by Via Mari
“Roger that,” Jay says.
I turn away from the family and their prying eyes to walk outside on the balcony to talk in private. “How is Serena? Has she calmed down?”
“I’m not going to lie to you. She’s worried about the bed and breakfast and the people she was staying with. We’ve reassured her they were not harmed, and aside from that she seems relatively calm after a fight for her life. I couldn’t say much on the phone before, but she overpowered two of the men, and one will need surgery. Then she put two bullets into another and would have ended him if we hadn’t stepped in.”
My chest should swell with pride for the impressive way she handled the situation, but instead it tightens, knowing that she had to use those skills to save her own life. It does not matter to me that she put herself in this position by leaving, she should have the freedom to come and go as she pleases without people trying to do her harm, without her needing to defend herself, or for a team of security to protect her.
“We’re taking her to your safe house, and we’ve got word that your men are already there to help us safeguard the perimeter. One thing you should know, though, Gio,” Jay says.
“Tell me,” I say as Great-Uncle and Salvatore join me on the balcony.
“We just got radio action and confirmed the instructions aren’t coming solely from Mancini. Someone’s calling the orders from higher up. Our suspicions were correct. He’s just a puppet, and whoever’s at the top sure as hell knows what they’re doing. They’ve scrambled all the inbound and outbound communications, but they weren’t good enough for our intel team. We’ve got a lock on the airwaves, and we’re very close to homing in on where the orders are coming from,” Jay says.
Great-Uncle looks to me, and then to Salvatore. “I’m coming with you!” he says.
“There’s no reason to do that. We have an entire security team and every soldier in the city on standby,” Salvatore says.
“There’s much you don’t know.” He points back inside at each of the brothers and bellows at them, “You have not yet been cleared by the Family. You will know what you are getting yourselves into before we board the plane! Giovanni, Salvatore, I expect they go in with eyes wide open and an allegiance to this Family!”
“It will be done,” Salvatore says.
“Then get us to the private airstrip. We can talk on the way,” he roars.
Serena
I find myself lying on the floor of a car with a blanket thrown over me. The vehicle moves slowly at first, but I can tell when he hits the main street because he accelerates. I have lived in this neighborhood all my life and I know exactly where we are as we stop at a light. My pulse beats faster until the car begins moving forward again. I try to lift my head up, but a firm hand on the back of my neck keeps me from raising up or being able to see my surroundings.
“Stay down, Serena. We’ve got heat all around us, all looking for you,” a deep voice that I recognize as one of Giovanni’s security team says.
“Nick?” I ask.
“Yeah, that’s right, but only because Giovanni had us tailing you. If he hadn’t done that, you’d be in the car trunk of one of Mancini’s goons right about now, gagged and driving to a place where they would torture you for hours, days, fuck—they could draw it out for weeks. Do you know what these men want to do to you to get back at Giovanni? He had you and your family safe, and you take off! I’m too fucking busy right now, but at some point, you’re going to have to explain that move to me!” Nick growls.
“I’m sorry! And by the way, I was holding my own just fine!”
“I’ll ease up, but you stay right the hell where you are. If you raise your head, my hand goes back on your head. This discomfort is of your own doing and nothing compared to what they had in store for you if they had taken you,” Nick says. “I’m going to cover you with a protective covering. It’s heavier than the blanket. Don’t move, just stay under it, and we’ll get you out of here, okay?”
I don’t say a word as a heavy tarp-like blanket is laid over me. I’ve messed up badly, but I don’t know how to reconcile my feelings anymore. I feel completely lost and torn between my values, my family’s warnings, and my love for Giovanni. My nonna won’t ever accept Giovanni. He orders horrific acts to be done, not only him but his Family. How would anyone react to that knowledge being shown to you firsthand?
“Nick, we’ve got Antonio on the line. He wants us to put him on speaker for Serena,” someone says from the front seat.
“Do it,” Nick says.
“Serena, this is Antonio. Listen to me. I’m sure you’re scared out of your mind right now, but these men are going to take care of you until we get you back to safety, okay?”
I start to lift my head up and Nick places his hand gently on the back of my nape, reminding me of the danger. “Lift up enough to speak, but that’s all. There’s extra bullet proofing along the bottom of the car. Just taking precautions, Serena,” Nick says, and I try hard not to think of a scenario where bullets come flying at the car, taking everyone out except me because I’ve been safeguarded on the floor.
“Antonio, where is Giovanni?”
“He’s on his way to you, Serena. I’ve got the safe house set up, and it won’t be long before you’re safe, okay?”
I nod, more to myself than to anyone else because I know Antonio can’t see me. I’m comforted that Giovanni will be there. What does that mean? Have I heard and seen too much? Asked too much? “When will I see Giovanni?”
“Soon, Serena, very soon, but you have to listen to Nick and the other men. They will take care of you, but you have to do as they ask,” Antonio says.
“I will if you promise me one thing.”
He chuckles loudly and the sound reverberates through the speaker and around the car. “You’re in no position to negotiate anything, Serena, but what is it?” Antonio says.
“Can you call Gracie and tell her that you’re okay? She was asking Nonna about you. I think she was a little worried about you,” I say.
