Innocent (Omertà Book 1)

by Anna Widzisz

  Seattle, Washington 2014

  The wave of sadness turned into a tsunami of grief. Her brown eyes filled with tears once again as the lips curved into a thin line. In that moment the whole world turned black. She knew that from this point on it would only take the smallest reminder and her stomach would fall so low that she won’t be able to see it anymore, but still feel the painful crush. Loss will be there as a cruel reminder. The day she felt better, could turn into another punishment just as easily. A brutal curse of not forgetting the moment when her mother’s body was put into the ground by Made Men.

  Sitting on the bench a little further from the grave, she was watching as all the guests were saying their condolences to her father. She didn’t need it. Their sad expressions were fake. Just as unreal as the world she lived in. As fake as the positions they held in the Famiglia.

  Untrue to the bone.

  Fake, fake, fake.

  All Made Men knew death all too well. They dealt with it on a daily basis. Most even caused it themselves. So why were they pretending to care that their Capo’s wife was dead?

  It was the fucking performance of their lives. A competition of who can console their boss better. They didn’t mourn the way Lynette or Severo did. Fucking mafia business all over again. Power plays. Even during the funeral.

  But her father wouldn’t have it. He thanked the guests but didn’t believe a word that came out of their mouths. His eyes were on his daughter. The only person that he had left. Someone he had to protect no matter the cost. She was his only way to salvation, his little bird. The perfection within.

  So, as everyone moved to the parking lot to get to the feast that was held in Selvaggio’s house, he joined the girl.

  ”They don’t understand.” She wept.

  Severo nodded his head. That was the sad truth. ”Common sense is our punishment, and we have to try to survive among those who have no clue what that is,” he said.

  ”I wish I was stupid so that I wouldn’t see it all and perhaps feel less pain.” She whispered.

  The man sighed and crouched in front of his daughter, taking both her hands in his. He looked her in the eyes, seeing all the emotions he wished he could take away. Bear them himself. He loved Lynette more than anything in his life.

  ”Uccellino,” he said. “That pain you feel is because your mom took a piece of your big, beautiful heart to keep it safe. I know you miss her, but you will always feel her love. And when you think that you’ve had enough, remember that she probably looks down on you, holds that piece tightly so you can feel that she misses you too.”

  CHAPTER 24

  Jason walked into Selvaggio’s estate, immediately heading for Severo's office. He knocked, and when he heard the invitation, opened the door, crossing the threshold. The room was full of the most important members of the Famiglia. They were sitting at a long table in their best and most expensive suits, discussing. Apart from the Capo, no one paid attention to him.

  “Is Lynette safe?” the boss asked, rising from his chair.

  He went to the bar at the far end of the room, took a glass and poured himself some whiskey. Ever since he’d learned about the murder, he’d been nervous. He’d had to leave all business to the underboss in order to fully deal with the events of the night. In the morning, as soon as he’d seen the crime scene and the body, he’d ordered his soldiers to take it to the morgue where he had friends that would be able to take care of it.

  The fact that the house was not as safe as he’d thought was a much more serious issue to him. Despite the bodyguards, someone had managed to sneak in, and the thought of Lynette ending up just like Rosalia was driving Severo crazy. He wouldn’t forgive himself if something happened to his daughter. She was his everything and the belief that he was doing a good job at protecting her had been ruined in a matter of seconds.

  All this time, when he’d been leaving her with the housekeeper, there had been the possibility for his enemies to attack. Directly harming his daughter. And someone daring to do so was something he wouldn’t forgive. Retribution was coming.

  “She is,” said Jason taking a seat by the table.

  He knew that the girl had arrived at school and was fairly safe there. Nobody would attack her when she was surrounded by so many people and Severo didn’t need to worry. In addition, he expected the boss's anger if he admitted that the girl wasn’t looked after by anyone. He preferred to hide it for a few hours and go pick her up when the classes finished.

  He spent half the day talking to the Capo and underbosses, reflecting on the whole event. Everyone was feeling uneasy as the attack on the mansion was only a step away from any other cities that were under the Seattle Famiglia’s control being attacked. They tried to find out who did it and, above all, how. Until recently, nobody would have thought that the house, with all the security measures, would prove to be a trifle challenge for outsiders. Most of the suspicions had pointed towards someone close, who would have the opportunity to come inside, and additionally have the motive to kill the housekeeper. Everyone suspected someone, but no one was able to say it out loud.

  Severo knew perfectly well, noticing that his soldiers refrained from saying anything. He couldn’t afford to ignore it, but he had to approach it carefully. If he asked the wrong person, he might imply that he didn’t trust anyone. But that was close to the truth. Out of all the men in his office, everyone was obviously hiding something. A smaller or bigger secret.

  He gave everyone a task to take care of, got into the car and went to the city with the intention of seeing Rosalia's body. He wanted to know all the information about her death, hoping that it would help him solve the mystery.

  Entering the hospital, he passed the reception desk, ignoring the question of the nurse who offered him help. Without waiting for the elevator, he went down the stairs to the lowest floor where the morgue was located.

