by Reilly, Cora
Samuel continued reading, his voice broken and agonized.
I wonder what you feel now, Danilo, knowing that I took what was promised to you?
And you, Samuel, knowing that I defiled your twin? That she suffered cruelly because you dared to set foot in my territory. Lesson learned, I hope?
And what about you, Dante? What do you feel now that you’ve failed to protect one of your own because you were too prideful to admit defeat? I hope your pride is worth seeing the proof of how Serafina suffered at my hands, or should I say cock?
Maybe your pride isn’t your downfall, but it sure as fuck is your family’s downfall, Cold Fish.
Kind regards,
Remo
(P.S. once doesn’t count, right? Maybe I can send you a second set of sheets.)
Danilo stormed toward the sheets and tore a lighter from his pants, trying to set them aflame. I grasped his arms but he struggled madly. He finally ripped free and stumbled away toward Pietro’s office. Carla had occasionally talked about purgatory when we’d discussed her belief. I’d always considered the idea of hell ridiculous. But today I experienced my own personal purgatory, and I’d dragged my family into the flames with me.
Ines pushed to her feet. Her movements were jerky, almost as if she were drunk and unable to control her limbs. All she was drunk of was fear. She was shaking and crying as she rushed toward Dante. “Give him what he wants, Dante. Whatever he wants!”
“Ines,” he said with a strained note. I could see the anguish in his eyes. Dante had no trouble making the hard, the difficult decisions, but this was beyond anything he’d ever expected.
She fell to her knees, clinging to Dante’s calves. She peered up to him. “I beg you, Dante. I’m on my knees, please save my daughter, save Fina. Please.”
Pietro shook then he stumbled forward, grabbing her shoulders. “Ines, stop. Ines.” She fought him, clinging to Dante’s legs as if they offered salvation: Fina’s salvation.
I couldn’t breathe. The room was saturated with so much despair and fear it clogged my throat. I’d always worried war would reach our family, but never like this.
Dante was frozen as he stared down at his sister. “Ines,” he said quietly.
I pressed a hand over my mouth, trying not to cry. I could see myself in Ines’ place, could imagine her despair, her anguish. If Anna was in Remo’s hands… I, too, would beg anyone capable of saving her on my knees, would throw my pride out of the window and crawl if I must. But I wasn’t sure if Dante could save Fina, and he wasn’t sure either. Because Remo was playing a devilish game he enjoyed too much.
Samuel helped his father pull Ines to her feet and she fell into Pietro’s arms, clinging to him, sobbing. I’d never seen Ines like this, and the tears I’d tried to hold back, they flowed freely down my cheeks now.
Sound of glass shattering and furniture crashing to the ground reached us followed by Danilo’s roar full of fury, of despair and even guilt. Pietro and Samuel half carried Ines out of the room. Dante and I remained in the living room, many steps apart, frozen in place. A feeling of desperate helplessness hung between us.
Our eyes met. Dante’s face was a harsh mask, his eyes tumultuous. I wanted to say something reassuring to ease the weight of responsibility resting on his shoulders but my mind was blank.
My gaze found the sheets once more and I sucked in a quiet breath. I didn’t want to imagine what Serafina had gone through, how Remo had forced himself on her. Imagining her fear, her shame, her pain, pushed more tears out of my eyes. Dante strode toward the sheets, picked them up and folded them neatly, then stuffed them back into the parcel. “What are you doing?” I asked tonelessly.
“I’m going to send them to a laboratory.”
“You think it might not be Serafina’s blood?”
Dante’s lips tightened. “No. But I need absolute certainty.”
Blood and DNA samples were taken from everyone in our circles to make identification in case of a brutal death easier. Even from Anna and Leonas samples had been taken right after their birth. I tried not to linger on the thought.
Dante picked up his phone and a minute later Enzo came into the mansion. He and many other men took turns guarding the mansion and the surrounding streets. Dante quietly explained to him what he should do and as usual Enzo listened calmly, his face not giving anything away. His calm was something I appreciated in a bodyguard.
