ARIA
Luca was tense when he returned late one night six months after Marcella’s birth. I watched as he undressed, his movements jerky, eyes worried.
“Luca?” I asked quietly, but he shook his head and lay down beside me completely naked. His need reflected clearly in his eyes. I climbed on top of him, my lips finding his as his hands roamed my back then dipped between my legs.
I quivered on top of him, but I wanted to feel him in me. I scooted down and lowered myself on his erection. My hands against his chest, I began moving my hips as I looked into his eyes. I knew Luca had a lot to deal with at the moment, but he tried to keep the problems away from Marcella and me. This often felt like the only way I could give him comfort.
Later, when I lay in his arms, he returned to being tense. “Luca, please tell me what’s bothering you.”
“My aunt Flavia contacted me.”
I frowned. I didn’t remember that name. “Flavia?”
“She was my father’s youngest sister, but she ran off with a Camorrista when I was a small boy.”
My eyebrows rose. He’d never mentioned her, but given her betrayal I wasn’t surprised.
“She lives in Las Vegas, and recently her husband was executed by Falcone because he betrayed the Camorra.”
“And now she wants to come back to New York?”
Luca shook his head. “No. Benedetto Falcone is using her to contact me and convince me to work with him.”
I raised my head. “Work with the Camorra. Didn’t you say Falcone was completely unpredictable and sadistic?”
“He’s probably the only one who makes my father look like a halfway decent human being,” Luca muttered. “And I won’t work with the Camorra. Not as long as it’s under Benedetto Falcone’s rule. But I don’t want him to work with the Outfit.”
“Do you think that’s a possibility?”
“I doubt Dante will see Falcone as a trustworthy ally.”
“So you will refuse him? What will happen to your aunt?”
Luca grimaced, and I could tell he hadn’t told me everything. “She and her daughters will probably be punished.”
I searched his face. “The Camorra doesn’t spare women in any way.”
“They don’t,” Luca said. “Falcone will probably have the girls raped. It’s an effective punishment against women.”
I stiffened, couldn’t help it.
Luca stroked my cheek. “I’m stating facts, love. There is a reason why it’s been a strategy in warfare in the past.”
“How old are the girls, your cousins?”
“Nineteen.” Pause. “And fifteen.”
I jerked out of his grip and slipped out from under the covers and sat on the edge of the bed, my heart pounding in my chest. Fifteen. That’s how old I had been when my father had agreed to my engagement with Luca. I had been a girl, and Luca’s cousin was a child too. I swallowed. Someone’s child. The idea that something like that could happen to Marcella, it turned my stomach to ice.
Luca sat up and kissed my shoulder before turning my face around to him. His gray eyes searched mine. “Aria, I can’t work with Falcone. I don’t want anything to do with him. He isn’t sane, not even by our standards.”
“Can you promise me that Marcella won’t ever have to fear something like that?” I couldn’t even say the word. Tears burned my eyes.
Luca gripped my arms and pulled me into his lap, his eyes fierce and dark with emotion. “Neither you nor Marcella will ever be hurt, Aria. Never. I will do anything to make sure our territory is a safe place. As long as I am Capo, you are protected, and I don’t care if I have to go there and kill him myself, but right now they are weak.”
I nodded. “If there’s a chance of helping your aunt and cousins without working with Falcone, will you do it?”
Luca considered that. “Maybe. They are women. But that also poses a problem. I don’t like to torture women, so I have no way to question them for their motives.”
LUCA
This was a meeting I wasn’t looking forward to, but Aria wanted me to help my aunt and her daughters, so I had agreed to meet them. At least, that was part of the reason. The other was that the Enforcer of the Camorra had contacted me and offered to kill Falcone and many high-ranking Camorrista in return for taking in the women. Apparently, he’d been given my older cousin Cara as a reward by Falcone, and now he wanted her safe. I didn’t trust the guy, but he had held his promise and killed Benedetto Falcone and was currently killing more men. Maybe soon the Camorra wouldn’t be one of my worries anymore. Remo Falcone was still in hiding with his brothers.
I’d chosen the parking lot in front of the Yonkers power plant for the meeting again. Matteo glanced my way. “I still have a bad feeling about this.”
