Reign (The Larussio Legacy Book 3)

by Via Mari

  Serena

  It has turned dusk by the time I venture downstairs to see if I can scrounge a little something to eat. I know that Mrs. Caruso will have a large dinner served later in the night, but I haven’t had anything to eat at all, and I am ravenous. I enter the kitchen and it’s empty, so I peek in the refrigerator to scour my options.

  “Let me make you something to eat,” Mrs. Caruso says, coming into the kitchen behind me.

  “That would be wonderful. I’m absolutely starving. Would you happen to have some wine? I’ll pay you for a bottle, or perhaps two?” I tell her.

  “Sit, let me make you something, and we will share a bottle,” Mrs. Caruso says, pulling out leftovers from lunch, bustling about the kitchen, heating the leftover ravioli, and then adding garnishes to the plate before she hands it to me.

  I take a bite and then another. “So good, this is absolutely scrumptious,” I say, inhaling the oregano and garlic aroma before taking another bite.

  She opens the pizza oven and pulls out a wrapped packet of garlic bread. It smells delicious, and I unwrap it and devour one of the pieces before I’ve finished placing the rest of them on the serving plate.

  Her brows furrow with concern. “When did you eat last?” she asks while pouring me a glass of wine.

  Mrs. Caruso has always seen more than she should, and I don’t want her to get involved any more than she is with me, because I don’t know what impact that could have on her and her home. “Way too long ago! No breakfast, no lunch, and this food is absolutely scrumptious!”

  “Eat up, there’s more in the refrigerator, and the others will be down later for supper. You can join us then, too, if you like.”

  I shake my head no as I inhale the meal she’s given me. I appreciate the thought, but just don’t feel like company, and as if sensing that, she nods. “There is a small refrigerator in each room. I’ll have a plate sent up that you can keep for when you’re hungry again, along with a bottle of wine for the night.”

  “Thank you so very much,” I say, hugging her tight after I finish eating. “Do you mind if I take this bottle with me? Feel free to charge me,” I say, fingering the chilled red that’s sitting next to the refrigerator.

  “Consider it yours, Serena, and dear, is there anything that I can do for you? Our families have known each other for a very long time. You can trust me,” Mrs. Caruso says.

  I nod because I know she must be wondering why I’m acting so strange. “Don’t worry, I will be okay. I just needed a place where I could reflect on life a little bit, you know?”

  She nods and pulls me in for a hug. “If you need anything you just let me know, anytime of the day or night. Feel free to help yourself to food or drink if I’m not awake.”

  I nod, trying and succeeding in keeping the tears at bay, before taking a glass and the bottle of wine back upstairs to my room. I freshen up at the sink and head to the balcony as the darkness enfolds the city lights all around me.

  It is just about the same time that I usually call Nonna when I’m traveling, so I pour myself a glass of wine and connect with her number. In a matter of moments, she answers, and just the sound of her voice manages to bring me comfort. “Nonna, it’s me, Serena.”

  “Thank God, you are okay. Serena, where are you? Your brothers are here, and Giovanni has had their families brought to the estate. They tell me that you left on your own. Why, tell me, why?”

  “Nonna, I just need to deal with some things, nothing more. How are you feeling?” I ask, hoping to get her to talk about something else, but she is not dissuaded so easily.

  “Serena, I may be old, but I am not senile. Tell me what I ask! Where are you, and why did you leave? Did Giovanni bring your brothers’ families here to get you to come back to him? Is he blackmailing you?”

  “Nonna, you always think the worst of Giovanni. I left because I need time to think about some things and our relationship. He had already talked to me about bringing the entire family to his estate to keep them safeguarded. I have no doubt that’s exactly what he’s doing, nothing more and nothing less.”

  “I want you home, Serena. Whatever is happening, come home to me. Your brothers are here, Giovanni is here, come home so they can protect you.”

