Micah shook his head no, too afraid to ask if Leese had seen it, or if Giovanni simply told her about it.
“Yes,” he said answering the unasked question, “my daughter saw part of it before Giovanni took it away and smashed it. He said he’d never seen anything affect someone so desperately. He thought she was going into shock over it. I’m telling you, I know how much my daughter loves you. And I hate to say it, but I can see it in your face that you truly do love her just as much. Don’t leave her. Don’t break her heart. Don’t think that you’re doing her and that baby a favor—but don’t you ever, ever be the kind of animal with my daughter like you were with Sharon Moretti. Do I make myself clear? Love her, don’t leave her, and if you ever fucking hurt her, I’ll castrate you and make the world forget you ever existed—totally untraceable—even the ants won’t find you! Got it?”
“Yes, sir—I swear I’ll never hurt her.”
“Then get your ass over there and tell her you’re sorry and that you’re going to spend the rest of your happy life making it up to her—and by the way, let me take care of getting the mob off your back!”
Micah wasn’t sure if Caprizio would accept his hand or not, but he offered it anyway, “Thank you, sir.”
Caprizio stared at the offered hand, but didn’t accept. He looked to where Leese was tearfully waiting and then he looked back to Micah, and pulled him in and embraced him. “Only because she’s watching,” he whispered. “You still have a lot to prove before I’ll ever believe you deserve her. Go!” And he turned him loose.
The tears were in full force when he pulled her into his arms, “Baby, I’m so sorry. I love you, Leese. If you want me, baby, I’ll never leave you.”
He felt Nadia’s arms around them both, then Kimmy’s arms around his waist, and David wrapping his arms around all of them. When the group hug finally broke, he noticed Giovanni standing off to the side. His expression was hard to read.
Micah offered his hand, “I’m told I owe you a debt of thanks for keeping my wife safe.”
Giovanni accepted, “I apologize for the way things had to appear. You are a very blessed man to have Annalisa’s devotion and love.”
Micah didn’t release Giovanni’s hand as what he said struck him, “You know you’re right. I’ve looked at her as someone I didn’t deserve. If God gave me what I deserved, it wouldn’t have been Annalisa.” He didn’t have to say it, but he knew who he deserved for the life he’d once led was someone like Sharon Moretti—but he had been given a gift and it was time to start seeing Leese in that light. “But blessings are gifts, deserved or not; I’ve been blessed. Thank you.”
“And now,” Caprizio said, “we have business to take care of. Ladies, if you’ll get back on the plane, my pilot will—”
“I’m not leaving,” Leese stated.
“Me neither,” Nadia added.
“Matt is at the Holiday Inn waiting,” Micah spoke up. “I called him this morning.”
“Yay!” Kimmy shouted, before anyone else could say anything. “I want to go swimming.”
Nadia laughed, “You little fish! You always want to go swimming. I don’t have your suit, but maybe we can buy one someplace nearby.”
“I’ll have to call for a cab,” Micah stated as he considered that the BMW was a two seater—and had their guns inside.
“We don’t need a cab,” Caprizio said and then made a ‘come here’ motion in the air as several non-descript cars at the edge of the lot by the hanger cranked and headed their way. “You didn’t think I came unprepared, did you? My men flew in last night. They’ve been watching you and your brother since you got here. By the way, that was a smart move to leave those guns in the car. Although you,” he said pointing at David, “almost got shot. Good thing you didn’t run until Kim was running toward you.”
Three cars pulled up. The doors opened on a black, Chrysler 300 and two men stepped out and opened the backdoor for the women to get in. These were the kind of men Micah expected to be greeted with, and he didn’t like it—not with the women present anyway.
“No,” Micah stated quickly. “They aren’t leaving with them.”
“They’re my men!” Caprizio snapped.
“I don’t care. Leese can drive or Giovanni can take them.”
Caprizio got an odd, wiry grin on his face as he stared at Micah, “I like your moxie, but don’t push it too far. All right, Giovanni, you take them,” he said.
