Taviano thought the figure eight table fit perfectly with the two laid-back seamless chairs he’d bought at a gallery. The material was painted in bold stripes and round circles; the colors, muted purples and blues, reminded him of the night skies. Because the chairs were wide and overstuffed, they were extremely comfortable. Eloisa thought his “Bohemian” style of house and décor was atrocious, and she wanted him to allow her interior designer to take over, but he liked his unorthodox home and every art piece in it.
“I love all the sculptures you have,” she said, as if she could read his mind, and maybe she could. They certainly were bound together. “I always wanted to learn to make pottery.”
Something to give her. He could do that. She never would ask. He flashed her a smile. “Lucky for you, we have a little studio just waiting for someone to be interested enough to make pottery in it.”
“I tried learning out of a book. It doesn’t work that way.”
“I happen to know people. Real artists, the best at their craft. They’ll show us.”
“Us? You’d do it with me?” There was a note of excitement in her voice.
“I told you, I’m the kind of man who wants my wife for a partner. You do it, I’ll try it at least. I haven’t shown you the training hall yet, but we have a full-sized gym, a meditation room and a pool for training. We have a shooting range, too.”
“I still want to keep studying, Taviano. I can’t fall behind on languages. Fortunately, I learn fairly easily, but I don’t like taking time off.”
“We’ll put together a schedule. I’d like it better if Lucia and Amo would move to the guesthouse now, but I don’t think we’ll talk them into it this soon,” he said. That meant they would have to schedule in time for visits.
“They like being close to Lucia’s Treasures,” Nicoletta admitted. “I can’t imagine them moving this soon, either.”
Taviano wasn’t giving up all hope. Lucia and Amo loved Nicoletta and wouldn’t want to be too far from her. They might consider hiring a manager for the store and just going in later if he could arrange that for them. That way, they could still be close to Nicoletta.
“We could always have a baby right away. They’d give up the shop for a baby,” he suggested, straight faced.
She gasped and swung her head around to glare at him. “I did not just hear you say that. No one has a baby so their foster parents will close down a store and move next door.”
“We could be the first ones.”
Nicoletta stared at him a moment and then burst out laughing. “You’re so awful. I’m going to have to get used to your terrible sense of humor.”
He was going to have to make a list of the pros and cons of getting her pregnant. He hadn’t thought about that. Cons were, no sex all over the house if they had kids right away, and he had to ease her into wild sex. That would take time. Babies meant she would find it harder to keep her running shoes on, and that was going to be a very hard pattern for her to break.
“Taviano, you have that look on your face.”
“What look?” He tried for innocence.
“The one that says you’re up to no good.”
“I think my family is arriving.” Just in the nick of time, too. No one was supposed to be able to read him. It was just his bad luck that his wife saw too much.
CHAPTER TEN
New York cousins are in town,” Stefano reported. “Have you met them yet, Nicoletta? They came right away. Salvatore, Lucca and Geno are here with their bodyguards. The LA cousins are here as well.”
Nicoletta knew Stefano was warning her so she wouldn’t panic when they all showed up. Although she trained with them, she was still unable to overcome that uneasiness when the Ferraros were together in the same room. There were just too many of them and there was too much testosterone, too many alphas, although Stefano was always the acknowledged leader. Maybe it was that even with Mariko and Emmanuelle in the room, there weren’t enough women to balance out the men.
Taviano shifted from his chair to hers, supposedly to make more room for the others, but she knew it was to give her more support and she appreciated it. He didn’t make a big deal of it. Before he sat on the arm of her chair, he made certain everyone had something to drink and he gestured to Ricco and Mariko to take his place, so it looked very natural that he would sit with her.
“I haven’t met the cousins from New York yet,” Nicoletta admitted, “although I did see some of the Los Angeles cousins when we were there.” She hadn’t really officially met them.
“And Elie Archambault? He’s been working as a bodyguard with Emilio Gallo, another cousin. You’ve met him, of course,” Stefano persisted.
