by Sienna Mynx
“How can you expect me to find her?”
“She is out there, and she belongs with us. You sent her away Mirabella and look what has happened. You had the power to forgive her sin, but you chose revenge.”
“You blame me?”
Zia lowered her gaze in shame.
“Answer me. Do you blame me?”
“No. I’m sorry for my words. It’s not your fault, I blame Rocco.” She glanced to the picture of her husband. “He and his brothers have caused more misery than happiness in life. There are so many things you don’t know. Things I wish I could say. Things I must take to the grave if this family is to survive what is dead and buried.”
“Like who is the real father of Lorenzo?”
Zia glanced at Mirabella and frowned. “Rocco has told you the truth.”
“Has he? Giovanni doesn’t think so. He needs answers. He says you refuse to talk to him. He isn’t pushing you Zia because Rocco is dead, but you will have to tell us the truth soon.”
“My coming to Gio and confessing my sins won’t solve anything, Mirabella. Giovanni and Lorenzo will kill each other before it’s done. All I have left is my Catalina. She was here, in Palermo. I’ve heard the rumors of her and Armando marrying. If it’s true she’s coming back here. I’ll be here when she does. I’m not going home with you. I won’t ever step foot into Melanzana unless Catalina is welcome. That isn’t because of you, it’s a message I send to Giovanni. He will understand it.”
“So, you want to manipulate Giovanni after everything he’s been through? The more I think about it Giovanni is right not to trust any of us.”
“You’re wrong. Giovanni should trust you. I saw you fight for him harder than even his madre did when his father made him jump from the cliffs. I saw how far you’d go to protect him. I wish I had that strength long ago before my only son died.”
“Oh, Zia!”
“Giovanni is in an impossible position. The only power I have to save Catalina is my obedience. He will eventually welcome us both back. You will learn that soon.”
“Zia we need you.”
“Basta!” Zia clapped her hands and silenced Mirabella. “No tears now. No apologies. No regrets. Quel che fatto è fatto—What’s done is done. You are much stronger today than you were yesterday. You saved his life, and that came at a price. We all pay Mirabella. It’s how we atone that matters. Now is our atonement, and it won’t be easy. It shouldn’t be easy, for any of us—including you.”
“Why are you seeking atonement? What have you done?”
“Non ne voglio discutere con te,” Zia waved off the question.
“You will discuss it with me,” Mirabella insisted. She sat forward. “Look at me, Zia. Please! You were there. In this family, as his wife, you were here the entire time. You tried to burn Eve’s diary—.”
“I did nothing.”
“There’s something you’re hiding. What is it? You knew Rocco’s crimes, Tomosino, Isabella, all of them. And you did nothing. How did you meet Rocco? Was it the same way? Did he take you from your family like Tomosino took Eve? What is the secret this family is protecting? Che palle!” Mirabella spat.
“You’re right. I was here. I know my husband was a rapist because he raped me. I’ve known what kind of man Rocco was long before he found enough weakness in my spirit to enter my heart. You have no idea what I have lost and how I was punished for marrying him. My only son, my only child, the only one God will give me died from a bullet to the face with his own fathers’ gun. And instead of consoling me he went after another woman, and another, and another. I have been punished enough in life to know I could change nothing if I didn’t repent. And I never repented because despite it all I loved him. You’re stronger than me, than your sister, than Eve. We all see it. You can use that strength to save us or help Giovanni destroy what’s left of us. Either way my time has passed. Learn from my mistakes, Mirabella! Learn! All I want to do is keep my promise to Eve and protect Catalina the best way I can. You have to do the rest.”
Zia wiped her tears. There was a finality in her words that was too much to bear. First Mirabella lost her mother, then her grandmother and Fabiana. She lost Catalina and Marietta. All she had left was Zia. Not anymore.
Mirabella pushed up from her seat and went over to Zia. She kissed her brow and then her cheek. “I will do everything I can to heal our family. And when the time is right Gio will bring Catalina home.”
