by M. T. Ossler
“Gio, do you know if Jules has gotten in touch with Ces. I think I remember her saying she was told not to contact him. I want to make sure he’s alright since we left him? maybe we can bring him here?” I’m concerned that the monster may have gotten his slimy hands on our best friend to find us. Ces has nothing to do with the family business, but he’s been part of my life for years now. I need to know he’s safe. Maybe Gio plans on bring him here with us.
“Jules hasn’t been able to get in contact with him. I have a friend trying to locate him. Princess, I hate to say… But that monster may have already gotten his hands on your friend. Once we find him, we’ll take it from there. Okay.” Gio gives it to me straight, and I appreciate him for that.
“Thank you.” Is all I can say? He and his brothers have done so much for us; I don’t know how I’ll ever repay them.
Our dinner arrives, and we eat in a comfortable silence. When I’m done eating, all I can of my soup I place the remainder on the nightstand by the bed. A couple of minutes later there’s a soft knock at the door. Gio opens it and finds Gigi standing there with Dusty. She comes running to me giving me a big hug before sitting next to me on the bed eyeing me curiously.
“I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll be back in ten minutes,” Gio says sternly before shutting the door behind him. Once he’s gone, I give my sister my full attention.
“You know he hasn’t left your side since we got here. Nor will he let anyone in this room near you. The guys are calling ‘Bull Dog’ instead of ‘Beast' because of the way he’s been growling at them if they attempt to breach his door. I was surprised he was letting me up to see you,” Gigi says laughing before I can get a word out.
She watches me take in that tidbit of information.
Then we start laughing, God it feels terrific to be happy and laugh with my sister for a few minutes instead of being angry and sad.
Gio being over protective of me feels right and well over due.
I’m glad Jules contacted him. He saved me from a horrible fate, Jules and Gigi too, from God, only knows what that sicko had planned.
“He’s just making sure I get healthy. I asked him to let me see you,” I say sobering up.
“I needed to see how you are handling things after…” I can’t say the words. Mommy and daddy are gone. It’s a lot for me to take in for me, it has to worse for her. I still can’t believe it.
Gigi starts crying, and I hold her in my arms. I can’t stop myself from crying with her.
“I’m sorry, baby girl, we’ll get through this together. I promise you; we’ll be okay. I know we will. Soon the guys will be here too. We have Jules and Gio and the club to help us through it.”
As I say the words, I will myself to believe them. Not just for me, but for her too. She’s so young to have to deal with all this adult stuff in such a short time.
I’m going to have to get Gio to get me an IPad, so I can do some research on how to help us through the grieving process. It will allow me to download books on this subject to help us both process.
I don’t know if she knows what that monster did to me and I don’t have the strength to ask or talk about it. That will be another subject for me to research for myself. I need to heal from this ordeal.
“Did Gio find the guys yet,” she asks through her tears as I continue to hold her. That’s one question I’ve meant to ask and haven’t. “I haven’t had a chance to ask him yet. When he comes back, we’ll have to ask him,” I say then change the subject to lighten the mood and the heaviness in my heart.
“What have you and Jules been up to?” I ask her curious on her day to day here at the clubhouse.
She pulls back from me, whips away her tears, and proceeds to tell me all the things they have been doing to stay busy. She’s been cooking and baking for the guys, playing pool, basketball and riding the horses with them too.
She tells me all about her favorite horse Midnight Dream an American Bashkir Curly Horse. He’s brown with some white spots. She says he loves when she visits and rides him. He’s not only her favorite, but she has become his too.
I can see the spark coming back into her eyes a little as she talks about the horses. She loves horses, and we have our own back home. Gigi would ride a couple of times a week.
The guys are keeping them busy to keep their minds off things. I appreciate them for being there for them more than they will ever know. Being that I’m not able to do it myself at the moment.
She’s in the middle of telling me a story when Gio walks in on us laughing. She’s telling me about how one of the guys split his jeans down the seam while they were shooting hoops.
