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“I’m a grown woman, Papa, and I won’t stand for this ...” Valentina’s rant went on and on as her father remained silent. Valentina’s eyes filled with tears of frustration.
“Fillia, please, there are things you don’t know,” Gianni finally said in a low burst.
“Then, tell me!”
Silence again.
“Papa!” Valentina stopped just short of stamping her foot in frustration.
“There have been concerns about retaliation from our West Coast family.” Gianni sighed.
“That scumbag Abiatti family has threatened us? They are nothing.Nothing!”
“I’m simply being cautious, daughter.”
“Then find another way, Papa, because this … this …” she pleaded and stumbled over the words as she felt her freedom slipping through her fingers, “this arrangement is not acceptable.”
“To whom is it not acceptable, Valentina?” Gianni’s tone was edged with irritation.
“To me!”
“Do you hear yourself, daughter?You sound more like a willful child than a grown woman. This stubborn and ridiculously selfish display of yours should embarrass you more than any arrangement that I made ever could.” Then Gianni’s voice dropped to an exhausted and conciliatory tone. “But since this arrangement is so intolerable for you, I will give you one other option.”
“I’ll take it,” Valentina said with absolutely no hesitation.
“Agreed and settled then. There will be a ticket waiting for you at the airport. The next flight to Catanzaro is …”
“What?” Valentina’s heart sank, because as much as she hated the idea of having a watchdog assigned to her, the prospect of getting on a plane’s confined space made her break out into a cold sweat. Besides, once she got to Italy, she could imagine the restrictions that would be put on her there.
“I’m not getting on a plane. I’m not leaving my home. And I’m not being watched over like a five-year-old.”
Her father’s tone signaled the end of his patience. “I didn’t come to a decision lightly, and this vigilance will not last forever. But for now, you will respect my wishes.”
“Papa. Please don’t humiliate me like this.” Valentina was not above begging.
“Ti’more, Valentina.”
“Then don’t do this to me, Papa. If you love me, please tell him to go away.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone while Valentina held her breath.
“È perché ti amo che rimane— It is because I love you that he stays,” her father told her. Then
without another word, the phone line went dead.
“Well, this is going well,” Hal muttered to himself and watched from a safe distance as Valentina ranted into her cell phone.
The woman was fury in motion, pacing and twirling on her heels while wildly gesticulating like an amped-up marionette.
Her tone went from pleading to bargaining to outrage then cycled back again until, with a loud expletive, she threw the phone down onto the manicured lawn. And she wasn’t done yet, because for the next few minutes Valentina continued to pace, scowl, and mutter to herself in a hailstorm of colorful, bilingual curse words. As a man who prided himself on logical, singular emotion, Hal was fascinated. The woman’s ability to access such a wide range of passionate responses in such a brief time was mind-boggling to him. Valentina’s facial expressions changed as quickly as her language did.
She had to run out of steam soon.
Didn’t she?
Hal leaned back against the Cadillac and pulled out another cigarette. Then he thought about how Prosper had practically blackmailed him into taking this job.
Cagey sonofabitch.