“Grazie Donna Mirabella,” Zia said in a bitter tone. “For your mercy.”
“I love you, Zia,” she said and left the room.
Before Mirabella reached the doors to the palazzo she was in tears. But she made sure to wipe her cheeks dry, so her pain could be buried with all the other emotions. She drove the golf cart down to the villa where she and Gio stayed with the kids. And the pain lessened at the thought of being alone with her family. Mirabella too needed this break.
“Mama,” Eve ran over to her the moment she got out of the golf cart. “Mama, can we go swimming with Ella and Bella, the twins?”
Mirabella glanced over to see the twin girls Ella and Bella with their mother. The girls were seven and already had their swim suits on.
“I thought we’d eat with Papa, have our own little party in Mondello.”
“Papa’s gone,” Eve said. “Please! I want to go.”
“It’s okay Donna, she can come I’ll be with the girls and the men too.” Amy said. Mirabella sighed. The beach was heavily armed with their men. Even though these were dangerous times she felt safe on their property.
“Please, please, please,” Eve whined.
She glanced to Gino who was sucking his two middle fingers. She didn’t see Gianni but guessed he was in someone’s arms.
“Okay, but you put on your floaters and stay near the shore, mi capisci?”
“Sì capisco!” Eve grinned. She ran off toward the girls.
“Amy? They need their swimsuits that are up at the house. Saverina can get them for you. Dinner is going to be served soon, so don’t stay long. Make sure they stay close to the shore,” Mirabella yelled.
Amy nodded and put Eve and Gino in the golf cart. The kids buzzed like honey bees with excitement. Mirabella felt a sense of calm after seeing her children so happy. She closed her eyes and settled her emotions. She then went inside the villa. The half-smoked cigar on the coffee table was the only thing left behind. Giovanni was gone. His promise for a night in Mondello was broken. Something more important must have come up. She went to the back of the villa and laid down on the bed. It took little to no effort for sleep to claim her.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ho promesse da mantenere e miglia da percorrere prima di dormire—
Promises to keep and Miles to Go Before I Sleep
Bagheria, Sicily
THE NEWS WASN’T GOOD. La Kalsa, a daytime tourist trap that became a nighttime crime den, was an approved meeting place for Giovanni with the remaining three Dons of Sicily. He thought his miraculous physical recovery and his proven record to defeat his enemies would at least garner respect. But they were not to be appeased by Giovanni’s once powerful command of their underworld. At gunpoint Giovanni was informed that the side dealings and fortune he made with Don Gambetta had cost him alliances his father had worked over seventy years to build. Lorenzo and Armando had exposed him, and it was a death blow. Though Bagheria was marked as protected territory, the tariffs he’d have to pay to the Dons to keep his family safe and businesses from being firebombed were such an insult Giovanni nearly drew his gun himself and started the war.
Mondello was no longer his.
It was war.
Giovanni paused in the dark. He walked from the car to the door of his villa. And with each step his shadow was never too far behind. He glanced to Umberto. Since Carlo had been sent away and Renaldo and Nico were holding down the front lines of battle for him, Umberto was promoted. And he took to the new job as a kid would take to Christmas. There was a gleam of eagerness in the young r
uffian’s eyes. A willingness to pull a trigger on any target. He even mimicked Carlo in expensive Italian silk shirts, Gucci belts and shoes. The diamonds on his wristwatch sparkled brighter than fireworks in the darkness.
“We leave tomorrow. Tell the men,” he informed his shadow.
“Yes, boss,” the young enforcer said.
“And Umberto?”
The young enforcer smirked, the gold tooth on the left side of his mouth sparkled.
“Cut back on the diamonds and the other expenses. You’re my capu, a Battaglia man, not my overpaid whore.”
Umberto’s smile faded. He nodded obediently. Giovanni and his entourage parted ways. Again he felt the urgent need for his cane. After the humiliation of defeat with the Dons he wouldn’t dare hobble like a cripple to his woman on the damn thing. However, his mind changed the moment he saw it. In the darkness of the villa he plucked it from the wall. He relied on it to walk to the center of the room where there was a sofa, chair, and television. And upon the coffee table, a small note.