He briefly glanced my way before he headed out with the parcel.
“I’m going to check on the kids,” I said. Even if I longed to be held by Dante, I could tell he needed a few moments to himself. He nodded, already turning his back to me.
I walked out. The house was eerily quiet now. Danilo had stopped raging behind the closed door of Pietro’s office and somehow the quiet bothered me more. I quickly moved upstairs. Muffled sobs came from down the corridor where Ines’ and Pietro’s bedroom was.
My heart clenched violently and I had to lean against the wall to compose myself before I dared to step into Sofia’s room.
Anna and Sofia sat cross-legged on the bed, their faces confused and fearful. They looked at me for answers, and for a moment I knew how Dante felt when all of his men always turned to him for solutions.
My face felt stiff. I couldn’t smile, not even to console these girls. Leonas sat on the sofa in the corner, playing with his Gameboy and a deep frown on his face, blond strands covering most of his eyes.
I could tell he was upset even if he pretended to be engrossed in his game.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” Anna asked.
Sofia jumped off the bed and took a step closer. “Was there… was there a piece of Fina… in… in…” Her face twisted with horror.
I quickly shook my head, even if there had been a piece of Fina, albeit only blood, inside. I wouldn’t be the one to tell Sofia anything. If Pietro or Ines decided to let her know they’d have to tell her, but I doubted they would.
I walked over to them then sank down on the bed. Sofia’s room was a dream in pink with frills and stuffed animals. So young. So innocent. It was a little girl’s safe haven in our cruel world.
Anna pressed up to me and I kissed the top of her head.
Sofia looked toward her door. “I’m going to look for Sam.” I didn’t stop her. With everything going on she’d often been at the fringes, too young to be involved but too old to require constant attention. I hoped for her sake as well that Fina would return soon.
“Let me talk to your brother for a moment, okay?” Leonas didn’t like to talk emotions in general, much less when others were around, even his sister.
Anna nodded. “Okay. I’ll grab something to eat.” I gave her a grateful smile. At almost eleven, she was already more responsible than I had been at her age. That was her father’s blood, no doubt.
Once she had left, I sat down on the plush sofa beside Leonas.
“Can you turn that off?”
He pressed the off button but didn’t look up from the screen.
“Is Dad angry with me?” he asked softly.
“He’s not angry with you. Maybe he was for a moment because of what you said. You need to think before you talk or you might hurt people, do you understand?”
He looked up, blond brows pulled together. “I guess.”
“Count to three before you say something that might upset others.”
“How do I know what upsets others?”
“Right now, if it’s something about Fina. Everyone’s really touchy.”
“Okay. Is she alive?”
I bit my lip. Seven years old and he asks me about death as if he was talking about what we’d have for dinner. “No, she’s okay.”
“I miss my friends. Anna’s got Sofia but I have no one.”
“You have me and Dad.”
Leonas made a face. “You aren’t as much fun as Rocco and Ricci.”
“Well, what would be fun?”
“Roller skating! Or riding the bike and doing stunts!”
> Some of the stunts I’d caught the boys doing with their bikes had almost given me a heart attack. Not to mention that Dante would lose it if I left the house with Leonas to take a ride. “How about we do something else?”
He pouted, then his face lit up again. “The slime challenge.”
My brows rose. “Slime challenge?”
“Yes!” If it caused this much excitement for a boy of seven, it would be something I’d definitely not enjoy, especially if slime was involved, but I wanted to distract him. “All right, let’s do this slime challenge.”
Leonas’ answering grin banished some of the dark in my chest.
I sat in an armchair amidst the chaos Danilo had caused in Pietro’s office. Torn books, broken glass, overthrown shelves littered the floor. Danilo had left with his car. I doubted he was on his way back to Indianapolis. He needed time to himself. We all did.
