Page 105 of Little Dove

“I will fucking kill you all,” Giovanni screams furiously through the phone. “I will kill every single one of you and all those whores in your beds. You have no idea what you’ve done.”

“I believe it is you that does not realize what you have done, DeLuca,” Pietro tells him darkly, sounding every inch the Don that he is.

In return, Giovanni roars, “Your men killed my sons! You think I will allow you to live, Caruso? Your empire will crumble before your eyes. You have no idea what I have at my disposal to ensure it happens.”

Pietro gives a humorless laugh. “You mean your association with the Russians? Or perhaps you think that you will be able to ask your ex-wife’s family for assistance this time. Or enemies of theirs, perhaps? It’s no matter, because this does not end with you winning, Giovanni. This will end with you lying in the gutter, where your father should have left you as a child. You and your final son. Your line will be wiped clean.”

“My line will never die,” Giovanni spits. “You will never kill me, but if you did, I have daughters that will carry it on.”

“I will carry nothing of yours,” Amara suddenly snarls. All heads whip toward her, and I feel both pride and fear at her outburst. She has just put herself in the line of fire, and I didn’t want Giovanni to ever hear her voice.

“Your children will,” Giovanni tosses back righteously.

“My children will carry my blood, untainted by a life under your thumb, and the blood of men far greater than you could ever hope to be,” Amara snaps back. “They will be loved for who they are, not for their gender. I will teach them everything you never could to your own children. Because I might carry your blood in my veins, but you are not my father. You never will be.”

The fury coming through the line is almost palpable. “The minute I have you with me, daughter, you will regret those words,” he vows. “What you experienced as a child will be nothing compared to what I’ll have my men do to you.”

Amara jerks at his statement, and fury washes over me. I open my mouth to blast him, but then Amara starts to laugh. I look at her sharply. There is no humor there. No, she is a vision of righteous determination. Pride swells in my chest, hot and bright. “You think that’s a threat, you cocksucker?” she taunts.“You really think that would hurt me? You know nothing. You have no idea what I survived, and I’ll survive anything else you try to throw at me. Know this - when you die, I won’t mourn you. In fact, I won’t feel anything for you at all. I’ll be living my life, and never give you a second thought. You have no power over me. You should start preparing yourself for the inevitable. The devil surely has a lovely place for you in the furthest pits of hell. And when I eventually meet my sister, we’ll drink a toast that you’re out of our lives forever, and we never have to think of you again. You and our brothers. Tell me, where did you bury them? Perhaps I’ll pay them a visit to spit on their graves.”

“I will enjoy killing you.” Giovanni seethes. “Soon. Very soon, Amara. All of you better be ready, because you’ll be dead before the week is through.” Then the phone line goes dead.

There’s silence for a moment before Amara asks, “Does he always talk like he’s in a low budget mob movie? Or is that reserved for me?”

I snort, while Massimo and Zeno both burst out laughing. Papa and Pietro grin at her. “They’ve always been dramatic,” Dante tells her, his lips quirked into a smirk. “You’re just finally getting to hear it for yourself.” Sofia smiles and nods her agreement.

The phone starts to ring again, but this time, it’s Leonardo’s name on the screen. “Well, look at that,” Massimo jokes. “We’re sure popular with the DeLucas.”

Pietro picks up this time, putting it on speaker. “DeLuca,” he says simply. “Have you called to finally apologize for the slight that your family has dealt to mine?”

Leonardo is silent on the other end before he finally answers, “I have nothing to apologize to your family for, Caruso. My son worked on his own, however, you seem to think that breaking into my home and stealing from me is the way to solve our dispute.” His tone turns hard. “You have made a grave error.Though I should have expected that eventually the whore’s secrets would come to light.”

“Ah, yes, you mean Nico’s mother,” Pietro answers. “Was it wise to fuck a rival Don’s wife? Those things are always revealed eventually.”

“She made me a lot of money,” Leonardo replies carelessly. “Right under that idiot’s nose. He had no idea. Nico killing her certainly put a damper on things, cutting out the routes we needed. It cost us billions to change our routes. And he thinks to take my daughter and harbor the other one? I’m sure you can understand my…frustration at the entire situation.”

“That is one way to put it,” Pietro agrees mildly. “Now, would you like to tell me the purpose of this call? We have things to see to.”

“Like reading my whore wife’s diary?” Leonardo chuckles drily. “Have my daughters read it, would you? Especially Gia. It’s time she finally realizes exactly how worthless she is. Her own mother despised her.”

“How can you find this funny?” Amara suddenly demands. Damn it. I don’t want her on Leonardo’s radar either.

“Ah, this must be my newest niece,” Leonardo says after a brief pause. Then his voice turns hard. “She killed my son. Did you expect me to welcome her with open arms, Ms. Stanley? She was worthless then, and her mother knew it. The only reason she is still alive is that her mother reminded me that she could be useful in marriage. I regret not killing her the moment she was born. Just like I regret not slicing my wife’s throat for her failure. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, as they say.”

“You and your family are monsters,” Amara tells him coldly. “And I won’t mourn a single one of you when you’re dead.”

“Maybe not, but you certainly might mourn the loss of another cousin, won’t you?” he says back.

We all freeze in place. All but Pietro, who says, “Are you trying to make a point, DeLuca? Perhaps you can get to it.”

Dante’s cellphone chimes, and he pulls it out as Leonardo says, “Say goodbye to your cousin, Ms. Stanley. And tell my whore daughters that I’ll deal with them soon.” Then the line goes dead.

Dante turns his phone to show an image of a woman bound to a chair, mouth taped shut, blood dripping down her face from swollen eyes and a busted nose. She’s only wearing a short sundress, and her hazel eyes are terrified. She’s the spitting image of Gia and Sienna.

“Motherfucker, he got to her first,” Massimo hisses, infuriated. “We need to get her back before he kills her or ships her off and we can’t find her again.”

Pietro concurs. “Aurelio, find where Leonardo is hiding. Once you do, Massimo, you take a team to get her back. The rest of us, we need to prepare for a war that’s about to hit us hard. It’s time we finished this. We’ll find Amara’s sister as well, but I want these fuckers dead and gone.” He looks at me. “Go and get yourself cleaned up and we’ll regroup as soon as Nico and Alessio come back. They’ll be out for blood for making Gia and Sienna so upset.”

“I need to make some phone calls,” Rori suddenly says with determination.

---