Bene (The Guzzi Legacy Book 5)

by Bethany-Kris

  It was just so fucking messy.

  “I meant what I said that day,” he muttered against the top of her head, “that I love you and I hated you, but I didn’t know how to do both things at the same time.”

  “And now?”

  “Seems you can’t hate things you love.”

  He heard her heavy sigh.

  Their embrace tightened.

  “That doesn’t mean everything is good, Vanna.”

  She nodded. “I know.”

  “But it does mean I want it to be.”

  Her head tipped back, and her wet gaze met his. He swiped the pad of his thumbs under her eyes, wiping away what remained of her tears because he couldn’t stand that. She should never cry, but especially not with him. Sure, he understood why she cried now, but that didn’t mean he wanted her to.

  Hadn’t this been bad enough?

  “What bothered me the most,” he told her, “was that for a time, I wasn’t sure you ever loved me, or this had just been a scheme.”

  “It was at first, but then there you were, Bene … and you were not who I expected. You were nothing like who I thought you would be.”

  God, yeah.

  “I know all about that.”

  She smiled.

  All he wanted to do then was kiss her, so he did exactly that. Oh, they had a huge mess to clean. Apologies to make. More things to say between them. Of that, he was most sure. There were more obstacles in their way to face, yet, the number one problem being his family.

  And yet, when he kissed her … it didn’t matter.

  Just the press of her lips, and how her mouth parted for him without question, letting him find the taste of her on his tongue. Whatever remained of the world around them disappeared, and he had never been happier for it.

  With a kiss, she had him again.

  Took his heart back.

  Held it so tight.

  Bene was good with that.

  His lips grazed down her chin, and then she pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. Bene stayed like that for a second, lost in a space where it could be just the two of them, and nothing else. Where they didn’t have to deal with everything else quite yet.

  “Everything else is just details after this,” he murmured, “and we can figure them out as we go, if that’s what you want to do.”

  “I thought the point of this was that it’s what you want.”

  Bene straightened up, meeting her gaze with a smirk. “Well …”

  Vanna smiled back. “I’ll go wherever you take me as long as you’re there, too.”

  “That’s all I need to know, then.”

  Something flashed in her eyes.

  A whole change in her demeanor, really. She went from happy and sweet, if not still a touch sad, to nervous in a blink.

  He didn’t miss it.

  Nor did he like it.

  “What’s all that about now?”

  Vanna’s gaze darted away from his, but just as quickly, their stares met as her lips moved to form words he hadn’t been expecting to hear. “I’m pregnant.”

  “What?”

  That seemed like the only appropriate response.

  And the only one his brain formed.

  “What?”

  Vanna swallowed audibly. “It wasn’t intentional, please don’t think I did it on purpose.”

  God, that’s what she assumed?

  That he’d be pissed?

  Bene blinked, asking, “The restaurant?”

  It took Vanna a second.

  “Yeah, I think so. You’re not going to ask about … him, or if he’s the … well, the father?”

  Bene felt the way his face changed at that question—how his expression morphed into something very unkind. That’s what the mention of Mario Detti did for him. He wasn’t even jealous of the man, and the asshole wasn’t free now, anyway. Wouldn’t be for a long time, if everything went well, and it would.

  Still, he hated that bastard.

  “No,” Bene said thickly, “because I know he isn’t.”

  Vanna’s gaze held strong to his. “I wouldn’t let him touch me.”

  “He didn’t deserve to. So, like a couple months or so?”

  “About nine weeks, I think.”

  Huh.

  He was mad that he’d missed nine weeks.

  Pissed this couldn’t be different.

  So fucking happy, too.

  Then, he had another thought. “Why didn’t you tell me that right away? Why wait until after we talked?”

  “Because you had things to say, and you deserved to be able to say them whether they would be things that hurt me, or not. I’d done enough already … it’s your turn.”

  “Not a tit for tat, Vanna.”

  And then his hands slid down between them, palms covering the expanse of her flat stomach just because he could, and it felt so fucking good.

  “Hmm,” he said, tone thick with pride. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too, Bene.”

  “The pregnancy thing might make this a little messier.”

  Vanna grinned.

  He loved that.

  “But does it matter?”

  No.

  Not at all.

  Bene dropped another quick kiss to her lips, adding, “It’s my family we have to worry about.”

  Just in case she forgot.

  Because he hadn’t.

  “What is she doing here?”

  Jesus Christ.

  Bene hadn’t even helped Vanna out of the car yet, and already, it had begun. Marcus came rushing out of the Guzzi mansion like a man on a mission, his gaze laser-focused on Vanna who was currently letting Bene take her bag before she stepped out of the passenger side of his Lambo. Following behind his oldest brother was the rest of his brothers. The mansion had become a hub of sorts for them while their father remained in lock up, and their mother refused to return home until Gian came with her.

  “Marcus—”

  “What the fuck are you doing with her, huh? Why is she here, Bene? You know we got Chris’s wife in the house, right? The kids. Ginevra is here, too, and the baby. And you bring that fucking thing here tonight?”

  “Marcus!”