I stared down at my shiny wingtip shoes, at my perfectly ironed dress pants, the neatly closed cuffs at my wrists. From the outside, I was the immaculate, controlled businessman, the Ice Man. I was like one of those goddamn volcanoes hidden beneath a thick layer of eternal ice. Propping my elbows up on my thighs, I lowered my face into my palms. If one of those erupted, they had the potential to destroy everything around. I felt on the verge of a dangerous outbreak.
I wanted to destroy, only not the ones around me but they would be at risk if I gave up control. Luca and Remo, those were the ones who’d feel my rage. Remo for everything he’d done to Fina, to our family. And Luca, for cooperating with the Camorra despite everything he knew of them.
“Daddy?”
My head shot up. Anna hovered in the doorway. She was dressed in a flowery summer dress, her hair up in a messy ponytail and her blue eyes wide. She was everything I wanted to protect. I didn’t say anything. Slowly she came inside, almost shyly. I wasn’t sure what Val had told her, but I doubted she’d mentioned the sheets. Anna was too young for something like that, even if Val had already explained a few things to her.
“You look sad,” she said quietly, stopping right beside me.
Sad wasn’t the right word to describe my emotions.
“I am,” I agreed anyway.
Anna wrapped her arms around my neck. I embraced her.
“It’s going to be all right. You are going to make everything okay. You always do.”
Her infallible trust in me was my incentive. I kissed her temple and held her for a while. I wasn’t sure who was comforting whom. It didn’t matter. Eventually, I pulled back. I had a call to make. “I’m sure Sofia can use some distraction. Why don’t you go find her?”
Anna nodded. She knew it was my cue that I needed to work.
She slipped out and closed the door.
Taking a deep breath to compose myself, I called Remo. I didn’t want to show him how the sheets had shaken us up.
“Dante?” he said in a tone that made me forget my resolution almost instantly.
“I got your message.”
“I know you don’t follow the Famiglia’s bloody sheets tradition, but I thought it was a nice touch.”
I’d always despised the tradition, had found it utterly distasteful when I’d been confronted with it at Famiglia weddings and even the occasional Outfit wedding of very traditional families who stuck to the old habits. But these sheets stood for something far worse than a consummated marriage. They stood for an act of violence a woman shouldn’t ever have to suffer, not in a marriage and not outside of it either. “There are rules in our world. We don’t attack children and women.”
“Funny that you say that. When your soldiers attacked my territory, they fired at my thirteen-year-old brother. You broke those fucking rules first, so stop the bullshit.”
“You know as well as I do that I didn’t give the order to kill your brother, and he’s alive and well.”
“If he weren’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, Dante. I would have killed every fucking person you care about, and we both know there are so many to choose from.”
Anna, Leonas, Val… he wouldn’t get near them. I’d do anything to protect them, if necessary even stoop as low as him. “You have people you don’t want to lose either, Remo. Don’t forget that.”
Samuel didn’t believe Remo to care about anyone but the note of protectiveness when he’d mentioned his brothers led me to believe something else. It was a flicker of hope.
“I thought the sheets might have made you see reason, but I see that you want Serafina to suffer a bit more.”
“Remo—” The click sounded.
“Fuck,” I growled.
I tried calling Remo in the following days but he ignored my calls. Ines’ despair rose with every passing day, and so did Danilo’s, Samuel’s, and Pietro’s wish to go through with our attack on Luca’s Enforcer.
The MCs had agreed to give a kidnapping a try in return for outrageous amounts of money and numbers of guns and drugs. I didn’t trust them. They wanted to be paid in advance because of the huge risk and I was wary of agreeing to such a deal.
I was glad when Remo finally contacted me with a new demand, one I had anticipated. My former Consigliere in exchange for my niece. Naturally, I agreed to give him Rocco. I didn’t care about his fate or the undoubtedly cruel torture he’d suffer under Fabiano’s and the Falcone’s hands. That wasn’t why I’d been reluctant to hand him over. No, it was regarded as weak to answer to the enemy’s demand, especially if said enemy asked for your former Consigliere, especially if the enemy was Remo Falcone. An action like that caused worry among the ranks of my Underbosses and Captains because they preferred to consider themselves safe and giving up one of theirs burst their bubble. Rocco had many friends among my men. He knew how to manipulate people.