Gio gives us a great big gleaming smile and saunters over to sit in front of Gigi on the bed beside me. She finishes her story, and we’re in stitches. It feels good to let things go and live and laugh with two out of the four most important people in my life.
The room becomes silent again, after a minute Gigi eyes Gio giving him her serious look. I watch them stare at each other until Gio breaks it. “What’s up, Mini Princess? Spit it out,” Gio says, and she giggles. She likes being called Mini Princess after me. The older kids started calling her that when she began to follow me around.
She gets all serious and asks in a sad voice as the tears start to fall down her face “Gio, have you found our brothers? Are they okay? Are they coming for us?”
It breaks my heart to see her like this. She’s making me cry now. Gio takes her in his arms and places his hand in mine squeezing it.
“I wish I had good news for you girls, but I don’t. I’m sorry. We’re all doing what we can. We’ll find them, it’s just going to take more time. They’re smart guys, I know Val has them hidden for now,” he says placing a kiss on the top of her head.
Gio and Val have been best friends since they were babies. They haven’t been close since he left for the military, but I know they kept in touch. Val kept him updated on the families.
Val and dad always tried to get him to come home, but after being away for so long in the middle of the war zone, he changed. I see it, he’s different now.
Dusty comes back a few minutes later and takes Gigi back downstairs to the guys for dessert that she and Jules baked.
I tell her I’ll see her tomorrow cheering up a little and hugs us before leaving.
Once she out of the room I have two things I need to ask Gio tonight.
Gio’s back on his computer, and I have the TV on channel surfing. I go through the channels a few times and give up turning it off.
“Gio...”
“Yes, Princess,” he says turning to face me.
“Can you order me an IPad? I’m sure Gigi and Jules didn’t take mine. I’ll pay you back.”
“Sure, I’ll order it through my Amazon Prime, it will be delivered sometime tomorrow. And you don’t have to pay me back,” he says turning back to his computer screen relieved that my question wasn’t too heavy. He pulls up the website and places my order.
I’m not done with my questions and another request for him. One of the thing I’m not really sure I want to see, but I need to.
“Gio, can I see the copy of my records from the hospital, please,” I spit out quickly in a whisper allowing him to hear me from across the room. He freezes with his hands hovering over the keys. Without turning, he grunts.
“Princess...” Then pause, and I panic. Could it be so terrible that he doesn’t want me to see my own records? Cue the panic attack and water works, here they come at full force. I’m so sick of crying, I’ve never cried this much in my whole life.
He gets up and walks over to sit next to me on the bed hesitantly he takes me in his arms. “Did he hurt me that bad? Can I still have babies?” I don’t know why I ask that last question, I just came out.
Now, I’m sobbing the pain is shrieking through my body.
Great, not only did he broke me, but he also left me barren too.
“Princess, relax it
's no big deal, you can have kids. The worst thing in the records just said you had to abstain from sex for four weeks. That was in order to allow your body to heal properly. When Sam checked you last, she said you’re healing properly.”
He takes a breath giving me a minute to absorb this new information. I can have babies. That’s good, at least the bastard didn’t ruin me completely. I did always want to have a baby. Granted, I knew it would be by a doctors hands not the old fashion way. I have to wait another week and a half to have sex. That’s fine, I’ve gone almost 23 years without it. This sounds like all the good news. What’s the bad?
As I am contemplating all this information, he gets up from the bed to retrieve a file from his desk drawer. He wavers as he brings it back to me.
“Are you absolutely sure you want to read this, Princess?” I look into his eyes and nod my head yes.
He hesitates again before placing it in my shaky hands. Then walks away from me to give me space, but he’s still able to watch me. I stare at the vanilla folder for a minute calming my breathing before opening it and seeing my medical records from the hospital.
I read the doctors reports, test, and evaluation. The way I present when entering the ER with the bruise and hemorrhaging the doctors assumed I’d been a raped victim, but my fiancé insisted I hadn’t been.