Kimmy was already crawling into the backseat, but Nadia hesitated. “I don’t want to leave you,” she whispered to David.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her temple, “It’ll be okay. Please, Nadia, I’ll be fine and I’ll see you tonight.”
She tipped her face up to his and kissed his lips slowly as he returned her sweet affection.
Micah watched Caprizio tense. He could tell the man absolutely hated David, hated seeing Nadia in his arms, and hated the fact that he wasn’t the person she was kissing.
She hugged him tightly one more time and then slipped in beside Kimmy.
Leese wasn’t moving.
“No, Annalisa,” Micah stated before she could say it, “you can’t come with us.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve got something to show your dad.”
“Something,” David spoke up with a bit of a chuckle, “which Ryan will be glad to get rid of.”
Micah cringed—that was the wrong thing for him to say.
“Ryan’s here?! You drug Ryan into this?”
“He’s—”
“Ryan who?” Caprizio asked, “Not that idiot you were with on Remake?”
“Dad, he’s my best friend—he’s not an idiot!”
“He’s not mafia,” Caprizio added. “Why’d you need him?”
“Because he’s not mafia,” Micah stressed. “And I trust him.”
“I want to see him,” she said obstinately.
He knew she wouldn’t be in any danger just from coming to the house, but he also needed a little bit of time. “Do me one favor. Ride with them so you can show Giovanni where the hotel is and so that Matt can see that you’re okay. I’ll call him and tell him you aren’t staying. Then show Giovanni how to get to the beach house.”
“The house you rented last year? That’s where Ryan’s at?”
“Yes. I promise I’ll be there when you get there; I won’t leave, but don’t take too long.” Then with a sigh and a dislike for what he had to say, he stated, “I have to finish setting up my meeting with Sharon.”
He’d never witnessed such anger and jealousy fill Annalisa. He knew, in that moment, she wouldn’t take long to drop off her mother and sister.
CHAPTER thirty-five
I told Giovanni that I’d drive as we prepared to leave the hotel. He tried to argue the point, using my ‘condition’ as reason for me to be a passenger instead of a driver, but that didn’t fly.
“I’m pregnant,” I said, reminding him that I didn’t like the term ‘condition.’ “It doesn’t make me stupid or crippled; I can drive.”
He opened his mouth, but he apparently thought better of it and walked around to the passenger’s door and got in. He didn’t say anything for about two blocks, but then he chastised me about my driving.
“This is why you should have let me drive,” he said, pointing at my speedometer. “If you get pulled over, you have no driver’s license, no registration, nor insurance paperwork, I am armed, and we will go to jail!”
I slowed down. He was right, but I honestly hadn’t been paying attention to my speed. I had been without my husband for too long, and the idea that we had one more hurdle to face—and that ‘hurdle’ being a woman who had slept with my husband—distracted me from my driving.
“Perfetto,” he said as we dropped to the legal limit. He was silent for another few blocks before he spoke, “I believe you now.”
I looked at him and wondered what he meant. Over the last several days he’d been at my side constantly. We talked about
everything, but mostly we talked about Micah. He had told me, over and over, that it was a mistake for me to go back to him.
“He loves you very sincerely. I had hoped that you were wrong, but I understand now that you two have something very special. I do not like it,” he admitted.
“Why?”
“Because,” he said and then looked out the window, “it means I have no chance.”
“Why do men always want that kind of a chance?” I asked. “We have a different chance.”
“What do you mean?” he asked turning back to look at me.
“A chance to be friends; I’ll never forget you, Jonathan.”
He reached over and took my right hand in both of his and kissed the back of it, “Is that a promise?”
I squeezed his fingers, “It’s a promise. I hope you find someone wonderful—and that you get out of the mafia.”
“I am a selfish man; the mafia is my life, Leese, and I am sure it will be my end.”
“Don’t say that—please. You’re not selfish; you just haven’t found the one who’ll make you want to give it up.”
He smiled, “I do hope to meet someone someday who, like you, will make me wish for something better.”
