Code of Silence

by Tessier, Shantel

  “So when are we going to be informed of where we’re going?” Max asks.

  I’m not all that fond of them, but as long as they take orders, I won’t slit their necks.

  “Italy,” I answer.

  “For how long?” the other asks.

  “We’ll only be going for a couple of days.” I look at Nite, and he swallows. He’ll be staying behind.

  CHAPTER TEN

  HAVEN

  THIRTEEN HOURS AND three naps later, our plane touches down in Sicily, Italy, where two cars await us outside of an airplane hangar. Luca ushers me into the back seat of the first one along with one of the guys I know to be named Max. Nite and the other guy climb into the second car. I stay silent, looking out the window of the car. I’ve been to Italy before. When I was nine, my parents brought me to the largest Mediterranean island for vacation. We stayed for a week, and I would move here in a heartbeat.

  We pull up to a gate, but it opens before the car even rolls to a stop. I sit up straighter, watching as the grand Italian Palazzo-style mansion comes into view. The sun is starting to set in the background, making the illuminated structure look picture perfect. The car comes to a stop on the red brick driveway. The driver gets out, opening my door, and I exit, looking up at it in awe.

  “Is this your place?” I ask Luca, not bothering to look over at him.

  “No,” he answers, taking my hand and leading me up the stone stairs past the concrete columns.

  Two wooden doors open, and we step inside. I look around, amazed at the expensive artwork hanging from the walls. And the detail work in the ceiling and floors.

  “Where is she?” Luca asks a man who walks up to us.

  I tense. She? In the past thirteen hours, I never once asked why we were coming here. My head whips to look over at him.

  The man answers in Italian, and my lips thin.

  Luca nods and then begins to drag me through the house until we’re walking out an open glass door. And a woman stands in front of the Olympic-size infinity pool. The house sits on the side of a cliff, giving an ocean view. But all I can look at is the woman who has her back to us. She’s got long lean legs. She wears a one-piece black bathing suit that is cut high on her narrow hips, showing off her bubble ass. Her long, thick dark hair tapers down to a V of her lower back. She wears a massive white hat that you would see at the Kentucky Derby. A black ribbon wrapped around the base is tied into a big bow on the side, and the ribbon hangs off the edge.

  Luca says something in Italian, and again, I kick myself for not knowing the language.

  The woman spins around, and her pouty red painted lips part on a gasp. She runs to him, throwing her arms around his neck.

  He hugs her tightly. I’m instantly jealous. If he brought me here to meet his summer fling, I’m gonna be pissed. Placing her down on her black wedges, she turns to face me. A pair of black Gucci glasses sits on her flawless Barbie face. My eyes roam over her small chest and tiny frame. She looks like a model who deserves to be on the cover of Vogue. I never look this good sitting by the pool. I never look this good at all actually.

  “You must be Haven.” She reaches her right hand out to me. Her English just as perfect as her Italian sounded. Just like her.

  “I’m his fiancée,” I correct her, lifting my chin. I instantly want to crawl under the table that sits to the right of me. I shouldn’t show any kind of jealousy toward her because it just proves Luca right.

  She giggles, and Luca gives a small cough.

  “Congratulations.” She gives me a big smile, showing off her dazzling smile. Teeth as white as fresh snow. They’re also as straight as an arrow.

  Fuck, is there anything wrong with this girl? She doesn’t seem to have a single flaw. As if she’s been groomed to bring any man to his knees.

  “Haven …” He throws his arm over her shoulders, pulling her into his side. “This is Mia Bianchi. My sister.”

  Uh … “Your what?” His sister?

  I was six when another girl came along. My mother instantly started bawling. She knew the child’s fate would be the same as her first daughter. But she begged my father not to kill her. He had never said anything beyond that. I figured his dad had killed her as well. “But …?”

  She hugs me, pushing me back a little at her force. Giggling like a teenager, she whispers in my ear, “I’ve always wanted a sister.”