He doesn’t respond right away. When he finally replies, it’s not with the answer I had hoped for. “You can let her know, Serena, and give her my best regards.”
I make a mental note to talk to him privately. I shouldn’t have asked him in front of the other men, or let on that I know something is going on between the two of them. I should apologize, but I don’t have the chance before he starts yelling overhead. “Get your foot on the gas! We’ve got heat coming at us from all directions! Nick, keep Serena on the floor! Don’t let her head come up for any reason!” Antonio yells, and Nick’s heavy hand pushes me into the floorboard even harder.
The car accelerates faster and faster before swerving. I feel my body forced against the seat, almost sucked in as we fly down the highway. “Get to the safe house as quick as you can. Scottie’s bringing in overhead cover, but we need to get there fast!” Jay instructs, coming over the speaker now, too.
“Roger that! I’ve got my foot on the floor!”
We hit a round of curves, and my belly flips as the car moves side to side, hugging the highway as it navigates the curvy terrain. “You’re almost to a turnoff, as soon as you see it, bank hard right,” Jay yells from the overhead system.
“Roger that,” the driver says, seemingly calm just before he swerves hard and I’m thrown against Nick’s legs.
“Stay on the floor, Serena,” Nick says, and then all hell breaks loose. Firepower opens up all around us, coming from everywhere. “Get us the hell out of here,” Nick yells to the driver.
“Roger, that! The turnoff’s coming in less than two minutes. When I hit the brake we’re going to bank hard right again. Here we go, on one and two and hang tight,” the driver yells just before the car swerves and fishtails, righting itself before the driver hits the gas and we propel forward at an increasingly rapid speed.
There’s an explosion, and t
hen Jay’s voice comes over the speaker. “The threat has been taken out for now. Get her to the safe house and we’ll meet her there.”
The Family is coming for me. The same people that I pushed away, shunned because of their tactics, the very tactics that just saved my life, have killed the men that are trying to abduct me, and they’ve done it time and time again. The tears are uncontrollable, and I don’t even try to stop them because finally whatever I’ve felt, whatever I’ve kept repressed, is finally coming full circle. Giovanni has ordered people killed in retribution for what my nonna and I have endured, he has had Sal teach me self-defense, and has also gone against his great-uncle, whose protocols are everything, and his men have now killed people that are trying to do me harm, some of the same people that I asked Great-Uncle to remove.
I didn’t know it was against a protocol to ask him to help me. I thought it was asking him a favor that he would easily be able to accommodate. Instead, it put Great-Uncle into a position where he had to make a choice. Stick to his protocols, or break them for a person that admittedly had issues with the Family after having been blackmailed by them for years. Great-Uncle stuck with his protocols, but allowed Giovanni to go easy on me, and eventually he did call the horrible protocol off. Giovanni has been honorable and all I can think about is how stupid I’ve been and how much I want to see him.
The next half hour feels more like hours as we wind through back roads and gravel before the car eventually stops.
“Heavy cover during transport. The house has been cleared and we have reinforcements, both aerial and on the ground, but we don’t take any chances with Serena,” Nick says to the crew before uncovering a piece of the protective blanketing to speak with me. “You sit up, and I’m going to throw this blanket over you while I carry you in.”
I can only nod, too emotionally exhausted and nervous about what has transpired, and what is about to occur, to do anything but that. Nick keeps me completely covered, and only when he puts me on the floor and removes the heavy blanket from me do my eyes begin to take in the room we are standing in.
“You’ll be safe here until the Family arrives,” Nick says to me, and then takes his cell phone from his pocket and answers with one word. “Nick.”
He looks at me, his eyes never wavering. “She’s shaken up a bit, but otherwise fine. I’ll tell her,” he says, sliding his phone back into his pocket. “The Family just touched down; they’ll be escorted in from the helipad. You should know that your brothers are with them.”
After a few short moments, there’s talking outside the cabin, and the large door is opened from the outside and Giovanni fills the space of the doorframe, his eyes tracking me as he stalks into the room, followed by an entourage of his Family, my brothers, and more bodyguards right behind him.
His eyes are dark and hooded as he takes me in. “Come with me, Serena.”
Gio
This fucking jet can’t go any faster, and then security transfers us to the helicopter after we finally do land. I just need to feel her breathing in my arms so I feel her heart beating against my own, and it feels like it’s taking forever.
We land on the helipad, and the guards surround us, helping us to the ground and assisting us into the armored car that will take us to the safe house hidden deep in the valley. Every precaution has been made because I ordered it, but that doesn’t put my mind at ease. It won’t settle until I have my dark-haired beauty in my arms again.
When I walk through the door of the immense cabin, the emotion in her eyes looks like half relief and half fear of my fucking Family. All she knows is that our enemies are after her, and that me and my Family have found her, and that we have her brothers.
