Defying Her Mafioso

by Terri Anne Browning

  Several other men shifted restlessly, wanting to go a few rounds with Fontana, but waiting to see if I would step in. I didn’t even move. Fontana wasn’t who I wanted, but if I took a turn the fucker would be dead in half an hour.

  Volkov and Cristiano had both been standing quietly beside me as we watched, but it was the former who took Hawk’s place. I’d heard plenty of rumors about the Russian’s methods of getting people to talk, but up until right then I’d never believed them. I should have. My sources hadn’t exaggerated. Hell, if anything they had left a lot of the details out.

  I always turned a part of myself off when I did this kind of work, but Volkov seemed to turn a part of himself on. He even smiled, as if he actually enjoyed it. I’d always had a little respect for the man, but right then he made me feel uneasy.

  Cristiano shifted with his own apprehension beside me. We hadn’t talked about either of his sisters other than to say they were each safe. He’d been at Anya’s with Victoria since the night before as far as I knew. Whatever was going on with the younger twin, she wasn’t in a rush to get back to the compound and, surprisingly, no one seemed to be forcing her to head home either. I hadn’t shared with my friend what Scarlett had asked me to find out, but that didn’t mean Cristiano didn’t know his favorite sister had been seeing Volkov until I’d given Scarlett the information she had wanted.

  Jet Hannigan raised his eyebrows at me. “Can we recruit this guy?” he muttered, only half joking.

  I would have happily given Volkov to the MC if I could, but he wasn’t under my command. From my dealings with him in the past, he had always been level-headed and had appeared to have the patience of a saint. Like this, the man was a loose cannon. Unpredictable and a liability if I couldn’t keep him in check.

  Even so, I had to admit, when he was like this he had his advantages.

  “He’s not here,” Fontana finally screamed. “Jr went to Chicago last night after he took the girl.”

  “Fuck,” Cristiano muttered half under his breath and raked his hands through his hair.

  His agitation set off warning bells in my head and I turned to face him. “What?”

  My friend’s face was just as white as Fontana’s now. “I sent Victoria to the house in Chicago with Anya. She said she needed to get away for a little while. That she needed to think. I thought she would be safer there. That they both would.”

  Volkov was in front of Cristiano before I could even move. His eyes were wild and, with blood splattered across his face, he looked savage. “You sent Victoria away from me?” he roared.

  Cristiano didn’t even flinch, his own anger starting to boil over. “She begged me to help her. Anya thought it was a good idea too. You’re fucking with my sister’s head and she can’t deal with your shit right now.”

  “Anya helped you?” The Russian stumbled back a step, as if Cristiano had punched him in the face. The man he’d been while he was torturing Fontana was gone now. For only a second I saw a flash of pain in his eyes, but he quickly turned it off again. Yelling something in Russian at his men, who almost jumped out of their skin before rushing after him, he then marched out of the warehouse.

  I had other shit to deal with than to worry about Volkov’s temper tantrum because his newest plaything had been taken away. Jr was in Chicago. That meant Scarlett was safe for the time being, but Victoria was another story.

  “Does Vito know about this?” I knew he wouldn’t do something that involved his sisters without talking to his father first. Not even Cristiano could withstand the wrath of Vito Vitucci if something happened to one of his daughters while on Cristiano’s watch.

  “I told him earlier. He agreed it was the best thing for her right now. Like me, he thought she would be safe in Chicago.” He reached for his phone. “I need to tell De Stefano.”

  Dante De Stefano, Vito’s underboss in Chicago. I’d been offered the job, but even back then I hadn’t wanted to be too far from Scarlett. Like me, Dante wasn’t blood, but Vito had always treated him like he was. Vito had always had some pipe dream about one of the twins marrying the man. I’d never taken him seriously about it though, but if he had let Victoria go to Chicago he might have an ulterior motive.

  Like throwing his daughter at Dante to keep her out of Volkov’s reach.

