“Not tonight, Nina. I need to think, process everything…” Kristine drifted off, ending the call and tossing the phone to the bed. She didn’t belong there, never did.
Running her fingers over the pale hand of her father, Kristine fought hard to keep the tears from falling. She’d taken a taxi to the hospital, leaving the car and everything else Gino had given her behind.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Vittorio, I can’t be your daughter, at least not right now.” Tears ran down her face, dripping onto the white sheets of the hospital bed, their blurry puddles filling Kristine’s vision. “Maybe after I figure out where I belong, I can call you and we can get to know each other as we’d planned.” Kristine sat up straight as one of the nurses came in the room, sharing a smile with her as she checked on her father.
“Excuse me,” Kristine croaked out. “Is there a place where valuables are kept for patients?”
“There is, but security has gone home for the night. Is there something of his that you need put into a safe?”
Reaching for her backpack, Kristine took out her mother’s ring. “I have to leave, and I promised to return it to him.” Laying the ring in the nurse's outstretched hand. “Please make sure he has it when he wakes up.”
“Of course, come with me and you can watch me put it in the safe.”
Laying a final kiss to Emilio’s forehead, “Goodbye, Dad.”
The bitter wind hit Kristine hard as she stepped through the automatic doors. Snow fell in large flakes, blanketing the sidewalks and streets.
“Hey, beautiful. Are you going somewhere?” Turning in the direction of the familiar voice, Kristine locked eyes with Sully.
“Anywhere but here,” she swore under her breath as Sully cleared the distance between them.
“Have you been crying?”
“Nope, it’s a genetic condition. My eyes leak when exposed to too much bullshit.”
Sully tipped his head to the side in confusion.
“Oh please, don’t act like you don’t know.”
“About Nina and my brother.” Sully returned, his hands buried in his pockets, rocking back and forth on his heels.
“Nina, a set of twins, half the population of Manhattan. Not to mention all of the women he’s run through faster than he does a new suit.”
“Honestly, Kristine, I’d assumed he ended things with Nina when you arrived, but I don’t spend every minute of the day with him. I will say, Nina spent a great deal of time with me during the first couple of weeks you were here. About the time Gino sent you all of those gifts, she wasn’t available to me anymore.”
“Available to you?”
Laughing, “Yes, Kristine. You are the first girl we haven’t shared.”
“You mean dated at the same time, right?”
“Oh, how your innocence intrigues me. No, I mean fucked her at the same time. I’m sure Nina shared some of our times together.” Sully admitted, a far-off gaze in his eyes. “The last time was right before you arrived. No, that wasn’t Nina,” Sully laughed. “That was a couple of girls from the gym. God did her ass feel tight.”
Not wanting to hear anymore, she turned for the street. “I have to go.”
“Wait, Kristine,” Sully called after her, running down the slick sidewalk to catch up.
“I know this isn’t your scene; multiple partners, late-night meetings, and shit you can’t talk about. Gino is an ass, I tried to warn you, but I was serious about you giving me a chance to mend what my brother destroyed. Come on, let's get you out of this storm. I have a place Gino doesn’t know about, you can lay low until you figure your shit out.”
With few choices available and the snow coming down heavier, Kristine silently agreed, allowing Sully to lead her to his car parked a few feet away.
“Can I ask why you were at the hospital?”
Keeping her focus on the passing city, “Visiting a friend.”
Sully’s phone rang, saving Kristine from what she feared were questions she wasn’t ready to answer. She tuned out his end of the conversation, focusing instead on what she would do in the morning. With roughly ten thousand dollars in her bag, she could afford to catch a plane back to Kansas, maybe stay with Rose until she earned enough money to move on.
“I’m sorry, Kristine, I have to make a quick stop before going to my condo.”
Sinking further into the leather seat, Kristine remained silent as Sully pulled off the highway and onto a street not far from the office. Pulling up to what looked like an abandoned warehouse, Sully pressed something on his visor, the garage-style door in front of them rose slowly. As they pulled in, Kristine surveyed the well-lit room. Wood crates lined one wall, long tables stacked with square blocks on top of them.
