by Cala Riley
She thinks. “Purple. A dark purple though. None of that pastel shit.”
“No pastel shit. Got it.”
“Are you taking notes?”
“Of course. I’m going to have to buy you gifts one day. Aren’t you taking notes?”
“I don’t need to. I remember everything you say to me.”
“Sorry, we can’t all be geniuses like you.” I use a playful, sarcastic tone to let her know I’m joking.
“Damn right. What else? How did you get started in this business?” She lowers her voice as she becomes a little more serious.
“I can’t tell you a whole lot about my past with the organization, but I will tell you as much as I can. Will you be able to accept that?”
She leans up on her elbow before turning to me. “I will accept whatever you can offer, Lo.”
I reach up and grab her face. “I told you about my family before. Do you remember?”
“Yeah. Your dad is a cop, and mom is a kindergarten teacher.”
I nod. “Basically. I wouldn’t really call him a dad. He was my stepfather, but never a real dad to me. He was very strict. Always expected a lot of me. More than a normal parent would. He liked to control who I hung out with and what I did. I rebelled. I met a kid in school who worked for the Catalinis. At first, we hung out at parties and such. I saw the way the guys were with each other. They were a family. Brotherhood. I asked for a way in, and the kid took a chance on me.”
“How sweet of that kid. Do you still talk to him?”
I smile down at her. “It was Bash. He took a chance on me and vouched for me with his father. I was a cop’s son though. I had to work twice as hard to prove my loyalty. They had me do things they would have never asked another recruit to do. I did it anyway. I wanted the brotherhood of the organization more than anything. Eventually I got it.”
“Bash is younger than you, yeah?”
“By two years.”
“How old were you when you joined?”
“I was sixteen when they recruited me.”
“So he was only fourteen? Wow. He must have saw something in you.”
I lean up and kiss her. “I don’t know what he saw, but I’m even more thankful now. I have my brothers, but something had always missing. That missing piece was you, Mia. Not only did he give me a family, he gave me you.”
Her eyes start to tear up as she leans down and peppers my face with kisses. “I’m beyond grateful he saw something in you too. I don’t know what I would have done without you in my life?”
Same here, my heart echoes.
∞∞∞
“I need you to bring Mia. Sofia’s requesting her presence.”
I’m surprised to hear from Bash today. As we were leaving last night, he told me to take some time to heal. I guess he figured I’ve had enough time.
“Sure. Where?”
I lean up and look over at Mia. We settled on the couch and started watching Netflix a couple of hours ago. I felt her fall asleep on me halfway through the first movie but didn’t have the heart to wake her. She looked so peaceful.
“Queens warehouse.”
My heart stops. Why would they want her at one of the warehouses? We only used those for one thing. Torture and murder.
“We will be there soon.”
Once I hang up, I look down at Mia. She’s lying down with her head in my lap. I run my finger down her face and wince at the bruises on her cheek. I will kill Fillipo for hurting her. If Sofia hasn’t already, I will kill Gina as well.
“Mia, baby. I need you to get up.”
She swats my finger and burrows in.
“Mia. Baby. Come on. Wake up.”
Her eyes ease open as she looks up at me. “Is this a dream?”
I chuckle at her. “No, mio piccolo angelo. This is reality. I need you to get up. Sofia needs to see you.”
She sits up straight and looks at me with panicked eyes.
“Why? What’s wrong?” She stands up and heads to my room.
I cannot help staring at her. She’s in nothing, but one of my T-shirts, and boy does she look sexy. As she moves to my bedroom door, she turns and gives me a worried look, so I stand up to follow her.
“I don’t know what’s going on. I just need you to get dressed, baby.” I go to my dresser and pull out a pair of my sweatpants. “Here. Wear these.”
She pulls on the pants before she slips on the slippers Sofia lent her last night. “Let’s go.”
I grab her as she goes to walk by me. I lean in and give her a chaste kiss. “It’ll be okay. Sofia’s okay. Bash sounded calm when he called. He wouldn’t be calm if something was wrong.”
She nods and seems to feel better. I intertwine my fingers with hers and lead her to the front door.
“How are you feeling?” Her soft voice full of concern makes me smile.
If you would have asked me six months ago—hell, two days ago—if I would be here with a woman that lights up my world, I would have called you a liar.
“I’m fine, babe. A little sore, but I’ll be okay.”
I open the door and glance out. I see Angelo across the street and nod to him. I didn’t realize he was here, but I guess Bash probably sent him. Either way, for once, I’m grateful for the extra coverage. I lead Mia to my SUV and help her in before rounding to the other side. Once inside, I take off toward the warehouse.
“Where are we going? This isn’t the way to Bash’s house.”
I smile. I love how observant she is. I’m so proud of her. She had been smart enough to call me last night and call out where she was so I could find her. She amazes me.
“I’d rather not say in the open. You will see when we get there.”
She gives me an understanding look. There are some things we don’t talk about outside of safe areas.
Once we arrive, I go around and help her out and lead her inside. The door shuts behind us, blocking out the light. Inside it’s dark, so I pull a flashlight from my pocket and shine it around, so we can see.
“Where are we?” she whispers.
