by Elle Wright
When she’d told Gio about the real-time feed of team practice, he laughed.
“I suspected he’d put the head of campus security on the payroll and made sure the guards knew me, my class schedule, and shit like that.”
“He said you’re astute and not much gets by you.”
He chuckled. “High praise. I’m flattered.”
“I gotta finish packing. You know he’ll totally be on time.”
“Yeah. You’re right about that. I’ll see you in a few hours, baby.”
As expected, a shiny mid-size private jet was waiting for them in a hangar at the far end of the airport. C’mon, she’d seen the house. This guy used luxury to help define his power. No way were they getting into a small, old-model sardine can.
Sammy opened her door first and helped her out, which surprised her, then went around to open the Don’s door. She wondered if it was chivalry or if she was more disposable if someone took a shot, and figured it was a little bit of both.
Mr. Di Caro held out his arm to indicate she should head up the stairs to the airplane first, then followed a couple of steps behind.
Inside, the décor was in shades of crème – Mrs. Di Caro had a hand in this – and bronze. On both sides of the aisle were two large cushy seats side by side. Behind them, facing each other were two cushy seats with a small table between them. Past those seats was a small couch on one side, and on the other, another row of side-by-side cushy seats. There was a little door at the rear of the plane she figured was for storage, and she guessed the door at the front, outside the cockpit, was the bathroom.
Most likely, Mr. Di Caro would want a seat with a table, and Sammy would sit at the front of the plane, protecting the Don. She opted for the couch.
Sure enough, the men went where she’d predicted.
After the plane’s door was sealed shut by one of the pilots – there were two – she said, “Please don’t be insulted if I fall asleep on the couch. I’m a bit tired.”
The Don gave Sammy a head tilt, then turned to her. “Sammy will show you the bedroom. There’s a private bathroom in there. After we take off, please, make yourself comfortable.”
Nope, not a storage hold, but a tiny bedroom with a double bed and a bathroom with a little shower wedged in the corner. As Mel Brooks had pointed out in History of the World, Part I, it’s good to be the king.
They were in the air fifteen minutes when Natalia was flagging and took herself to the bedroom. With all her clothes on, she climbed onto the super-comfy bed and it took her ten seconds to pass out.
“Baby. Wake up.”
She rolled over and buried her face against his hand, which was lying on the pillow. Great. Dream.
He kissed her cheek, then pushed her over with his hip. “C’mon, Ace. Time to get up.”
She rolled over, blinked her eyes, and saw Gio’s gorgeous face staring down at her.
“Wow. Door-to-door service.” She threw her arms around his neck, pulled him down, and kissed him with the hunger of a starving woman.
The Quad
Brown University
Gio
They’d fucked on every surface of that hotel room. Marathon fucking. Screaming, groaning, biting, clawing, banging-the-headboard-against-the-wall fucking. Weeks of not having her had loosened his grasp on control in all its forms. The best part? She was right there with him.
They’d gotten tested in Fiddler’s Rest, and fucking without a condom had been a revelation. A goddamn benediction. Fucking without a condom after not having her for all that time, his brain had exploded and it took hours of working her pussy before his neurons and synapses started firing again.
They’d stopped only so he could stuff his face to replenish his energy. They slept maybe two hours. When they’d checked out, his world had righted itself, and he couldn’t remember ever feeling that light while being so grounded.
An edict was laid down in that hotel room. No nights apart. Ever.
God bless Howie. He didn’t come back until the day before classes started, which meant while Gio and Natalia had waited for their bed, they’d had his room in the quad to themselves. Tiny bed, but bigger than the single in her room.