  “Nonna, I am safe. I promise you; I am fine. I just need a couple days to reflect,” I say, not telling her there’s no way possible to move her or any of my family from the Larussio estate without calling attention to them and potentially putting them on Mancini’s radar. They may not like where they are, but they are safe, and I silently thank Giovanni and Salvatore for this.

  “I will give you a few days, but then you tell me the truth, you tell me why Giovanni ordered our family to his estate. If the Larussios have taken my family to get you to stay with Giovanni, I will have your brothers hire someone to cut off his balls!” Nonna says.

  “It’s not that way, Nonna,” I reply, sipping on my wine, watching the darkness take over the landscape until I am unable to see anything of the sea and only the city lights below.

  “Tell me how it is then, Serena.”

  “Giovanni is protecting us, Nonna. He brought the women and children to his estate to keep them safe. Giovanni’s enemies are trying to get to me, but I am too well protected. They will try to use our family as leverage to draw me out. I need you to understand this, to make my brothers grasp that the entire family is safe if they stay at Giovanni’s estate.”

  There is a long pause as she digests this information. “When will you be home then?”

  “I just need a couple days, then I will return.” I am trying my best to get past the scene in my head where Giovanni orders innocent women to strip and men to search the most private parts of their bodies. That vision, though, the one that I’ve solidified in my mind, just won’t seem to go away, try as I will to make it do just that.

  “A couple days, that is all. I will let your brothers know, and you will not disappoint me, Serena,” Nonna says.

  “I will see you soon. Tell the family that I am safe, kiss them for me, and let them know what I have told you. Most of all, do not worry about me. I am perfectly fine.”

  “I will expect to see you in a couple days,” Nonna says before disconnecting, leaving me with my thoughts as the sky grows darker. I am about to pour another glass of wine when a message from Jay hits my cell.

  Mancini’s men have found you. Stay put! We are coming for you.

  No! The last time they came for me, they blew up Nonna’s house. I can’t risk that they will blow up Mrs. Caruso, her guests, and her beloved bed and breakfast.

  I hit Jay’s phone number to connect with him. “I’m leaving, heading down the stairs, and will come out by the back porch. Make sure Mancini’s men come after me and don’t try to blow up the house.”

  I slide into my sandals and don’t wait for an answer, throw my purse over my shoulder, race down the stairs, and push the back door open. I don’t see the security team, but waiting is not an option. I need to get far, far away from this house, or Mancini’s men will blow it up with everyone in it. I’ve almost made it to the parking garage when strong hands grasp me, cover my mouth, and begin dragging me to an awaiting vehicle.

  I should be afraid, very afraid, but all I feel is an intense calm settling over me as I slowly stop struggling and wait for the very moment I know will eventually come.

  When my attacker adjusts to get a better grip, he gives me the perfect opportunity. I twist, and his body is so close to mine, I couldn’t miss my target if I tried, and I don’t. The joint of my knee connects soundly at the base of his scrotum, and when he groans in agony, his hold on me loosens as he reaches for his crotch, and I don’t waste that opportunity either. I grab the hair on both sides of his head and bring him down hard, ensuring my knee connects with the bony part of his nose, breaking it soundly and lodging what’s left so deep that only a surgeon will be able t
o remove it.

  I spin, taking off for the garage, but large hands encircle my neck, almost lifting my feet from the ground, drawing the breath from my lungs with their force. “Not so fast. You’re heading in the wrong direction, sweetheart,” a deep voice growls, sending shivers of fear down my spine as he squeezes my neck even tighter between the palms of his rough and mammoth hands.

  I swallow down the rising anxiety, because now it’s mind over matter. He may have my throat in a vise, but he’s not squeezing so hard that I can’t breathe. He’s just trying to scare me because they want me alive, and I fully intend to use that knowledge to my advantage.

