Page 2 of Carlo
I storm towards the house. My mind is a furnace, churning and sparking with ideas. I can’t let him make me a slave again. I can’t let him sell me again. I can’t let him use Cate to keep me in line. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. But I know I have a week to figure it out. One week to save my daughter. Save myself.
* * *
“What are you doing?”
I glance up from packing my bag to see Rosa standing in the doorway of my room. Her brown eyes are wide, and her hands are clasped tightly in front of her. I can already see the disapproval written on her face.
“I’m leaving,” I say, turning back to my bag.
“Are you insane? You can’t just leave. You have a family to think about. Do you know what will happen if the Verrazanos think that your father is hiding you from them?”
I sigh and sit on my bed. “I have no choice. I can’t stay here.”
“Valeria, please, just think about what you’re doing. You can’t just run away from your problems. They’ll find you, and then what?”
I shake my head. “I can’t do it again, Rosa. I stayed last time. I did what they asked. When that bastard nearly beat me to a pulp, not one of my family raised a hand to help. I can’t trust them anymore. I need to get away.”
“But what about Caterina? You can’t just take her away from everything she knows.”
“She’s young, she’ll adapt. She can make new friends and meet new people. The hardest part will be finding another therapist for her. Paying for a new therapist. Believe me, I know all the challenges we’ll face. However, staying here is not an option. I can’t let them plan the future they have for her. They can put me in the grave. I don’t care. But I’ll never let them marry her off like they did me.”
“So why not marry the Falcone man then? If they promise protection…”
“These men only protect themselves. Rosa, you know this.”
She sighs and sits beside me. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“I don’t want to go either. But I have to. For me and Caterina.” I take her soft hand in mine and squeeze it. Rosa has been like a sister to me since her parents died in a car accident ten years ago. Losing Zia Carmen and Zio Lucca was hard on all of us. But for once, my father did the right thing. He honored his father by bringing Rosa and Antonio to live with us. Earning their lifelong loyalty. Now, I need her to turn her back on that loyalty and help me and my daughter. I hate putting her in this position, but I have zero choices, other than the two my father offered.
“Promise me you won’t forget me,” she whispers, tears shimmering in her eyes.
“How could I ever forget you? You’re my family, Rosa. You will always be my family.” I press our foreheads together. “But it might be a while before I can get in touch. A long while.” I don’t mention that it might be years… decades. How long will it take my father’s anger to subside? How can I tell her that it might be forever?
“I understand. Just… stay safe, okay.” She hugs me tight.
“I will.”
Rosa tearfully bids me another goodbye with a rib-breaking hug. Then she slips like a shadow back to her room. I lie down,wrapping myself around Cate and wait for the house to quiet. I’m so often in the security room that I know their habits. I know which one falls asleep at precisely two am every morning. I know how to slip in and turn the cameras off, hiding my movements in darkness and snores. The garage is never locked. The cars sit with keys in the ignition for anyone’s use when Don Alphonse calls for one. The tricky part will be leaving the main gate. But I’m taking the SUV with the tinted windows. No one will think twice about Leo’s car leaving in the middle of the night. My brother is always coming and going, visiting the many women he has around the city. I have my fake ID, my cash, and Caterina. A bag and a way out I had arranged during my marriage to Ben. A bag I never used. How many pain-filled nights had I laid in bed and contemplated my escape? Maybe if I had acted then, before it was too late, I would have avoided this mess. My father was right about one thing. If I made this mess, I will fix it.
Caterina turns and snuggles into my chest. Her soft curls brushing my cheeks. She mumbles something, and I strain to hear the words. Reaching for the voice I haven’t heard in a year. Not one word has passed her lips since that night. The night that changed both of our lives and ended another. But her words are as lost to the darkness as I am. I shut my eyes and try again to sleep. Try not to worry about the hell, I may be bringing down on both of us.
Chapter 2
“Pack up and come home. It’s over.” Bruno’s words flip the switch on the black night that covers me. The house Vito Silvio lives in is still silent as the dead. Doesn’t matter. I’ll wait here until I rot. The little fucker has to come home sometime. Vito is one tough, mean, son-of-a-bitch. A fact that doesn’t bother me. Under different circumstances, I would have wanted him on my team. Until he eliminated three of my top enforcers—killing any admiration I had for him in an instant. The asshole signed his own death warrant, and now I waited in the cold to execute it.
I haven’t taken my eyes off his house in four hours. Bruno’s words have my bleary eyes narrowing on my cell. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“We struck a deal with the Silvio family today.” It’s two a.m. I’m tired as fuck and I hear his words but they don’t make sense. There’s no way we can let Vito walk away from the shit he did unscathed. We’ll be targeted for every other cowardly family who will see us stepping back as stepping down. It also means that Sarge, Vince and Billy died in vain. If we don’t stand for our fallen soldiers, how the fuck do we expect them to stand for us. Standing for my guys is why I’m here myself to deliver justice. It’s why we didn’t some shit drive-by or plant an explosive. No. Vito’s death was going to be slow. I want him looking in my eyes as the blood drips out of him in slow, painful drops. I’ve done alot of fucked up things in my life. But not once, not ever, have I walked away from a fight that someone brought to my door. Hell, no.
“What kind of deal?” I grit out, disbelief lacing my words. Bruno’s my brother and my boss. I walk a fine line between brotherhood and absolute obedience and respect. He and my father give me more leeway than they would with anyone else. Still, there’s only so far I can go—so much I can push. I rarely debate their decisions—unless I have to. Forced to, for the other men, I consider as brothers.
“One that you’re not going to like, but it’s already done. The Silvios and the Falcones are going to bed together.”
“You can’t be serious. The Silvio family just pulled a shit move to take over our territory. They killed three of my top guys. Guys who had families—.” My eyes blink. I’m just tired, I tell myself. Ignoring the fact that sleepiness doesn’t put a damn lump in your throat. A fist-sized stone you can barely talk around. “They have to pay for that—someone has to.” The stone drops to my stomach, and I swallow the bile that takes its place in my mouth. Push down the guilt shouting at me. I’m the one who should pay. I’m the one they trusted. I’m the one who gave the orders to strike. Reacting like a furious bull at the insult instead of taking time to plan and strategize. Something Bruno has warned me about on more occasions than I can count. “You better have a damn good reason.” I snarl, guilt making my words slice like knives.
Bruno takes a long, slow, deliberate breath before he answers. “I do. I’ll explain everything when you return. Just get home.” His words are flat, implacable. The voice of a man who is comfortable with his decision. The voice of a boss. When he’s like this, he’s not my brother. Stubborn, bull-headed, and brutal, he tempers his carnage with the precision moves and strategiesplaying out on the chessboard of his mind. He ends the call with a single command before severing the connection. “Now.”
“Fuck.” I growl into the useless phone before calling off my troops and heading to Cynda’s. The long-legged blonde keeps her door open for me. Not that she has much choice since I pay for the fucking place. Cynda’s the only woman I know who can handle me at a time like this. When furious energy burns through me, I need to work it out violently. Slam into her fucking pussy and batter out my frustrations. She never complains when I’m rough. Instead, she backs her thighs up and meets me blow for blow. We become two champion boxers, meeting each other center ring with neither of us going down. I don’t know what fucked up shit happened to her in her life for her to need the violent rutting like I do. I just use it. Take what she gives and leave. We fuck whenever I need this kind of release, but we’ve never once made love. My mood can’t be any blacker when I let myself into the apartment. She takes one look at my dark expression and arches a brow. Her eyes light with pleasure. She’s sick—so am I.
