Twisted Pride (The Camorra Chronicles Book 3)

by Cora Reilly

  Kiara took my bag from Fabiano and led me upstairs into Remo’s wing. I knew the way by heart, but her company felt good. When we stepped into my old room, my breath caught in my throat at the rush of memories that overwhelmed me, but another loud wail from Greta snapped me out of it. I moved over to the bed and carefully lowered them down on it.

  Kiara kept throwing glances at my twins, longing in her gaze. “How can I help you?”

  I opened the bag and held out the baby formula. In the evening, they always needed the bottle to calm down. “Could you prepare two bottles?”

  Kiara returned fifteen minutes later with the bottles and settled beside me on the bed. “Why don’t you feed Nevio while I take care of Greta,” I suggested.

  Her eyes lit up. “Thank you.”

  I laughed. “You’re helping me. I should thank you.”

  She grinned as she took Nevio and settled him on her lap.

  “I should warn you. He’s a bit of a wrestler.”

  Kiara brought the bottle to Nevio’s mouth, and as expected his little hands reached for the bottle, trying to snatch it out of her hand. She laughed.

  I blinked back tears as I focused on Greta, who was happily drinking, her big dark eyes peering up at me sleepily. Emotions painfully tightened in my chest.

  Remo had to survive. I couldn’t believe fate would be so cruel to rip him from me before he could see his children. Maybe Remo deserved death, but I didn’t care. He needed to live for Greta and Nevio.

  “He’ll love and protect them,” Kiara murmured.

  Remo would protect them. Was he capable of love? I wasn’t sure.

  After Kiara left, I lay down beside my babies, who were already asleep after their feeding. I didn’t have beds for them or anything else except for the few things I’d stuffed into the backpack.

  I closed my eyes. The image of Remo in his blood flashed into my mind, and I shuddered.

  I must have fallen asleep because Greta’s wail woke me shortly after. It was the first night without the help of Samuel or my mother, and a heavy weight settled in the pit of my stomach thinking about my family. I wasn’t sure how my future nights would be. Would I handle everything on my own?

  I was up early the next morning and blinked against the soft light streaming in through the window. I had barely slept, and not just because of my twin’s erratic schedule. Worry for Remo had haunted my sleep. I got myself and my babies ready before I headed downstairs, carrying them on my hips.

  Following the scent of coffee and bacon, I made my way into the kitchen but stopped in the doorway. Adamo, Savio, and Nino were sitting around the kitchen table while Kiara was stirring something in a big pot. All eyes turned to me, and I swayed on my feet. I’d always been the enemy, the captive, and now I was what? A guest? An intruder?

  “Good morning,” I said then turned to Nino, fear clogging my throat. “How is he?”

  “Stable. A few broken bones, bruises, rupture of the spleen. He’s upstairs, knocked out with pain meds.”

  “He won’t like that one bit,” Savio said grinning. “You know he prefers pain to being helpless.”

  I still hadn’t moved from the doorway.

  “I’m preparing a pumpkin puree for the babies. I hope that’s okay?” Kiara chimed in.

  I nodded. Nino grabbed a chair and pulled it back for me. With a small smile, I approached the table and sank down. Nevio knocked Nino’s glass over, spilling water over him.

  “Sorry,” I said, leaning back so Nevio’s sneaky arms wouldn’t get into more trouble. He still made grabby motions.

  Nino regarded him intently as he dried himself with a dishtowel that Kiara had handed him.

  Adamo shook his head. His arm was bandaged and his face was swollen. “I can’t believe Remo’s got kids.”

  “I bet the Outfit hated seeing them. I mean, there’s no way they couldn’t be Falcones,” Savio said with a grin.

  I stiffened, pain slicing through me. I looked away, swallowing.

  “Is that why you’re here?” Nino asked mildly. “To give them a chance?”

  “I want them to be proud of who they are,” I said. I didn’t want to explain everything.

  “They will be. They are Falcones,” Nino said.

  I looked into his emotionless gray eyes. “Just like that? My family tortured Adamo and nearly killed Remo and I’m technically the enemy.”

