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TWENTY-TWO
‘I MISS YOU’ PRINCESSBRI
Lexi
After Luce left, hilariously slapping Gio on the ass, I decided I’d invite myself to Lucinda’s house for the day. She needs to have someone there with her, and while I hardly know her, I miss Maxine so much, and anyway I can to feel close to her again, I’ll do it. Plus, I am the reason she was killed. I should have done something more to protect her, but I thought by keeping Alan with me in the hotel, which was the case until the day Luce and Gio found me, I’d keep her safe from him.
I should have known he’d let someone else kill her, still using her as a pawn piece to keep me from fighting back.
I wipe my eyes as we turn down Lucinda’s street, the neighborhood kids out playing while food vendors take up the corners of the block. This whole street reminds me of the one I grew up in with my mother and siblings. The bittersweet nostalgia burning my throat even more.
“You okay, baby?” Gio asks as he slowly drives past the children playing basketball in the street.
“Yeah,” I chuckle lightly, “just thinking about Maxine. I bet her and Luce used to play out here when they were kids.”
Gio takes my hand as he steers with the other one, his thumb drawing circles over my skin.
“Well, remember how I told you Luce did three years in the penitentiary?”
I turn to him, my brows furrowed in confusion, “Yeah?”
“Well, that’s because he set fire to his childhood home with his father still inside.”
What the actual fuck?
“He was a real piece of shit. I met him a couple of times, and he was drunk both times. He wasn’t like Alan, no this guy was a raging alcoholic, drunk from sunup to sundown. According to Luce, he never hit Maxine nor his mom, but he was verbally and mentally abusive to them…what he did to him was a whole other thing though.”
My hand flies to my chest, my heart breaking at the insinuation of Gio's words.
“What do you mean, G?”
He parks outside of Lucinda’s home and looks at me, “It’s not my story to tell, baby. He’ll open up when he’s ready to, but just know that his father’s death was well deserved.”
I nod my head, my mind swirling with this new information, seeing Luce’s actions the past few weeks with new eyes. He’s got so many demons. I just want to protect him, fold him up and tuck him away so no one else can hurt him. If I could take away all his pain, I would do it in an instant.
“Looks like we’re the broken hearts club, huh?” I tell Gio jokingly. “We should get t-shirts made.”
He grins as he slides out of the car, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. As I take his offered hand, I think of Luce’s sentencing for arson and murder.
“How did Luce only get three years for premeditated murder?”
We walk through the gate lining to Lucinda’s property as he chuckles, “It’s amazing what a little blackmail on a federal judge can do.”
He doesn’t elaborate further, and I guess I don’t really need him to, seeing as he’s part of a crew run by a mafia man. All part of this crazy new life I find myself living. It’s funny how I don’t feel opposed to the lifestyle Gio and Luce live by, it just feels almost normal to me. Perhaps it’s because they’ll never harm me the way Alan did. Seven years with a man who struck paralyzing fear in me everyday really plays a part in how I view things. I know true fear, I know what its grip feels like. The cold unrelenting fingers wrap around your heart, holding you hostage until you don’t know which is better, living or dying.
Luce and Gio, for all their faults and broken pieces, don’t cripple me that way. Yes, I worry about them and what this lifestyle can do to them, especially that they’re on the rougher side of the mafia than the actual Don is, but I trust that they know what they’re doing, and they’ll do everything to come home to me. They make me feel protected, guarded, and cherished. I’ll never give up on them.
Lucinda opens the door after Gio knocks a couple of times, her smile watery as she welcomes us inside. The scent of mushrooms and rosemary hits me, and my mouth instantly waters for a home-cooked meal.
“Come, come, I made Risotto, we were just waiting for you to arrive.” She says as she hugs and kisses us. Taking my hand once I’ve discarded my jacket and pulling me toward the kitchen with Gio trailing behind us.
I feel my brows furrow as I look behind me at Gio, seeing the same confusion in his eyes.
“Who else is here, Ma?” He asks her as we enter the small kitchen.
“Long time no see, G.” Pink says from his spot at the table.
Gio reaches for his gun, but Pink already has his in his hand, the barrel pointed directly at me. Mrs. Rametta stifles a cry with her hands while I stare down the bastard who dares to show his ugly mug in the home of the woman whose daughter he helped kill. Fuck, for all we know, he probably is the one who killed her.
