by Via Mari
I walk towards her and she stands, her hands twisting nervously in front of her. “I should apologize for all the grief that I gave you about bringing my family here. Nonna is fast asleep and safe,” Serena says, looking up at me, clearly unsure of what reaction she will get.
“Come here, Tesoro,” I say, pulling her into my arms and hugging her tight. I’ll deal with her disobedience and everything else later. She will learn to trust me and not take matters into her own hands, but right now I can’t think about anything except crushing her in my strength and feeling her heartbeat against my chest.
Serena looks up at me with those doe-like deep brown eyes—the ones that held me captive from the start, the ones that are now filled with gold flecked emotion. “I’m sorry I ran instead of talking to you, Giovanni,” she whispers so only I can hear.
I push her hair back to expose the sensitive creaminess of her neck. “You aren’t to be punished yet, but you will be soon, Tesoro,” I whisper into the sensitive shell of her ear.
She turns her lust-filled eyes up at me. I stroke down the side of her neck, intending to calm the rapid pulse, but instead my touch accelerates it. My sweetheart is so responsive, her body wants mine even when her mind is telling her to run far, far away! If I were a better man, I’d have let her leave, allowed her to go to her brothers, and had my Family protect her from afar. I briefly contemplate how I’ve handled this situation and realize that I may be more of a Larussio than I knew.
Great-Uncle clears his throat, and I realize that I’ve been holding Serena pressed tightly against me, just rocking her in my arms. “Giovanni, we need to talk about this situation, and it’s best if Serena is not present.”
I feel her body stiffen against me. While Serena may have become close to Great-Uncle in the weeks that she stayed with him and Salvatore, her entire adult life has been spent in fear of him, and her family’s lives are at stake. She has a right to be apprehensive about a conversation that he wants to have without her present.
I shake my head. “I know it’s against more protocol, but Serena has been through so much. She’s just learning to trust us. Whatever we discuss, we do it with her present.”
Salvatore’s eyes are deep, dark, and hooded, giving nothing away. He and I are as close as brothers, and I know he has developed a respect and admiration for Serena. But women are not privy to heavy conversations; it is not only Great-Uncle’s way, but the way of our world, the mafioso world. And Salvatore and I both know it.
Great-Uncle turns first to me, and then to Salvatore, just contemplating. Serena’s body remains tense beside me. I draw her in, pulling her tight against me as reassurance. He does not miss a thing, and his eyes track the action. He registers Serena’s discomfort, and after a long uncomfortable silence, finally nods his assent. “She will stay, but only in as far as we can assure her that she and her family will be safe. The details we will discuss alone, capiche?”
I nod, hoping to convey just what this gesture means to me. He returns the motion and then looks to Salvatore, who gives a curt nod of agreement.
“Very well,” Great-Uncle says. “We have Serena’s nonna in her cabin and Gracie, her nurse, has been brought in to care for her. All her medication, equipment, and a special bed have been placed into the cabin, just like the one that you had in the penthouse, Giovanni.”
This man would normally be berating me about breaking protocol, not giving an inch, but instead has been on the phone personally to secure items for Serena’s nonna, who has not been quiet about her abhorrence for me or my Family. I glance to Salvatore. His lips have turned upward, but aside from that, he doesn’t give any indication that Great-Uncle is saying anything out of the normal.
I turn to Great-Uncle, because the magnitude of his concession is not lost on me in the slightest. “I understand you were also personally dealing with all the cooking, cleaning, and housing arrangements before everyone arrived. I’m sorry everything landed in your hands to deal with.”
“No apologies. We protect our Family. Serena, though not officially, is Family to us. We protect our own, and she knows this now if she didn’t already,” Great-Uncle says.
Serena leaves my arms and walks toward Great-Uncle. Sal and I watch with widened eyes as she reaches him and places her arms around his middle. “I am so sorry my family has brought so much trouble to your door, but I am so grateful for your Family’s protection. After what me and my nonna have been through, it means the world to me,” Serena says, and we watch his arms fold around her and hug her tight.
