by Mynx, Sienna
“Tell me everything.”
“They wanted to know about what happened to Fabiana. I had to go over my time in Italy with you. Everything. Then they gave me a new identity. Even let me choose the name I wanted. I was placed in the Witness Protection Program. Kei and I left the country. I found out a few weeks later I was pregnant. That’s why I agreed to stay in the program. I couldn’t risk our baby, Giovanni. Why are you making me tell you this?”
“He lied to you.” Giovanni sat on the edge of his desk. “There was no federal agency protecting you. All of it is a lie. I visited America and attended your funeral. I was detained for twenty-four hours.”
“I know sweetheart.” Mira touched her chest. “I saw the funeral on the television. I saw you. I’m sorry.”
Giovanni waved his hand, dismissing it. He reached behind him and picked up a folder. “Kei lied to you. He isn’t the man you think he is.”
Mira stared at the folder. Her pulse quickened. “What is that?”
“The truth about who he really is, and what he’s done. He set up the meeting with fake agents for your benefit. To find out more about me and scare you into running away.”
“He didn’t have to. I was already scared of you, us, all of this.” Mira sighed. “I don’t know who’s telling you these things but Kei didn’t do anything but help me.”
“Read it, Mira.”
“No. Giovanni, stop this. Kei isn’t a threat to you sweetheart. He saved my life.”
“Bullshit!” Giovanni shouted. “Read the damn documents.”
“No.” Mira shook her head. The idea that Kei would betray her was so foreign she refused to entertain it. For two years he was the only person she could trust. Before that he was her best friend, her lover. He wouldn’t manipulate her. He didn’t have to. They weren’t like that. “It’s how our government works. They do this, to help people.”
“That is not how your government works!” he shouted at her. “Why would the American government protect you? Cover up two deaths to let you run from me? What did they get in return?”
Mira blinked. “I-I-I told them about us.”
“So what!” Giovanni threw his hands up. “Every national agency out there has a folder on me. You saw nothing when you were here but Fabiana’s death, and even that meant little to them when they detained me. Think dammit! Why would they give you a new identity and erase you from the public? Convince me that you were dead? What did they gain? Answer me!”
“Stop yelling.” Mira shook her head. Holding back her tears.
Giovanni groaned. “Bella, Kei lied to you. He staged it all. He needed you afraid, complacent. And now he’s put a hit out on me.”
“No. No? He wouldn’t that that. He’s not a violent man.” Mira shook his head.
“And I am? Right?” Giovanni smirked. “He made a big mistake pissing on the gift of tolerance from me. Say goodbye to your boyfriend. I’ll have his ass before the sun sets in New York.”
“No!” she charged at him. She shoved him hard in the chest. “It’s your paranoia! I told you he’s not a threat! He’s not!” She took a step back wagging her finger at him in warning. “Don’t you dare do it, Giovanni. You swore to me that you would not touch him. You swore it.”
“It’s done.”
“Oh God. Okay. Calm down. Listen to me sweetheart. Please. Let me find out if it’s true. I can’t live with his murder if you’re wrong. Please! Giovanni, listen to me. I’ll call the F.B.I., and they’ll verify everything.”
Giovanni grabbed her by both arms and shook her. Mira wept hard. Giovanni drew her into his arms and she clung to him. He held her tightly and spoke words that split her in half. “I should have killed him the moment I laid eyes on him. He kept you from me. No man will ever come between us. Ever! He took my bambina and my life with you. I promise you he will be on his knees confessing before the bullet hits his skull. Then you’ll have no guilt.”
He continued to tell her the truth. He held nothing back, and when he was done, she could barely speak. He captured her face and forced her to look into his eyes. He brushed his lips across hers. “You are mine Mirabella. This is who we are. No one will ever come between us again. Read what’s in the file. Understand this man’s crimes are against our family and accept it. Never let me see you shed a tear for him again.”