  Better her than Scarlett. I liked Dante, but I wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if he ever looked twice at what was mine.

  “When did she leave?” From what Fontana—who was still bleeding out and moaning on the table—had said, Jr had left the night before, after hurting Scarlett. If Victoria hadn’t left until that morning, Jr wouldn’t know she was in the same city.

  “I put them on the plane this morning around ten,” Cristiano told me as he waited for Dante to pick up on the other end. “As long as she stays close to the house, she should be okay. But I want De Stefano to be alert until I get there.”

  The MC guys were listening intently. “Colt and Raider will go with you.” Hawk wasn’t offering out of the kindness of his dark heart, but Cristiano wasn’t listening. Dante had finally picked up and he was barking out orders. “I’d go, but I’m not going to leave with Gracie still in the hospital.”

  I nodded, shooting a glance at the younger two Hannigan brothers. The MC did protection runs from California to Chicago and New York all the time, but Dante didn’t get along with the MC as well as I did. “I’ll make sure De Stefano knows your men will be coming.”

  Paco pulled my attention away from the MC and back to the job that was still left to do. “What should I do with this piece of shit?”

  I popped my neck. “I got this.”

  Fontana whimpered, then began to pray.

  Chapter 17

  Scarlett

  “You’re where?”

  I hadn’t meant to shout and regretted it the second that I did. Fuck, my head was still throbbing.

  Victoria had only called a moment ago and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Hey, I’m in Chicago.”

  Chicago.

  Meanwhile I was in New York. Without my twin. It wasn’t like we had to be connected at the hip or anything, but we’d never spent more than a night apart in our entire lives. Twenty-one years of always having her there to turn to when I needed to talk to someone. It wasn’t about me missing her—which I did. Hell, I was just now finding out she was gone and my heart was already feeling the distance between us.

  No, it was about watching out for her. I’d always been the one to ask if she’d checked her blood sugar. The one to give her a shot of insulin when she needed it, or force juice down her throat when it got too low. Who was going to do that now?

  “I had to leave, Scarlett.” There was a quiver in her voice that made me clench my hands into fists.

  What the hell had I missed? I’d been away from her for twenty-four hours, but I got the feeling I had missed a hell of a lot. I knew she’d been at Anya’s, but that was all anyone had told me. Seriously, what the fuck? I couldn’t make sense of it all with my head pounding like it was. I probably should have taken one of the pain pills Papa had set beside my bed earlier when he’d asked if I was hungry, but I hated how tired they made me.

  Squeezing the bridge of my nose, I blew out a frustrated breath. “Okay. You had to leave. What I want to know is why, Tor.”

  “I met Adrian’s wife last night,” she whispered.

  Ah, fuck. That was seriously… Fuck.

  “Did you kill her?” I wasn’t asking to tease her. I needed to know if my twin was on the run. That was the only explanation I could accept for why she had left without saying goodbye to me. Why she had left without me, period. “Do I need to hide a body?”

  A broken laugh filled my ear. “No. You know I would call Cristiano for something like that anyway. You have Ciro for dirty work, and I have our brother.”

  “That’s good to know. I couldn’t really hide a body right now if I wanted to.” I could barely walk to the damn bathroom wit
hout tripping over my own feet because I got so dizzy. “So, what happened? Is she ugly?”

  “She is probably the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. And nothing happened. Not really. She stopped by Anya’s apartment unexpectedly last night. She had to pick something up for Adrian.”

  Again, I couldn’t really understand what was so bad about all of that that it would send my sister running to another state. “Tor, sweetie, I love you. But right now I need you to break this down into an even more simpler explanation because I’m not following you. I get that seeing that douchebags wife probably stung, but you knew he was married.”

  “It didn’t just sting,” she cried. “You have no idea how much it hurt when I came face to face with that woman. She has everything I want, Scarlett. Everything. She’s his wife and the mother of his child.” A sob bubbled out of her. “I…I didn’t just come face to face with his wife. I saw his son. That little boy looks just like him, and I… That’s one thing I can never have, Scarlett. You know that. I can never have that. Never.”