Salvatore gives me an I told you so look. One that says, if you ever plan on breaking up with this girl you are going to have hell to pay.
I smile widely, because after all the fear that Great-Uncle would never accept Serena or her family, this is the best gift in the world. When she is done hugging him, she pulls back and looks into his eyes. “The men are after me so that they can hurt Giovanni. I want every one of them dead. Will you help me?” Serena asks.
Sal’s eyes widen and I’m pretty sure they are a mirror image of my own. No one, not even our Family, discusses so forthrightly plans such as this. She has just barely been cleared, and there is the very real possibility that Great-Uncle will now see her as a spy or a plant to get information that could bury the entire Larussio Family.
Great-Uncle eyes Serena for a moment and then quietly asks her to go and sit at the table while he has a word with his nephews. I watch the motion in her throat as she swallows, realizing that she has crossed a line, and then nods her agreement before taking a seat at the dining room table.
Great-Uncle gestures to the great room with his eyes and Sal and I both follow him out of the room, and I close the door behind us. We both know that nothing good will come of this, and the tightening in my chest is almost suffocating. No one outrightly asks the don of Italy if he will help them kill people, unless they are undercover, because no one else would dare.
My jaw is locked tightly, because it is me, and no one else, who has brought this situation to the Family. I don’t know quite how this is going to shake out yet, but I won’t have Serena or Salvatore accused of things that should fall squarely on my shoulders.
“The air is cool in here,” Great-Uncle says, using code to ensure the room was swept for bugs as he points in a circle to the ceiling.
Salvatore nods. “It’s clear, as always. I just got confirmation of a sweep about twenty minutes ago,” he says.
“Very good. Giovanni, you must know how this looks. I have come to care for your girlfriend, admittedly, a great deal. She is genuine, she cares for you, and has even put herself through the ropes of self-defense with Salvatore and his goons, but let us not remember that her first loyalty is to her nonna and her brothers and their families. That is why she ran, no?” Great-Uncle says, his dark eyes searching.
I can’t argue and nod my agreement. “It is. She was running from me to ensure their safety. I was open with her about the fact that our enemies would come for her, torture her, in order to get to me. She didn’t back down, but when Jay’s team was working to flush Mancini’s team out, they used shadow games and made Serena believe that her nonna was captive.”
“They do not do this!” Great-Uncle roars. “We tell them what they can share with our women. We will not allow our women to be used as pawns. I will not have it!”
I would much rather not have Serena concerned with any of this, but Jay was right. It was necessary. Serena needs to be fully aware of what can transpire if she is to stay with me. It’s that knowledge that kept her from running without alerting her security team. I take a deep breath inward, because convincing Great-Uncle of anything, much less something that goes against the most sacred of all of his protocols, the one that’s been handed down from generation to generation, is daunting.
“I didn’t approve of Jay’s methods at first, but he did it for a reason. Apparently, Katarina gave the security team
the slip when they were first getting to know her. She didn’t fully understand their role or commitment to keeping her safe. She thought she would be better off without them and was almost killed as a result. Since then, they’ve been very conscious to ensure anyone they protect understands the risks.”
“Need I remind you it did not work? Serena ran!” Great-Uncle roars.
“She ran because the loss of her nonna, or any of her family, is too much for her to even contemplate. It was just too much.”
His eyes darken and he starts to say something, but he has to hear me out. I raise my hand to ward off another onslaught of his wrath towards the security team. “I take solace in the fact that Jay and his team ensured that if she ever ran, she would do so with security. That’s what’s important here, her safety. She’s not a plant, Great-Uncle. Her feelings are sincere, and I plan to marry her, with or without the Family’s blessing!”
He doesn’t say a word for far too long. I inhale deeply, knowing this could go a multitude of ways. No one defies the don of Italy, and certainly not in front of another Family member.