He let her go. She stumbled back and closed her eyes as he walked out and slammed the door. Mira opened her eyes and looked at the folder on the desk. Slowly, and with a heart of dread she walked around the desk and lowered to the seat. After collecting herself, she opened the folder and drew out the documents. Tears dropped on to thin sheets of paper. Her breathing went deep, and her heart felt like it was in a vice. Her stomach twisted into a pretzel knot. Mira scanned everything. Giovanni even had Kei’s arrest documents from China. She slammed the folder shut. The answers to the questions she’d had over the years about him surfaced. The silent authority he wielded, the people he would never introduce her to. How could she not see this? All her life it felt like she’d walked around with blinders on. Mira clenched her fist, struggling to catch her breath. Her rage seized her, and she shoved everything on the desk off with a swipe of her hand. Screaming in frustration, she dropped her head on the desk into her folded arms and cried. For two years she had lived Kei’s lie.
****
Lorenzo checked the chamber of his gun. This was the final act. He’d deliver the news to Giovanni personally that he’d put an end to Calderone’s tyranny. All the mistakes of the past would be forgiven. Even the ones his cousin will never know.
Their hostage was told to go inside and verify how many were in the mountainside villa. He would not give Bonaduce’s men any indication of trouble. As the personal driver to the family his arrival could be expected. Lorenzo concocted a cover story for him. He would tell whoever answered the door that the Don wanted him to bring Angelo into Bologna for a meeting. Lorenzo had forced their prisoner to recite the story over and over until it rolled off his tongue and sounded like the truth. He even made him clean up and wear a turtleneck to cover the rope burns around his neck. He looked believable.
“Remember, my men are waiting at your sister’s villa. They don’t hear from me in an hour, and they will pay her, the kids and her husband a visit.” He lied.
The poor man nodded his obedience. Carlo and Lorenzo exited the vehicle. They stepped aside and watched as he drove up the single lane road. Its isolation was the cover Lorenzo prayed for. He glanced up to the sky and mentally calculated the hours before sunrise. They would have to make it to the airport and out of Bologna before the bodies were found. Carlo suggested fire. Lorenzo agreed it would be a good cover. The problem was Giovanni wanted this to be clean. Lorenzo didn’t agree. The Battaglia name needed to be carved into the bastard’s chest. So he would do things his way and ask for forgiveness later.
The driver went to the door and knocked. It opened. He entered. Lorenzo waited in the cold forest for fifteen minutes before their messenger reappeared. He waved goodbye, climbed in the car and drove out toward them. Lorenzo kept his gun ready. Maybe he hadn’t put enough fear in the man. Maybe it was an ambush waiting for him inside. Or worse, maybe Don Bonaduce would send men to greet them.
“I did as you asked.”
“And?”
“It is only Angelo, his woman, and two of his men here. No one else.”
“You will walk out of the mountain. Andare!” Lorenzo opened the car door and made the man exit the vehicle. He took the keys.
“I don’t want Don Bonaduce to ever know that I helped you. I’m ashamed of what I’ve done. Threatening my dear sister and her children was disgusting!” The man spat. He then made an obscene gesture with his hand. “If I ever see either of you again,” he said walking backward and pointing accusingly. “I’ll be ready.”
Lorenzo scoffed and then flipped the bastard off. The man turned and disappeared into the night. Lorenzo waited. He scanned the front of the villa. Nothing stirred. He could s
ee a glare from a television in one of the windows. The others were dark. He’d have to go in smooth and quick. Carlo would charge in after the first gun blast. That meant the first move was on him.
****
Mira walked over to the bed silently and eased back under the covers. She suffered dull aches of regret and disillusionment deep in her heart. She turned over to her side and put her back to her lover. Her eyes closed, and she lay still trying to understand how she could be so wrong about the men she cared for. Giovanni stirred. He eased in closer to her. Mira’s recalled the warm comfort of ecstasy she found when held against his strong body and resisted the urge to turn over and give in to the feeling. Sex would be wrong after learning her lover ordered the hit on her ex. Right?
His hand, with its strong calloused fingers and large palms, became soft and gentle when he traced the line of her arm and then slipped underneath to stroke her stomach as he kissed her shoulder. Mira pressed her lips together and pretended at sleep, but she sensed he knew better. He pushed his semi-erection into her backside. “Not now, I’m not in the mood,” she said.