They administered ‘The morning after pill’ regardless and ran a panel of test including a rape kit, STD’s and pregnancy. The rape kit was file away until a further invention. All test come out negative, they will need to be performed again in six months with the exception of the pregnancy test.
I’m clueless about most of what I’m reading in these papers, it’s all a bunch of medical mumbo-jumbo. After glaring at the same pages for five minutes, I’m filled shame, and rage, rising and rising with each passing second. I close the folder throwing it across the room. The folder hits the wall, and the papers spill out all over the floor.
Gio watches me from his position at the end of the bed in complete shock as I get up from the bed throwing the blanket off me onto the floor. I grab the bowl of soup from the nightstand next to the bed and throw it across the room causing more destruction, shatters the bowl into pieces on top of the papers.
I’m not done, tears are rolling down my face, and my breathing ragged. One of my hands is in a white knuckle fist, and the other is grabbing the lamp from the table yanking the plug out of the wall and throwing it next. Smashing everything I can get my hands on at the moment.
I feel ruined, ashamed, angry, and mad as fucking hell as the words spill out of me at an alarming rate.
“This was not supposed to be my life. Daddy told him to leave me alone. Why couldn’t he just follow orders? Why did he have to do this to me? I don’t want to be broken like this. Perché questo dOVevA accadere a me?! Perché AVEVA FRENARE ME?! Perché mI?! Perché LUI non RIUSCIVA seguire gli ordini come un buon soldato?!”
I didn’t realize I was yelling at the top of my lungs all those things, but I keep going getting it all out of my system.
“PAPA, rendere il dolore andare via. per favore!” I squeeze my fist shut so tight I can feel the pain of my nails digging into my palms. I punch my chest over my heart to stop the pain I’m feeling there.
Gio comes up behind me, and I turn throwing punch after punch at his chest yelling obscenities in Italian.
I’m treating him as if he’s the monster in my nightmares that did this to me. He blocks my fists trying to capture my wrists to stop me. He finally gets a grip on my wrist pulling me close to his chest.
I can feel his pounding heart against my own, and I give up the fight altogether. Legs weak, I fall to the floor sobbing with him still holding my wrist. He goes down with me and holding me to his chest. I’m sitting between his legs with his arms wrapped around me tight and rocking with me back and forth.
I hear the bedroom door open and one of his brothers asking if he needs anything. Gio tells him to send in Sam with a sedative for me.
After a few minutes, he lifts my lifeless, defeated body up in his strong arms and brings me to the bed laying us down still holding me on his chest on our sides.
I stay in his arms sobbing into his chest for a few minutes. Sam comes in with Gator in toe to administer my sedative. Gio keeps me in his arms the whole time.
Through my haze, I hear Sam and Gator talking to Gio. Sam says something about how it’s good that I allow him to touch me, hold me and comfort me. Most women in my situation don’t allow any man to touch them, let alone allow them to hold them and comfort them like he’s doing with me. He should take it as a good sign and know that he’s helping me more than he could believe.
I stay crying in his arms until me the exhausting knocks me out.
Chapter 8
Beast
I hadn’t seen Bella in about ten years, not since our last summer party I attended. Actually, it was at my father’s funeral nine years ago, but I never spoke to her. I kept my distance from her for my own sanity. I’ve kept tabs on her, and I have pictures of her from a distance with her friends (Jules and Caesar). I checked up on her online social media status regularly. Also with my weekly conversation with mom even my occasional talks with Val. I knew how her schooling was going if she was dating anyone, which she never was with any man. The only man in her life is Cesare, her gay best friend. I also knew that recently she was planning on moving to the city. She was going to open a boutique with her best friends. Jules and Bella have been best friends since they were babies, Cesare came into the picture when the girls start high school.