  I pat her back awkwardly as I try to wrap my head around this new information.

  I look at him wide-eyed. Years together and he never once mentioned he had a sister. “Why would you keep this from me?”

  “It’s complicated,” he answers tightly.

  I snort, now pissed off for a different reason. “Complicated? Nothing about having a sister is complicated, Luca.”

  Mia smiles. “I like her.”

  Luca ignores her and steps into me. His jaw set in a hard line. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

  “Try me,” I challenge, looking back at his … sister. She’s smiling at me. His fucking sister! My eyes go back to his.

  He opens his mouth, but one of my new bodyguards interrupts him. “Luca?”

  “What?” he snaps at him.

  “The perimeter is clear.”

  Luca steps away from me, turning and walking over to the guy before they walk away together.

  “I’m sorry …” Her pretty face falls. “I …”

  “It’s not your fault,” I tell Mia.

  She’s been hidden, kept a secret for how long? Luca said she was born six years after him, and I’m two years younger than him so that would make her twenty? Possibly twenty-one? “How long have you lived here?”

  “Since I was thirteen,” she answers.

  I sigh, running a hand through my hair. “I … I’m trying to wrap my head around this.”

  “Here.” She grabs my hand and walks me over to a lounge chair by the pool. I plop down like a pig falling into mud while she sits on the one next to me with the grace of a fucking queen and crosses her right leg over her left.

  Removing her hat, she pushes her glasses on the top of her head. My breath gets caught in my lungs when my eyes meet hers. They’re the same silvery blue as their mother’s. They make her look exotic with her tan skin and dark hair. She looks so much like their mother, it’s scary.

  “What do you want to know?” she asks me.

  I blink, trying to wrap my head around what is happening. And how open she is going to be about it. “Luca hasn’t told me a single thing regarding you.” Well, that’s a lie. I heard about how your mother begged to keep you. I don’t think shipping her only daughter away was her wish.

  “Not surprised.”

  “Why aren’t you in Vegas?” I ask the first thing that comes to my mind.

  “My father shipped me here on my thirteenth birthday because he didn’t want anyone to know about me.”

  “But why?” I ask confused. Why does she have to be a secret?

  “The Mafia life is a dark one. I know what my father and brothers do. And who they go after. Luca actually talked our father into sending me here.”

  My jaw tightens. “Luca is the reason you were exiled?”

  She gives a soft chuckle. “It was best for me. To keep me safe.”

  I run a hand through my hair. “Are you really in that much danger?” The guys don’t live here. Well, the twins have been gone for years, but I never really cared to ask where they were or why. Do they stay here with her? Were they shipped off as well?

  She looks over at something, and I see Nite walk by us. She averts her eyes and inspects her red painted nails. “I was responsible for hurting him.”

  “Hurting him?” I ask confused even more. “Hurting who? Luca?”

  “Nite.”

  My brows pull together. She isn’t making any sense. “How did you hurt him?”

  Her silver eyes meet mine, and she tilts her head to the side. “He hasn’t told you.”

  I shake my head. “No one has told me anythin
g.” I don’t know if she is referring to Luca or Nite. But I’m pretty sure everyone is aware that Nite hasn’t spoken since their senior year in college.

  “Have you heard of Alberto Rossi?” she asks.

  I nod my head. “Yes.”

  She sighs. “He’s my father’s biggest rival in Vegas. It’s been an ongoing fight for years. But they were once friends. Somehow, word got out that Rossi wanted me. He knew my father and brothers wouldn’t give me up, not if they went to such great lengths to keep me hidden all that time, so he thought he’d be able to buy off a member of my father’s crew.”

  “Who?”

  “Oliver Nite.”

  I don’t like where this is going.

  “He was approached, and I’m not sure of those details, but whatever he said or did didn’t sit well with Rossi. And for some reason, they thought they could get it another way. A week later, Oliver Nite was taken from his house. He had gone missing.”

  I remember when he missed school for a few weeks. When he came back, he never spoke again.