Giovanni pulled up the front of her nightdress and drew her hem to her waist. She was bottomless. He tugged on the short pubic hairs over her mound. The light sting made her push back into his erection, and he groaned into her ear. Warm pleasure spread over her, and with the nudge of his strong muscled thigh, her upper thigh shifted so his erection could slip between her butt cheeks. Mira sighed. His hand went up her flat tummy to her breast, and he pinched her nipple. He again kissed her shoulder moving behind her. Without any thought of objecting, she relaxed and he slipped inside of her. His steady thrusts opened her and she arched her neck giving in to the feeling. Giovanni cupped her breast and kept moving in and out of her. She gripped the edge of the bed to withstand it. Breathing through her nose, she licked her lips and savored how delicious he felt. When he withdrew, he rolled her to her back. She parted her thighs, and he entered her again with a single thrust.
“Look at me,” he said.
She turned her head away, moving her hips to grind her pelvis up into him.
“Look at me.”
Mira returned her gaze to his. Giovanni kept loving her with his eyes fastened to hers. She reached up and kissed him, wrapping her legs around his waist, squeezing tightly. The lovemaking grew intensely sweet, and she clung to him, riding wave after wave of pleasure. They rolled and she was on top. He held her hips, and she braced her hands on his chest. Not once did she look away from him. She worked her hips back and forth and dug her nails into his chest, moving faster and faster. Giovanni’s lids fluttered, and his control slipped. Mira seized on his weakness and punished him with her bottom maneuvers before rising and falling on his cock to their natural rhythm. Eventually, he cried out for release. When she collapsed and gave into her climactic ending, she felt free.
He held her that way for a long time. Neither spoke. Mira didn’t cry. She didn’t question him. She lay still and waited for sleep to come.
****
Lorenzo kicked the door in. The man on the sofa dropped his beer just as the bullet from Lorenzo’s gun pierced his skull at the center of his eyes. His head split like an axe taken to a melon. The other man ran out of the kitchen firing. Carlo took him out after kicking in the back door and firing through the dark kitchen.
There was no time to hesitate. Lorenzo sensed rather than watched the kill. He had one mission. Get to Calderone and end him. He forced the door open to the back bedroom and a woman screamed. Inside was darkness, which departed by the bright flash of gunfire, before he even heard the blast. The cut of wind near his face clued him in to how close the bullet had passed. Lorenzo returned fire. There was cursing and shouting, but it didn’t blast at him as loud as the screaming voices.
“Out, Angelo. This is it.”
“Vaffanculo!”
“Have it your way.” Lorenzo unloaded. The woman stopped screaming, and Angelo stopped returning fire. Lorenzo found the light switch on the wall. He flipped it up. What he saw before him confirmed it. The Calderone/ Battaglia feud was officially over.
Chapter Ten
Mira looked across the breakfast table at Giovanni. He again tried to feed Eve. Her daughter resisted. She pushed the fork away, reaching for food off his plate. Mira swept her gaze to the left. She focused on Catalina who seemed a bit cheery for the early hour. Suddenly she was overly talkative, chatting everyone up as they arrived at the table. Dominic however, had a cold congested look of anger on his face, and it was directed at Franco. The tension hovering between the men shifted when Nico arrived and announced the visitors. Giovanni immediately lifted Eve out of her chair. She followed them out of the terrace where they normally dined to the front of the villa. The familiar face of Uncle Rocco stepped into view. He wore overalls and a plaid shirt under a large tan jacket. His weathered cap was pulled down over his balding head. She hadn’t seen him in years, and he looked the same.
One look at Eve in Giovanni’s arms and Rocco stopped. Zia Carlotta shuffled in behind him. Her dark scarf draped over her shoulders, and her gray hair was pulled into a tight bun. Loose strands hung around her face.
“Benvenuto! Benvenuto!” Catalina hurried out. She kissed her aunt and hugged her uncle. “Finally, you’ve come.”
