by Coco Miller
Outside the wind howls through the trees, screaming and tearing through the night, knowing full well that I won’t be able to ever keep my promises to her. But I ignore the wind, I ignore the stars and moon shining down on us knowing that I can never be the one for her. I ignore my own thoughts of how I can’t be enough for her.
No, tonight, she’s mine and I exude my power over her again and again. I give and she takes. I push and she pulls. Together in a perfect harmony. A symphony of bodies mingling together in this moment forever.
If one can ever believe in repeating moments, or warping time...let them warp this night to replay over and again for the rest of my life.
I run my finger over her clit, and she moans a long, low moan. “Giovanni, I’m so close.”
“I know baby, that sweet pussy of yours is shaking. Your about to bust.”
“Giovanni!”
“That’s right, baby, come for me.”
Her eyes slam into mine, and our hearts beat together, in tune and in sync as we keep rocking into each other.
Tangled together, we reach that precipice, and she’s the first to let loose, tumbling down around me.
“Don’t ever forget me,” I whisper against her cries of passion, speaking only for her heart to hear.
My body plunges full speed ahead, and I lose control, thrusting, pounding, and tearing through her like a ghost in the night. Fucking her with everything I have. Everything I am. She’s better than any woman I’ve ever fucked before her.
And maybe tomorrow that’s all this will ever be, a ghost of a memory.
“Good morning,” a soft-sweet voice says, waking me up.
I open my eyes and Kelly stands before me.
“What time is it?” I ask her, reaching for my phone out of the pocket of my pants, feeling the full effects of my exhaustion. It’s like I was run over by the biggest semi truck in the world.
She shrugs. “I don’t know. Are you ok?”
I blink a few times. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
We head to the kitchen for breakfast, and my mind is a fog. Still unsure how I was able to sleep. Usually I only sleep for about two hours at a time, waking up more than I sleep. It’s insomnia at its finest. Maybe it’s the stress of this world affecting my sleep or maybe it’s my own demons fucking with me. But it seems that I’ve now discovered the only thing that will help get a good night’s sleep, and it’s sitting across the table from me, offering me her trust.
“Kelly, eat. We have somewhere to be.”
Her eyes go wider. “Out of this house?”
“Yes, and don’t get any ideas.” I cock a brow.
She nibbles on her toast, her big brown eyes hitting me with all their pain in the world. She can tell by the tone of my voice that something has changed in between the time that I was inside of her to now. She hides a small smile as we continue our breakfast.
She’s right. Something has changed. Leo called late last night after she fell asleep and told me that seclusion was over. He gave me an update on what Henry’s been up to back home and told me that we’ve been ordered to bring Kelly a bit further upstate to meet everyone.
It was like the splash of cold water that I needed. Pretend time is over. The real world is back in full effect.
After breakfast, I start the car, and open the door for her. “Get in.”
“Where are we going?” She steps into the car, and I head back to the driver’s side.
“It’s time for you to meet the family.”
Chapter Seven
Kelly
The family?
My eyes must be as big as quarters, because I’m not really sure what’s going on. I thought we were supposed to stay in the house. Secluded. I thought he was protecting me. I hope he knows what he’s doing.
Hopefully this place with the ‘family’ will have a phone so I can check in on my mother. I need to make sure she’s ok. I need to tell her that I’m ok.
My insides grow tight with nerves. Giovanni stares at me like he understands the thoughts that are rattling around in my brain. And maybe after last night, he does. Giving myself to him was an easy choice for me to make. I’ve never felt so physically connected to a man before in my life.
But ever since we woke up, I can tell he’s back to “business” mode. I don’t know what to make of the situation. Butterflies take flight in my stomach, and I glance out the window of the car, hoping for the courage to meet “his” family.
I guess it’s the fact that I don’t know what part to play. Am I still the kidnapped girl trying to escape for my freedom? Or am I something else? Something more. Or worse yet, am I just the stupid girl who got fucked by Giovanni (also known as my captor) and now he’s done with me?
Oh my God, what have I done?
We ride in silence, and with every mile we travel, my fear multiplies.
“How should I act?” I ask Giovanni when I can’t handle the silence anymore.
“Just act like yourself.”
“What kind of answer is that? Who are these people? Do they know you’ve kidnapped me?”
He leans closer, and our noses almost touch as he stops the car for a second before pulling out onto the main road.
“Of course they know.”
This tidbit of information doesn’t make me feel any better. In fact, I feel almost worse.
They know? And they’re ok with it?
Of course they are, stupid. They’re the mafia.
“Ok.” I chew on my lower lip, and Giovanni pulls onto the highway.
“Everyone will be busy.”
I suck in a breath. “What does that mean?”
“Well, we have a lot of enemies trying to make a collective move on us, and your father has just gone after all of them for trying to shut us down.”
“My father?!”
Giovanni doesn’t look at me, his knuckles turning ghostly white as he grips the wheel.
“I guess you should know now that your father is the man who hired me.”
I can’t breathe. And I don’t know how to process the words this man has just told me.