I was surprised by the big pink floral truck in the driveway, thinking for a moment that I must have forgotten which one was the right house, but David’s BMW was parked on the other side of the truck. The two cars my father’s men drove were not around, but that didn’t surprise me since I knew he didn’t like his entourage to be obvious.
When we opened the door and walked in, they were involved in some kind of meeting. I didn’t recognize two of the men, but Ryan immediately grabbed my attention; he looked petrified! But, even as scared as he evidently was, he was off the couch as soon as he saw me.
I’d never seen him so emotional—not even after the incident in Colorado—but that was when it hit me that he hadn’t seen me since it had been announced to the world that I had died in an accident.
“Baby girl,” he sobbed, “you’re not allowed to die ever again!”
I laughed, even though the tears welled up and overflowed instantly as I held on to him, and he gently swayed me to and fro. “I don’t think I have any say in that, Ryan—but I’ll try to stay alive as long as possible, how’s that?”
He put his forehead against mine and then kissed the tip of my nose, “Damn, I’m glad to see you. I missed you, baby girl.”
“Why did you get involved in this?” I asked, completely exasperated by the fact that he was in a room with mafia members.
“That’s my fault,” Micah spoke up.
“The hell it is!” Ryan fired back. “You do what you have to do,” he said looking toward my father. “But he didn’t want me involved at first.”
He hugged me one more time and then he lifted my chin to get me to look him in the eye, “There was no way, once I knew you were alive, that he could have talked me out of it. Whatever happens now happens—you were worth it.”
“Ryan, what are you talking about?” Something wasn’t right and I was getting a sick feeling in my stomach as two of the men in the room glowered at Ryan like they wanted to shoot him.
“But—” Micah started to say when my dad cut him off.
“I’ve made my decision.”
The room was suddenly silent.
I looked at my dad, a little concerned about what exactly was being discussed before I came in, “What decision?”
My dad got up and gripped Ryan by the shoulder and turned him to face the older men. “I’ve never done this before, but my decision is final and you will abide by it,” he told the men. “You, Ryan Faultz, are now a member of my Family.”
“Dad, no!” I shouted. I didn’t want Ryan being indoctrinated into the mob! Micah moved quickly to my side with that look on his face that begged me to keep my mouth shut.
The men on the sofa suddenly looked extremely uncomfortable.
“I’m giving you,” my father continued, “the status of untouchable.”
The men grumbled slightly until my father looked at them; they became silent once again.
“Unless I decree it, no one is to touch this boy. Do I make myself perfectly clear on this matter? Because, if it’s not,” he continued, “you two are supposedly dead anyway, so I’ll kill you both myself and put whomever I deem responsible in your places. Understood?”
Both men nodded.
Whatever had just been decided would be irreversible; Ryan was a member of the mob.
Micah was sighing with relief, and Ryan looked like he’d turned to jello as he immediately sat on the nearest chair. My father motioned everyone, with the exception of Ryan and myself, to follow him out to the pool area to continue their discussion.
“Are you okay?” I asked kneeling beside the sofa chair.
“I guess I am now. That dude is really your father?”
“Actually, I’m still getting used to the idea myself, but yeah, he is. What was going on when I walked in?”
“Oh not much, they were just deciding when they were going to shoot me.”
“Shoot you?!”
“Yeah, evidently those two old Boss guys carry a lot of weight, and I pissed both of them off. Micah was fighting for me pretty hard, but it really looked like someone was going to get the pleasure of offing me.”
Suddenly, it became very clear. My father made Ryan a member of his mafia family so that he could be given a status—which in this case kept Ryan alive. “You’d better not tell Candace you’re an honorary member of the mob; she’ll blow a fuse!”
He laughed, “Yeah, you’re right, but I don’t know how much ‘honor’ is in my honorary title; I get the feeling your dad thinks I’m a punk. If you hadn’t walked in when you did, his decision might have been completely different.”
