“What the actual fuck?” I snap just as the two men walk into the room.
Arlo closes, and locks, the door behind them, standing in front of it and crossing his arms over his chest. Luca looks down at the dead body. He lets out a snort just as the guard does the same. For five years I saw this man, and for five years, I never knew his name.
“Stefano,” he says as if he can read my questioning mind. “This man, the one you’ve already figured out betrayed you, was also the one who commissioned the surveillance of your wife. Roman only wanted surveillance on you, your wife was just for him.”
“Why?” I ask.
Stefano flicks his gaze over to Pippa, then to me. “No clue, maybe the woman can answer?”
Erin lets out a snort. “Why is everyone so obsessed with her? I just don’t get it,” she snaps. “Roman was only obsessed with me and Mia. Getting information on Pippa was just something he wanted us to have so that we could fuck with Massimo. Brando claimed it was to keep as evidence.”
“It wasn’t,” I snarl.
She jerks her head over to me. “No fucking shit,” she shouts. “Brando loved Roman’s wife. Maybe he thought if he got the money, she’d go with him. Maybe he had me keep her under surveillance for him because he got off on having the power? I don’t know.”
“What happened to the wife?”
“Roman killed her, then killed himself. When he realized that his money was gone, his wife was fucking someone else, and that there would be no way for him to start over, not at his age, not with fucking over the famiglia the way he did.
“The feds weren’t offering witness protection the way he thought they would. He lived under the radar for as long as he could, but eventually he killed his cheating whore of a wife, his kids, then himself,” Erin explains, sounding oddly lucid.
“And Brando?”
“Brando had his money, but didn’t have his wife. He tried to play the good man to you, maybe he thought that he could keep it up. He knew he didn’t have enough money to leave and nowhere he could disappear to where you all wouldn’t find him.”
“And you?” I ask.
Her lips twitch into a small smile. “I just wanted to be taken care of. I loved Roman. Always. I enjoyed my time here as a call girl, but in the end, I know that the wife of a Made Man is always well cared for and I want that. Massimo was my shot, and now that’s gone, what’s the point?”
“In the end, you’ll all die,” Gavino murmurs.
“Yeah,” she sighs. “At least I’ll be with him,” she breathes.
Gavino snorts. “I should sell you, just so you won’t get the satisfaction of sweet death.”
Pippa takes a step forward, tilting her head back to look up into Gavino’s eyes. “If you do, I’ll always think she’s there, watching me,” Pippa whispers.
“Yeah,” he murmurs. “For you, cara, she dies. You want the honors? All of this involves you more than anyone. A sick fucked up web of lies and betrayal.”
Gavino shifts the handle of the knife into her hand. Pippa takes it, curling her fingers around it and I watch as she tests its weight. She turns to look back at me from over her shoulder. Her eyes filled with questions that I can’t answer.
Should she do it?
Would she regret it?
Will it change everything about her in a split second?
PIPPA
Massimo dips his chin, his eyes focused on mine—intently.
“If it will haunt you, then no.”
His words are so matter of fact, so simple that I freeze in my spot, answering my unspoken questions. Wondering if this will haunt me. That simple word—karma—that haunts me.
I wonder if it’s going to come back for me, if more bad shit is going to be thrown at me, the moment I take this bitch’s life.
“Karma,” I whisper.
Massimo slides his fingers down my arm, wrapping his hand around the knife’s handle. I slip my fingers from his. I can’t do it. I want to do it. I can practically taste the desire to end her on my tongue, but that little thing, that little word—karma, hangs in the air, taunting me.
It doesn’t bother Massimo though. He takes a step forward, bending down slightly, his gaze connecting to Erin’s. I watch as he lifts the knife, placing the blade against her neck right where Gavino held it a while ago.
“Your loyalties were misplaced, as were Brando and Roman’s,” Massimo murmurs.
She licks her lips before they curl up into a smile. “No, they weren’t. My loyalties were to the man that I loved. That can never be misplaced.”
