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13
CATERINA
If I can just pretendthat this is a vacation in Italy, I feel a lot better.
It’s just a vacation.
The weather is gorgeous, even this late in January. The Italian sun beams down on us, and combined with the heated pool, it’s a great temperature out.
Elio’s estate is gorgeous. Tan travertine tile covers an expansive outdoor area that overlooks fields of grapes and wheat in the rolling hills beyond.
The house stands behind us, a silent sentinel as we relax out next to the aquamarine pool. There’s a couple of lounge chairs, wicker, like an old-fashioned resort, and I’ve parked our stuff here every day for the last few days.
Occasionally, Francesca pops out to bring us some snacks or drinks, or just laugh as Luna splashes around.
Yeah, I can do this. I can pretend. Just Luna and I lounging by the pool. Just me helping Luna remember her swim lessons, sothat next summer, she can indeed swim without the little water wings that I anxiously put on her every time.
Just me, Luna, and…
Well.
My sister-in-law.
“You know, any one of the guys would love to play with her in the pool,” Gia says as she stretches out on the sun lounger next to me.
I eye her muscular body with just a hint of envy. Despite being five years older than me, Gia is in incredible shape. She looks like she can bench press a small truck, but in her tiny Chanel one-piece, she also manages to look elegant and sexy.
I’m petite naturally, but I haven’t worked out in years, so where Gia is covered in dense muscle, I’m more… soft. I have big boobs and a thick ass for my size, and neither one of those things survived having a child without growing slightly more.
I snort at her comment. “Yeah, sure. Have you run background checks on any of them? The average child molester will have one hundred and seventeen victims in their lives, you know.”
“Well yeah, actually. The ones who are here for you and Luna I did background checks in the US and in Italy. Not that the Italian background check process is good,” she mutters.
“Fuckers can get themselves a whole new identity for ten bucks and a bottle of wine.”
I blink at her from behind my sunglasses. “Gia. Did you really?”
Gia straightens up on her elbows and pulls down her own oversized shades. “Duh. You think I’d let any of these meatheads within ten feet of my niece and sister-in-law?”
I open my mouth then close it again.
I don’t know how to answer that.
“Besides, I had already decided to change the policy on hiring them anyway. I’m not about to have soldiers who can’t be trusted around kids. This is a family business, you know?”
Her smile is infectious. I can’t help but return it. “Gia, you do know that you’re part of a mafia family, right?”
“As I said…” She smirked, settling her sunglasses back on her face and relaxing into the chair. “A family business.”
I laugh. “You… you’re pretty funny.”
“Oh, thank you Kitty-Cat! I do try for comedic relief around here. Elio certainly isn’t going to do it.”
That makes me pause.
I eye Gia, wondering how much I can trust her. I’m dying to ask more about Elio, and her, and their family. I’m curious about them. How did they end up like this, with Gia the jokester, and Elio the…
Well.