My father.
My father.
How is this okay?
“Shut you down how?” I pretend like he didn’t just drop the “F” bomb on me.
“They’re going after all of our legit businesses. Permits. Foreclosures. Officials condemning buildings. Everything and anything you can think of. The health department just came and shut down one of my restaurants; we’ll head there later.”
The scenery passes by in a whoosh of summery greens, and abandoned warehouses. It’s all very gloomy, even with the greenery surrounding the land, and I feel like I’m going to be sick.
I can’t make heads or tails about my situation, or my future. But, one thing I do know. My father is alive, apparently Italian, and a crook to boot. I want nothing to do with him.
I don’t believe he hired these men to protect me. What the hell for? I’ve never met him. Never talked to him. Not even a birthday card in the mail. If he cared so much, where’s he been all my life?
I have to escape.
I need to get away.
Last night when Giovanni held me, I felt like he could really see me. But now? He drugged me, kidnapped me, fucked me, and now he’s dragging me to meet a family of people I’ve never heard of?
If I thought there was a possiblity that he cared for me, all of that has gone completely out the window.
This is simply a business transaction for him.
Plain and simple.
We pull up to a large mansion, bigger than any I have ever seen before. It almost looks as big as the white house. Only it’s not white. It’s all red brick and green vines. A row of shiny black cars line the circular drive, and a few people stand outside.
They’re mostly women, and I take a deep breath when Giovanni stops the car not even a few feet away from them. Their hair is done up like they’re attending a gala and they’re wearing enough makeup to match.
&nbs
p; When Giovanni emerges from the car, the ladies turn their heads, and a few of their eyes light up with recognition and lust. A pang of jealousy rushes through me, but I try to squash the painful emotion away.
Giovanni reaches a hand inside the car, with a look of conflict in his eyes. I slip my hand in his and exit the car.
I feel a bit self conscious because I obviously look like a total outsider. I am clearly underdressed for whatever is going on at this house today, and to be honest I’m the only person who looks like me here. Everyone is very much Italian and I am not.
Giovanni walks right past the women as if they’re not even there, and my eyes latch onto a few unfriendly faces. Their judging is harsh, and I can already tell with their turned up noses and scowly frowns they don’t like me.
I tighten my grip on Giovanni’s hand and step in line with him up the steps and through the front door. I don’t like that I feel as if he is my only lifeline in this place, but frankly he is the only familiar face. So...I continue to latch onto his hand.
“Giovanni, we’ve been waiting for you. There’s a lot going on,” a short, stout man says with hardly any hair on the top of his head. “And we’re not a hundred percent clear what.”
I glance around and there’s about thirty people piled into this room. The room is large and made of marble, and the entryway has a round table front and center with a gaudy flower arrangement taking up most of it. All the men are seemingly waiting to speak to Giovanni. All look either slightly or a lot older than him. It’s….interesting to say the least.
“Don’t worry. Just tell me everything,” Giovanni answers with confidence, and then everyone starts talking at once.
Hushed whispers chatter along with a few louder men who speak up clearly wanting his attention first.
“Not all at once,” Giovanni says. “Dean, you first.”
He commands the room like he owns it. It’s sexy how everyone stops talking and adheres to his wishes. What’s even sexier is the way Giovanni glides through the room, with purpose and direction. I trail behind, trying my best to keep up, and I’ll just say it, not really sure what the hell I should be doing. No one is talking to me.
Giovanni’s power takes over the room, and all eyes are on him, including mine. Silence. Like you can hear a pin drop kind of silence, and my knees grow weak as they all look to their leader to take charge. Although it makes zero sense how someone this young could be their leader. But he does take charge in this moment and snaps into action, calling name after name to see him in the dining room as he orders some of the women to make food.
He glances at me. “I’ll be back soon. I need to handle a few things. We’ll talk later. Just try to relax. You’re safe here.”
Then he turns to the room. “This is Kelly and she’s mine. No one touches her.” His eyes level on a man in the back of the room and a moment passes between them.
A dark-haired older woman walks up to me. “I’m Darlene. Follow me.”
Giovanni nods to her, and together, her and I walk into the kitchen. Her tiny frame gets busy with pulling things out of the fridge, and setting deli meats on the counter. “Can you grab the rolls out of that bread box, please?”
She points to a large wooden box on the counter, and I rush over to open the lid. I’m hungry. All I’ve eaten was toast today, and after last night, I’ve worked up quite the appetite.
“You know with Henry being gone, Giovanni takes care of this family. Him and Leo look after everything.” She shakes her head. “I just worry about how them.”
“Because they’re so young?”
She stares quizically at me for a moment. “Power is not for the oldest in the room, it’s for whoever steps into it.”
I nod silently.
“He and Leo seem very close,” I say.
I don’t ask it as a question, just more of a matter of fact statement. Honestly I don’t know what to say about anything. I don’t know what to say to this woman. I’m not sure if she’s being friendly or if she’s trying to take me to task.
“Yes.” She takes it as a question. “They are.”