  “Just like that. You are Remo’s and they are his too. You are family.”

  I frowned. “I’m not Remo’s.”

  Nino gave me a twisted smile. “You are.”

  Kiara put a plate piled with eggs and bacon and toast in front of me.

  “Do you have a blanket?”

  She hurried off and returned with one a few minutes later, spreading it on the ground. I put Greta and Nevio down on their backs so I could eat. I smiled when Nevio rolled onto his stomach and raised his head curiously.

  “This is too weird,” Adamo said. I gave him a smile.

  Savio shook his head. “I’m not going to change diapers. I don’t give a fuck if Remo gives the order or not. I’m not going anywhere near someone else’s shit, baby or not.”

  I huffed. “I’m pretty sure you come into contact with more disgusting things on a daily basis.”

  Adamo laughed. “He’s full of shit anyway.”

  Savio punched Adamo’s unharmed arm.

  Some of the weight I’d felt since yesterday lifted from my shoulders.

  REMO

  I felt like shit, cotton mouth and a full-body ache. Peeling my eyes open, I found Nino staring at me. “You asshole. You gave me pain meds and some kind of fucking sedative.”

  “Your body needed it.”

  I tried to sit up but my body was very averse to the idea. I struggled and shot Nino a death glare when he tried to help me. Eventually, I managed to sit against the headboard, every fucking inch of my body throbbing fiercely. Most of my upper body and arms were covered with bandages.

  Nino sat on the edge of my bed. “You looked like shit when Serafina brought you to us.”

  Serafina had saved my life. The woman I’d kidnapped, she’d saved my fucking life. “For a second I thought I dreamed up the whole shit, but the way my body screams with agony tells me it’s true,” I got out.

  “They almost killed you, and they would have if Serafina hadn’t gotten you out.”

  “Where is she?” I asked, ignoring the way my chest hollowed at the thought that she wasn’t in Las Vegas after all.

  “Downstairs,” Nino said slowly, his eyes searching mine. “With your children.”

  “My children,” I repeated, trying to make sense of the words, trying to fucking understand that I was a father. Greta and Nevio. “Fuck,” I breathed.

  “It’s like looking at a baby version of you,” Nino said with a disbelieving look.

  “Make sure they have everything they need. No matter what Serafina says she needs, you get it for her.”

  Nino nodded. “She’s here to protect her children because the Outfit didn’t accept them. Not because of you.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t care why she’s here. All that matters is that she is. I told you before, I don’t have a fucking heart that can be broken, or have you forgotten?”

  Nino touched my shoulder lightly. “I know you better than anyone else, Remo. Or have you forgotten?”

  “That’s why you’re so good at pissing me off.”

  “Do you want me to get her?”

  I nodded. I didn’t think I’d ever wanted anything more. I would have gone through days of torture, through weeks of it, to see Serafina. That she saved me? Fuck, I’d never considered it an option.

  After she’d told me she wouldn’t give me her forgiveness, I’d resigned myself to the fact that she wanted me dead, that she wanted to see me suffer. I deserved it. There was no fucking question about it. I knew what I was.

  There wasn’t anything white about me, very little gray, and a ton of black. And yet she was h
ere.

  She was here with our children.

  I tried to imagine them, but I couldn’t. I’d never wanted kids, because I was certain I’d never find a woman who wouldn’t prove to be the same fucking failure my mother had been. I’d been certain that I’d break any woman, but Serafina was strong. She’d proven me wrong, had twisted my game until I felt like the loser, like the one who’d been checkmated.

  SERAFINA

  Nino walked into the living room where Kiara and I were sitting on a blanket with Nevio and Greta. Kiara was a natural with kids, and it was obvious how much she loved them. She held Nevio in her lap as she showed him a picture book. Greta sat in my lap, her tiny hand wrapped around my thumb and looking down at the book in my free hand.

  I looked up at Nino but his eyes were on Kiara, who was smiling down at my son, practically glowing with happiness.

  Slowly, he dragged his gaze up. “Remo just woke up.”