Upon Howie’s return, some serious surreptitious engineering produced a door between their room and Natalia’s. About her room: on each floor there were two singles, each next to a quad. Natalia had been assigned the single on the fourth floor opposite corner. Gio had sent Iggy next door with the plea. Dual purpose on sending Iggy: Gio wanted the guy to find a steady so he calmed the fuck down, and Iggy had the looks but no moves. Girls read that as sincere. Surely, the perfect alchemy to charm the girl in the room next door to switch with Natalia. Turned out, the chick was shy and Iggy appealed. Boom! Ingrid went to the fourth floor and Natalia was in the quad extension room with their bed. Word was, Iggy was making headway with Ingrid.
S’all good.
First quad movie night: Blazing Saddles and caramel popcorn. Evan’s girl, Ashley, hit it off with Natalia, and Gio saw a long-lasting friendship in their future. Bonus? Ashley knew the lacrosse thing inside and out, and now Natalia would have a bud to hang with during the games.
His girl was on the case from day one, Ashley her coconspirator. Without saying anything directly to Ted and Ollie, every time both women were in the quad, they talked about some disease linked to squalor. This week it was flesh-eating diseases. Evan added his expert pre-med opinion, and Howie cited all kinds of examples. Three weeks into the semester and Ted and Ollie’s room was almost as clean as Darius and Nathaniel’s.
Lying in their bed waiting for Natalia to come back from the girl’s shower, Gio checked his phone and saw he had a text from Ro. He opened it and his heart slammed against his ribs. Natalia walked into their room at the same time he was getting ready to flip his shit.
She took one look at him and asked, “What?”
“Ro texted. My dad flew to Sicily all of a sudden. She thinks something happened to Sofia.”
“Does he go there for business regularly?”
Gio shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Doesn’t he have family there?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe it’s about one of them.”
“I gotta call Ro. Find out what’s doing.”
“Let me talk first in case she’s shaky.”
He nodded.
Two rings before Ro picked up.
“Hey, Ro.”
“Thank God, Nat. I’m freakin’ over here. Is Gio there?”
“What’s up, Ro?”
“So during dinner, Nonna asks Dad about some guy named Matteo Parisi. And when Dad asks why, she tells him Sofia had mentioned him when they had spoken earlier in the day. Before Nonna finished the sentence, Dad’s out of his chair, pulling out his phone and walking across the house, I figure to his study. Mom’s hot on his heels. Nonna and I start clearing the dishes. Mom comes back, and she looks rough. She tells us Dad is heading out in a few minutes to go to Sicily. She and Nonna start in with the speculating, and I slip away and call Sofia. I know she’s sleeping ’cause it’s two-thirty in the morning in Sicily so I let it ring. No answer. I call right back, let it ring, and no answer. Same thing the last ten times I tried. What the actual fuck? You gotta call Dad. He’ll tell you what’s going on.”
“I don’t know if he will, but I’ll try, and I’ll call you back.”
Gio looked at Natalia and said, “Nothing better have happened to her or my father is going to start killing people. No shit.”
She put her hand on his arm. “Call him.”
One ring and the old man picked up. “Giovanni.”
“Dad. Ro’s upset. What’s going on?”
Silence.
Fuck.
“Maybe nothing. But I want to make sure.”
“Is Sofia okay?”
“I want to see for myself.”
“Who is Matteo Parisi?”
“The son of a colleague.”
Shit. He’s talki
ng in code. This is fucking bad.
“Let me know when you’re certain she’s all right.”
“I shall.”
The line went dead.
“Uh…did he just say without saying it that this Matteo is the son of another don?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m taking it that Matteo went into the family business.”
“Good fuckin’ guess.”
“Do you think your father said ‘colleague’ to insinuate he’s not?”
“I don’t know.”
“First things first. Let’s call Ro back and tell her your dad said it’s possible nothing is wrong, but he wants to see for himself and leave it at that.”
“And Sofia not picking up?”
“She forgot to charge the phone. It happens.”
“Ro’s not gonna buy that.”
“Probably not. But she’s fifteen years old and she needs you to reassure her.”
“Yeah.”
He dialed Ro and she picked up right away.
“What did Dad say?”
“That he wants to see for himself that everything is all right.”
