Page 74 of Forbidden Property
“Thank you for your services tonight, Geralynn,” Franco says, grinning at me with the smugness of a man who knows he won. My life is inconsequential to him, so I feel lucky that he hasn’t put me in the ground. “You have changed the history of this city forever.”
Nicki looks at him nervously. She doesn’t like this, even if she agreed to it, but I can tell she doesn’t see another way out. She fought this marriage, but if Franco has his way, she’ll soon havehis baby. A forced marriage. A forced baby. A forced allegiance between the Taviani family and the… Corsini family?
I shudder at the idea that she might be married to her first cousin, even if I don’t understand the connection completely. Poor Nicki.
“Franco. I don’t know who you are. Angela knows you, but I don’t,” she says, her voice numb, like she’s going through the motions of trying to find control here, knowing that she has absolutely none. “I’m agreeing to go with you willingly, but please… Leave my friend alone.”
Nicki seems scared. I’ve never seen my best friend scared, not even when she went toe to toe with her brother Renzo. And considering everything she’s put me through, it feels fucked up to still call her my best friend. In a way, she’ll always be my best friend – just only at this point in time, this part of my life which will soon become a part of my past.
Franco grins with smug satisfaction. His thumb brushes Nicki’s lower lip and she doesn’t bother hiding the shudder of fear that travels straight down her spine. He doesn’t bother hiding how much he likes it.
“I will obey your wishes, my precious wife.”
He kisses the top of Nicki’s forehead. I swear I hear the gentlest lilt of an Italian accent on his voice. She looks over at me one last time. I reach for Nicki’s hand and squeeze it. We’re getting away with this. We both have the dark instinct that if these men knew that I am the mother of Renzo Taviani’s child, my night would have gone very differently.
I’m forcing myself to act normal when nothing here feels fucking normal. As I let go of Nicki’s hand, a sharp stabbing sensation forms in my chest.
Her eyes well with tears. I don’t know if we’re ever going to see each other again, or if she’s ever going to see her cousin or sisters. I just have to accept this – my one way out.
Nicki never regains her color. Franco sends me off with a random man who I can’t identify. I don’t look at him too closely in case he changes his mind once we’re out of Franco’s view and decides that I know too much and he’s going to kill me instead of dropping me off at Devil’s Hole.
“Make sure you get her there safely,” Franco says to his henchman. “No funny business. We don’t want some thug shooting up our block to protect her.”
I quietly bite my tongue and ignore the irony of racial stereotyping saving my life right now. Some “thug” clearly implies a black man judging by Franco’s tone. Not like this is the first piece of evidence I have that he’s a disgusting creep.
“Don’t worry boss. I won’t push her over the falls or anything like that.”
“Get back in time for the after party,” Franco tells him. “We’re shutting this city down for the whole weekend to celebrate.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Renzo
Devil’s Hole, Niagara Falls
Geralynn’s voice crackles on the end of the line. The mysterious 716 area code calling my phone at this ungodly hour apparently comes from the state park office at Devil’s Hole.
“What the hell are you doing over there?”
“Please… come get me…” her voice sounds strained and tired over the phone. I fight the urge to ask her to spill everything. Clearly, there are witnesses and I don’t know what Geralynn has gone through tonight.She’s alive.I fought Luigi’s command to head back to Buffalo even if he promised me we could return after regrouping with Flora Corsini.
It turns out we’re at least heading in the same direction as Geralynn’s current location. I maintain a death grip around my cell phone and listen to her quiet, slow breathing on the other end of the line.
“I’ll be there. Don’t talk to anyone.”
“Hurry,” she says. “Please.”
I have more questions than answers. Who took her? Where the hell is my sister? Our leads took us towards Pittsburgh, butthe only person we found when we got down there was Flora. She ran away and got a message to Peter when we were about thirty minutes away from downtown Pittsburgh.
Luigi got a concerning message from Lewis, claiming that he ended things with Angela and they were still in touch but she suddenly dropped off the face of the earth. All those small details lend themselves to some bigger conspiracy. I can’t blame Luigi for wanting us to get distance.
One of them kidnapped Flora.That’s all we know so far based on the condition we found her in. The Pittsburgh mobsters are currently involved in some type of power play and this means Geralynn’s lifeis very much at risk.She’s the mother of my child and although I might not have any direct enemies in the Pittsburgh mob… that might not be true if they have help from their Amalfi Coast cousins.
When I hang up, Gino turns to me with a face that mirrors my concern. I resent how easy it is to criticize a face that has identical features to mine and looking over at him just makes me angry instantaneously.
“Was that Geralynn?” he asks. “Where is she?”
He expresses my internal panic with so much ease that I resent my brother’s comfort with his emotions. I still feel mildly numb, followed up with a deep desire to cause harm to whoever dared lay a hand on Geralynn.