  “Severo, good to see you. I was about to call you,” he heard the voice of his old friend Jack Kingston.

  The man was an elderly person with overwhelming gray hair and damaged skin. He’d been working in the hospital for thirty years, and for the first time in a year, he saw the Capo in his place of work. Of course, Jack knew why he’d come. Therefore, having greeted each other, he immediately went to one of the tables, on which a body was laying, covered with white material.

  The coroner, getting permission in the form of a barely visible nod, exposed the corpse. Severo was even more frightened at the moment, realizing that Lynette had seen what he was then. Perhaps in an even worse condition. It made him sick because he never wanted his daughter to be in this situation. However, in spite of all that, he was happy that it wasn’t her body. He wouldn’t be able to survive such a hit.

  “The cause of death is a gunshot wound to the chest. The bullet hit the heart, which unfortunately gave her no chances to survive. The projectile is a 14 caliber. It remained in the body, so somebody shot it from a distance. There’s no exit wound. However, that’s not the most interesting thing. Rosalia had nail polish on, so I didn’t notice it at first and she probably didn’t either. The nails have transverse white streams.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “She was being poisoned with arsenic for some time. Apparently not in large amounts, because she would be already dead, but enough to make her feel worse every day.”

  “So it really had to be one of my people,” Severo muttered more to himself but saw how Jack nodded sadly.

  CHAPTER 25

  Lynette

  ”Alright, one last time,” drawled Drew. He looked at Lynette who was sitting between his legs on the couch.

  They were in the cubbyhole bar which was just behind the cafeteria. All the time they were supposed to spend in class, they spent together hiding from people. Fortunately, most of the students preferred to sit outside, enjoying the quite warm weather. However, for the teens, it was the only safe place where no one would disturb them. The girl only left for a moment, to be escorted by Noah to the
next class. She pretended to go inside and, as soon as the man disappeared, to reluctantly go to his classes, she slipped out and returned to Ryder.

  The boy himself preferred to avoid his friends, knowing that they were completely hostile to Lynette even though they didn’t know all he did. Even Inéz wasn't supportive of their relationship anymore. She thought he was risking a lot for a mere fleeting affair that had no chance of surviving. But she never gave him the reason as to why her opinion had changed so drastically.

  But he didn’t want to think about it. What counted for him was Lynette and their relationship. None of them had officially confirmed it, but they felt as if they were in one, no unnecessary words of assurance needed. Besides, this was they avoided any further liability related to the fact that the girl was engaged. They wanted to enjoy what they had, as long as it lasted. They didn’t deceive themselves, thinking that they could somehow escape this situation. Although they were counting on it deep within their hearts.

  ”Neanche per sogno.” Lynette said in her perfect Italian. She pulled her head back as to see the boy when he tried to come up with an idea about what’d she said.

  His face was focused on repeating the words in his head. “Say it one more time,” he asked making the girl laugh.

  “You’re terrible with languages,” she pointed out. “Neanche per sogno.”

  Drew frowned. “Not everyone can be naturally gifted with speaking languages.”

  “I’m not. I just study a lot. Italian doesn’t really count as I lived in Sicily half of my life. I did have to learn English, though,” she offered, her tone light and untroubled.

  The boy shrugged. “English is easy. Italian is not.” He was teasing her. It wasn’t said in the way of making himself superior. They both needed an easy conversation. One that wasn’t dragging any of them down or make them think of bad things. Lynette needed to forget about her problems for a while.

  The time that passed didn’t seem that long at all. When Lynette laughed, he was reveling in it. It was so rare that Drew found himself trying to coax a laugh from her every step of the way. The way her face lit up was more than enough to make him happy.

  “Tell me what the sentence meant.”

  “It meant 'in your dreams',” Lynette explained. “Kind of a popular thing to say. Not that I had a lot of possibilities to try it out.” She rolled her eyes and laughed again.

  Drew had a really hard time taking his eyes off her. And as Lynette turned around to face him, she saw it too. It was different from the first day they’d met. There was no pity, or what she had often seen from others - fear. But she recognized the look.

  His hands found their way to her waist pulling her closer. She crossed her legs over his to be completely in front of him, on his lap. Their lips met. Her body was tingling and she shivered as he slid his hand under her shirt. But it didn’t frighten her as it had when Noah was doing a similar thing. This was far from the possessive and powerful gesture. And Drew’s hands didn’t move up. They were just resting on her bare back.

  Too many emotions ran through her. Everything was new to Lynette. Wonderful but wrong at the same time. As the daughter of the Capo, she shouldn’t even be around guys long enough to make people think she wasn’t pure. With Drew, she didn’t want to feel pure for some reason. He was making her experience something exciting and the last thing she wanted was to end it just because of her duty.

  Screw rules.

  For now, she didn’t have to think about the consequences. Probably later it would be the end of her. And even if not right now, then in two years when the wedding night will take place. Drew still didn’t understand the principles on which the mafia world was built, and Lynette was nowhere near wanting to make him aware of the seriousness of the matter. The more he knew, the more danger he was in. Ignorance sometimes really was bliss.