  Now I got it. I knew what had hurt her so badly that she had run away without me.

  It wasn’t that Victoria couldn’t have kids of her own, but that she shouldn’t. Her diabetes was so severe that getting pregnant had the potential of killing her. Her kidneys were already feeling the effects of the damn disease. A baby would complicate that even more. She’d always said she wouldn’t ever take the risk by trying to get pregnant, and even though she’d never really thought of boys and sex, she’d gone on the pill when she was seventeen.

  Her biggest dream was to be a mother, though, and she’d talked about adopting several times over the last few years.

  “I’m so sorry, Tor.” My heart was breaking for her. I wanted to reach through the phone and wrap her in my arms, tell her it was all going to be okay. It wouldn’t be, though. Nothing about this would ever be okay and I wouldn’t lie to her, not about this.

  She loved Adrian and it had been a fucking stab to the heart to see what she couldn’t have.

  “Me too,” she whispered. “And I’m really sorry about last night. I never should have let you go to the bathroom alone. I was lost in my own little world and you got hurt.”

  “That wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I should have been more alert. Hell, we probably shouldn’t have even left the house last night.” That wasn’t something I was going to admit to Papa—or worse, Ciro—though. I didn’t need either one of them getting a bigger head than they already had.

  Especially that particular capo.

  Now that some of the shock was starting to wear off, I realized exactly where Victoria was. Who she was with.

  Dante.

  An evil smile pulled at my lips as I took a perverse pleasure in knowing at least one of us would be throwing a tailspin at the arrogant ass underboss’s well-ordered life. I liked Dante more than my own brother, although the same couldn’t be said for Victoria. Growing up, before he’d taken over as the high and mighty underboss and moved to Chicago, I’d loved tormenting Dante. He’d even come for a few visits when we were in Sicily, although that probably had more to do with our cousin Allegra and not either of us.

  Why else would he stay in the same house with a man who basically hated that he existed? My uncle Gio detested Dante, but because he was part of the Cosa Nostra he hadn’t been able to turn down the invitation to stay at the compound in Sicily.

  Papa had never made it a secret that he would like to make Dante De Stefano his son-in-law, but my stupid heart had always belonged to Ciro. His relationship with both me and my sister had always been that of a brother and sisters. Papa was just out of luck where his daughters were concerned.

  “How is Dante?”

  Victoria blew out a huff. “He’s annoying as always. I swear, I probably should have asked to go back to Sicily rather than here. Nona is so much easier to deal with than Dante.”

  “Because you can wind Nona around your little finger, while Dante sees right through you,” I reminded her with a small laugh, only to groan when the sound made my head hurt more.

  “Whatever,” she mumbled, but I was thankful to hear a touch of amusement in her voice. It was good to know Volkov hadn’t completely destroyed her sense of humor even if he’d decimated her heart. “I should let you go, Scarlett. Cristiano told me you have a concussion. Please get some rest, and call me every day.”

  I didn’t want to end our call, but my headache was only getting worse. “I promise, Tor. I love you.”

  “Love you back.”

  I didn’t lower the phone until she had hung up on her end. Without her voice in my ear the room suddenly felt too big. Empty—just like a part of my heart was no. I didn’t want to be so far away from my twin. It hurt worse than my headache and bruised ribs combined.

  Tossing the phone aside, I turned over on the bed. Ridiculously, I was fighting tears. Stupid headache. Stupid ribs. Stupid Adrian Volkov. One spilled free as I closed my eyes and tried to turn the world off.

  A shifting on the mattress pulled me out of a deep, dreamless sleep hours later. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know Ciro had returned and was now getting comfortable in my bed. I bit down on my lip, once again fighting tears. It was only now hitting home that I had no control over anything.