  She looks down at her shoes and softens her voice. “He was tortured.” My chest tightens. “They wanted intel on me, and he refused to give it. His loyalty to my family didn’t waver.” She shakes her head as if keeping her a secret was the stupidest thing he could have ever done. “They cut out his tongue for it.” I gasp, and my hand comes up to cup my mouth. “They dropped him off at Luca’s front door. A week later, Nite, Luca, and one of my father’s men went after Rossi. Although he was not found, they did brutally slaughter six of his men in retaliation for what they did to Nite.”

  My head spins, but it all makes sense now. Why he doesn’t talk. The vow of silence. It was a lie. “I didn’t know …”

  “No one does. If it got out what happened to him, then my secret would be blown.”

  “But … I don’t understand. Why keep you a secret?”

  Her silver eyes meet mine. “Because a player never shows his cards.”

  My chest tightens. Mr. Bianchi is going to use his daughter. He has a plan for her. He saved her by sending her here, but what kind of danger does her future hold? What could he possibly do with her?

  I look over at Nite, who now stands by the pool with his arms crossed over his chest and a pair of Aviators on his face even though the sun has almost set. I see him in a different light now. We were never friends, but I never disliked him. I can’t imagine what he went through and what kind of guilt Mia holds, knowing what happened to him.

  “With Luca being here, that can only mean one thing.” She sighs.

  My head snaps back to hers. “What?” My heart picks up at her words because until now, I didn’t know why the hell we were here.

  “They’re coming for me.”

  LUCA

  It’s late. My watch tells me it’s after one a.m., so I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours. Things needed to be taken care of before I got that option. I shut the door to the bedroom behind me and lock it. I’m removing my gun from my holster when the bedside lamp turns on.

  Haven sits up. With her eyes wide open and lips set in a hard line, it’s clear she’s been waiting for me. “Why didn’t you tell me about Nite?”

  I place my gun on the nightstand. I see my sister and her have been chatty. “Didn’t seem important.”

  She gasps. “They cut out his tongue, Luca. They—”

  “I know what they did, Haven,” I interrupt her. I’m not in the mood to do this with her. She slept on the plane, but I didn’t, so I’m pissy and tired. Not a good combination.

  “Mia told me that you, Nite, and another guy took care of the ones who hurt him.”

  I nod.

  “What did you do to them?” she asks.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “I do.”

  “No, you don’t,” I growl, removing my shirt.

  She runs a hand through her dark hair. “I don’t understand. How did you know to come here?”

  “Yesterday when I was meeting with Bones, he informed me that there had been talk. Rossi had men together, and they were ready. He suggested they might come after you, but I know who they would go after.”

  “Mia,” she whispers.

  I nod.

  “Why don’t we stay here with her?”

  “It’s not safe. I have to go back. We have to go back. I have businesses to run, and we have a wedding to celebrate. If I stay too long, they’ll start asking questions and possibly track me, which would lead them right to her.”

  “Bring her back to Vegas with us,” she argues.

  “I can’t.”

  “Call your father. You had him send her here, so you can talk to him …”

  “I can’t!” I shout. “I’m not her father. I have no control over her.” She doesn’t know what it feels like to have your hands tied. I’ve spent all my life protecting Mia. From the moment I saw her, I knew I was all she had.

  Six years old

  “Please …” my mother cries. “I’m begging you.”

  I knock on the door before twisting the knob and entering. Not waiting for permission. My mother lies in the center of the large bed. A woman stands off to the side, a crying baby cradled in her arms.

  My sister.

  No one pays me any attention.

  My father walks over to the woman who has been staying at our house for the last month to help my mother get ready for the baby. “Let me have her.” He holds out his hands.

  The woman hands her over, and my mom shifts on the bed. “Please!” she cries. “Don’t do this! Not again …”

  “Silence!” he barks, causing her to push herself into the headboard. He holds my sister in his arms, softly rocking her back and forth. A smile spreads across his face as he stares down at my little sister, and it makes me nervous. I’ve seen that look before. It’s the same one he gives before he takes a life. “She may stay,” he finally says, and my mother begins to sob. “But a time will come when she will earn her last name.”