Nicoletta nodded. “Yes, we’ve trained together a little here and there.”
Elie smiled at her. “Stefano tells me that your father was an Archambault, a distant cousin of mine.”
“So they say. I can’t keep track of who is related to whom,” she said. It was the truth. Every rider seemed related distantly to someone else. She resisted pressing a hand to her rapidly beating heart. Could they all hear it? They all seemed to have acute hearing, just like she did.
Mariko shifted in her chair, just a minute movement, barely perceptible, although Ricco noticed. His arm slid across his wife’s shoulders, but he glanced at Nicoletta with one of his rare smiles. It was warm and genuine.
“I can barely keep track, either,” he said. His lips, as he spoke, brushed Mariko’s cheek. “And my wife doesn’t ever try. She just smiles at everyone and assumes they’re related in some way.”
“Aren’t they?” Mariko asked, looking surprised. Nicoletta knew the couple was drawing attention away from her, and she was grateful to them. Mariko, almost from the first time they’d met, had been a gentle, exotic creature, so sweet it was impossible to think of her as a skilled and very experienced rider—but she was just as lethal as the men. She had, from the beginning, offered her friendship to Nicoletta.
Nicoletta glanced at Emmanuelle. She sat on the other side of Elie looking every bit a Ferraro. Even in the pinstriped suit she wore, she looked very feminine and beautiful. There wasn’t a doubt that she was all woman. There was a sadness in her that hadn’t been there a couple of years before. She had the same dark blue eyes that Taviano had. They used to light up when she smiled, but Nicoletta hadn’t seen them do that, not in a couple of years.
She was always sweet and kind, she shouldered her responsibilities without a murmur and always took any extra rotation if any rider needed time off. If riders from other locations asked for help, it was Emmanuelle who volunteered to go. Nicoletta could tell that the entire family was worried about her, even the cousins. Even the bodyguards. Even Elie.
“Detroit Demons sent eighteen of their finest our way,” Stefano announced. “They told Benito they’d soften us up and pick up Nicoletta for him. Benito did say they weren’t to touch her. They could have whatever friend she cared about but not touch her. He would punish her his way, but no one else was to lay a hand on her.”
“That’s a big mistake,” Nicoletta said. “Doesn’t give his army a lot of room.”
“I don’t think they have a lot of control when it comes to women, so don’t count on them listening,” Taviano said. “I don’t want any of them to ever lay eyes on you unless it’s necessary for some reason we determine.”
She nodded and leaned into him. “I’m good with that.” “Salvatore and the others have been monitoring the talk between Benito and the Detroit crew. They tried getting to him, but so far, they haven’t been able to. He’s moving all the time, and they can’t pinpoint his location.”
“Is he moving in this direction?” Taviano asked.
His hand settled around Nicoletta’s neck. She was already acutely aware of him, but the moment he did that, surrounding her bare nape beneath her hair and stroking with the pads of his fingers, her entire focus jumped to those pinpoints of sensation. Each caress sent little streaks of lightning rushing through her bloodstream,
creating heat. She knew she should stop him, because it was making it difficult to follow the conversation, but she didn’t want him to stop.
Taviano made her feel connected to him, but more importantly, through that connection, she knew he needed to touch her. He hadn’t had anyone to love him the way she did, so unconditionally. Giving herself to him when she didn’t think she was going to get anything back mattered to him. She’d loved him for years. Even when she’d been pushing him away, he’d known she loved him. She adored him. He needed that from her. He needed to know that he was first in her life and that he always would be.
Nicoletta breathed through the lightning jolting her, the little strikes that seemed to carry such awareness to her breasts and then lower, between her legs, to her clit, to her core. She leaned into Taviano’s hand and tried to concentrate on what was being discussed, telling herself it was good practice to learn to be aware no matter how pleasurable the circumstances.