I nodded grimly when finally a car headed our way.
Matteo, Romero and I were in this car, and Orfeo, as well as two of my cousins were in the car behind us.
The car parked about three car lengths from us. I could see a man behind the steering wheel as well as three women in the car with him.
“What the fuck are they waiting for?” Matteo muttered.
One of the car doors opened and a young woman with long dark hair got out. She raised her arms and moved away from the car. A moment later an older woman and a girl got out and held up their hands as well.
“That must be our dear aunt and cousins,” Matteo said quietly. “But the fucker behind the wheel seems intent on pissing us off. I’m not sure if he thought that through.”
“Oh, he will get out of that car, don’t worry,” I said, then shoved open the car door and got out, drawing my gun.
The older girl, Cara, looked at me as if I’d risen from Hell, and her younger sister was cowering beside her mother.
Matteo and Romero stepped up to my side.
“Let’s go to them,” I ordered.
“You think they are trustworthy?” Matteo asked doubtfully.
“No,” I muttered. “But they aren’t a danger to us.” Turning to Romero, I added. “You stay back and have our backs.” He gave a nod, his eyes directed at the car. Then I gave a sign to my other men in the other car.
Matteo and I moved closer to the three women, but we stopped a good distance away.
“Your driver needs to get out,” I ordered, nodding toward the cowardly fucker still hiding in the car. What kind of man let women and girls get out into the firing line while he stayed back?
My cousin Cara turned around to the coward and waved at him. He didn’t move.
“If he doesn’t get out soon, I’ll get him out myself and he won’t like that,” Matteo muttered.
Finally, the man got out with his hands raised above his head and Orfeo was on him at once, twisting his arms behind his back. The pussy actually cried out from pain. If Orfeo’s handling already got that reaction from him, he wouldn’t like the conversation I and Matteo would have with him later. Orfeo silenced him with a hard hit against the back of the head and dragged the coward away.
The younger girl started crying and Cara took her hand, but that only made the girl cry harder.
Cara straightened her shoulders and looked at me. “I’m Cara. I’m your cousin.”
“We know exactly who you are,” Matteo said sharply.
I motioned for them to come closer. After a moment of hesitation, Cara went first then her mother and sister followed. “Wait,” I told them as we stopped in front of the car. “We will check you for weapons.”
Matteo went over to our aunt, and I turned to the younger girl and reached for her but she flinched away, her eyes wide and terror-filled. “Talia,” her sister crooned. “He won’t hurt you.”
“I will feel your legs and back for weapons. If you prefer not to have my hands on your front, you can lift your shirt, but I need to make sure you aren’t bringing weapons,” I told her firmly.
I touched her shoulders and could feel her shaking under my touch. Matteo sent me a look. I quickly felt her back then moved on to her calves and thighs. I decided against feeling her upper thighs. “Do you prefer to lift your shirt?”
I was a heartless bastard, but even I didn’t like forcing a girl who had obviously been through a lot of shit to lift her shirt, Still, I had to make sure this wasn’t a trap, and even innocent girls could be manipulated into becoming weapons. With shaking fingers, she lifted her T-shirt, revealing bare skin and a plain black bra but no weapons. I nodded and she quickly moved it back down. “You can get into the car. You, Cara, will sit in the front with me, and Matteo will sit with your mother and sister in the back.”
We would be taking them into the Sphere for now while Orfeo pressed information out of the man.
Of course, Aria insisted that we take them in for a few days until we found a safe place for them to live. I didn’t mention that the main reason for helping them was because I needed Growl, the former Enforcer of the Camorra at my side, in case it came to war with the Camorra one day.
I thought I’d run into protest from my aunts Egidia and Criminella, but they were surprisingly glad to have their sister back. Since I’d disposed of my scheming uncle things had definitely gone smoother.
While Talia and Cara lived in the mansion, Marcella stayed in New York and the few times Aria visited my cousins while they stayed in the Hamptons, she left our daughter with Romero and Lily. Hiding Marcella’s existence was crucial. I had seen how Dante had used Aria against me. I didn’t want to consider what my enemies would do if they knew about Marcella.