“Do you believe that shit?”
“I believe him being there will ensure that if something isn’t right it’ll get made right in a heartbeat.”
“Ain’t that the truth. He can scare white out of a ghost.”
Natalia bit her top lip.
“Tell the truth, Gio, you think Sofia took off?”
“Unlikely. Do you?”
“Nah. She was a chicken before the shooting. Now, she’s afraid of her own shadow.”
Goddammit.
“Ro?”
“Yeah, Nat.”
“Best thing right now is to get ready for bed and try to get some sleep. Nothing we can do while he’s flying over there. I’m guessing we’ll hear something by mid-morning.”
“I’m not going to school tomorrow. I’ll be too wired to sit in class.”
“That’s between you and your mother. Wait until tomorrow morning to ask her. ’Kay?”
“Yeah. Good idea.”
“’Night, Ro.”
“Thanks for keeping it tight, Gio. ’Night, Nat.”
She hung up.
“She’s like thirty-five years old.”
Natalia chuckled. “She’s wicked smart, intuitive, and damn funny. But she calmed down because of you.”
He pulled the towel off her head. “Turn around, I’ll comb out your tangles.” She’d cut about three inches off her hair to give more “balance” to the two-tone while her blonde was growing in. He could vouch she was a real platinum blonde.
“How’d you get so good at this?”
“I used to do it for my sisters. They hated having long hair when they were young. Too many knots, but my father wanted it. Can you imagine him sitting with two wiggly little girls who screeched even before the comb went through their hair?”
“Not really.”
“I used to tell them stories to distract them.”
“About?”
“Fairytale shit. Unicorns saving little girls from ogres, that kind of thing.”
“You’re going to be such a great dad.”
He couldn’t believe she said something like that. Usually, he was the one who referenced their future with conviction. He understood why she was reluctant to believe they would last, but he knew she wanted to believe, and took that leap of faith every time she put her hand in his.
He turned her around and placed both palms on her cheeks, his fingers sifting through her damp hair. “No gift will be as precious as when you give me our children.”
Slow blink, and wet eyes.
“Aw, baby.” He held her close and prayed all their kids had Ro’s spirit. He’d be a nervous wreck if they were like Sofia.
Lamp Bear
Brown University
Natalia
An even split within the student body on love/hate Lamp Bear. Natalia liked its whimsy and utility, but most of all it made meeting someone on campus dead easy. Find the giant blue bear with the lamp sticking out of its head. Hard to miss. She and Gio were supposed to meet there at ten-thirty. She’d gotten out of class at ten, grabbed a coffee, and had been waiting about five minutes. Gio was a morning person. Natalia suffered the mornings and praised caffeine as a gift from the gods.
She knew when he was heading her way by the number of female heads turned and trained on him. Girls, he’s even better naked. Many times she’d wanted to ask him if his middle name was stamina, but keeping him humble was part of her job description, so she’d hold that one back.
He bent down and kissed her, then slung his arm over her shoulder.
“Anything?”
He shook his head.
Shit. That’s not good.
“He probably landed after six our time. Didn’t you say Enzo’s house was more than an hour from the airport?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m guessing he’s been there only a couple of hours. Probably sorting things out.”
As if on cue, Gio’s phone rang and he showed her the screen. “Dad.”
Too noisy and too public to put the call on speaker, she had no idea what Mr. Di Caro was saying, but the color was returning to Gio’s face as he listened to his father.
“I’m relieved.”
Mr. Di Caro talking.
“I will.” Gio put the phone back in his pocket and gave her neck a little squeeze. “When Enzo went to say good night, he saw Soph wasn’t there and checked her GPS. The phone said it was in the room. Mia didn’t know anything, and Enzo and Dad’s guys were out searching when Dad called. Bottom line, she’s fine. Apparently, she and Matteo took a moonlight stroll that went until daybreak and she ‘forgot’ her phone in her room.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah. My father is pissed as fuck.”