“One of our warehouses. Come on, this way.”
I pull her forward toward the closed metal door on the other side of the room. I knock twice then kick once with my shoe. The door opens, and I find Gio standing on the other side. He ushers us inside. Mia stops abruptly when she’s fully in the room. She gasps loudly.
“Dr. Fields?”
Chapter Twelve
Mia
My mind cannot process what I’m seeing. As soon as I step fully into the room, light blinds me. The first thing I see is Gina lying limp on the floor. A puddle of blood is circling her. Then I see a man strung up, his body also limp. The next thing I see is Dr. Fields, tied to a chair. She’s awake, and it looks as if she has been crying.
“Dr. Fields?”
I feel Lo’s hands touch my shoulders before he runs them up and down my arms.
“Bash? What’s all this?” he asks for me.
My eyes are stuck on Dr. Fields. She’s pleading with me to save her. She’s attempting to mumble, but she has something shoved in her mouth while tape covers the item to keep it in place.
“We have some new information. Seems innocent Dr. Fields isn’t so innocent.”
Sofia walks over to me and grabs my hand. “I’m sorry, Mia. I know you thought of her like a mentor.”
“Tell me everything,” I bite out.
I expect Bash to speak, but it’s Sofia.
“While I was, uh, questioning Gina, she admitted they had been keeping tabs on you by sending patients to you. She said they had gotten to Dr. Fields and offered her an out if she helped bring Bash down. She has been spying on him for years.”
I swing my eyes to Dr. Fields. I can feel the heat in my own glare. She’s been spying? On me? On my family?
I look back to the man hanging. He looked familiar at first glance, but now looking at him closer, I can remember where I have seen him from.
“Him. He came into the clinic on
ce. I’m pretty sure I have seen him out a couple of times. He was for sure across the street on the day of our spa trip.”
I feel an arm snake around my waist as Lo presses me into him.
“Why didn’t you tell me, babe?”
“I wasn’t sure. I saw him one minute then nothing. We live in a big city, and I worked in the food business. People looking familiar isn’t anything new to me.”
He kisses my neck but keeps his thoughts to himself.
“I want to talk to her.” I point in the direction of Dr. Fields.
“I thought you might. Oh, and I wanted to let you know your training with her is over. You will be officially taking over as of right now,” Lo murmurs in my ear.
“I don’t need her anymore.”
I walk over to her and rip off the tape. She attempts to cry out but can’t because of the sock shoved in her mouth. I pull it out, and she gasps and cries.
“Mia. Help me. Please.”
I laugh, but I find no humor in the situation. I laugh because I cannot believe she’s begging for her life.
“Did you report on me?”
She doesn’t meet my eyes, so I grab her chin and force her to face me. “Answer me.”
“At first. I stopped giving him information about you once I got to know you. You’re not like them, Mia. You’re not a killer. You love helping people. I can see it on your face. Don’t let them kill me.”
I shake my head before letting her chin go. I cluck my tongue at her a couple of times as I turn and look back to where everyone is standing. I notice a man sitting in a chair in the corner. I give Lo a curious look, but he just mouths later to me.
“You messed with my family, Hilda. Did you think you would be able to get away with it? Why would you even be stupid enough to do that?” I turn back and face her.
“He threatened me. He said my son was alive. He is keeping him prisoner and would only let him go if I helped him. I did it for my son. For my family. Don’t you understand?”
I see the truth in her eyes. She didn’t do this to be malicious. She’s been doing what she thought she had to. I feel bad for her actually. She’s going to die for protecting her family.
“Your son is dead. Has been for years. He lied to you,” Bash says from behind me.
“You can’t know that. They never found his body. He could be alive.” I see the hope in her eyes.
I pity her.
“I know he’s dead because I had him killed. Fillipo never had your son. He probably never even knew your son. He lied to you to get you to do his bidding. Like he lied to Gina. You’re a stupid, foolish woman.”
She cries out at his words to the point where he’s yelling over her screams by the end of her sentence.
“Do you need her?” I ask Bash.
He gives me a questioning look but shakes his head. I lean down in front of her and look her in the face.
“I only did it for my son, Mia. You understand, don’t you?”
“I do. I would do anything to protect my family. Those people standing behind me? They are my family, and I need to protect them. I’m sorry, Hilda,” I whisper this to her before reaching forward and wrapping my hand around her neck.
She immediately starts to thrash around. Lo runs up to me and grab my shoulders.
“Mia! Stop! No! Mia!”
“Don’t touch me, Lo,” I say calmly as I watch her face turn red. I keep squeezing tighter, and she begins to choke on the limited air she’s getting. Lo is still behind me trying to talk to me.
“Please, Mia. You don’t have to do this.”
I turn and look at him over my shoulder. I see recognition in his eyes when he looks at me. I don’t know what he sees, but it calms him a little.
“I need to do this, Lo. For my family.”
I turn back toward Hilda. I dig my fingers into her neck until I can feel her heartbeat in the vein beneath my finger. Her skin is now turning purple as her throat attempts to drag in any oxygen it can. Her body is tense. I stare into her eyes as realization settles in them. She knows she is about to die. She is suffocating with no way to save herself.