The crucial situation, I thought I had a handle on, was Anton. Val told me he always tried to stay a step ahead of that asshole. He kept him away from Bella for the most part. But boy, were we wrong, so completely fuckin’ insanely wrong.
I knew he always wanted her, I just never realized how far his obsession with her went or the lengths he would go to have her.
Apparently, that meant willingly or not in this case. I should have known better than to assume anything when it came to him. I just would have never fathomed he would be this brutal to her.
From the moment mom called me and told me to call Jules, I couldn’t fathom it would be this dreadful. I never in a million years would have comprehended it was as horrific as this. This is a situation I would never wish on my worst enemy’s mother, sister, or daughter.
Antonio is my problem to handle not my clubs, I will take him out one of these days. Once I find Val and the guys, and they are here. I’m going to string his ass up and tear that motherfucker apart, limb from fuckin’ limb after I tear his ass up. Then I’m going to feed him to the fishes where he belongs like the piece of mother-fuckin' shit he is.
My brothers came to my rescue for the girls, and I will never forget the loyalty they showed me. It all went as planned, and Antonio still hasn’t figured out how Bella disappeared from the hospital, or even where she and the girls could be hiding.
We covered our track perfectly at Jules’ apartment built after she got rid of Ricco for a few days. Making her and Gigi vanish was easy since he was gone. If anyone in her building does happen to talk, they don’t know who any of my brothers or I are. None of us wore our kuttes; we looked like regular muscular, tattooed bad guys.
Unfortunately, now we can’t get a hold of the girl’s best friend, Cesare. I wish we had thought of him while we were there for her. I fear Anton has gotten his grip in him and is beating information out of the poor guy. He knows nothing, Anton told Jules not to contact him, and she never did to keep him safe.
No one is safe when Anton is involved, no one. I just hope for the girl’s sake he’s still alive and we can get to him.
When I entered Bella’s hospital room, I couldn’t breathe. Seeing her for the first time in years and the way she was laying there caused my heart stop beating for a minute. I’ve seen pictures of her through the years, but they didn’t do her justice. She was beautiful as a young girl, but now she’s
stunning. Even with a bruised face. She’s an alluring beauty at 5’3” with long legs and a tight body. Her tits are the perfect size to fit in my hands. Her hair is long to her waist, dark brown almost black the perfect thickness and wavy. Her beautiful heart shape face, I can’t stop looking at her. Eyes, what I can say about her eyes. I could look in them for the rest of my life and I will. They are the most dazzling honey-colored eyes I have ever seen in my life. I’ve loved her from afar for a long time out of respect for her father and brothers. Also, because I’m older and no good for her. She’s light, I’m dark, with the blackest heart and soul around. After all this shit and seeing her in that hospital bed after all these years, I won’t let her go again. I’ve made her mine in the eyes of my club, and once she’s healed with my help, I will make her see she’s mine forever. I’ll make it legally binding us together for the rest of our lives in the eyes of the law. One day soon we’ll start a family together. She’s always been the Principessa di Mafiosi. Soon she’ll know that she’s always been my Principessa in my heart.
I’m laying here in my bed holding her in my arms after her breakdown. My heart hurts something fierce for her, it’s never hurt this bad in my entire life. Not even when I left her or when dad passed. I haven’t cried since I was a child, but seeing her at that moment feeling helpless I want to cry for her and take away all her pain. I seem to feel this way a lot around of her. She right, she shouldn’t have to deal with any of this fuckin’ shit, this shouldn’t be how her life turned out. She’s too precious to have all this shit on her plate. Parents’ murdered, brothers MIA, a bastard raping her and then leaving her responsible for her teenage sister. And on top of it, she may possibly lose one of her best friends. My sweet innocent Bella doesn’t deserve any of this shit. That bastard took her purity and tore her apart. She was a virgin for Christ sakes, and that bastard ripped her apart like she was a fuckin’ whore off the street.
Hearing her scream through her night terrors is the only indication I have of what she went through that night. I have to figure out a way to fix this for her and fast.
