Naughty Girl: A Dark Mafia Menage Romance

by Alta Hensley

  I wasn’t going to ask when I would see Stefano and Thomas again. I didn’t care.

  I wasn’t going to ask any questions about my future. I didn’t care.

  It was just me and the baby I carried. No one else. Just us.

  * * *

  “Mrs. Bennato, welcome to your new home,” an older man in a pressed gray linen suit with a baby blue tie said as he opened the large double doors to a countryside villa in Florence, Italy.

  “Hailey Parker,” I corrected as I looked over his shoulder for a place to sit.

  I was exhausted. Traveling to another country—even by private jet—while suffering from morning sickness, night sickness, and every hour of the day sickness made for a very long and uncomfortable journey. I couldn’t wait to find a bed and sleep for days.

  “I’m sure you’re extremely tired,” he said as he moved out of the way and offered his arm as assistance. “Your room is ready for you if you’d like to go and rest for a while. The cook has dinner in the oven but it’s still a few hours from now if you would like to nap.”

  I took his arm, not out of want but out of need. I actually worried my knees would collapse underneath me. “Yes, please.”

  “Your room is right up the stairs, Mrs. Bennato. Let me help you.” He looked at Gio, who was trailing behind me. “How long will you be staying? Do you need me to get a guest room prepared?”

  I didn’t bother looking back at Gio but heard him say, “I’ll be staying for a few days to make sure Mrs. Bennato gets settled in. I’ll also want to train the staff as to what the Bennato Brothers expect.”

  I was too tired to tell both the men to stop calling me by a name that wasn’t mine. I just wanted a bed and a shower. The rest of this situation could wait.

  Although I could barely keep my eyes open, I did take in how the Italian villa was a complete opposite of the manor I had just come from. It was fully furnished with rustic furniture and antiques. Romantic paintings of the countryside and the small Italian villages hung on the aged walls of yesteryear. The villa had a charm that in any other situation would have had me giddy with glee. It was something right out of a movie. Even the smell of savory food being cooked in the kitchen added to the idealistic environment. Warm. Inviting. Homey in so many ways other than it wasn’t home. It was just another version of a prison. Only this time, I would be alone.

  “My name is Ricardo. I’m the house manager here, and my job is to make sure you have everything you need.”

  We walked up the stairs arm and arm, and though the villa was much smaller than the manor, there was still a level of opulence about it. When Ricardo opened my bedroom door, I half expected to see the room empty as it had been when I first arrived at the manor. Although it was far from that. A beautiful bed mastered the room with a carved wooden headboard. The craftsmanship of the engraved flowers on the bed matched the nightstands, the large armoire, dresser, and a small desk and chair that sat beneath the window. Everything in the room was custom made. Even the patchwork quilt on the bed was obviously created with great care.

  “I’ll leave you alone for now and check on you before dinner. But if you need anything at all, Mrs. Bennato, don’t hesitate to ask.” He walked out of the room but stopped before closing the door behind him. “There’s a private bathroom behind that door on the right of the armoire. It’s fully stocked with all the hygiene items I could think of as well as towels and washcloths. I’m sure once you settle in, you’ll want more. I can of course do the shopping for you, but hopefully we can also get clearance to go into town together. I think you’ll really like it here.”

  “Thank you, Ricardo,” I said as I practically collapsed on the bed.

  I would be sure to be polite to this man. It wasn’t his fault his employers were bastards.

  As I closed my eyes, not even bothering to take off any clothing or shoes, I welcomed sleep. But it didn’t come. Instead, all I could do was wonder where Stefano and Thomas were. Would they come visit me? Would they want to be involved with the pregnancy at all? There would be doctor’s appointments and finding out the sex of the baby. What about nursery colors and a name? And...

  Stop. Why was I thinking these thoughts?

  This wasn’t some romantic love story where I had a doting spouse to be with me every single step.

  I didn’t even know whose baby it was!

  This was madness. Complete madness.

  I placed my hand on my belly and wondered how long it would be before I started showing. I knew nothing about pregnancy. I had been a loner in my previous life and didn’t have any girlfriends who went through this. I didn’t have a living mother to guide me or some trusted aunt. Just me.

  Rolling over to my side, I tried to allow the pure exhaustion to wash over me and quiet my mind.

  I could hear the ticking of a clock, a few doors close downstairs, and heavy footsteps going up and down the stairs.

  Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.

  I made a mental note to ask Ricardo about ordering some pregnancy books. That would help answer some of my questions. I wondered if Stefano or Thomas had any family that would be interested that I was pregnant with a Bennato baby. What about their mother? Wouldn’t she want to be involved?

  No, wait. I think she was dead. I tried to remember who was still alive in the family based on the information I had when I handled all their financial information. Interesting that I had to wonder if I even had any in-laws.

  Wait. I’m not married. No in-laws.

  Go to sleep, Hailey. Go to sleep and stop thinking about them. Stop!

  I couldn’t remember the last time I had been this tired, and yet I couldn’t fall asleep. My mind wouldn’t cease for even a moment.

  Why did they do this to me? How could they just leave without saying goodbye? I was carrying their child; shouldn’t they have at least escorted me across the world themselves?