  His oldest brother was all of two feet away from them, looking as though if he didn’t rip Bene apart piece by piece with his bare hands, then he might go for Vanna next. Bene couldn’t have that, so he quickly moved in front of Vanna, dropping her bag to the ground as his hand slipped behind him to lay flat against her stomach.

  He pointed one finger at his brother. “Don’t you dare touch her.”

  Marcus fumed.

  Blazing eyes.

  Clenching fists.

  Pure fucking rage.

  “Bene,” Vanna whispered, her hands fisting into his jacket, “it’s okay.”

  No, it really wasn’t.

  Except, he planned for this.

  Figured it would happen.

  Marcus was who he was—raised by their father differently than the rest of them, really. Sure, all the Guzzi brothers held a strong loyalty to their family and bonds. They protected each other first, and foremost.

  Thing was … Marcus couldn’t be the same.

  The firstborn.

  The only singleton.

  He didn’t have a twin to level him out like the rest did. He never had someone else always watching only his back like Bene had with Beni, or even the way Corrado pushed Christopher to be more out going and take risks.

  Instead, Marcus had the responsibility of all of them. He took it on himself—did what he had to because he was the oldest brother, and it was his burden to bear, not that he ever complained. He was more protective, and in a way, the same lessons they had learned came in another way for him because his rules had always been different from theirs.

  “Marcus, relax,” Corrado snapped, finally catching up with his brother.

  The others soon followed.

  Chris stayed with his twin.

  Beni came to stand beside Bene.


  Just like that, the family almost seemed divided in the driveway with two on one side, two brothers on the other, and Marcus right in the middle. It was everything their parents would hate. Even if the cause was justifiable.

  It didn’t matter.

  “It’s not who we are,” Beni said like he could read his brother’s mind. “This isn’t what we do, Marcus, and you know that.”

  Marcus’s stinging gaze flew to Bene, despite his twin being the one who spoke, when he replied, “You know what else we don’t do? Bring home women who got our father put in jail!”

  Bene gritted his teeth. “I—”

  “Is that what you’ve been doing for the last month? Chasing her ass around when you were supposed to be helping us figure out something for Ma and Papa? Every fucking time I called, and you didn’t pick up, right?”

  Every sentence brought Marcus closer to Bene until the two of them were chest to chest and eye to eye. On another day, it might concern him how physical his brother became because that wasn’t like Marcus at all.

  Today wasn’t the same.

  He got it.

  Completely.

  Didn’t mean his stance changed.

  “Hey, hey,” Chris murmured, quick to leave his twin’s side to slip in between Marcus and Bene, putting at least the space of his body in the middle. “Let’s take a second and—”

  “I don’t need a second! I need her gone!”

  “She’s the only reason Papa will be getting out of jail, Marcus,” Bene threw at his brother just as viciously as Marcus spoke to him. “Because of her, yeah? Because she was willing to risk herself to help me.”

  Marcus straightened, his stare narrowing dangerously. “You went behind our backs and worked with the same bitch that fucked us over the first time?”

  Okay.

  That pissed Bene off.

  “Watch your fucking mouth before I make it bleed, Marcus.”

  Beni cleared his throat, giving Marcus a look. “Go easy with the names, huh? And it wasn’t just Bene. I helped him, too, and knew what was going on. Uncle Tommas pulled some contacts for us as well. You couldn’t get it done, man, and there was no way you would use anything we got from Vanna, so just relax.”

  “I want her the fuck out of here. Now.”

  “Absolutely not,” Bene replied.

  Marcus tipped his head up, staring down at his brother over Chris’s shoulder. “Or what?”

  “Or nothing, Marcus. She’s with me, and that’s the end of it.”

  “She’s a fucking rat—an informant. You brought her into our family, and she used everything she found to hurt us. If you think for one second that she’ll be welcomed here, you’re highly fucking misinformed, Bene. I will give you one minute to get in the car and take her away before I put her off this property myself.”

  Bene inched back a bit, closer to Vanna than before. Her hand came to cover his over her stomach—would he even get to explain that this was bigger than Marcus understood? Would he care that Vanna did everything she could to right the wrongs she made?

  “Shit.”

  Bene’s head flew sideways only to find his twin’s soft proclamation was punctuated by the fact he could see the protective nature of Vanna’s hand overtop his. Right on her midsection. There was only one reason why someone held their stomach that way.

  Beni glanced away, the dawning in his expression as clear as day, but it was already too late. Chris noticed, too, who only shook his head with a dry chuckle as he stared up at the sky with a muttered, “Are you fucking serious, Bene?”

  “What?” Marcus demanded.

  Well …

  Now or never, he supposed.

  “Vanna’s pregnant,” Bene said.

  Marcus blanked.

  Just like that.

  His face became white paper.

  Nothing to see.

  “What did you just say?”

  Vanna’s hand tightened around Bene’s, but still, she stayed quiet. Smart, really, all things considered. Better for her to just stay out of this right now, and let the rest of them handle it.

  “Bene,” Marcus snapped, “what did you just say?”

  “You heard me.”

  His brother’s gaze darted between him, and the woman behind him.

  Corrado was the only one who thought to say, “Congrats, man.”

  “Thanks.”