I smiled and then hugged him, “Then I’m really glad I wasn’t late! It’s hard as hell to get him to change his mind when he—aah!” I sucked in a big breath of air as what Ryan said finally hit me. “They’re bosses?! Oh my God! He didn’t kill them—Micah didn’t kill them!!”
“No, Leese, that’s what he needed me for—he faked their murders. I was the babysitter for the old bastards.”
I cupped my hands over my mouth and nose, still absolutely shocked, “He didn’t kill them. He—he kept his promise.” I was off the floor as fast as my bulging form would allow and ripping back the sliding glass door. “You didn’t kill them!” I shouted, once again interrupting a meeting.
Micah stood up and walked over to me. My God, I had forgotten how beautiful my man truly was; his muscled 6’ frame, those beautiful green eyes, his thick biceps, his perfect face, and the most incredible part of all was the fact that he found away to keep his promise.
“No, baby, I didn’t kill anyone.” he whispered, “I told you I wanted to change—I really meant it, Annalisa. I kept my promise.”
“And that’s probably why you shouldn’t be involved with this business,” my dad spoke up.
“I have to be,” Micah responded.
It was chillingly clear that my father was planning to kill Sharon Moretti, and even worse was the fact that I knew one of the men sitting to his left was her father. I looked at one man and could see the pain in his expression—that had to be him. “You’re Sharon’s father, aren’t you?”
He nodded.
Suddenly, all the hate I had inside me began to dissolve. No one ever wins when someone dies because someone, somewhere bears the pain.
“Dad,” I said turning toward him, “isn’t there another way?”
He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe I’d even ask, “I want your proof Gavarreen. You have the drugs, but I have to know she planned her father’s murder.”
Micah reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny, electronic recorder. He placed it on the table and pressed the button.
“I like the idea of running the lower east coast and the southern coast. To prove you are loyal to me you’ll not only take out my
father, but I expect Botachelli to die as well—do this for me and I’ll let her go completely unharmed. Screw me over, and you’ll suffer in the worst way.”
“Who dies first?”
“I need to have firm command of my side before I take over yours, so my father is first. I know it isn’t going to be an easy feat, but if you are the man D’Angelo always claimed you were then I think you should be able to accomplish this first step within a week, two at the latest. Just remember the faster you do what I want, the faster her release will happen.”
“I hope you don’t expect me to make this painless for him—I’ll be thinking about you the whole time,”
“I hate that son-of-a-bitch. You can carve his fucking heart out for all I care.”
Micah stopped it. From the timer on the display, there was more, but he’d proven his innocence. It didn’t need to become more painful than what was just revealed.
I was wishing at that moment that I wasn’t standing there, wishing I hadn’t opened the door, wishing I hadn’t heard Sharon’s cold words regarding her father. The angst on his face was deep enough that I could feel it, but I was frozen in this surreal mafia assembly, unable to walk away.
“Did you set the meeting place?” my father asked.
“I’ll tell her when she calls where we’re meeting. There is an old dolomite pit about thirty minutes from here. The pit’s been filled with water for a few years and, from what I can tell, other than some of the local teens, people rarely ever go out there.”
I started to ask him how he knew about that. I’d been out there once with a group from Pensacola High before he came into my life, but I thought better of it as I recalled the conversation I had with him the night we burned his target files. He’d been planning to get rid of any boyfriend I had when he arrived. I had a fear that the pit had been researched as a planned disposal site.
“Is there sufficient coverage for my men?”
“Yes, sir, but I’d like to see if we can end this without a fire-fight.”
“Someone’s going to die,” he said rather bluntly, “and I prefer that it’s no one from my side.”
“Keeping people alive,” Micah stated as he glanced to Botachelli and Moretti, “has been the toughest thing I’ve ever done—it’s a hell of a lot easier to kill someone. I’d like to finish this how I started it. But we will need help. I don’t know how many men she’s planning to bring with her, but I doubt it will be over a dozen. My brother and I can disable them, but once they’re down we’ll need help zip-tying them.”
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