The look on her face absolutely slays me. All I want to do is pull her to me and keep her protected, but she asked for space, even put her family and mine at risk to get separation from me. Serena is tense, completely overwhelmed by everything that has happened, and the fact that not only are Sal and Great-Uncle here but her brothers as well. All I want to do is pull her tight and hold her, explain, apologize, tell her nothing like what transpired will ever happen again, but that may not be the truth, and there’s a wariness about Serena, and I certainly don’t want to discuss it in front of our families. I could only imagine the beating her brothers would try to give me for what I put their sister through. I can’t wait one more minute to have her near me, and I just need to get her away from everyone else, and I need to do it now. “Come with me, Serena.”
Her brown eyes are so heavily veiled in swirling emotion that I have a hard time deciphering the storm that’s churning in her beautiful depths. She lowers her eyes and holds out her hand to me.
I swallow down the lump in the back of my throat, and it takes less than three steps to close the distance between us. I scoop my dark-haired beauty into my arms, carrying her through the great room to where the stairs lead to the upper level. She leans her face into my chest, her arms tighten around me, and she breathes deeply, driving me delirious with need.
I hold her tightly, but careful not to smother her with my strength. The door to the suite we will use for the duration of our stay is open, but I close it as we walk through, heading through the living area and directly to the large ornate bed that occupies the center of one wall in the bedroom.
I lay her down and remove her shoes at the very same time I toe off my own. She’s still just looking up at me, watching me as I shrug out of my suit jacket before sliding in next to her. “Tesoro, I need to feel your body next to mine, feel your heartbeat,” I say, pulling her close and running my thumb against the side of her throat, feeling the beat, the proof that she is very much alive and this is not a dream. “If anything would have happened to you,” I start.
Serena nuzzles into my chest and one finger raises to touch my lips. “It didn’t, Giovanni. I am okay. I don’t deserve to be, after I ran off, but I’m okay,” she says, lifting her face to me in invitation.
“Your request for space is officially denied, Tesoro,” I say before capturing her naturally red lips with my own, relishing in the feel of the minty warmth, and the fact that she is alive and breathing. I run my hands over every single pulse point she has, feeling the change as it begins to speed up and her nipples harden against my skin. She murmurs, soft and low, a little purr, the sound that tells me her need is as great as my own.
My tongue dances with hers, exploring, as though it’s our very first kiss while I begin to strip her bare, one button at a time, until she is completely unwrapped with the exception of her lacy lilac-colored panties. “Lift,” I command, and as soon as I do, Serena obeys, shifting her hips in the air. I remove the delicate material from her skin to expose her soft smooth mound with just a little strip of dark fuzz that teases me with its presence.
She thinks that little patch covers her from me, but she is wrong, it only entices me more. I need to taste her, to have her essence on my lips. Her eyes have glazed over, and I know she needs this, too. I nudge her thighs apart, and she opens for me tentatively. My sweetheart thinks she can keep some semblance of modesty while I lick between her legs, but I won’t allow it. “Open your legs wider, let me have what is mine,” I instruct, enjoying the way her cheeks pinken and her eyes go hazy with lusty need.
She spreads for me, and I stroke a finger down her center, slipping it into her wet core. She moans softly as I tease, spreading her cream over the delicate folds before retracing the path with my tongue. On any other day I would make her wait, hold back her pleasure, but today it is something that I simply cannot endure. I need to feel her shake on the end of my tongue, for her to know who controls her pleasure, and who she belongs to, and to know that she is still mine.
I stroke her with my tongue and delight in her little moans. She raises her hips, but I hold her taut little belly down with my hand. She knows better and lulls her head slowly back and forth, absorbing the pleasure as she climbs. I tease her unmercifu
lly, bringing her right to the edge before I tell her to come, and that’s exactly what she does, as though her body was simply awaiting my command.
I make quick work of my clothes and pull her body forward, closer to the edge of the bed, gathering her gazelle-like legs around either shoulder as I line myself up. I watch her gorgeous eyes roll as, with one thrust, I sink deep into her heat and creaminess. She moans at the depth, and I hit the very end of her before pulling back and doing it again.
She moans again, this time grasping the bedsheets in her need.
I want to hear those little cries of desire, and increase the pace, building us both until I am driving into her at a heated rate, over and over until I feel her pussy clench around me. Serena screams my name, clenching my forearms as her pleasure washes over her, and only then do I allow myself to come deep inside of my dark-haired beauty, the one that I will never allow to run from me again.
I stretch out on the bed, gathering her in my arms and kissing her mouth gently before pressing the beating of her heart against my own. “Do you have any idea just how worried I was about you? I pictured you taken a million times, Tesoro. I know you had your reasons for leaving, but I need you to promise me that you will never do that again. You never, never leave the safety of my Family or your security, capiche?”
Serena looks as though she’s going to say something, and perhaps I should have approached this differently, but I don’t think my heart could take her leaving again.
She snuggles into my chest deeper and looks up at me with those deep brown eyes, now hazy with the aftermath of our lovemaking and presses a finger to my lips. “I’ll never run again. I’m so sorry for the trouble I’ve caused, Giovanni. All the worry, all the security, and all the people that I put at risk. I was embarrassed and upset with you. I just needed a little time to think, and it’s impossible to do that when you’re anywhere near me. It just took a little time for me to put everything into perspective. I’m so sorry, I just…”