“Is Matteo still breathing?”
“From what I understand.”
“Your mother knows Sofia’s all right?”
“Yeah. I’m going to call Ro, though she probably knows by now.”
“Maybe not. Let’s find somewhere more private and quieter.”
They ducked into an empty classroom and called Aurora.
She answered on the first ring.
“Finally. Mom and Nonna are holed up in Mom’s office and whatever they’re saying, it’s louder than usual, but I can’t make out the words.”
“Sofia is fine. She and Matteo went for a late walk and she forgot her phone in her room.”
“Bullshit she forgot her phone. She knows Dad tracks us. She left it behind so she and Matteo could be alone. Which for Sofia was bold. Who is this guy?”
“The son of one of Dad’s colleagues.”
“For fuck’s sake, Dad doesn’t have colleagues. The dude’s another goombah.”
“The most important thing is Sofia is fine, and Dad’s seen her.”
“Wrong, big bro. The most important thing is Sofia has found a playmate of the male variety and now Dad has to decide whether to leave her there or bring her home. More control here, so I’m going with Sofia is busy packing right now.”
Natalia made big eyes and blinked rapidly. Yeah, total holy shit.
“I can see valid reasons for either argument. We’ll find out soon enough.”
“Shit’s going be live and louder than usual in the Di Caro house. After he comes back, you and Nat have to make a weekend visit.”
“You’re a shit disturber.”
“True, but on this one, I’m gonna sit back and watch from the front row. I have a feeling I won’t have to stir the pot even once.”
“We have class, Ro. Gotta make tracks.”
“Nat. Make him bring you up. You don’t strike me as the type that’ll be scared off. Think of it as performance art kind of entertainment.”
“We’ll talk about it.”
“I bet you will.”
She hung up.
“Your father’s been looking at the wrong Di Caro
to take over.”
Gio barked out a laugh. “Scary that it’s so true.” He rolled his shoulders. “We’re going to be late if we don’t bolt now.”
Natalia hated leaving Gio in this state, but they were free after four. “I have an idea. Let’s take a drive to Bristol and get some oysters.”
“You always know, don’t you?”
She smiled. “Meet me at the Ferrari at four-thirty.”
He leaned down and kissed her. “It’s a date, Ace.”
Watching how much he loved driving his car, she felt a pang of guilt, and began to work out a way to get them a reliable car he’d enjoy.
Neither of them had eaten at the Bristol Oyster Bar before and were so glad they’d chosen it. They shared cornmeal fried oysters, scallop chowder, and tomato and feta salad. Gio had the Cajun swordfish sandwich, and Natalia, who should have stopped at the salad, ate most of her pan-seared salmon. Gio scarfed her waffle potato chips, then ordered bread pudding for dessert.
After, with Gio’s arm slung over her shoulder, they walked down Hope Street, stopping to peer into shop windows, and went as far as the Herreshoff Marine Museum. The night air, salty with the sea, tossed her hair off her shoulders and ruffled Gio’s thick waves. As they crossed the street to walk up the other side and head back to the car, his phone went off.
He answered with, “What now?” He’d finally calmed down and was enjoying the evening. Not anymore.
Ro.
Shit.
As they stood on the sidewalk, Gio’s expression went from relaxed to tense in a heartbeat. Natalia prayed there was no new drama.
“Just calling to say I told you so. Dad’s on his way home with Sofia. I tried to keep count and figured there were about fifteen calls between Mom and Dad, and twenty-three ‘discussions’ between Nonna and Mom. Through strategic listening, I caught most of the drift. Mom wanted Sofia to stay in Sicily. She’s all worried about Soph facing ‘ridicule,’ her word not mine, especially since Soph’s coming back three weeks into the term. Nonna took Dad’s side and thought Sofia would do better at home with her family by her side. Which you know really means keep the seventeen-year-old virgin away from the, wait for it, twenty-two-year-old guy with the randy cock.”