  “But bad timing,” came a new, but familiar, voice.

  Corrado made a grunt under his breath, lifting his hand to show the face on the screen of his phone that he was currently video chatting on. Or rather, the call he must have been on before they call came running out of the house. Alessio, his other spouse.

  “Like Corrado told you,” Alessio said on the screen, clearly amused, “congrats, and all.”

  Yeah.

  Really bad timing.

  Didn’t he know it?

  “I’ll call you back, or just call Ginny, Les,” Corrado said.

  “I was having fun, though.”

  “Let’s not and say you did, okay?”

  “Don’t hang up the phone on me, Cor—”

  He did just that.

  However, the few seconds Alessio had used to make a joke clearly calmed them down a bit. The man certainly wasn’t a Guzzi by blood, but he belonged with them just the same. He proved it time and time again, like now. The way he just knew when the right time was to step in, and make a bad situation better.

  “Okay,” Chris said, putting his hands up to pat Marcus on the chest, forcing their brother to take a step back with every smack, “let’s take a minute to breathe—all of us. We wait for Ma to get home with Papa, whenever they finally get around to seeing a judge about the possibility of another bond hearing, at least until the charges are properly dropped, and then we’ll sit back down and revisit all of this, yeah? Let them figure all of that out first, she’s still at the penthouse in the city, but said she would call as soon as she got the okay to go down and get Papa. Then, we will revisit this.”

  “There’s nothing to revisit,” Bene said, “she’s mine—I love her. She stays with me.”

  Marcus still glared.

  Except now, Bene knew, things had changed.

  A baby changed everything. It made this written in blood. And his baby was still a Guzzi no matter who birthed the child.

  Marcus was always going to be Marcus. He was who he was. The man their father made. He’d protect a Guzzi no matter what.

  Until the day he died.

  “Caroline, yeah,” Ginevra said, “kind of a play on Corrado’s and his mother’s name, but with a little twist Les liked, too.”

  “I love that name.” Vanna beamed at the eleven-month-old baby currently toddling from chair to chair at the small dining table his parents used in their large kitchen when they wanted a more intimate place to eat with their sons. She never let go of one before moving to the other, not quite trusting her legs yet. “And she’s so beautiful.”

  “Like her mother,” Valeria added. “Maria, don’t you take another cookie from that pan. I saw what you were doing, princessa.”

  Even with all their Italian flowing constantly, or usually, Valeria still held tight to her Spanish roots. He figured it was good for their kid, though, because the girl got Italian from Chris, a bit of French from their dad and Marcus, Spanish from her mom, and English from everyone else.

  “But I was only taking one for Daddy.”

  Valeria pursed her lips. “But were you really, though?”

  “Well …”

  “Maria,” her mother admonished.

  “He would have let me have it anyway!”

  Laughter from the ladies lit up the kitchen.

  From his position in the doorway leading into the kitchen, Bene smiled at the scene but didn’t move further inside where he could be noticed. He didn’t mean to spy, really, but after Christopher forced him to take a walk around the property to chat while Corrado took Marcus up to their father’s office for his own conve
rsation, Vanna promised she would be fine to sit by herself.

  He didn’t think so.

  His brother didn’t give him a choice.

  He found she was, in fact, just fine, and apparently made friends with Chris and Corrado’s spouses. Valeria, who always had to be cooking something to keep her hands busy, and Ginevra who was never far behind in that respect, had a whole table full of sweets baked, it seemed.

  For who, he didn’t know.

  By the looks of Vanna’s flour-dusted hands, she’d joined in.

  And probably loved it, too.

  He’d thought after his walk that Vanna might want him to save her from whatever awkward conversation she found in that time, but it seemed she was doing just fine. Plus, wouldn’t she need some friends in this family?

  Before he could convince himself otherwise—because God knew he wanted her all to himself—Bene turned on his heels and headed deeper into the mansion. Before long, he found himself standing in the sitting room that connected his old bedroom with his twin’s. Unsurprisingly, Beni stood near the windows while he chatted on the phone to his wife waiting for him in Chicago.

  “Yeah, soon, Aug,” Beni said, “once we get everything settled out here … nah, I think you’ll like her, and she’s exactly what I thought she would be considering him.”

  Bene smirked a bit.

  His twin … always the first to have his back.

  Even when he was a shit.

  Bene cleared his throat, gaining his brother’s attention for the moment. Beni gave him a look over his shoulder, but quickly went back to his call with a, “Okay, love you, too, babe.”

  “I’m surprised she’s not here, too.”

  His brother shrugged as he pocketed his cell and turned to face him. “She’s working on an article and has a bunch of interviews to do for it … some of them could be done over the phone, but others were better in person. I didn’t want her sacrificing that for something we were handling, you know? Besides, she calls Ma every day just to talk to her about whatever book they’re currently reading.”

  Huh.

  “They read the same book?”

  “Yeah, Aug picks one and then Ma picks the next.”

  Bene nodded. “Didn’t know that.”

  “It’s their thing, you know.”

  “Vanna might like that—huge fan of Ma’s reviews, and all.”

  Beni chuckled, saying, “I will let August know. Where is Vanna, anyway?”