“You know, Kristine, I was beginning to think I’d never get you here.”
Turing her face toward Sully, she tipped her head in confusion.
“You should have taken my offer,” Sully spat, his eyes darkening and lips drawing thin. “You stupid bitch.” Kristine felt a sting to her face, followed by the sound of glass shattering behind her before everything went black.
25
“You surround yourself with some interesting characters, Mr. Vitale.” Killian remarked as he slid a sheet of paper across the table. “I had to call in a few favors, but I think you’ll find what I discovered for you informative.”
Reading the document twice, Gino couldn’t believe his eyes. “Are you sure this is real?”
“As real as you and I are sitting here, but there’s more.” The ringing of Gino’s phone shattered the silence, Killian nodded for him to go ahead and answer.
“This better be fucking important!” Gino barked into his phone.
“She’s gone, Boss. Ms. Smith is gone.”
Jumping from his seat, the pages with such damming evidence completely forgotten. “What do you mean gone?”
“Gone, gone. Listen, Boss, you better get over here, there’s something you’ve gotta see.”
Gino burst through the door of his penthouse, Niko and Smitty fast on his heels. “What the fuck happened?” Gino roared, pinning Tony to the wall by his throat.
Tony pointed toward the bedroom, gasping for air, his feet dangling off the floor.
Niko ran passed Gino and Tony, rounding the corner of the bedroom, stopping hard as he laid eyes on the stain next to what looked to be jeweled lady’s panties.
“Giovanni!” Niko yelled, picking up the note written in Kristine’s handwriting.
“Did you…” Gino’s question trailed off as he took in the scene before him. Niko handed him the letter before disappearing into his ensuite.
Gino,
You once asked me to tell you something no one else knew about me. I mistakenly told you the truth, when I should have followed your lead and lied through my teeth instead. I know I don’t belong in your world, I never did. You need someone like Felicia, a woman, who like you, lacks a moral compass. You should marry her; she will serve you well as she turns a blind eye to the women you take to your bed like you did Nina. I’m not that girl. There will never be enough money, cars, or closets full of clothes to make me one. Enjoy Nina and her panties. Oh, and good luck getting the wine stain out, I was too busy getting reacquainted with myself to clean it.
Kristine
Letting the letter fall to the floor, Gino took in the room. What was left of his comforter hung from the bottom of the bed, the large red stain sitting on top.
“Hey,” Niko called from the door, his voice low and sorrowful. “You need to see this.”
His bathroom looked more like a murder scene than the place where she’d helped him with his tie not long ago. White towels, stained orange, were strewn on the floor. Black streaks, from what he assumed was hair color, based on the two empty boxes, on the faucet of his sink.
“Pull up the cameras, I need to know what the fuck happened here.”
Gino stood with his cellphone in hand as he watched a now dark-haired Kristine leave the building and climb into a taxi.
/> “According to Tony, she didn’t want to watch the fight with them. When he sent out for dinner, she had them stop at the pharmacy down the block.” Niko recounted the story he’d obtained from the guards.
He stared blankly at the still photo on his screen, Kristine glancing over her shoulder at the building before jumping into the back of a taxi. He pressed speed dial and held his phone to his ear.
“Want to tell me why I have a pair of your fucking panties in my bed and a note asking me if you’re worth it?”
Laughing, “Well, asshole, come to the warehouse on Tenth, and find out for yourself. Oh, and if you want Kristine’s head to remain attached to her body, leave your fucking goons at home. I happen to know there’s an excellent replay of the fight from a few months ago they can entertain themselves with.”
Spinning on his heels, Gino dialed another number, “Tell me what else you found on my brother.”
Pain, like she’d never felt before, woke Kristine, her vision blurred, and she was unable to breathe through her nose. Searching her memory, she recalled being in Gino’s shower, then visiting her father, and then…
Sucker punched by…Sully?