DINNER IS IN THE FRIDGE, the whiskey is in the cabinet and the kids are staying at the main house. Eat first, drink last, then come to bed.
Bella
GIOVANNI SMILED. HE crumbled the letter in his balled-up fist and shot it over to the can by the door. He missed. He groaned at his failure taking it to heart. With the aid of his cane he headed to the room where his wife and children had slept since their return to Sicily. He often chose to sleep in the chair, because it helped with his back pains. He often chose to drink his Irish whiskey before bed because it helped with his temper since having to put a bullet in Tacchini.
The bedroom wasn’t as dark as the rest of the villa. There were windows on two walls, bringing in the ethereal glow of moonlight. She slept on the bed in a robe and nothing else.
“SAVE ME,” HE SAID.
Mirabella woke and turned. His expression was the perfect juxtaposition of hard and soft. His thumb brushed her cheek.
“Bella? You okay?”
“Did you say something?”
“I only kissed you. What’s wrong?” he asked, taking notice of her perspiring and heavy breathing.
“Bad dreams,” she confessed with a voice clogged by emotion. The doctor told her of the PTSD he feared she suffered after Kei’s kidnapping. That the drugs Kei gave her weren’t the issue. It was the nightmare she lived before and after marrying Gio. And since Tacchini died they were back to square one. Death for her would and should never be easy.
“It’s been a grueling day.” He kissed her brow. “Soon there will be no more nightmares. You will forget. I promise.”
“Okay,” she humbly accepted.
Giovanni rolled Mirabella onto her back and pinned her down by her wrists. The windows of his soul were twilight blue. His face slowly lowered to offer her a kiss. Giovanni’s kiss leveled her. Immediately the bad dreams faded from her memory.
“Stay like this,” he said.
Mirabella nodded her obedience. Giovanni backed off the bed. She kept her wrists in their pinned position. She made no effort to use her robe to cover her nudity.
The Don stood at the foot of the bed watching her, admiringly. He freed the tie from his neck and tossed it aside. Next went the buttons on his shirt. The silk threads were peeled away and the sleeves went down his arms. It was tossed where the tie had landed.
The zipper of his pants went down next.
There would be no more conversation between them. The doctor said she was five months pregnant. Her belly still showed little evidence of it. Her hips had spread, and her breasts were a cup size larger. What he learned about pregnant women he learned from her. Sex was beautiful before, but when his Bella was pregnant the pleasure became tenfold. It wasn’t just the warm heat of her pussy. It was her vagina, all of it. The lips swollen puffy, the way his dick felt cradled in comfort even through the most urgent of sex. She was most beautiful to him when carrying his child, and even more so now that he’d been granted a second chance with her.
Giovanni crawled back over to her. Her lids fluttered and closed as the warmth of his breath breezed over the tips of her nipples. Instead of placing a kiss there because he knew of her tenderness he used his tongue to trace down the valley between her breasts and dragged it slickly lower.
“Ah, yes,” she sighed.
He flicked his tongue over her navel. He smiled and brushed his nose over it. She gasped with excitement parting her thighs wider as she clutched his broad shoulders.
“Cara mia?” he chuckled, “Devi aVere pazienza. Relax, I know I can’t taste it. But I still want to say hello.”
She nodded.
He kissed her there and groaned from the temptation to part the lips of her plump sex with his tongue. He then eased himself back up and slipped inside of her.