  Without thinking, I got up with Greta clinging to me. I didn’t want my kids there when I first talked to Remo after he’d woken. I felt like we needed a moment before I could allow that.

  I untangled Greta gently and laid her down on the blanket, then hesitated. Kiara looked up with a smile. “Nino and I can watch them while you talk to Remo.”

  Nino moved closer but I stayed where I was. I couldn’t help it. This would be the first time I let them out of sight since our arrival. “Each of us would lay our life down for these kids,” Nino said. “You brought them here. They are Falcones. They are Remo’s kids. He burned for us. We will burn for them.”

  I gave a small nod and took a step back. Greta’s eyes followed me. “Kiara, can you take Greta. She’s very shy around people she doesn’t know, especially men.”

  Nino lowered himself beside Kiara and took Nevio from her. I tensed when Kiara reached for my daughter, expecting a crying fit, but Greta’s face scrunched up only briefly then smoothed when Kiara sang softly. I took another step back. Kiara beamed at Nino as he put Nevio down on his lap and pointed at the picture book. Nino oozed calmness, which was perfect for my kids.

  Nevio ignored the picture book that Nino held up and stared at the colorful tattoos on Nino’s arm, touching them with his small hands as if he thought they’d come alive under his fingertips. My heart swelled once more, and I turned quickly before I got too emotional.

  I took a deep breath before I slipped into Remo’s bedroom. He was sitting back against the headboard, elevated by pillows. His upper body was naked, except for the many bandages covering his skin—the cuts my family had inflicted to avenge me.

  He looked up from his iPad, and I took a hesitant step closer as I let the door shut.

  His face pulled into a strange smile. “I’d never have thought that you would be the one to save me.”

  I moved closer, half terrified, half excited, and stopped beside him. Remo’s dark eyes burned with emotions that set my heart aflame, but I shoved the sensations back. “I saved the father of my children so they would be safe.”

  “My brothers would have protected them even if your family had killed me.”

  I put a hand down beside him on the headboard, hovering over him. “Nobody will protect them like you will. You’ll go through fire for them.”

  I didn’t ask. I knew it.

  He raised his hand stiffly, most of his arm bandaged, and cupped the back of my head. I let him pull me down. “For them. For you,” he murmured, fiercely, harshly, angrily. His lips brushed mine, and my entire being melted. I fell as I had the first time he kissed. Shuddering, I drew back and straightened. This was too soon. I needed to figure things out between us.

  He watched me with a bitter smile. For some reason, the sight tore at me. I leaned down and briefly brushed his lips with mine to show him that my withdrawal didn’t mean “never” only “later.”

  I quickly stepped back and turned.

  “Will you show them to me?” he asked quietly.

  I looked over my shoulder. “Of course.”

  I held Greta and Nevio tightly against my body as I nudged the door open. Then I stepped in. I was inexplicably nervous. My family had never looked at my children the way I regarded them, like they were something precious, a gift I wanted to cherish every single day. Remo’s eyes zeroed in on our babies as I moved closer, and he didn’t look away again, appearing almost stunned. I sat down beside him and carefully put Nevio down on his back next to Remo. Greta still clung to me tightly.

  Remo’s expression held wonder, and when he raised his eyes to mine, they were softer than I’d ever seen them. He stretched out his bandaged arm and stroked his fingertip over Nevio’s chest reverently. Nevio being Nevio snatched up Remo’s finger and brought it to his mouth to chew on it with a toothless grin. Remo’s lips twitched. Then he raised his gaze to Greta, who’d turned her head to watch him curiously.

  “She’s shy around most people,” I said. She’d always been like that, even when she was a tiny newborn.

  I took his hand so she saw me doing it then brought it toward her. When she didn’t protest, I released Remo’s hand, and he caressed her back with his fingertips. He was so gentle and careful with her, I could feel a mix of happiness and wistfulness rise up in my throat. Greta watched him silently. Did she know he was her dad?

  Tears ran down my cheeks. Remo stroking Greta’s back and having his finger chewed off by Nevio was the most beautiful sight I could imagine. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy,” I admitted, not caring that I was being emotional in front of Remo. This was no longer a battle of wills, a twisted game of chess. These stakes were too high.

