Page 4 of The Vatican
Luca Saveria Fiore was so fucking beautiful, people automatically labeled her as stupid, vain, or vapid, but she was none of those things. Ria was intelligent, cunning, ambitious, and hard-working. She was tough as shit, and I was the only other person besides our fathers, Uncle Sal, and Uncle Leo who knew that she’s killed a man before.
We were only twenty-one at the time, but a guy had raped one of her college friends. And I don’t mean raped her, I mean he fucking annihilated the poor girl. He had been asking her out for months, but she kept turning him down because she had a boyfriend. One night, she had been walking home from the library, and he attacked her. Brutalized her so badly, she was hospitalized with physical, emotional, and mental damage for over a month. And, thank God, her boyfriend had turned out to be a decent human being. He had stuck with her through it all and was still with her to this day.
Saveria had been so enraged, she had begged my dad not to let the guy get arrested. Since my dad wouldn’t ever deny her anything, he had called all the adults together and explained the situation. Aunt Frankie had been the one to make the call. Aunt Frankie had no illusions about who we were or what this family was about. She let Saveria make her own decisions about her life, and Saveria had made them. However, only the men knew the lengths Saveria had gone to that night.
The next night, Dad, Uncle Phoenix, Uncle Ciro, Uncle Sal, and Uncle Leo had waited at Uncle Ciro’s funhouse while I had driven Ria over. I had walked her in, escorted her to the body of Trent Hendricks hanging from the suspension chains, and stood back with the adults outside the splash zone and watched her go to work.
I had never seen anything so magnificent in all my life as Luca Saveria Fiore unleashing her rage on that piece of shit excuse for a human being, Todd Hendricks. Ria had torn the man apart and his screams had done nothing to soften her. Most people claim to be tough but hearing someone plead for their life often weakens a person. Their humanity is often touched by the act of real human suffering, so they relent.
Not Ria.
Not that night
When she had finished with him, she had turned towards all us men, still vibrating with adrenaline, and had asked, “Where can I clean up?” Her voice had been clear and steady; not an ounce of hysteria or remorse in that raspy tone of hers. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting, but it hadn’t been the incredible self-control she had been exercising. By then, I had already killed my fair share of trash, so I had been desensitized at that point. This had been Ria’s first kill, and she had done it in the most magnificent fashion I’d ever seen. Every man in the room had been proud as fuck.
I had also been the one who had led her to the showers because every man in that room had known the one thing that Saveria hadn’t; Luca Saveria Fiore was mine. She didn’t know it, but she’d always been mine. I had agreed with the adults to give her and me some room to grow before it became official, but that hadn’t made Ria any less mine.
And the memory of that night had burned in the back of my mind for more reasons than having watched Ria kill a man.
When I had led her to the showers, Ria had stood there, a bloody fucking mess, as I turned on the showers and got everything ready for her. It wasn’t until she made no move to undress, and I looked into her eyes, that I realized she was still bloodthirsty.
With an intensity I never knew I could feel, I had torn off her clothes and mine, and I had ripped through her virginity underneath the water and against the tiled wall.
I had fucked everything I had into her as blood washed down the drains and our fathers and uncles had waited outside for us.
I had fucked Ria until my back had been shredded by her nails and my mark had left a scar on her neck, the blood washing down the drain was now our blood combined.
I had fucked her until she came all over me, marking me for fucking life, and her body had collapsed against mine, my name whispered over, and over again.
It was the first and only time I’ve ever been inside a girl without a condom and a part of me had wished she had gotten pregnant, so we could put this entire farce behind us, but she hadn’t.
Done, dressed, and over, we never spoke of that night since.
Chapter 3
Saveria~
Feeling special can become addicting. Especially when you’re feeling anything but. As a woman, I was prone to mood swings, and sometimes it was just simply as not feeling pretty on a random Tuesday to put me in a funk. Not that I was vain, but all girls deserved to believe they were pretty.
All girls.
And, while I knew my parents loved me, being the apple of Uncle Luca’s eye was an entirely different thing. Mom was awesome at what she did, and she never favored any of her children. Dad, however, treated us according to gender, and I got kid gloves lots of times when we were younger when Vincent and Dante hadn’t. Mom had worried that I would end up spoiled, but I hadn’t. Where Dad treated me like his only daughter, Uncle Luca and Uncle Ciro had treated me like one of the boys. It had ended up evening out.
It was also hard to argue with obvious perks I had that none of the other kids had. Well, except for Francisco Benetti. Other than him, Benetti Junior, I was the only kid who had direct scanned access to Uncle Luca’s penthouse. The only thing none of us had been privy to was the secret pathway that connected Mom and Dad’s apartment to Uncle Ciro’s and Aunt Robbie’s. There was also a secret staircase that connected Uncle Luca’s penthouse to the apartments that we didn’t have access to either. Well, as far as I knew, none of us did, but Francisco might have access to them.
I used this privilege to visit Uncle Luca today. Since I had seen Aunt Remy at my mom’s earlier, I knew it was safe to surprise Uncle Luca. It’s sad and traumatizing to say, but we’ve all walked in on our parents in rather…delicate situations, and that’s not anything anyone wants to experience if they don’t have to. It’s not a joke to say we all have a running text thread that asks where our parents are if one of us needs to drop by.
The elevator dinged and I gave Uncle Luca’s guard a wink. He grinned and winked back. Most of the guards weren’t familiar like that, but the seriousness could suffocate you if you weren’t careful.
As soon as I cleared the foyer and entered the living room, I yelled for my uncle. “Uncle Luca!” I headed towards his office and yelled again. “Uncle Luca!” When I didn’t find him in his office, I shot him a text. Ten seconds later, I received a reply.
U.L.:Gym
I headed towards the gym and smiled as my fifty-four-year-old uncle was going at a punching bag like he was still in his twenties.
“Hey,” I called out.
Uncle Luca stopped his assault and cut off the surround sound. “Hey,” he returned. “What a pleasant surprise.”