  How could I have gotten this so wrong?

  Yes, it started off as me fucking up and them making sure I paid the price. But there was more between us. I truly believed that. Our bodies responded to each other... correction. My body responded. Clearly I was nothing more than just a fuck for them.

  So why was I mad? They hadn’t broken any promises. They told me from the beginning what to expect. They were only following through with what they had always planned to do. Did I really have a right to be mad?

  I wasn’t mad.

  I was heartbroken.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Thomas

  “Gio said they arrived safely,” I told Stefano as I hung up the phone. “He said that Hailey was sick for most of the trip.”

  Stefano looked up from the stack of papers that scattered a large table that we used as a desk. “Sick? Is she all right? Do we need to get a doctor out to the villa?”

  I wasn’t used to seeing worry cross Stefano’s face. He rarely showed any emotion, and worry was something he rarely did, and if he did, he did a damn good job concealing it. Our pops had taught us early on in life to not reveal emotions. They made us weak. The Bennato family would not survive if there was weakness present. A face that was impossible to read made a strong and feared man. That belief served us well up to this point.

  “He assured me it was just pregnancy sickness, but I’m going to have a doctor check her and the baby out tomorrow. I’ll have someone come to the house,” I said. “I haven’t given the house staff any set rules or restrictions on whether we will allow Hailey out of the house or not. I wanted to discuss that with you first.”

  Stefano took a long moment staring at me before he looked back down at the papers and got back to work. We sat in silence, which was something we had been doing since we left the manor. If we didn’t have to speak about business, then we pretty much kept to ourselves. We both didn’t want to talk about Hailey or the baby. That much was obvious.

  “I’m concerned we may not have enough security there,” Stefano said casually without looking up from his reading.

  “Then we’ll
get more,” I said, making a mental note to have Gio arrange that before heading back to the States.

  “It doesn’t seem fair to keep her locked away inside. We did that in the manor, and well... we had promised her that once her punishment was over, it was over.”

  “True. But she’s carrying our baby. So, we have to take her safety into consideration from this point on. She’ll never just be a normal woman walking the streets of some Italian town again. It’s changed. Once people get wind that we have a mother to our child, she’ll be a marked and hunted woman from that point on.”

  “She may be more of a prisoner now than she was in the manor,” Stefano said.

  “It’s our reality. Her new reality.”

  “I know Florence was my idea, but she’s a long way away if she...”

  “Needs us?” I answered for him. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that.”

  “And who is this Ricardo guy looking after her? Do we even know anything about him?” Stefano asked, obviously not focusing on work any longer.

  “He’s vetted. But I already asked Gio to grill him and watch his every move while he’s there. We may want to have Gio stay in Italy a little longer than planned. Just to be sure,” I said, thinking out loud.

  “I’ve been thinking about Pops a lot lately,” Stefano confessed.

  “How so?”

  “He was a feared leader of the family. No one gave him shit.”

  “Yeah. So? We’re feared as well.”

  “Right. Some would even say we’re feared and respected even more.”

  “Your point?” I asked, not sure what he was getting at.

  “Pops was able to rule with an iron fist, but he was never that way with Mama. He loved her. Cherished her. There wasn’t a thing he wouldn’t do for her. He was the same with us when we were young. He softened at home, but no one ever saw that side of him beyond our four walls.”

  “He was a good man,” I agreed.

  “So, why are we completely ruling out doing the same? Is it so unheard of that we can’t have a family?”

  “Well, that time is now, brother. We have a son or daughter coming.”

  Stefano leaned back in his chair. “That’s not what I meant. When we came up with this crazy idea of having Hailey first pay for her crimes via her body, and then having our baby, we didn’t plan on anything more. A baby to keep the Bennato family name alive. Nothing more. You and I both had no intention of truly raising the baby or being involved. Not like Pops was involved with us.”

  “So, are you saying you want to raise this baby? Try to be a good father?”

  “I’m just wondering why we’ve ruled that out?”

  I leaned forward on the desk and locked my eyes with Stefano. “We’ve talked about this and all the reasons why.”

  “I know. I guess I’m second-guessing that decision. It feels like shit. I don’t like the way I feel,” Stefano admitted.

  I knew what he was talking about. I felt like shit as well. Ever since leaving Hailey on the bed with her heart ripped out, I couldn’t shake my own level of sadness.

  “I miss her,” I confessed. Stefano had opened the door. We might as well get it all out.

  “I do too.”

  “She deserves better than us,” I said.

  Stefano smirked. “She sure as fuck does. I won’t argue there.”

  “So, what are we saying here?” I asked. My heart sped up, and my brain swirled with possibilities. The heavy, thick depression that had been plaguing me since arriving in Miami seemed to be dissipating as our discussion progressed.

  “Hailey said she wanted to be with us. She said she loved us.”

  I nodded.

  “We have a woman who sees us for who we are. She knows what we do and isn’t asking for us to quit doing it. She isn’t choosing you or choosing me. She’s open to accepting both of us. She’s willing to have our baby and not demanding to know who the real father is.”

  “Not to mention her sexual tastes mesh with our kinky asses,” I said with a small chuckle. It had to be said.