She continues to make sandwiches, hefty ones for the men in the other room.
“I’ve never seen Giovanni claim anyone before.”
“What?” I pop a piece of ham into my mouth. “What do you mean claim someone?”
“That speech in the great room just now. No one can touch you? That was a claim.”
Her face is stern.
“He’s protecting me. That’s all.”
She slathers some mayonaise on more Italian rolls. Lining them up on the counter.
“You know Giovanni has been in the family since he was a boy and he’s always had admirers. Half the women here today have tried to land him before. It’s interesting that you’re the one he’s chosen.”
“Well, I’m not trying to land him. I didn’t even know who he was a few days ago.”
I watch her as she takes great care preparing everything. Slicing tomatoes. Springling oregeno.
“He’s never really been interested in anyone.”
This woman clearly doesn’t have a clue as to who I am or why I am here. She thinks Giovanni has brought me here as his girlfriend or something. She’s so wrong.
“Umm, Darlene, who’s Henry?”
Is this Henry person the boss? Is he my father? I’ve never heard the name before, but she speaks about him with reverance.
“He’s your father of course, although you don’t look anything like him.”
What the hell? She does know who I am.
The kitchen fills with some of the other women, and I try to not notice how their scrutinizing gazes land longer on me than necessary.
“I can’t believe everything that’s going on,” one woman says, tears brimming her eyes.
“Giovanni is here now. He’ll fix everything,” a younger blonde says with a tight dress and breasts that hate being confined by the tight material.
“It’s all her fault,” a dark-haired lady says, moving up behind the blonde.
All eyes turn to me, and I wish I could shrink away.
Darlene raises a hand, calming them down before they start a mutiny.
“Relax, ladies. The poor girl can’t help it that she’s in the middle of this. Remember, Giovanni said not to touch her.” Darlene warns.
“What are you looking at?” one of the women says icily to me.
I raise my chin a little, feeling a bit braver than I should. “Nothing much.”
The woman takes a step closer to me in a threatening manner.
“Quiet, ladies. Leave her alone,” a woman with kind eyes and reddish-brown hair says, stepping closer to me. “My name’s Aurora.”
“Hi, I’m Kelly.”
She smiles, stepping me away from the other women in the kitchen. We take a seat at a little wooden table while everyone turns back to gossiping about the trouble going on.
“You’re probably wondering what’s going on, right?”
“Yes.”
Finally someone who’s going to give me some answers.
“Well, as you’ve probably guessed, Giovanni is Henry’s right-hand man. Henry is our Don and he’s your father, and he’s gone missing.”
“Ohhh, so I guess everyone’s worried about him. Is that why everyone’s here? Organizing a search?”
Am I starting to worry about a man I’ve never met.
She shakes her head no.
“No, it isn’t that. We think that Henry’s possibly fucked us all over. We think that perhaps he’s not at war with someone. It’s him who’s closed down everything. All the legit businesses. And for all we know, he is robbing us blind as we speak. It’s a huge mess.”
I cover my mouth. “Wait, what?”
“I’m sure Giovanni will fix everything, but I guess some of the women are a little uneasy about why we have you. Henry gave very specific instructions to Giovanni to grab you because there was going to be a war coming, but now that he’s gone and double-cr
ossed everyone, who knows what is going on. Maybe you were just a distraction to keep Giovanni out of town? Maybe you’re a part of his plan? We don’t know.”
“I’m not a part of any plan. I’ve never met Henry.”
“I know that now. I’m just saying that’s what some of the ladies are in there thinking. You know they watch a little too much Criminal Minds on television sometimes.”
I think about everything this woman has just told me. This whole thing is insane. I am in the middle of some ridiculous mafia drama that I have nothing to do with. Immediately I think about my mom. Praying that Henry hasn’t pulled her into the middle of this.
“Uh, is there a phone? I need to check on my mother.”
“I’m not sure if–”
“I know that I was abducted on Henry’s orders, and supposedly for my protection, but it’s obvious now that there’s no threat to me. He’s the threat.”
I can’t believe what I’ve been thrust into the middle of. My father is not only a criminal but one who fucks over his own people? What was the whole point of getting me? What is he up to? I can’t go back home with this Henry man running around on the loose. Not until I’m sure that I’m out of the line of fire.
I think I need to stay here with Giovanni for a little while longer and let him protect me. I feel like he’s the only one who can. I just need to talk to my mother first and explain what’s going on and make sure she’s okay.
Thankfully Aurora walks me to another room where there’s a phone sitting on a side table. I dial the number to Mercy Hospital, asking for my mother’s room.
“Mom,” I say into the receiver.
“Kelly, is that you? Where are you, baby?”
“Mom, I’m fine. How are you feeling?”
“I’m doing pretty good today, baby. When you coming by?”
“Mom, I need to know something. Who is my father?” I ask her, no longer wanting to beat around the bush.
“What? Why are you asking me this? We can talk about it when you get here.”
“Mom, it’s important. I’m not coming by the hospital right now and I need to know. Is my father alive?”