“He abused you,” Mia whispers.
Erin shrugs a shoulder. “You may see it that way, but it’s because you didn’t open your mind to him. He was perfection. Nobody understood him the way that I did.”
“So, he brainwashed you.” Mia snorts. “In the end, he’s killed you too.”
“So be it. I welcome sweet death so that I can be with him again,” Erin breathes as Massimo slides the knife across her neck.
Blood squirts out everywhere. It covers Massimo’s face and shirt, but he doesn’t seem fazed. He watches her, his eyes not leaving hers until they’re vacant.
“Is this over now?” I ask the quiet room.
Gavino chuckles, his eyes finding mine as his lips twitch into a smile. “I hope so, cara. You didn’t deserve an ounce of what happened to you. This is a clear case of people being—”
I open my mouth, interrupting him before he can finish his words. “This is a clear case of people being people. Obsessing, falling in misguided love, being greedy for that love and for the love of money. Betraying others to get ahead in life. It’s the way people are.”
Gavino nods his head. “It is, cara.”
“I just want to be happy. I could live in a cardboard box under the bridge as long as I was happy,” I admit on a whisper.
Massimo’s head swings over to me, his eyebrows lifting in surprise at my words. “Doubtful, but that’s sweet, dolcezza. I’ve seen how many pillows are on the bed, no way would a cardboard box suffice.”
The room erupts into laughter. Something light and airy enters the space and we all inhale a deep breath before we let it out with a whoosh. The heaviness of before is gone, the anger, it’s disappeared.
It feels, good, and for the first time in five years, I finally feel… happy.
Epilogue
ONE MONTH LATER
PIPPA
I smooth my dress down, turning to the side to look at my reflection. Something catches the corner of my eye in the reflection. Massimo is leaning against the doorjamb of my closet, his eyes sliding down my body, pausing on my hands at my middle before they move down to my feet.
“I’m glad you claim to like curves, because I’m getting them,” I huff.
His gaze flicks up to meet mine just as I turn to look at him from over my shoulder. I watch as his lips turn up into a grin.
“Dolcezza, you look amazing. You know that you do, am I not showing you enough?” he asks, pushing off of the jamb as he makes his way into the closet.
My breath hitches when he slides his hands around my hips, turning me to face him fully. Tipping my head back, I slide my arms up his chest, curling my fingers around his shoulders, holding on to him as he tugs my body flat against his own.
“Massimo,” I whisper.
He grins, dipping his chin, his mouth brushing mine. “Pippa,” he responds, his fingers curling in my dress as he hikes it up my thighs.
“We have to go to the party, we’re going to be late,” I groan.
He hums against my lips, one of his hands leaving my skirt to slip beneath my panties and dive between my legs. Ripping my lips from his, I let out a long moan as his fingers slide through my folds.
“You were sexy the day I married you, sexy the day I came back five years later from leaving you, and still so goddamn sexy right this fucking minute,” he whispers against my throat as his lips travel down my neck.
Spreading my thighs, I lick my l
ips as he plays me just the way that he knows I like, the way he knows will take me to the edge and over, fast. Massimo’s teeth sink into the skin between my neck and my shoulder just as his fingers press against my clit and I come.
It rolls through me hard and fast without warning as the warmth spreads throughout my entire body. Massimo licks the spot that he bit as his fingers slowly pump in and out of me, his palm grinding against my sensitive clit.
“Beautiful, every fucking square inch of you, dolcezza,” he rasps against my throat.
Lifting my leg, I hold on to his shoulders as I wrap my knee around his hip. “Please, Massimo.”
“Please what?” I hear him ask as he grasps the side of my flimsy panties and rips them.
His hand shifts to his waist and I can feel him working his pants open. Finally, I breathe out an exhale of relief when I feel him free himself and the head of his cock presses against my center.
Massimo reaches down, grabbing ahold of my other thigh, lifting me up at the same time he impales me before he turns me around and slams my back against the wall. Throwing my head back, it thuds against the wall as I let out a whimper of pleasure.