So many emotions run through my head. I can see her begging me not to hurt her in her eyes. I let go abruptly and fall back. Before I hit the ground, Lo catches me.
“Mia, are you okay?” Sofia’s voice comes from my right.
I expect to see repulsion from her when I turn to her, but instead I see understanding and respect.
“I couldn’t do it.” I turn and see Hilda hunched over as she gasps for air. “I couldn’t kill her. I thought I wanted to, but I can’t.””
"It’s okay, Mia. You don’t need to kill her.”
“She threatened my family, Sof. I should want to end her life, but I cannot kill someone who doesn’t want to die. I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right.”
Sof gives me an odd look, but simply nods like it all makes sense.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.” Lo loosens his grip on me as he grabs my hand leading me out of the room.
“Why do you think I need cleaned up?” I look at my hands and body, but see nothing that would need to be corrected.
“I thought you might want to wash your hands.”
“Thank you.”
He offers his shirt for me to dry my hands on as soon as I am finished. I turn to walk around him to go back, but Lo stops me.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” His soft voice unnerves me.
I am used to Lo being dominating and husky. This soft side is new.
“I will be.”
“I think we have a lot to talk about.”
I give him a small smile. “I guess we do. Later though. Should we get back to the others?”
"They have it handled. How about we go home?
“To your house?”
“To our home.”
Our home.
Warmth fills me.
“Let’s go home.”
He leans in to kiss me softly before he leads me out of the building without looking back.
Epilogue
Lorenzo
“I’m no longer asking permission. I am standing before you today telling you I am going to kill Fillipo. He’s my capo, and he’s under my rule. I understand your concerns, but we have let this go long enough. Consider yourself informed.”
I listen as Bash addresses the commission. Where he had been patient before, he’s now cold and calculating.
“Bash, please, let’s discuss this,” Antonio of the Lombardi out of Philadelphia says.
“No. We will not discuss this. I have been respectful. I agreed to the rule because I saw merit to it. Now I see it’s only used to try and control my family. It’s done. The rule stating that the commission has final approval over any changes in management within families is thrown out. I will handle my family the way I see fit.”
I advised Bash against the stupid rule to begin with.
No Don will terminate the position of any capos without getting final approval from the Commission.
When they proposed it, I knew it could come back to bite us in the ass. I noticed they waited until Tommaso passed to propose it. I understand their fear. Tommaso killed many capos without a second thought. Bash, being new in his role, saw this too and accepted it without complaint in order to keep the peace. Look at how peaceful it is now.
“You cannot simply change rules with the snap of your fingers, Bastiano. We must vote, as we did when we put it in place.”
“This is my house, my rules. I don’t come into your family and tell you how to handle it. I could have gotten rid of him silently, and you would have been none the wiser. I followed the treaty put in place. I came to you and presented my case. You denied me, and another one of my family was put in the crosshairs. The time for negotiation is over. This is a courtesy meeting. I will kill Fillipo with or without your blessing.”
“What if we do not agree?”
“I control all of New York City, along with parts of Florida, Washington,
California, and Nevada. Let’s not forget my hold in Italy.”
The room becomes deadly quiet. All eyes are on Bash. All except mine and Gio’s. We watch the room.
“What are you trying to say, Bastiano?” Marcello from Colombo of Nashville asks.
You could hear a pin drop at how silent the room becomes. Not a single person is breathing.
All of a sudden, Bash lets out a chuckle, but not one filled with laughter and joy. This chuckle is filled with sinister evil. It’s filled with devious plans.
“Defy me and my family, and it means war.”
Bash turns and strides out of the room. Gio and I immediately stand and follow him. Before the door can fully close behind us, an eruption of voices spill out. As we silently walk through the building and out to our waiting SUV, I take in Bash’s demeanor.
He’s walking tall with a tension in his shoulders I have never seen before. As we get to the SUV, Gio jumps into the driver’s seat, while I slide in the passenger with Bash in the rear. We take off toward the airport. The tension in the car is palpable.
After minutes of silence, I speak up. “What now?”
I glance in the mirror and see the solemn look on his face.
“Now, we prepare for war.”
Mia
Ever since the night I was kidnapped, again, things have been different with Lo and me. He has been much clingier, but I love it. I don’t mind him always wanting to be with me. Some might find it suffocating, but I find it endearing. Proof of how much he cares for me.
It doesn’t hurt that it also means we do deliciously wicked things together.
He has opened up to me more. I found out more about him, like how he never really had a real family, not the kind most people have. He told me stories from when he was younger.
He glossed over a lot of his organization work, but he did tell me about his friendship with Bash and Gio, how they were the only family he felt he had.
He also told me about how he had never said he loved someone until me. The tears flowed freely when he told me, eEspecially because I tell my friends I love them all the time.
God brought me here for a reason. He knew Lo needed love. He needed a light to guide him. He always calls me mio piccolo angelo. My little angel. I guess he’s right. I’m his little angel sent to help guide him. I can’t change the bad he has done or will have to do, but I can help him cope with it. I can be his escape when he needs to forget it. I can be his little slice of heaven.