“Bella,” he breathed. Those three words brought forth an electrical storm low in her pelvis. The growing tug-of-war of tension and pleasure hit her like a category 1 hurricane and gathered strength. Mirabella moaned out loud until her voice went hoarse. Giovanni’s deliberate and indecent tempo of tonguing her while delivering pelvic crushing dick plunges rattled her senses. She had to pause from gasping and repeating his name to catch her breath. Passion detonated a nuclear explosion that sent a wave of pleasure so powerful she couldn’t breathe. Her muscles seized and her thighs locked tightly around his waist with his finger lodged between her clenched butt cheeks. Giovanni’s head lifted from her shoulder and Mirabella grabbed a fist full of his hair to kiss her husband again while her sex gyrated and every nerve below her waist ignited with sparks.
“Owe! Behave,” he said and bit her lip.
“More, don’t stop,” she pleaded.
“Compotarsi,” he said sweetly for her to release control. His face hovered above hers. Giovanni positioned himself at her entrance ready to take her again at any moment. He lifted his body with the push of his hands and his forehead bumped against hers. He looked down the vertical line of their bodies to the tiny space separating them before the round head of his cock disappeared into her slowly. She felt every beautiful inch of her lower body stretch. Giovanni did a slow swirl of his hips and delivered his first of many thrusts. Another moan tore from her throat. The vibrations from his repeated dick pumps went all over her body. The temperature in the room climbed a thousand degrees. Undiluted heat blasted down her spine. She reveled in the noises of satisfaction he made as mattress springs and bed frames creaked. The headboard banged against the wall repeatedly. His lips dropped kisses on her shoulder. Need clawed her insides threatening to tear her to shreds. Her eyes slammed shut. She tipped her head back while panting through open lips. The climax in her was too strong. Despite his Herculean strength she felt his vulnerability. He was close to the breaking point. Her trembling leg muscles were turning to jelly. The rhythm was continuous. Passion filled the room. The friction went on and on. Slap, slap, moan. Grind, slap, groan. The lines blurred together. His tormented moans were a heady invitation for her to release. And she did. The moment was supreme. Giovanni thrust into her with such loving tenderness; what was left of her consciousness collapsed.
GIOVANNI OPENED HIS eyes first. Mirabella lay on his sweaty chest with her hand on his dick.
“I fell asleep,” he asked rather than stated. In his voice the fear could be heard. He’d overdone it. Tried to prove a point to his woman. And in the process the stress he put on his body brought about moments of black-out exhaustion. Did she know? How long had he been out?
“Mmm, it’s okay. I like listening to your heartbeat,” she replied, and he knew she was unaware.
It wasn’t okay. He hated collapsing in such weakness, especially after pleasing his woman. He wanted full control of his mind and body again.
“I feel safe here, with you,” she yawned.
Giovanni lifted his head a bit and looked at his wife.
“Don’t get up Giovanni,” she pressed on his chest. “Stay still and hold me.”
“What’s wron
g?” he said and wiped his hand down his face.
“Nothing.”
“Tell me, is it the baby? Was I too rough?”
“No,” she sighed. “Is it wrong to be happy and sad at once, especially today?”
“We can be both. I am both,” he said with relief.
“Rocco’s dead.”
“Yes. Yes, he is.”
“Catalina’s gone,” she reminded him.
“Yes. I know.”
“And my sister and her baby, are gone too,” she said.
Giovanni paused on breathing and waited for Mirabella to bring home her point.
“I sent Minnie and Belinda back to Sorrento. Zia... doesn’t want to come home with us.”
“Why not?” Giovanni asked.
“She’s sending you a message, but I think it’s a message for us both.”
“What is this message?”
“She will not return unless Catalina does.”
“She’s angry with me?” he asked.
“With me,” Mirabella reassured him. “I believe all the women are. Even Millie. They blame me.”
“They will respect you. I assure you of that. If you want Zia to come with us she will.”
“That’s just it Gio. I want more than respect. I want their love and acceptance. When you were gone and I sent Catalina away, I... broke the bond between us. I went too far.”
“That’s behind you now.”
“It’s in front of us both. Destroying Lorenzo can’t be the only goal. We must heal our family. We will bring Catalina home. It’s all Zia wants. It’s all I want, now.”
“It’s what I want too Bella. We’ll bring her home.”
CHAPTER FIVE