”