  “Yes.” My mother nods, brushing the tears from her cheeks. “Of course.”

  “She can live with us. I’ll help hide her.” Haven goes on, cutting through my thoughts.

  “No,” I growl.

  “Luca …”

  “Do you know what I had to do in order to get him to put her here?” I snap.

  “What? Luca?” She gets up on her knees. “What did you do?”

  I shake my head. I can’t tell her. I can’t let her know. She’ll never forgive me. My sister will never forgive me. “It doesn’t matter. It’s done.”

  She slams her fists in my chest. “That’s the same thing my father said to me before he gave me over to you,” she yells.

  “Listen.”

  “She can’t live here. She’s isolated.”

  I’m getting a headache. “She’s safe.”

  “That’s no life.”

  “Tell that to the thousands of Mafia women who have been beaten and raped.” Her eyes widen. “Tell that to the ones who were sold into sex slavery. Or the ones thrown in a jail cell for crimes they never committed.” I sigh, rubbing my temples. “Tomorrow morning, we are getting on that plane, and we will leave Mia here.”

  Tears fill her eyes. “Just when I was starting to tolerate you, you remind me of who you are. And I remember just how much I hate you.” She jumps out of bed, rushes out of the room, and slams the door behind her. I have no desire to fight with her or even try to explain the Bianchi way of life to her, so I let her go.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  HAVEN

  I STORM THROUGH the large house and toward the kitchen. Flipping on the light, I shriek when I run into a small body.

  “I’m so sorry,” Mia rushes out. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

  “You’re fine,” I tell her, letting out a long breath. “What are you doing up so late?” I ask, noticing that she’s changed out of her bathing suit into a purple silk nightgown. It has lace straps; one has fallen off her shoulder. The hem touc
hes the floor, but it has a long slit up her side, showing off her thigh. Her face is clear of any makeup, yet she still looks runway ready.

  “Can’t sleep. You?”

  “Same,” I mumble. I think all that sleep I got on the plane screwed me over. Then add in the time change and all the new information I’ve learned. Any one of those things could be the cause.

  “Want me to make you something?” she offers.

  “Oh, no. You don’t have to do that.”

  “Nonsense.” She waves me off. “Do you like biscuits and gravy?”

  I smile. “They’re my favorite.”

  “Then that’s what I’ll make.”

  “Do you cook a lot?” I ask, pulling out a barstool and sitting down at the kitchen island.

  She nods, grabbing stuff from the stainless fridge. “I love it. I have a lot of time on my hands, so over the years, I’ve learned to cook all sorts of food.”

  “Do you go to college?” I ask, being nosy.

  She snorts. “I wish. I’m not allowed to go to school.”

  “What do you mean not allowed?” I don’t know much about Italian education.

  “Women in my family aren’t supposed to have a brain.” She rolls her eyes. “I never even went to high school.” My eyes widen. “I had nannies who taught me all that I know, which I’m afraid isn’t much.” She smiles at me. “I’d love to go to college. Not only to learn, but the parties.” Placing her elbows on the island, she drops her chin into her hands, giving me a smile that lights up her face. It makes her look younger than I know she is. “Do you have any wild stories you can tell me?”

  I laugh, thinking about the time me and Emilee were with Bones and Luca in the game room. “Not that you’d want to hear.”

  She frowns.

  “They involve your brother,” I inform her.

  Her face scrunches. “Yeah, I don’t care to hear those.” And then she straightens herself.

  “So you’re here all alone?” I change the subject.

  “No. There are always guards and house cleaners. The twins are somewhere around here tearing up Italy. They come and go.”

  I thought my father selling me was bad, but he didn’t ship me off alone and forget about me. This girl has been completely abandoned. She’s been left in her own world and closed off from anyone. “What about your mother?”