  My sister was gone. I hated Volkov for hurting her so bad that she felt like she couldn’t even be in the same city with him. My body had been used as a punching bag. Santino was a mean motherfucker. Papa had told me that Jr enjoyed hurting women, that rape was his favorite sport. What a fucking pussy.

  But Ciro had kept his promise and had come back to me. In the end, I realized that was all that mattered. Not even trying to hold back my tears this time, I reached for Ciro before his head had even hit the pillow. Thick, strong arms carefully enfolded me against him, his lips already pressing into my hair.

  “What’s wrong, vita mia?”

  His deep voice was like a soothing caress over my frayed nerves and I sucked in a shuddery breath. “Tor is gone. I hurt all over. I’m scared. I…I missed you.” It all came flooding out, but I didn’t care. With Ciro I was allowed to feel all of those things. He would protect me and make everything better. He always had.

  One arm released me and the lamp on my nightstand was switched on. I buried my face in his chest to shield my eyes in case the light made me nauseous. Slowly, cautiously, I lifted my head, exposing myself to it a little at a time. When the pain didn’t increase and my stomach didn’t protest, I let out a relieved breath. After wiping away the last of my tears with his calloused thumb, Ciro reached for the bottle of pain medication and extracted one before taking the bottle of water Papa had left earlier.

  After I swallowed the pill, he turned the light off and pulled me close once again. “You have nothing to be afraid of as long as I’m breathing, vita mia,” he promised after a few minutes of just holding me.

  There in the cocoon he was wrapping me in, I felt like nothing bad could happen.

  Chapter 18

  Scarlett

  It took over a week before the headache completely went away. My ribs weren’t nearly as sore, and the bruises on my face were almost completely faded, with just a little yellow hint to them. Ciro had finally relented and let me out of bed, although I hadn’t been complaining too much about being there as long as he was lying beside me.

  Today he was doing something with my father and I was wandering around the house feeling lost. It was lonely without Victoria, or even Cristiano to talk to. I was almost desperate enough to talk to a few of the guards who were always walking around the house.

  Almost.

  Deciding that what I really needed was some fresh air, I opened the front door and nearly walked right into the wide shoulders of one of Ciro’s men. I stumbled back in surprise, but his reflexes were as quick as lightning and he grasped my arms before I could fall on my ass.

  “Are you okay?”

  I grimaced and looked up at the man.
I knew a few of Ciro’s men better than Papa’s. Desi wasn’t as tall as Ciro or my brother, but he wasn’t short by anyone’s definition either. His hair was a dark brown and cut short, but it was his lips that instantly drew a person’s eyes. I hadn’t seen lips that beautiful on a man ever. They should have looked too feminine on him, but somehow they fit him perfectly. I doubted few men would ever mention it to him. While his lips were on the beautiful side, the rest of him screamed something completely opposite.

  Mysterious and dangerous.

  To me he was just Desi. I’d always liked him. He didn’t ignore me like everyone else did.

  “I’ll live,” I assured him. “Just needed a little air. I’ve been locked up for too damn long.”

  A half smile lifted at those full lips but quickly disappeared. “Do you need anything?”

  “You could break me out of this place. I wouldn’t mind going to visit Mary.” She had come to see me several times over the last week, but I understood she couldn’t do it every day. She had Felicity and the MC guys still staying at her house.

  “Sorry, Miss Vitucci. Capo said you weren’t to leave the house without him.”

  “Of course he did,” I muttered. Ciro had told me not to go anywhere without him, but seriously, I couldn’t wait around for him in order to leave the compound. Knowing there was no use in arguing with Desi since he was only following orders—and he never defied his capo—I stepped around him. “In that case, I guess I’ll take a walk.”

  “Of course,” he said with a nod and fell into step beside me.

  “The place is surrounded by at least thirty men, Desi. I think I’m safe.”

  “Capo said to watch out for you.”

  I rolled my eyes but didn’t argue further. I was freaking bored and it was nice to have someone I could talk to. If he didn’t want to talk back that was fine, I’d just talk at him.