Page 33 of Royally Embraced: RBMC

“Do they need to hear it?”

“Hey, Vittoria. My name is Keys. I’m a friend of Jeter’s, and the other guy on the line is King. I think it would be best if you told Jeter what he needs to hear, and I’ll fill in whatever you miss.”

The deep voice barked the words like an order. She had a feeling he already knew everything about her.

“My name is Vittoria Masseria. I’m the adopted daughter of Gino Masseria. My...my mother married Gino when I was three. I remember little about my father except that someone killed him, and then she married Gino. He and Geovani were good to me and my mother until she found out he was fucking around on her, and she wanted a divorce. A month after filing for separation, her plane crashed, and she died. I was supposed to have been with her, but I got sick and had to stay home. Still, Gino treated me like a princess until I was set to graduate from high school and wanted to go to college. It was then I learned that was not my place. Since he’d raised me as his child and I was a female, the only thing I was good for was an alliance. A merger, if you will, between his family and another of his choosing. If I didn’t fall in line, I would be as useless as my mother.” She let out her breath. Her hands ached from gripping the cold counter, so she released it and clasped them together in front of herself.

“What did you do to get out of the merger?” Jeter gritted the question out between clenched teeth.

She shrugged her shoulders. This part was easy to explain. “I bided my time, pretending to go along with his plans. I met his prospective suiter.” She gagged at the memory of having to pretend to like Alberto Rizzo. He’d been in his mid-thirties at the time, while she had been seventeen. The only reason he hadn’t raped her was her age.

“Who was it that Masseria wanted you to marry?” Jeter asked.

“Grigori’s older brother, Alberto. He was the head of their family four years ago.” She held Jeter’s wide-eyed stare, letting him see her pain and anger.

“Wait a minute. Grigori is nearly forty years old now. His brother Alberto would’ve been in his later thirties four years ago,” Jeter said, disgust lacing his voice.

She nodded. “He was thirty-eight to my seventeen. Age or my agreement didn’t matter. Not to Alberto or my stepfather. The only thing Gino insisted on was me turning eighteen before he was to touch me. The last time I met with Alberto, he told me he was aware I turned eighteen before graduating high school. He planned to claim me before that day. He didn’t see any reason for me to continue after that and wanted to ensure I knew my wifely duties.” She sucked in a breath, hating to think about that afternoon.

“Did he rape you, Vita Mia?” Jeter moved closer to her, setting the phone down, and cradled her face in his palms.

She almost broke. Her heart felt like it was being torn in two.

The gentle sweep of his thumbs over her cheeks made her close her eyes. “No, he didn’t r...rape me. Not completely. I think he planned to or would’ve if our maid hadn’t interrupted him. He...he ripped my clothes off and his and made me touch him. God, it was disgusting. His touch was nothing like a girl dreams of. He didn’t care that he hurt me. I had bruises on my arms and legs and my breasts. And do you know what Gino said when he found out?” she swiped at the tears falling from her eyes. “He said I needed to get used to it because once I married him, I was his property. He said that I would have to submit to whatever Alberto wanted, whenever he wanted. I stood there with the marks on my body showing. The man who was supposed to be my father told me to get used to it.”

Jeter pulled her against his chest, holding her as she cried.

Chapter Seventeen

He wanted to hunt down her stepfather and kill him with his bare hands. The phone showed Keys, and King were still listening, so he said nothing except hold Tori.

“Obviously, you didn’t marry him.” Keys voice broke through the quiet of the room.

Her humorless laugh made him want to punch his friend through the phone.

“No shit, Sherlock. At first, I didn’t think I had any choice, but I knew I would not let that old fat fuck be my first. So, I decided to give my V-card to a guy of my choosing. If I had more time, I probably would’ve found a better candidate, but beggars can’t be choosers. Anyway, I had been talking to a guy for a couple of months, and he was sweet. I decided, why not let him be the one? I literally threw myself at him one afternoon, and like any red-blooded male, he happily obliged. Sadly, he didn’t know anything about getting a girl off first, second, or last. To his credit, he made sure I was ready before plowing through, though. And he was more than willing to do it again. Of course, I gave a hard pass on that.”

He wanted to get the little shit’s name and number so he could add him to the list of people he would beat the hell out of for hurting Tori.

“I’m assuming your stepfather was unaware of your escapade with this kid from your school. However, that doesn’t explain how you ended up not tied to the Rizzos and hiding in Chicago. Because, no matter how you put it, Vittoria, you are hiding. Your family has been looking for you for years. There’s no sign of a Vittoria Masseria. Only a woman named Tori Hardiganis working at Hoolihan’s and going to UIC for Sociology. You entered the doctorate program with a master’s under you at twenty. You're like a female Doogie Howser.” Keys finished speaking, making Tori groan.

Jeter tugged on her hair, mouthingDoogie Howserand tapping his temple.

“I’m not that smart. I worked really hard and had nothing else to do except study and take lots of classes. Even in high school, I took a lot of college classes so that when I graduated high school, which I did, even though asshat didn’t want me to, I had enough to enter as a junior.” God, she sounded like a pretentious bitch.

“Well, we definitely need a shrink in our neck of the woods. So, you snuck out in the dead of night and have been hiding in plain sight ever since? Girl, you realize you’re sitting in the middle of Mafia territory in Chicago, right?” another voice asked. His deep baritone rumbled so deep she shivered.

“Tori, meet King. He’s the president of the Royal MC. I was wondering the same thing, to be honest. Why did you choose Chicago, and how did you skip out without getting caught?” Jeter settled her onto the countertop but didn’t release her completely.

“I’d planned it out weeks in advance the night I left. As you said, I’m not stupid. I had money from birthdays and several Christmases that I’d been saving up, thinking I would need it when I went to school. I guess old Gino forgot I had that stash, thank god. Anyway, I had over sixty thousand dollars, plus my mom’s jewelry and my own, that I knew would be worth some cash. I packed some of the stuff I wanted to take each day, and nobody checked me when I left for school. So off I’d go to school, except I detoured to the bus station where I had rented a storage box. There, I stuffed it with my things. I also found my old identification with my name before Gino adopted me in mymom’s keepsake box. That made it easier when I turned eighteen to request a name change and bam, everything was legal. Gino was looking for me, not me, with my original last name. I then swapped to my mother’s maiden name to add another layer to my hidden identity. He thought I was dumber than a box of rocks. Honestly, I don’t think he ever looked at my report cards. It wouldn’t have occurred to him I’d have the wherewithal to know how to do anything other than be a wife or prostitute. His words, by the way.”

Jeter’s hands balled into fists next to her hips. His eyes flashed an angry green at her words. Softening her voice, she raised her hand, tracing his brow line. “Don’t be angry.”

“I’m so beyond anger, baby. If that bastard were here, I swear I’d rip his head off with my bare hands.” He closed his eyes and nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck.

“Well, there’s that mystery solved. I kept having Vittoria and Tori coming up as one and the same. I was hoping she’d come clean with you. I didn’t want to do a deeper dive that would trigger any alarms in place for someone searching for her. However, I think your cover got blown, though. Whoever was aiming for you last night was definitely shooting at you, not our boy, Jeter.”

A keyboard clicking was the only sound for several moments. While his words sunk in, he watched her as she tried to think how anyone would’ve found her. Last night, she was the only one working. Since then, he’d found out that she worked at the bar for the past four years but had only been a bartender for the last two years. He didn’t think she took care of private parties like Rizzo and his gang arranged at Hoolihan’s.

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