“Guardi il bambina bella. L'angelo piccolo prezioso,” Zia approached Eve. Everyone stood in silent observation. Mira stepped to Giovanni’s side, and Zia’s gaze cut sharply over to her. The exchange left her a bit confused. She didn’t know if Zia was happy to see her or offended by her presence. Eve glanced to her father then to Zia. Without any encouragement, she reached for the old woman. Giovanni had to help in transferring her over to Zia, but to Mira’s surprise Zia proved to be quite strong. She held Eve up with little assistance. Eve hugged her neck and several people clapped and laughed. Mira smiled.
“Non abbiamo bisogno di questo bambina, zia abbiamo qualcosa più meglio per voi,” Zia said taking the pacifier from Eve’s mouth. She told her that she didn’t need it any longer. That Zia had something special for her. Mira braced for Eve’s reaction. Her daughter just blinked and stared at the pacifier. Then she snatched it from Zia’s hand and stuck it back in her mouth.
Zia and Giovanni laughed. Eve had won round one. Zia put Eve on her hip and shuffled over to Mira. She touched her face. “It is good you come. Welcome,” Zia smiled.
Mira nodded graciously. Everyone started off toward the back of the villa to return to breakfast. Giovanni reached for Mira’s hand and held it, forcing her to remain. They’d said very little to each other this morning. Even after their lovemaking they just lay together in silence.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“No.” She said truthfully. “But I’ll get over it. I have no choice.”
He cupped her face. “Don’t be cross with me. I don’t like it when I disappoint you.”
Mira shook her head. “Let’s join the family.”
He pulled her to him. “I was going to say earlier before you left our bed that I want to marry. Soon. Are you willing to go public?”
Mira’s gaze lifted to his. “No. I don’t think we should tell the world I’m alive now. Giovanni stop, I can’t talk about a wedding now.”
“I want you, all of you. It’s my dream for you to be my wife. Soon Mirabella,” he kissed her brow. He eased his arm around her waist. They walked together side by side.
Lorenzo and Carlo entered the house. Both men carried the filth of the night on them. They had rooms of their own in Melanzana and clothes to change into. Discreet and tired they made their way to the back west wing avoiding the family. Lorenzo heard Dominic and paused while Carlo kept on. He observed Dominic as he approached Franco.
“Are you leaving for work?” Dominic asked.
“Sí,” Franco answered.
“Giovanni asked that you go with me today instead. He’s thinking of expansion. Extending business. I think you should scout out this new location.”
Fra
nco checked the time on his watch. “I have a meeting with an American export company this morning.”
“It’s cancelled.” Dominic said, stepping into Franco’s face. “You will go with me.”
Lorenzo narrowed his eyes on the scene. Franco looked a bit fearful. Dominic gave him no room to refuse. Franco was a naïve kid. Lorenzo knew men of his world when they were in predator mode.
“Andiamo!” Dominic ordered.
The two men strode away. Wiping his hand down his face to stay away the burden of fatigue Lorenzo continued on to his room.
“You’re back?”
Lorenzo turned to find Giovanni behind him. He nodded.
“Is it done?”
“Yes.”
Giovanni gave a half smile and exhaled. “Clean up. Don’t let the family see you this way.” His gaze travelled over his mud caked shoes and dingy trousers. Lorenzo ran his hand back over his head. Fleeing out of Bologna had almost been mission impossible. Bonaduce’s men had swarmed them. He and Carlo were lucky to be alive.
“Meet me in Villa Rosso. We will talk.” Giovanni turned and started off.
“Gio?”
His cousin paused. He didn’t turn to address him.
“It’s done. We can all move on. Right?”
Giovanni walked off.
****
In the past Dominic had made it a point to avoid Franco. His guilt over his actions with Catalina weighed heavy on his heart. But today his mind was clear of shame. Rage consumed the rational side of his brain. The idea that this bastard would dare put a hand on her turned his heart to stone. So he liked to beat women? Dominic’s glare shifted to Franco and the man looked nervously away. Dominic sneered. He’d show him a thing or two about being weak and helpless.
“She told you didn’t she?”
“Told me what Franco?”
“That I know about you two.”
“What exactly is it that you think you know?”