“She means everything to me,” I say to Great-Uncle.
He nods, taking it in and slowly contemplating. “She has given up her entire livelihood, gone against her family’s wishes, denounced your wealth at every turn, and only left when she felt the need to protect her family. Her request of me only solidifies her commitment and dedication to her family and ours. In our hearts we know this, Giovanni, but you also know this is not enough. Protocol must prevail in this instant, capiche?”
Serena
Giovanni’s great-uncle seems to look right through me when I ask him for help. I know what needs to be done and that he and the Family can help me, but his entire manner turns ice cold. Asking me to take a seat is just a polite way to let me know that I’m no longer privy to their conversation, and with that he turns abruptly, leaving me with only my thoughts and a bottle of red as Giovanni and Salvatore follow him out and close the door behind them.
I shouldn’t have asked, I shouldn’t have said a word, but I won’t take it back! These people have already taken Nonna’s home, her most prized possession. The tactic they are using now, trying to kill me or, worse, my family to get to Giovanni leaves me absolutely no ability to stop them without the Family’s intervention, but when I asked him outright, I clearly crossed a line—the invisible stripe that sent the men into a hushed meeting, presumably to talk about me and my family and what a burden we are to them.
I’ve managed to down two very generous glasses of wine before Giovanni walks back into the room. The grim look on his face is something I haven’t seen before and causes a shiver to run down my spine and goose bumps to raise on the back of my arms.
He looks at the almost empty bottle on the cabinet, and takes the half-empty glass in my hand from me, leaning past me to place it on the sideboard. “Tell my Family what they want to hear,” Giovanni whispers, so low that I can barely make it out, before his great-uncle and Salvatore walk into the room.
I have learned not to fear the Family over the last couple months, but they are solemn and scary as they gaze at me tonight. Salvatore stalks toward me—glancing at Giovanni, who nods his assent—before taking my hand. “You know we have become fond of you, but be that as it is, protocol demands that we ensure you aren’t wired, Serena.”
“I would never allow that,” I say in protest.
Salvatore puts his finger to my lips. “Shh … I don’t think any of the Family believe that you would knowingly be tapped, but there are always ways to worm into our loved ones lives and set bugs in place. We have to be sure you weren’t wired. It is protocol, relatively painless, embarrassing perhaps, but you must endure it.”
I glance from him to Giovanni and then to his great-uncle, and both look solemn and remain silent.
“What do you plan to do?” I ask and not one of them looks me in the eye, but they all do glance at the door as it opens and a very tall, serious-looking blonde woman dressed in a red sweater and black skintight pants and flat-heeled boots walks into the room.
She assesses me from a distance, her eyes cold and aloof. “Giovanni?”
He shakes his head at me, and gives her a nod.
She walks toward me, and she and Sal both grasp my arms and lead me out of the great room, and I do nothing to stop it, although my heart is racing. Giovanni and his family are handing me over to this gangster woman. The fact that Giovanni let her take me without a word hurts deeply, but I don’t have long to dwell on this as Sal opens a door off the kitchen that leads downstairs.
As soon as the door closes behind me, my blood turns cold. The lower level is where the mafia always take their victims to be tortured, and every movie I’ve seen with those gruesome scenarios flash through my mind and suddenly my feet stop moving. “Giovanni!” I scream.
Sal grasps me by the arms, turning me to him. “Serena, he can’t hear you through the soundproofing, and he can’t be with you right now. We need to check you for wires. Gretta will need to search you head to toe, and it will be embarrassing, but you have nothing to fear unless you’re wired,” Sal says, turning to leave me with the blonde Amazon.
I watch him make his way upstairs, and she turns to me. “We do this the easy way, okay? I give you instruction and you do what I ask, and there’s no harm.”
I haven’t really been given much of a choice and just nod, trying to calm my fear, but my body is in fight or flight and it’s all that I can do to keep my teeth from chattering with fear.