“We have to assume that Benito is heading straight for us,” Stefano said. He glanced at Nicoletta. “No matter what, bella, this man cannot have you. You are famiglia. None of this is your fault, and whatever they do, whoever they hurt, is on them. It is important to learn to disassociate. It’s perhaps the most difficult of all the lessons.”
Nicoletta felt the weight of their gazes on her. Her heart accelerated, and for a moment her breath was trapped in her lungs. Almost wildly, she looked around for the doors, or the windows, needing to know where the exits were. She’d already found them once—that was part of their training from day one—but she felt as if she needed to reassure herself that she could get to one of them quickly and no one was blocking any of them.
Taviano’s fingers stilled their motion and then tightened on her skin, digging into her shoulders. There was a touch of possession there, but there was also the feeling of partnership.
“Breathe, tesoro. Everyone in this room is famiglia. No one will ever harm you.”
She knew that. She hated that she still had panic attacks. Stefano would never think she could go into the shadows with Taviano and be an asset to him, when she knew with a certainty that she could.
Mariko again came to her rescue. “It is true, Nicoletta. I have had a difficult time disassociating when the crime is too close to me.”
Emmanuelle uncrossed her legs. “Unfortunately, I think all of us do. It’s a human trait. We try, but when something is so close and we feel responsible, or someone hurts someone we love, we can’t help wanting revenge.”
Vittorio put his arm around his sister. “I chased a man, Grace’s foster brother, a serial killer who had made her life a nightmare. He shot her, intending to shoot me, after selling her to the Saldis to pay a gambling debt. I wanted to hurt him before I delivered justice to him. It wasn’t going to be justice, either. I wanted to kill him for the things he’d done to her. It took a great deal of self-control before I was able to fall back on my training and deliver justice for justice’s sake. Disassociation is the hardest lesson and the most important there is, whether you are the victim or the one sent to deliver justice.”
Nicoletta had gotten her breathing and racing heart under control, thanks to Mariko, Emmanuelle and Vittorio. She sent each of them a small smile of thanks.
“I understand what you’re saying, Stefano, although, as everyone says, it is difficult, and I know if they get their hands on Lucia or Amo, I don’t know how I would react.” She could hear the raw honesty in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. She loved her foster parents, and if Benito threatened them, she’d do anything at all to get them back. “I’d do whatever it took, including give myself up to him.”
Taviano dropped his hand to her thigh and her heart nearly stopped. Her entire body reacted to his touch, in spite of the enormity of the conversation. Her core throbbed and burned. His declaration earlier, the promise of stripping her naked and devouring her, reverberated through her mind. She couldn’t believe she could be distracted just by his hand on her thigh. His palm was burning a brand through her skirt to her thigh. His hand was high up, so close to where her heart beat right through her pulsing clit.
Taviano leaned down to press his lips close to her ear, but when he spoke even in that low tone, it was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. “You wouldn’t, amore mio. You would trust your marito, and your famiglia, to get them back. You will do what you are told and remain safe. We know how to handle these situations, and you have to have faith that we would get Lucia and Amo back unharmed.”
She wanted to say she would do that. She really did, but she wasn’t going to lie to Taviano. She’d promised herself—and him—that there would not be lies between them. “I swear I would try, Taviano, but they’ re … sacred.” She couldn’t come up with any other word. “I would try.” That was all she could give him.
Stefano nodded his head. “I understand, cara. If someone took Francesca, I would feel the same. Trust us. Fight the inclination to give in, should that happen. The likelihood is slim, unless Lucia or Amo leave the safety of where we placed them. Valdez can’t get to them where they are.”
She was not going to go visit them, not until this was over, when she had intended to do just that. Now she knew Stefano had placed her foster parents somewhere very safe, and she wasn’t about to jeopardize them by leaving a trail to them for selfish reasons. “What are you going to do? You said that some of the Demons were heading this way from Detroit.”
Stefano nodded. “We intend to intercept this evening. The moment word gets to us that they stopped to eat, we’ll visit them. We don’t want them to get to our territory. I believe Valdez has several such branches of his army heading our way from various directions. We’ve got eyes on them. He’s directing them. He’d like them to get here before his arrival.”
