Page 91 of Owned By the Italian Mafia Don

“I’m not done telling it yet.” He lifts my chin. “Don’t cry for me, Tesoro. You’re borrowing sorrow that is no longer there.” He brushes my tears away and the side of his lips curl to the left. “This is where it gets happy. Carmine always tried to take care of us. He was more of a father than our father was, but he had things to do too. He couldn’t watch us all the time, but he tried. He didn’t have much of a life either. When we were down in that basement, I was convinced we would die down there, and our dad would have forgotten us. I felt—we felt—alone. I don’t know why I didn’t think Carmine would go through hell to get to us, probably because I didn’t think he truly cared that much. I was convinced he only had an obligation to us, but while the music was in full swing, loud, vibrating the walls, so loud that the noise of the window being broken into to get into the basement couldn’t be heard.”

He smiles, a big one, but still, his eyes are sad. “It was Carmine. I hadn’t seen him in a few days. I thought he had finally left, but no. Dad had locked him away too, only Carmine got the hell beat out of him. He had black eyes, a busted lip, and marks all over his body. He looked horrible, but when he climbed down from the window, he landed on the table and reached back out the window, his arms full. I’ll never forget what he said. Something so simple. ‘How are my two favorite people in the world doing?’ he asked us.”

Ari shakes his head. “I didn’t think I was anyone’s favorite person, but Carmine sat with us on the floor, and he had these cheap fucking party hats that he put on us, then took out a small cake, then added eight candles. He sang us happy birthday and then we played Scrabble. A game he brought with him. Things changed for me at that moment. When I blew out my candles, I remembered wishing my father would die so Carmine could take over. Eventually, it happened, but that night while it sucked, the fact that Carmine did all that to celebrate our birthday, it’s honestly the memory that means so much to me. It isn’t rainbows and butterflies, but it was everything else in between.”

I hug him tight, hating that I ever caused him pain by adding to his wounds. He’s been through enough of it.

“Your brother sounds like a good man,” I say. “I’m glad you had him.”

“He is a good man. I mean, he’ll roll it off his shoulders and say it wasn’t a big deal, but it was. He knows that. Enough about me, what about you, tell me about a good memory from your childhood.”

“I can’t remember one.” I shrug my shoulder. “I’ve been working for my family for as long as I can remember. I know there was a time when my parents were happier and weren’t miserable, but I hardly remember them. They are more like flashes? Like I remember my dad smiling when I handed him something I drew or my mom cheering for something I did, but I can’t remember that either. It’s like all those memories went away when the store started to fail, and I had to work. It was about survival at that point. My parents weren’t ever abusive, but they were neglectful. I think I shut down when I was younger. To block it all out. It was about taking care of my brother at that point. We only had each other but you know, he got to the age when he was too cool for his family, which is fine, I remember that age too, and it was just me for a little bit. My brother and I are very close now and I know he tries to help me when he can. It’s why he took the gem. He meant well.”

“I promise, I’ll bring him home to us for you. Do you believe me?”

“I believe you.”

I’ve never believed in anyone more than him.

Not even myself.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ari

It’s been forty-eight hours since the threat of Bianchi. We’ve been planning, preparing by gaining more weapons, but mostly we have been trying to find intel as to why this gem is so important. I want to know why my wife’s life is in danger because of it. Bianchi should be financially set. This diamond should mean nothing to him but since it does, it has me too curious. The more I know about this diamond and Bianchi, the better chance I have of protecting Rosie.

We’ve grown so close over the last two days and I’m starting to feel like this is more than a contract or more than an agreement.

It’s bigger.

I kiss her cheek and she grins, flipping a page in her book.

“What was that for?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to do that,” I say, kissing her cheek again.

“You two make me sick.” Matias enters the room with Gianni.

Gianni laughs but then sees me narrow my gaze at him and he covers it with a cough.

Smart man.

He also has his laptop tucked under his arm. “I have information you’re going to want to know about Bianchi.”

I open the fridge and grab a sweet tea, handing one to Rosie. Twisting the cap off, I hand Rosie’s to her first. When I sit down next to her, I place my hand on her lower back to ease the tension. The moment Gianni said he had information.

“What is it? Don’t leave anything out.”

Gianni nods, opening the laptop then punching in his password so fast, I couldn’t tell anyone what it is.

“Okay, so this will be a lot. We did a deep dive and had to sweet talk a few officers down at the department.” He rubs his eyes and yawns. The dark circle under his eyes proves he hasn’t slept. He’s been working tirelessly to find out more information. “I was able to get access to Bianchi’s phone records. Don’t ask how.” He presses another button and a few pictures come up with text. “This man right here—” he points to a bald man with a skull tattoo covering his entire head “—His name is Zander Rostova. He’s a Russian black-market gem dealer. From what I understand, this diamond has been in the Bianchi family for generations. Other than that, I haven’t been able to get more information from the internet, but we may or may not captured one of Bianchi’s men and he might be downstairs tied to a chair.”

“And have you gotten anything out of him?” I ask.

“No. He won’t talk.”

A sardonic noise is all that’s heard, and I realize it’s coming from me. I stand, unbuttoning my sleeves to roll them to my elbows.

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