“Strip, I will search you.”
“I’m not undressing for you!”
“You will. We do it the easy or the hard way. Your choice, really,” Gretta says, looking at me as though she has all the time in the world.
“I am not taking my clothes off for you! If Giovanni wants to see me completely humiliated, then you tell him to come down and do it his damn self! Now! Do it now!” I yell.
Amazon girl takes out her phone and sends a message. In a manner of moments, the door opens, and I watch as Giovanni’s shoes become visible, and he makes his way down the stairs. “The search must be done, Serena. Would you prefer me to undress you or to give you instruction?”
I look from him to the blonde Amazon girl. “Make her leave and I will do what you wish.”
“Serena, if I tell her to leave, we need to turn the cameras on. Having a female do this is a luxury extended to you because we care about you. No cameras, but someone the Family trusts.”
“Are you serious, these are the rules?”
He gives me one curt nod, his eyes intense and solemn. “You will do as we ask. It will be quick and painless, but as Salvatore mentioned, embarrassing. Perhaps we can make it a bit more fun if I give the instruction,” Giovanni says, winking at me and glancing up at the roof.
Then I see the cameras. They are strategically placed in every corner of the room. I’m contemplating whether they have audible capability, when Giovanni answers my unspoken question by glancing at them again and then back to me. “Serena, do it now.”
“You want me to strip with her in the room?” I ask, looking at the long-golden-haired Amazon who’s standing by the doorway and patiently waiting.
“Strip, Serena, everything.”
I look to him, and then to her, and he gives me a nod, gesturing me to do as he’s instructed. I tentatively begin unbuttoning my blouse, but he is impatient. “We do not have all night, Serena. Shed your clothing and show me you’re not wired,” Giovanni says, and again he glances upward.
He’s giving me all the clues. He is impatient to have this over and worried about the cameras being turned on if I do not comply. I nod, letting him know without words that I know exactly what he needs me to do. I may appreciate the fact that he’s trying to keep me protected from the cameras, but I don’t have to be one damn bit happy about the mortification of stripping in front of
this gangster woman. “You want to humiliate me, make me strip for you?” I ask, unbuttoning the next button.
His deep brooding eyes track my every single movement, but he still doesn’t say a word, which pisses me off to no end!
“You want everyone in this house to see what used to be yours, Giovanni, so be it,” I say, divesting myself of my blouse one pearl button at a time. I toss the material to the floor leaving me in my sheer pink bra.
His eyes darken and his jaw tightens as he watches me. “All your clothes, Serena.”
“It’s not enough to see that I don’t have wires strapped to my chest. You need to see underneath my bra, too?” I say, rubbing my hands over my chest and across my abdomen, because now the alcohol has just fueled my anger. “Or perhaps you want to see something else, maybe you want to look at my pussy,” I say, shimming out of my pants, panties and all. “Maybe I have a wire inside, is that what you want your girly to check? Oh, wait, maybe we should have her check my ass, too. Stick her fingers inside of what you say is only yours, see if I’m hiding a wire that you already know I’m not! This is your plan, Giovanni Larussio?”
He starts to say something, but I interrupt him. “Come here girly,” I say to the blonde as I walk toward her and the bench beside her. “I know what you want me to do,” I say, bending over so that my naked ass is exposed to Giovanni’s gaze. “You do exactly what you need to ensure that the Family knows I’m not wired, and when you’re through, I’m walking right out that fucking door!”
Gio
I watch my dark-haired beauty presented stoically before me and the intimidating blonde, who has her orders and nothing more. Serena’s hair is draped over her shoulder and I can see her rapid breathing even from here. She will go through with this, she will follow their fucking protocols, because that is what she believes she has to do, and until just this very moment, so did I. The other option is to disregard the protocols and walk away, walk away from this life that continues to put Serena in danger and now subjects her to this. She does not deserve to be treated this way, and the anger I’ve tried to keep bottled up for years will no longer be contained!