  Stefano laughed. “She’s almost too good to be true.”

  “She did betray us though.”

  Stefano’s smile faded. “True. And there is a part of me that wonders if I can truly ever get past that. I don’t trust. I don’t forgive. I don’t allow someone in. I know this.”

  “We don’t trust or we risk dying for letting our guard down. It’s how we survive. Or at least, it has been our creed up until now.”

  “But she didn’t know us then. We’ve seen many a man cave under the pressure of the Feds. Can we really blame her for being scared and acting in self-preservation? We were just two faceless men who were bad guys in her eyes.”

  “Well. Yes. We did blame her, but we also made her pay for it.” I paused for a long moment. “I think I’m over all that. My gut tells me she wouldn’t betray us again.”

  Stefano nodded in agreement. “I think you’re right.”

  “Let me ask you a serious question,” I said. “Can you share a woman that you actually care about with your brother? It’s one thing just fucking some chick who tried to fuck us over, but we both know that things have changed. And if we go down this road we’re considering... our feelings for Hailey are only going to grow more.”

  “Can you?” Stefano fired back.

  “I guess we should have had this conversation before.”

  “Well, I sure as fuck wasn’t planning on falling in love with the woman when this all began,” Stefano said.

  I stood up and began to pace the room. I rarely had relationships. True relationships. And the ones that I did have in the past—no matter how insignificant they were—I would have never shared. Quite the opposite. I was overprotective, over-possessive, and what was mine was mine.

  Mine.

  Hailey was not just mine.

  Was I going to be all right with that fact?

  “To answer your question,” I began. “I could. I would be willing to try. I’m not going to say it will always be easy.”

  “We’ll need to establish rules.”

  “And what about raising our son? We won’t have the same family unit we had with Mama and Pops,” I said. “Two dads and a mother that was forced to conceive is far from the normal upbringing.”

  “That’s for sure. But we’ll figure it out. We don’t exactly live a traditional vanilla life anyway.”

  I sat back down and stared at Stefano. “I know for a fact that I want Hailey. I want this baby. I have no idea how everything else will work, but I know the basics.”

  Stefano steepled his fingers in front of his mouth as his eyes seemed to drift away into deep thought. “I do too. My gut is screaming for me to listen to my heart and to tell my cautious mind to shut the fuck up.”

  I ran my hands through my hair and took in a deep breath. “Jesus Christ. Are we really considering this? What are we saying here?”

  “I think we need to fly to Florence,” Stefano announced.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Hailey

  “You both can go fuck yourselves,” I said as I tried to slam my bedroom door in their faces.

  How dare Stefano and Thomas just show up here and try to enter my room as if nothing had happened. When Thomas’s shoe blocked the door from closing, I added, “You said my penance was over once I’m pregnant. Well, I am. So, now you both have to leave me alone.”

  “We’d like to come inside,” Thomas said.

  “Hear us out, and then we’ll leave if you still want us to,” Stefano said from behind Thomas.

  It was odd to hear both of them ask permission and not just demand their way in. There was no aggression, no threats, no intimidation. That alone had me backing away from the doorway as they opened the door fully and entered.

  “Gio said you both were in Miami,” I said softly.

  “We were,” Stefano said.

  I hadn’t realized that I had my hand on my belly protectively until I noticed both men staring dow
n at where my palm sat.

  “How do you feel? Gio said you were ill during the travel here,” Thomas said.

  “Just morning sickness,” I answered shortly. I didn’t know why they were in my room appearing to care, and it unnerved me. “The doctor arrived this morning and examined me. Everything is fine, and the baby is fine. He said the heartbeat sounded healthy.”

  I watched the men before me light up in a way I had never seen before. Both of them smiled—identical—and their usual dark eyes seemed to sparkle as they continued to stare at my stomach. Their eyes were fixated as if they could see the baby inside.

  “I’m about six weeks along,” I added. I had no idea why I wasn’t seething in anger any longer. Or at the very least afraid that they’d treat me like they had in the manor. I should be calling them every name in the book but instead was excited to talk about baby news with them.

  “When will we know the sex?” Stefano asked.

  We? That word seemed so foreign to me.

  “In about twelve more weeks. It’s also too soon for the doctor to tell if I’m having twins or not. He said with you both being twins, it’s likely I could.”

  After a moment of awkward silence, Thomas spoke up. “Why don’t we all go for a walk? One of the reasons I liked this place when buying it was that it sat on a few acres of beautiful countryside. I think we should go check it out.”

  “Some fresh air could do all of us good,” Stefano agreed.

  I wondered if they felt like the walls were closing in on them just as much as I did. Now that we weren’t in the manor, the energy between us felt different. Off in many ways. Uncertain for sure.

  I was angry. But not really.

  I was hurt. But also happy they were in front of me.

  I was confused... very much so.

  “The shoes you bought for me in the closet are a little too big,” I said as I went to find a pair to put on. “But I was reading in a pregnancy book the doctor gave me that I could expect my feet to expand and swell. So, I guess that’s a good thing.”

  “We’ll get you more shoes,” Thomas said, and I had no doubt.