The memory crashed forward, causing nausea to join forces with the pain in her head, sending her body to the left as the contents of her stomach hit the floor.
“Ah, glad to see you’re finally awake.”
Kristine didn’t need to see the face to recognize the voice. She would never forget what they’d done to her.
“I’d hate for you to miss when I kill your little boyfriend.”
Keeping her eyes tightly shut, Kristine tapped down the nausea by swallowing hard. Testing her arms, she found them tied behind her, the same for her legs.
“What’s wrong with you, Sully? Gino is your brother. Why would you want to kill him?”
When her question is met with silence, Kristine raised her head, ignoring the pounding headache as she opened her eyes.
Nina stood not five feet behind Sully, her head tossed back in laughter.
“Look at you, eyes growing blacker by the second and so full of confusion. And that nose,” Nina reached out, pressing on the tip with her jeweled fingernail, her touch causing a shooting pain which made Kristine’s eyes water.
“I’d feel bad for you,” she feigned concern. “If I didn’t hate you so much.”
Something told Kristine this went much deeper than a pair of panties left behind for her to find, how deep she wasn’t certain. As her vision cleared slightly, she was able to see a man standing in the corner, his features familiar, but the pain in her head made things fuzzy.
“You made my job so easy, Kristine,” Nina boasted, forcing Kristine to look at her face. “The way you instantly assumed Gino was cheating on you when you discovered the little gift I’d left for you to find. I’ll admit, you surprised me when you changed your appearance and packed your things instead of confronting Gino.”
Nina moved her face closer to Kristine’s until the pair were close to sharing each other’s breath. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, sweetheart. Gino and I haven’t fucked since the night you landed in New York.”
Kristine remembered her call to Nina once she’d reached her hotel, and the disappointment she felt when she learned her only friend in town had other obligations.
“You did all of this over some guy?” Kristine demanded, her temples pounding with each word she spoke.
“Some guy?” Nina gasped. “This isn’t some catfight, Kristine. This is about the sweet taste of revenge, served up ice-fucking-cold.” Nina seethed, placing her fingers in the center of Kristine’s forehead and pushed her backward.
“That’s enough, Nina!” Sully barked, pulling a metal chair across the cement floor, the scraping noise made Kristine cringe and nearly vomit. “I allowed you to have your fun,” spinning the seat around, he straddled it. “Now it’s time to let this little bitch know the truth,” pulling his gun from his jacket. “Before I put a bullet in her like I did Emilio.”
Kristine remained stoic, refusing to allow Sully to see how much his threats terrified her. She had no idea what time it was, or how long she’d been here, but she needed to keep her wits about her, seizing the first opportunity to get the hell out of here.
“Tell me, Kristine. Did it ever occur to you to question how, at the precise moment in your life you needed a lifeline, a perfect stranger offered you a job?”
Kristine remained silent, her eyes focused on the ring adorning the middle finger of Sully’s right hand. It was a new addition, but the large ring was definitely an antique.
“Why me?” Kristine croaked. Sully was wrong, she’d contemplated that very question a multitude of times.
“Why you, indeed?” Sully laughed, leaning back slightly as Nina stepped forward placing a heated kiss to his lips.
“Have you ever heard the name, Morti Rizzoli?”
“No,” Kristine lied.
“No?” Sully mocked. “Dear old Granny never mentioned him?”
“She said she doesn’t know him. Now back the fuck up, Sully.”
All heads turned toward the back of the warehouse as Gino emerged from the shadows, his gun pointed to the temple of a dark-haired man, one which remained too blurry for Kristine to identify. Letting out a shaky breath, she didn’t need to see Gino’s eyes to know he was staring at her. She hoped she looked as bad as Nina described, fueling the fire inside him she could feel from her chair.
“Glad you could join us, brother.” Sully casually muttered, turning his attention back to Kristine.