  Remo locked his gaze with mine. “I know I’ve never been happier.”

  CHAPTER 29

  SERAFINA

  As far as patients went, Remo was a nightmare. He was a nightmare in many other regards as well, but giving his body time to heal wasn’t on his agenda.

  Nino wasn’t happy about it. “You need to rest, Remo. It’s been only three days and you’re already running around.”

  “I’ve had worse. Now stop the fucking fussing. I’m not a child.”

  “Maybe not. But I’m obviously the only one of the two of us capable of sane decisions.”

  “Neither of you is sane. Now help me with this fucking crib,” Savio muttered.

  I leaned in the doorway of the future nursery. Nino and Kiara had gone shopping this morning, and now the four Falcone brothers were trying to put together the furniture. Though Nino and Savio were doing all the work because Adamo’s arm was in a cast and most of Remo’s body was bandaged, not to mention the many broken bones in his body.

  Adamo sat on a plush baby blue armchair, which sat close to the window. Sometimes when he thought no one was looking, his eyes twisted with something dark, something haunted. Some wounds would take a long time to heal. Remo leaned against the windowsill, wearing only low cut sweatpants, barking orders.

  A smile tugged at my lips.

  “The instructions are quite clear, Remo,” Nino drawled. “I don’t need your orders on top of that.”

  Savio scoffed. “As if that’ll stop him.”

  It was still difficult to grasp what had happened these last three days. I’d left my family, Samuel, to live in Las Vegas with the man who kidnapped me and his family who helped him do it. But with every passing hour, I realized it had been the right decision for my children and maybe even for me. The moment Remo saw his babies, a knot in my chest loosened, a knot that had strangled me since he released me, only to be pulled tighter when Greta and Nevio were born. They belonged here.

  I had tried to keep my distance from Remo so far, only visited him twice so our twins could get used to his presence, and I knew he wasn’t happy with it.

  Remo spotted me in the doorway, his eyes becoming more eager and intent. My pulse picked up, and I turned around to return to Nevio and Greta who were waiting downstairs with Kiara.

  Remo cornered me in the hallway. For someone with his injuries, he was annoyingly fast. �
��Are you running from me, Angel?” He backed me into the wall, his palms on either side of me.

  “I’ve learned that doesn’t work. You always catch me,” I said, leaning back because with him so close I was having trouble focusing.

  “I often imagined how it would be to see you again,” he said in a low voice. “But this wasn’t one of the scenarios I came up with.”

  I regarded him. “When you sent me off like a thing easy to dispose of, it didn’t seem like you wanted to see me again.”

  He shook his head, anger flashing on his face. “I gave you a choice, one you didn’t have before ... and you chose to stay with the Outfit.”

  I huffed. “That’s ridiculous. You traded me like a piece of cattle. Why would I return to you? I’m not in the habit of thrusting myself upon someone who obviously couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”

  Remo leaned even closer. “Did you really believe that I didn’t want you? Or did you tell yourself that because you didn’t want to leave your family?”

  I frowned. “You could have ...”

  “What?” he growled. “I could have what? Kidnapped you again? Asked Dante to send you back?”

  He had a point and it annoyed me.

  “When were you planning on telling me about our babies? Would you have told me at all if Adamo hadn’t gotten himself captured?”

  “You sent me away, back to my fiancé. I didn’t think you’d care what happened with me, much less wanted kids,” I muttered, but something in his eyes made me continue. “I wanted to tell you. The moment I saw them, I knew I needed to tell you, but I didn’t know how. I was ... a coward.”

  His hand came up, cupping my cheek, his dark eyes impossibly possessive. “I was sure you’d return to me.” His lips brushed mine. “You aren’t a coward. You saved me. You went against your family to protect our children. You gave up everything for them ... and for me.”

  I deepened the kiss, couldn’t keep the distance I so desperately wanted to keep. Remo’s lips, his tongue, the feel of his rough palm against my cheek awakened a deep longing, a desperate need I’d kept buried since he’d set me free.