Massimo grunts, “Look at me, dolcezza,” he demands on a growl.
Lifting my head, my breath coming out in pants as his hips thrust, his pelvis grinding against my clit on each stroke, I try to focus my eyes on him, but it’s so difficult when all I want to do is feel, is climb, is fall over the edge into bliss—again.
“I love you,” he says, his voice coming out rough, hoarse and raspy.
Licking my bottom lip, I sink my teeth into my flesh, my eyes searching his. He continues to fuck me, slamming my back against the wall with each hard thrust of his hips. Leaning forward, I exhale against his mouth before I press my lips against his in a quick kiss before I pull my head back.
“I love you, Massimo, so much it aches.”
He grins, his eyes searching mine. He doesn’t stop, his body playing mine just the way that he knows I love. It comes like a freight train rushing through me, fast and furious. I grip his shoulders tighter, pulling him to me as I open my mouth, but no sound comes out, my climax taking over and my eyes rolling in the back of my head as my lids close.
Massimo doesn’t pause his movements, he continues to fuck me hard and fast until he buries himself deep inside and groans with his own release. We stay in our positions as we catch our breath.
Lifting my head, my eyes slowly open and my lips turn up into a smile that I can’t stop from spreading. Massimo’s lips twitch as he looks into my eyes, his gaze searching my own.
“This is it, dolcezza. We made a boy, I know it.”
“Massimo,” I breathe.
He shakes his head, his lips brushing mine to effectively shut me up. “Don’t argue with me, Pippa. I know you want my baby just as badly as I want to give one to you. It’s okay to want it, it’s okay to feel excited that it could happen. It’s all okay.”
“Rosana is waiting,” I mutter.
Massimo snorts. “It’s okay, beautiful girl. Trust your husband, yes?”
My lips turn up into a small smile. “Always, Massimo.”
“Good girl, now let’s go and throw your sister her party, yeah?”
Inhaling a shaky breath, I brush my lips against his one last time before he slowly pulls out of me and sets me down on my feet. Together we clean up, then leave our home and head toward the restaurant where all of our friends and family are waiting for us.
MASSIMO
Gavino and Arlo sit down next to me. They don’t say anything at first, and I’m glad for the silent companionship, but I know that they have something they want to say to me. They don’t usually come over together to shoot the shit.
“A new bakery came into your area,” Arlo mentions.
“I’ve already visited them,” I state. “They won’t be an issue. They have agreed to the terms without blinking an eye.”
“They have?” Arlo asks.
Nodding, I lift my glass to my lips and take a drink. “They have. They’re from down south, they know the drill. Appreciated the heads up and the option to agree before any other tactics were used,” I say before I take a drink from my glass.
“Good,” Gavino murmurs. “Now that Rosana is all graduated, she’s going to live in Manhattan?” he asks.
“Yeah, she is,” I say, nodding my head in agreement.
There’s a silent moment, the three of us just looking at the crowd gathered to celebrate Rosana and her accomplishments.
“The wife was found,” Gavino says.
“Wife?”
Gavino nods his head once, never looking at me, his gaze focused on Luciana as she stands with the rest of the women talking as though they didn’t just have lunch together yesterday. I’m sure they shopped and tortured their guards as well. Something that I know they truly delight in doing.
“Roman’s wife. He didn’t kill her. Not only was he a rapist and whatever else he was, he was a liar.”
“Maybe Erin and Brando were the liars?” I ask.
Gavino nods. “Possibly,” he says, taking a drink from his own glass. “But, I honestly think that he may not have known she was alive. Maybe it was all a lie. She’s at the casino for us to question anyway. I’m tired of playing these games with all of them.”
“Whole thing gave me a goddamn headache,” I grunt.
“No shit,” Arlo snorts. “Want to head to the casino? Get to the bottom of it? Mia says she’s crying. And you know how Mia doesn’t do crying females.”