When I saw Growl for the first time, my instincts told me to kill him despite our deal. He had been the Enforcer of the Camorra for many years. He was Benedetto Falcone’s son, Remo’s half-brother, all things that spoke against him. He was bound to be as twisted as them but I was a man of honor and had given him my word. He had upheld his part, had weakened the Camorra. He would have to prove himself over the next few months.
In April, three months after Growl’s arrival, Matteo and I sat in the living area of the penthouse, discussing the newest developments in Las Vegas.
“They will spend years fighting over power. The Camorra is in shambles, if and when Remo Falcone ever reaches for power, if he ever becomes Capo, he’ll be ruling over ruins,” he said.
I hoped he was right. I had done everything in my power to weaken the Camorra, but I still remembered our encounter with Remo Falcone and the look in his eyes. He would seize power eventually.
My phone vibrated in my pants and I pulled it out and picked up. “Orazio?”
His reports had become less frequent. Dante kept a short leash on all of his soldiers.
“Has Fabiano Scuderi showed up in New York?”
I sat up. “Fabiano? Why? What happened?”
Matteo raised his eyebrows.
“Rocco Scuderi said his son defected, ran off, and there’s no trace of him. Dante is looking for him.”
Dante would kill him for defecting. “He hasn’t showed up.”
“He’s been gone for two weeks now.”
“Are you sure he ran and Scuderi didn’t dispose of him? After all, he got a new heir with his child-bride.”
Orazio was silent. “I don’t know. Scuderi is an asshole. Dante should have removed him a long time ago but as long as Fiore Cavallaro lives, Dante won’t do it. He respects his father too much and wouldn’t dispose of the Consigliere he chose.”
Disapproval was clear in his voice. Orazio didn’t like how things were handled in the Outfit, but that wasn’t why he worked with us. That was something personal, something to do with his father.
“Dante suspects there’s a mole in the Outfit.”
“When we interfered in his gun delivery to the fucking MC in Pittsburgh, he probably got suspicious.” Dante was using guerilla tactics to weaken me, supporting MCs in my territory so they messed with my business.
“Maybe. I’m not sure how much longer I will be safe.”
I’d feared his spy work would eventually come to an end. “Come to New York. I will induct you officially and when my soldiers have worked with you for a bit, you’ll become Underboss in Boston.”
Stunned silence. “You will make me Underboss.”
“Yes,” I said. The Underboss of Boston was about to retire and had only daughters, and it would piss off Dante to no end if I made his brother-in-law my Underboss. We discussed a few more details of his induction to the Famiglia before I hung up and sighed. “Fabiano disappeared.”
Matteo grimaced. “That boy was loyal. I doubt he defected from the Outfit.”
“Agreed.” That left only one conclusion. Scuderi had gotten rid of him. “Fuck.”
“We can’t tell our wives. They will lose their minds.”
“They won’t find out. They have no way of contacting their brother and no way to find out what happens in Chicago.”
Aria and I had agreed not to keep secrets from each other anymore, but it was a promise I couldn’t keep. Aria would blame herself if she found out her brother was dead. She’d be broken and never forgive herself. It was a secret I had to keep to protect her.
Matteo and I fell silent when Aria came down the stairs with Marcella on her arms, Gianna a few steps behind her. Marcella was wiggling wildly, thick black hair all over the place.
Aria laughed and put Marcella down on the ground. Eager blue eyes zeroed in on me and Marcella crawled toward me, her diaper-clad bum bobbing up and down. I bent forward and held out my palms. She crawled faster, making high-pitched giggling noises. The second she reached me I grabbed her and rose to my feet, propelling her up over my head like a rocket. She screeched happily and I swung her around toward Matteo’s outstretched arms, who threw her into the air and caught her again.
Aria laughed, a happy, relaxed sound. I couldn’t tell her about Fabiano. We had our own family now. Matteo blew a raspberry against Marcella’s belly and her giggling became even wilder. I’d have never thought that I could love anyone’s laughter as much as Aria’s, but Marcella’s brought me the same sense of fulfillment. I took Marcella again and held her up against my chest. Her small hand pressed against my mouth, and she grinned a huge, toothless smile as I kissed her palm.
Most of my life I’d thought there was no better sound than the screams of agony from my enemies. What a fucking fool I’d been.