She had heard that Benito used that tactic often, whenever he was going to take over a new territory. He would send out several branches of his army. They would pick off their rivals and then surround the territory before going in and wiping them out. It was always a bloody massacre. The idea that Benito Valdez was deploying his armies on Ferraro territory and the civilians who were just going about their lives was terrifying to her.
“He takes over that way,” she informed them.
Taviano must have felt the quake in her mind, because it wasn’t in her voice. She was proud of that. He used his thumb to stroke the inside of her thigh, once again distracting her beyond all reason. She was certain he meant to soothe her, but her body was already on fire. She felt torn apart, mind and body going in two different directions.
“He will end up with a bit of a shock when his army doesn’t arrive,” Stefano said. “Mariko and Ricco are going to intercept the ones coming from St. Louis. There’s a contingency coming from Oklahoma City. Vittorio, Emme and Elie will take them. There’s one coming in from Camden, New Jersey. Salvatore, Geno, Lucca, you’re on them. Our cousins in Los Angeles are already tracking the very large group making their way from California to Chicago. Giovanni will head that way to help. They’re going to take them when we give the go-ahead. We want them out of action permanently, but we don’t want any witnesses or any way for Valdez to trace their deaths to us. Just like they found the Gomez brothers, these men will die with broken necks and no way to trace how or who. Watch for cameras. Always disrupt cameras. Be on guard for that.”
“You didn’t include us,” Nicoletta objected.
“Valdez has people here in Chicago. He hasn’t built his territory up here as large as he’d like, but he’s called on them to step up,” Stefano said. “We’re going to visit them before they decide to show Valdez they don’t have to wait for the others. Sasha has been keeping an eye on them, and there’s already rumblings about a snatch and grab to incur Valdez’s favor.”
For some reason it surprised her that Stefano said Sasha was keeping an eye on them, but she realized he meant ears. Sasha had learned to be very good with electronic equipment. She was working with Rigina and Rosina Greco, inv
estigators for the Ferraro family. They were cousins, relatives, like everyone who worked for them. Sasha was learning from the best. Nicoletta was fascinated by all the different jobs and the way things worked. She hadn’t realized what they were doing until Taviano had actually filled her in on what the investigations entailed. She thought they were private investigators and worked on divorces with slimy cheaters.
“We will be taking the fight to them,” Stefano decreed. He glanced at his watch. “We’ll meet around two in the morning. Streetlights give off plenty of shadows. I’ve scouted the streets where they live and hang out. We’ll have easy access. They have one place they gather in, so if they’re there, all in one place, it will be easier.”
“Or more difficult,” Giovanni said. “Someone is bound to notice when brothers start dropping dead on the floor.”
Stefano shrugged. “Creating a little fear is good for their souls.”
“You should hang back, Stefano, watch over our territory,” Ricco said. “Taviano and Nicoletta can handle the Demons here. There’s, like, what? Thirty total? Giovanni? What did you get? I doubt there’s more than that.”
Giovanni nodded. “Yeah. If that. Taviano can do that in his sleep. Or I can stay here and help him out. LA has seven riders including Velia, and she’s every bit as lethal as her brothers. They don’t need me.”
Stefano looked around the room suspiciously. “What’s going on here? Nicoletta can move in the shadows, but she can’t help Taviano. She hasn’t been given the necessary training yet. Giovanni, the LA chapter is enormous. The largest Valdez has moving our way. You know that. You said it yourself that it was going to take all the cousins to take them out, and then some. Why are all of you trying to keep me out of the shadows?”
His inquiry was met with silence. Nicoletta couldn’t tell by the expressionless masks the others wore if there was a conspiracy to keep Stefano out of the fighting. It didn’t make sense, when he was reputed to be so fast. She’d seen him a few times in action, and he’d worked with her several times. He was like greased lightning.
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