We leave, telling the women to meet us there when they’re all finished. Pippa narrows her eyes at me, tilting her head to the side. Lowering my chin, I touch my mouth to hers.
“What is it?” she asks on a whisper.
I grunt, sliding my lips along hers. “It’s business, dolcezza.”
She hums. “I’m sure. I’ll see you later.” Licking her bottom lip, I nip the flesh before I take a step back. “I’ll see you soon, Massimo,” she calls out.
“You will, dolcezza.”
Leaving her, I go straight to the casino, directly to where Roman’s wife is waiting for us. When I arrive, I’m not surprised to see that she’s a pretty woman. She has dark hair, darker eyes, and she looks strong but terrified at the sight of me, Gavino, and Arlo staring down at her.
She sniffles before she starts to talk. “My husband was not a good or kind man. As soon as everything happened and we lost the bakery. I left him. I haven’t been back.”
Licking my lips, my eyes travel down her body before they lift to meet her own. “We were told that he killed you, the children, then killed himself?”
She shakes her head. “I left. I packed up the kids and ran away in the middle of the night. I took an Uber until I could get to a car rental place. I didn’t want him to find me. I stayed with an old friend, someone who was from the neighborhood, but lives in a remote house in the middle of Montana now. He lives off of the grid. It was the perfect place to hide out for a while.”
“But you’re back now, why?” Gavino asks.
She inhales a deep breath then lets it out. “I know that he’s gone. His lover is gone, too. There is no reason for me to hide anymore, is there?”
There’s a moment of silence. I search her face, looking for any love lost with Roman, but it’s not there.
“Your lover is gone too, but I’m sure you know that?” I ask. She nods, her eyes flicking to the floor before they lift to mine.
“That’s not what he was, maybe what he wanted, but I never, not with him.”
“I have one piece of advice,” Gavino mutters. She lifts her chin, jutting it forward as she looks up at him standing above her. “Take whatever you can fit in your car. Empty out what’s left in the bank accounts and go back to that remote home with a man who probably treats you a hell of a lot better than that rotto nel culo ever did.”
I watch as she licks her lips, her eyes flicking from each one of us, then landing on Gavino. “He does,�
� she whispers as she shifts uncomfortably in her seat.
“Do you need someone to go with you? As protection?”
“Am I safe? Are my children safe?”
Gavino dips his chin. “You are safe. No harm will come to you. I’ll send a man with you to gather everything you need, just to be sure, but yes, you’re safe.”
“Thank you,” she whispers as she stands.
She starts to walk away but stops directly in front of me. She lifts her hand, placing her trembling palm in the center of my chest as she tilts her head back and looks up into my eyes.
“I’m sorry all of this happened to you the way that it did.”
“Did you do it?” I ask.
Her eyes widen as a horrified expression crosses her face. “Absolutely not.”
My lips twitch into a small smile, my fingers wrapping around her wrist. “Then there is nothing for you to be sorry for. Go and live a good life, cara. Never think about Brooklyn again, yeah?”
She gulps as I release my hold on her wrist. She nods as her lips turn up into a small smile. “You’re very much in love with your wife?”
“Very much,” I admit.
“I’m glad that it all worked out.”
I grunt, stepping to the side so that she can pass me. We all watch as she makes her way to the office door. Gavino is on the phone calling someone to go with her. Probably Luca if I had to guess. I call out to her, she stops just at the door, looking back at me from over her shoulder.
“It worked out because I worked hard for it to do just that. If you want this new life, with this new man, then you need to work hard to make it what you need.”
She doesn’t say anything else. She leaves the room and with her departure, peace finally comes over my body. Complete and total fucking peace, which I’m sure will only last a second or two until some other shit is thrown my way, but I’ll take the fucking bliss while I’ve got it anyway.
PIPPA
Rosana laughs softly after Massimo walks away. She could be laughing at the way I’m watching him walk, but I don’t care. My husband is hot and eyeing him go is just as sexy as watching him make his way toward me any day.
Becoming the Street Boss: A Zanetti Famiglia Novel Page 28