  I will my body to relax, taking breaths and drawing them deep into my lungs, fueling them for the time when I will need to run. “That’s a good girl,” my captor says when I’ve stilled completely. He lessens his grip around my neck and his hands release their hold and trail down to capture my wrists, but I can’t allow him to take my hands out of play or he will have an even greater advantage. I draw another large breath and drop my head, giving myself the distance and momentum I need before throwing it back with all the force I can muster and connecting with his face.

  “Bitch!”

  It gives me just the diversion I need to spin and drive the heel of my foot right into his crotch, bringing the giant of a man to his knees in agony, before I send my foot smashing into his face.

  My first instinct is to run, run as fast as I can and get to the safety of the car, but I don’t have that chance as the cold steel barrel of a gun slides along the base of my neck. “It’s over, sweetheart,” a voice says in my ear, his mammoth body dwarfing mine in height and width.

  I swallow down my anxiety because there is no time for it here. “You don’t scare me! Mancini’s in prison so he can’t come for me himself? He sends someone that can’t even fight like a man but needs a gun to keep a woman in place to do his dirty work,” I taunt, feeling his body tense in anger at my words.

  “Quiet, bitch!” he says.

  I swallow hard, clearing my mind of anything but the task at hand, and recalling the lesson of my life: Never use a weapon when your hand will do. Save the weapon for when you need it. And I have almost reached the one that could save my life while he’s been focused on my taunts.

  “Who’s going to make me?” I yell, getting louder, so loud that I know he’ll need to clamp his free hand over my mouth, and as soon as he moves the arm that’s been close to my side, I pull the gun from the purse hanging at my waist, twist, and take aim at the only thing within my reach, the width of his middle, sending two succinct shots right through his bulky body.

  He screams, releasing his hold on me, and I turn to finish him off, but a shot rings out through the night and lands a perfectly delivered bullet straight to his forehead. I watch as the man falls in front of me, and the security team surrounds me.

  “Call in a cleanup crew and get Serena secured,” someone yells.

  “Roger that!”

  And with that, a black sedan comes barreling out of nowhere and screeches to a halt beside us, and I am lifted off my feet and thrown into the back seat of the vehicle.

  “We’ve got heat coming in from all directions. Drive, drive, drive!”

  Gio

  Serena’s brothers are irate, firing questions faster than I can answer about where she is and why she left without a word to them. I don’t blame them, if she were my sister and dating the likes of someone like me, they’d already be dead for putting her life in danger.

  Salvatore has had it with the chaos. “Enough! You’re not going to get answers until everyone calms the fuck down.” He says it in an outwardly calm voice, but I see the smoldering in his eyes. He’s clearly had enough for one day having to run interference not only between me, Great-Uncle, and the cousins, but now with Serena’s family, too.

  “You want us to calm down, then you tell us where our sister is! We need to go get her! We will join forces, do it together, whatever it is—we will do it!” Aramis says.

  I nod, gesturing at Sal to hold him at bay because I’d be out of my mind, too, if my family had just been brought to the estate of a mafia family who has terrorized their sister for years, and then learned that she is missing.

  “Serena is safe, you have my word. She went to Naples, she needed time for herself to think about a few things, and I hope that she will return soon,” I say, hoping that she does that very thing.

  Aramis is not easily pacified and narrows his dark eyes at me. “Tell me what you plan to do with our family,” he says.

  “Keep them and you safe. I promised Serena I would safeguard her family, and that is what I’m doing. I didn’t know she was going to run off,” I say.

  “If she ran, she had good reason! What did you Larussios do to her?”

  Salvatore’s eyes darken. He’s reached the end of his rope at the very same time as me.

  I resign myself to the fact that her family may never accept me, and that they aren’t too far off from the truth. “I’m sure Serena had good reason. Until she returns, I promised to keep you and your families safe, but while you are under the Larussio roof, you will not disrespect my family,” I growl, earning me a nod of approval from Salvatore.

  Aramis contemplates this, and then nods, one curt gesture, but the message is clear. He starts to say something, but I raise my hand to wave him silent as I answer an incoming call from Jay. “Gio here.”