Exchanging a worthless girl against a former Consigliere would be seen critically by some. Others, who held their family dear, would judge me more kindly. It didn’t matter. I’d made my decision. I had to save Serafina, for her sake and my family’s sake.
Val had baked a cake for Anna’s eleventh birthday and held a small celebration that felt more like a funeral.
Every smile was fake, every laugh forced.
We tried our hand at pretend happiness. It tasted fake, bitter.
Anna blew out her eleven candles, her eyes closed tightly. I knew what her wish was even without her revealing it. She hoped things would go well tomorrow, that we’d all return with Serafina. It was my greatest wish as well. Many things hinged on the outcome of the exchange, most importantly the happiness of my family.
Samuel looked off into space, torn between hope and worry. Remo had agreed to an exchange tomorrow evening. Danilo, Pietro, and I would leave early in the morning to take Rocco to Las Vegas. Santino and Arturo had brought him to Minneapolis a few hours ago.
Anna smiled when she unpacked the painting utensils Val had gotten for her. We all ate cake afterward, trying to maintain meaningless conversation but it was impossible to overcome the tension.
I felt sorry for Anna. She always loved celebrating her birthday but today her special day had been ruined by the consequences of my choices. I promised myself that this would never happen again.
We all went to bed early but sleep didn’t come. Not for me, nor for Val. She clung to me in the dark, her body tight with anxiety. “I’m so scared that this is a trap. Going to Vegas is madness, you know it. Remo could plan to kill you all.”
“He could, but I doubt it. He’ll kill us later, after we’ve suffered for a while.”
“Suffered?”
“Under the weight of our guilt.”
“Do you feel guilty?”
“Yes. And seeing Serafina, we’ll all be reminded of how we failed her. Pietro, Samuel, Danilo and especially me.”
Val breathed out. “I can’t live without you, Dante. Don’t let rage consume you tomorrow. Don’t risk anything.”
My wrath for Remo was close to untamable. I wanted to see him on his knees, begging for mercy. Tomorrow wouldn’t be
that day. But eventually…
I kissed Val and slipped my fingers between her smooth thighs, wanting to feel her warmth, wanting to feel alive. I didn’t want to talk, not about all the ways this could go wrong.
Our kiss was slow and my fingers were too. I wasn’t overcome with lust. I didn’t even want to come myself. I only needed to make Val feel good, needed to lose myself in her heat and moans.
She parted her legs for me and I stroked her lightly, occasionally dipping my fingers into her. It took a long time for her to loosen up, to allow pleasure. When she finally came, I closed my eyes, my lips against her pulse-point. I gently pumped my fingers into her. “I love you, Val. I’ll protect you and our family until I die.”
“Not tomorrow,” she got out.
“Not tomorrow,” I promised.
Santino heaved Rocco into the helicopter. We’d travel most of the distance to Las Vegas like that, only the last part from an airport near Vegas to our meeting point with a rental car.
We barely spoke during our journey. We’d gone over everything in the morning. Every additional word would only increase our tension.
Danilo and I lifted Rocco out of the trunk of the car when we arrived at the designated meeting spot thirty minutes before the agreed time. I scanned our surroundings but couldn’t spot any snipers on the surrounding rooftops. Rocco’s desperate eyes caught mine and he struggled against his bindings, trying to speak despite the tape over his mouth. We dropped him on the ground then waited. Dry heat greeted us and sweat trickled down my back under the thick layers of my suit.
Danilo regarded Rocco with disgust but Rocco’s eyes were on me, still hoping I’d change my mind.
Pietro stopped beside me, a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead. It was much warmer in Vegas than it had been back in Minneapolis. “Fuck. I’m fucking scared to see Fina…”
Danilo’s mouth tightened and he glanced down at the ground.