“He’s talking to you, motherfucker.” Gino roared a second before a loud thud echoed in the room and a male voice uttered an oath. “Or did he hide the truth from you too?”
Kristina tried to focus on the man kneeling on the floor, and as he raised his head toward her. “Mr. Evans?”
26
Gino held his breath as he took in Kristine’s battered face. He’d noticed the shattered glass in Sully’s car when he slipped through the side door, following the drops of blood around the corner before finding one of his men hiding behind a crate snorting crank.
“Evans?” Gino laughed. “What the fuck, Mario? You change your name?”
Gino hated the confused look in Kristine’s eyes, and as bad as he wanted to go to her and make sure she was okay, he had to end this.
Bending down, Gino gripped the back of Mario’s neck, twisting his head until he cried out in pain.
“The man you know as Evans is a two-bit thug by the name of Mario Mastone.”
Tipping his head toward Sully, “This asshole sent him to Kansas thinking I wouldn’t know what he was up to. But Sully forgets, unlike my father, I have eyes everywhere.” Gino slammed Mario's face into the concrete as the last few words left his mouth, the impact breaking his nose and shattering two teeth.
“You see, Kristine, Mario and Sully think they’ve kept a secret, one born long before any of us was a passing thought. In reality, this secret they kept, wasn’t a secret at all.”
Gino stood to his full height, taking two steps toward Kristine before Sully held up a cautious hand. “I wouldn’t.”
“You wouldn’t what, motherfucker? Haven’t you learned by now you’ll never be better me? No matter how hard you try, I am always one step ahead of you.”
Sully jumped from his chair, the action sending it flying to the side, scraping Nina in the process.
“Not this time, Giovanni!” Sully roared. “For years, I’ve sat back and watched you and Jonathan grow fat off the backs of others, while people like my mother are fed scraps from your table.”
“Well look at you, Saint Salvatore,” Gino mocked. “Defender of common whores and thieves.” Gino could tell by the way Sully’s eye twitched he’d hit a nerve, but he wasn’t finished, not by a long shot. “For the record, the only table Barbara ever knew was the one with a pole down the center. At least according to the papers filed with Child Protective Services when they took you from the back
of the strip club she was arrested in, less than a week after you were born.”
“You lie!” Sully roared, his eyes filled with angry tears.
Keeping his eyes trained on Sully, Gino reached into the inside pocket of his jacket. “See for yourself.”
Taking the paper in hand, Sully’s attention dropped to the page.
“According to this report—"
“I can fucking read, Giovanni.” Sully interrupted, his voice low and menacing.
“And I wasn’t talking to you,” Gino returned, silently noting this was the second time he’d broken the rule of using his full name.
“As I was saying, Kristine,” Gino emphasized her name. “According to the report, Barbara Diane Lorenzo, was arrested on an outstanding warrant and found to be in possession of a controlled substance; a violation of her parole. As she was being hauled off to jail, she had the sense enough to tell the cops about the baby asleep in a car seat in the dressing room. According to the date on the report, this was during the year my parents spent together in Sicily. If you scan down the page, it further outlines how the social worker assigned to the case questioned Barbara about any family who could come and get the child, avoiding placing the baby in foster care. And what did Mommy Dearest share with authorities?”
Gino didn’t wait for Sully to answer, the thrill of exposing him for the liar he was consumed him. “The father of the baby: name, address, and phone number. Who, incidentally, reported to the police station less than an hour later with a copy of an application for a birth certificate in hand, listing Saul Mastone as the father, not Jonathan Vitale.”
“I found them fucking,” Sully began. “It was the weekend Jonathan took us to that concert at the Garden…” He trailed off, the memory as fresh in his mind as the night it happened. “I charged at him, thinking he was raping her, as all my mother ever talked about was Jonathan. They sat me down together, showed me proof Saul was my father and how he wanted my help getting back at the Vitale’s. The next day they introduced me to Mario, my half-brother.”
Leave Me Breathless: The Black Rose Collection Page 19