  “Mancini’s men know where Serena is. We have her covered and are going in, but you have to know this could get volatile really fast. Can we depend on your men in Naples to help?”

  “We have soldiers all over the city. Tell me what you need and it will be done,” I say, ignoring the curious stares and irate glares from her brothers.

  Salvatore needs no further information than what he hears before pounding out a message to give our crews instruction. I see the group message as it comes across my phone screen and nod my appreciation to my intense cousin while continuing to listen to Jay.

  “We will have the city canvassed. Give us the details,” I order, placing the phone on speaker. Salvatore’s eyes widen with disbelief. I know what he’s thinking—the protocols—but I don’t fucking care. Her brothers need to know what’s happening and that our Family is doing everything we can to protect her. And at the end of the day, we may need their help.

  “We’ve got her! She tore out of the house before we could secure the perimeter and fought the fucking men off herself. Who the hell taught her how to fight like that? She’s seriously good. Serena almost took two men out and was about to kill a third one when we took the liberty ourselves. She’s a little scared and thoroughly pissed off right now, but she’s safe in the back seat of our car. The men were able to get a bug placed on one of Mancini’s vehicles, so we’ve got eyes and ears all over the crew right now. They’re following us, and the DMV feed just popped up with a search on the plates on this vehicle, so they’re plenty connected. They won’t come up with anything that leads them back to you or your family.”

  I nod, just taking it all in, unable to speak past the lump of fear in my throat for a moment. Serena is in the middle of the worst war that I could imagine and had to fight off grown men who sought to harm her. “Salvatore has every goddamn soldier we have in the area pulled off their duties and at your disposal. Lock down the entire city if need be, but you keep her safe, capiche?”

  “Roger that, Gio. Roger that. We’ve got heat. Gotta go, but will keep in touch,” Jay says and every single one of her brothers raise their eyes and shoot out of their chairs at the very same time. Nate and the other members of the security team watch them warily, ready at a moment’s notice to deal with an all and all fallout.

  “Get us there, all of us,” Aramis says, gesturing to himself and his brothers. “We will go in too. We grew up in Naples and we will help!” he yells, and his brothers all nod their agreement. I once thoug
ht Serena’s brothers were no good, not coming to her rescue when she was being blackmailed for money, but they care deeply, just didn’t realize the suffering she was enduring. My dark-haired beauty hid it so well from them, wanting to protect her brothers and their families. They live with the guilt of not helping her all those years when members of my Family were extorting money from her and her nonna, leaving them with barely enough to put food on the table, and I know they will do anything in their power to help her now.

  I nod to Salvatore, conveying my wishes, and he takes in the somber faces of the men and nods his agreement.

  “We’ll have one of the security teams fly you in,” I say after reading another of his messages out to our teams. “It won’t take long by air, and Salvatore is having the plane readied as we speak. Your families will remain here, they will be safeguarded, and I will be coming with you.” I glance up just as the irate glare of my great-uncle faces me from the doorway of the dining room.

  “Giovanni, there’s been no clearance for this! We can take care of this without all of this assistance,” Great-Uncle roars.

  “There’s no time to waste on protocol. Her brothers want to help, they’re coming with me and Salvatore,” I say.

  Great-Uncle’s mouth tightens but he remains silent, glancing from me to Salvatore for confirmation we’re both in agreement, needing no further explanation than that, and then looks to Serena’s brothers, one at a time and then turns to security. “Ready the plane.”

  Salvatore and I probably look like mirror fucking images, shocked beyond words. Great-Uncle doesn’t stray from the Family protocols for any reason, but it’s clear that he has become very attached to Serena.

  I hit Jay’s cell while Salvatore sends instruction to our men. “We need more men in Naples as quickly as you can. Salvatore is going to text you the contacts we already have on the ground in the city, along with the safe house address.