  “You really think it’s a good idea?” Drew asked in between kisses.

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “That’s good. I would be majorly concerned if you did.”

  The words made her laugh without meaning to. Ryder might not know a lot about her world, but he sure as hell seemed to keep up the appearance that he did.

  However, they spent some more time kissing, Drew now hovering over Lynette, keeping their hands connected over their heads. He was holding her, taking over the control. There was rarely something he wanted, but right then he wanted Lynette. Needed too.

  But as much as the girl pushed further, in the spirit of common sense, for now, he held still and ended the kiss, withdrawing a little bit to look her in the eyes.

  She was confused by the boy’s actions. “This is hardly the place for this,” he explained trying to make Lynette come back to her senses. And she did, nodding slightly.

  The bell rang, making her jump up and untangle herself from his embrace. She needed to get to her class before Noah did. It was the end of the school day and they had to go home as her father wanted to talk to them both.

  “I’ll see you later,” she said, collecting her bag from the floor. She came up to the boy, leaned down and gave him a hard kiss on the lips, then slipped out the door making sure no one was around.

  As they got to the mansion, Severo was waiting for them, happily greeting his daughter as if nothing had happened. He didn’t even mention her escape. She dropped the bag into the corner of the hall, looking around. Everything seemed so strange to her now. Nothing has changed, but it felt as if it were a completely different house. Not her own. She felt like an intruder, wondering why everything seemed to be so cold, gray and foreign. She couldn’t imagine living here anymore.

  Severo called her into the living room, where Jason, Noah, and Emilio were already waiting.

  “Sit down.”

  “Please, don’t tell me that someone died again,” she warned them, hesitating whether she should stay in the room or leave.

  “No. Why do you think that's what I wanted to say?”

  “Because when mom died, you started the same way and almost the same people were present,” she announced, shuddering slightly at the thought of that day.

  It was the worst moment of her life. No matter how many bad things had happened since then, that one moment was still standing on top of the iceberg, which had fallen on her like an avalanche in a second.

  “Don’t worry. It's nothing like that,” he assured his daughter, asking her again to sit down.

  She took her place in an empty armchair, focusing her eyes on her father, praying that there would be no bad news this time, but only those came to her mind. Though it would be useful for her to have some good information. It would help distract her from all the rest happening around her.

  ”So there are several things. Marco was supposed to be with me today, but unfortunately, he couldn’t fly out here on such short notice,” he began. “Noah said you two have started to get along,” he added.

  The streak of nonsense that Falcone had told her father seemed to make her laugh more than it should. They were nowhere near getting along. The man demanded obedience, and she pretended to offer it to him. She bit her tongue, not contradicting Severo.

  “Given the circumstances, we decided that it would be good to accelerate everything a bit, and your wedding will take place in three weeks.”

  To say that Lynette didn’t expect it would be an understatement. She’d hoped that Rosalia's murder would force her father to rethink her marriage to Noah. Moreover, given that the man had realized he would have a lot of work to do with her, it had sowed in her the hope that he would talk their fathers out of the idea. That's why she looked at Noah, waiting for him to speak. But when she met his eyes, he only looked somewhere else, remaining quiet.

  It gave everything away. He already knew about the change of plans. Probably found out right after hearing of her escape. That was the reason for his behavior earlier.

  “I was hoping that you would cancel this stupidity,” she growled.

  She could not restrain hers
elf anymore. The outbursts of anger Falcone favored had begun to develop more frequently and quickly enough that she didn’t even try to hide them anymore. All boundaries had been blurred for her.

  She saw a slight denial in Jason's eyes, suggesting that she shouldn’t have spoken up. And most certainly not in this tone.

  “Figlia, we've already talked about it. This is the only way to ensure your safety. We will all go to Sicily, where the wedding will take place. You will see your family. You will have the ones you love with you.”

  Hysterical laughter spread across the living room. Lynette couldn’t help herself at her father's words. Nobody, however, dared to speak and waited for the teenager to calm down a bit, not wanting to add fuel to the fire. For the first time, they ignored her disrespect.

  The girl wasn’t even interested in the sympathy with which Severo looked at her.

  “Those whom I love? Are you fucking kidding me? If you want this wedding so much, then amuse me and let my mother and Rosalia be there. Then we'll talk about my future. Even with great pleasure. I will choose flowers, a dress, bridesmaids and a list of guests! Nessun problema. But stop telling me that this arrangement is designed to give me safety. You do it for business. For cash. You are selling your only daughter for several millions of shares. If I am at least worth that much.”

  “Sco, believe me, we all miss your mother and Rosalia. If it were possible to bring them back, we would do it in the blink of an eye,” Jason said, coming up to the girl to calm her down.

  Lynette didn’t care. She was still interested in her father. “Do you really love destroying mine and Noah's life? I'm only sixteen. I won’t even finish my education if I get married because we will probably leave right away. Besides, as Jason has so brightly noticed, you won’t give me the joy of bringing the two most important people in my life, so we have nothing to talk about,” she added, and then she left the house, heading to the garden.