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“Sicily?” he asked, and I nodded.
“It’s in the city center. A historical old establishment. It’s close to everything from the sea, shopping, restaurants, and even other places of interest. It’s been so long since I’ve done something for myself...” I let those words linger for a few seconds because he knew once I had gotten with Stefano that I had lived and breathed vengeance. Once I had gotten with him, it’d basically been survival, but from what, was still to be determined. Nazario looked skeptical, so I walked over to him and laid my head on his chest, ignoring his sweaty pecs for a change. “I need some new scenery so I can come to terms with what I know must happen. I’ve realized over the last several days that I can’t alter or change my fate. I must accept it for what it is. Please just let me have a few days.”
I had no intentions of letting him murder me, or this child inside of me. I had only one place to go, and in Palermo, there were men who would not only hide me, but they would protect me to the death because I was one of them. The Catalano family let me into their world, even though I had to work hard for it. Without them, I would’ve never been ready to seek out Stefano, or be able to handle him or his son. These men would accept me, however flawed I might be, and take this child of mine and provide the same security to it that they had always provided to me.
“I don’t know—” he started to say, but I wrapped my arms around him.
“I need just a few days, Nazario. Have I not earned that much?”
I’d posed as his fiancée and had once intended to actually follow through with a wedding. I’d also been prepared to turn this child over to him until he’d shown me his true colors. Now, I was in a fight for survival, and I had to get away from him. He ran one hand up my arm, then across my shoulder until he gripped my throat in his hands. His mouth came down on mine, and even though I wanted to leave him, I surrendered to his roving lips and wicked tongue. I clung to him as he kissed me, staking his claim and possession on me. It wouldn’t be too much longer. I leaned in to him, then he pulled away.
“I’m not as unreasonable as you might believe me to be, Viviana. You have three days’ time, then I insist you return so we can take care of this problem between us.”
“Yes, Nazario,” I responded, even though I had no intentions of ever returning to this godforsaken place.
He then tipped my face up as his grip tightened on my neck. “Let me send someone with you.”
I shook my head, then pulled away when he loosened his hold. “No. I need to remember a time when I was just me. I need to remember who I am, and where I came from.” I knew once I got there, my fear would be gone. “I’ll miss you,” I told him, before giving him a quick peck.
It soon turned into more as he backed me into the wall, then lifted me off of my feet. He then fucked me, trying his best to imprint himself onto me, and I allowed it simply because this was the last time he’d ever have a chance. After, I packed and walked away, for what I intended to be forever.
VIVIANA
PALERMO, SICILY
I arrived in Palermo a few hours later. I was able to book myself into the same bed and breakfast my parents would take me to when younger. It’d all been such a different time. I hadn’t known anything about the mafia, and I had no idea of any other worlds outside of my own. So much had changed since then. I now found myself embroiled in the crosshairs of one pissed off Don. I wanted to think Nazario would spare my life, but I wasn’t sure. There’d been no mention of feelings between us. Fucking someone didn’t indicate love, as Stefano found out. Mutual pleasure ignited by the same fuse meant nothing. Everyone was expendable, especially those with targets already on their backs.
I wouldn’t worry too much about Nazario right now because I was in Palermo, where the new me had been born. The scared girl in the New York City alley had died, but the one who arrived back in Napoli was reborn, and all thanks to a few unlikely friends. Those men were the ones I was here to see because if anyone could save me, it would be them. By saving me, they would also be saving the child inside of me.
I ran a hand over my still flat belly. There was no sign of life inside there yet, but I knew what those tests said. Something was there, even if I couldn’t see it. While a part of me would be horrified to know I had brought Stefano’s offspring into this world, I willingly laid down and orgasmed for his other so I could love this child.
“You taketh away, but perhaps in some fucked up twist of karma, you actually managed to give me something in return,” I muttered toward Stefano, sure he could hear me from hell below.
I sent Nazario a text message to let him know I arrived safely, then I looked around the room. It had been updated to fit the times, but the historical charm still existed, especially when I went into the bathroom and saw the dark green mosaic tile running up wall and down another. The floor was black, just like the cabinets, and atop them, there was a green vessel sink in a much lighter shade than the tile on the walls and shower.
I turned on the tap and splashed some cool water onto my face. I was still a bit sick from my recent bouts of morning sickness, and ones that seemed to stick with me most of each day. It was nothing V couldn’t advise me on, though. Veru, the matriarch of the Catalano crime family, was very wise. She didn’t believe in modern medicine, instead insisting on tried-and-true Sicilian methods to cure almost anything ailing you. If any one could tell me how to rid myself of this nonstop nausea, it would be her. I was excited to get to see her once again.
I finished up in the bathroom, then returned to the bedroom. After unpacking my single suitcase, I stepped out onto the rooftop deck and inhaled the scent of the nearby sea. I had always loved this place, so it had been no surprise that it was where I’d gone when I’d felt lost all those years ago, and why I had returned to this place now as well. It wasn’t just a sentimental emotion drawing me back. It was the threat I was under, and would remain under until I could walk away from Nazario once and for all. At the very idea of never seeing him again, something sharp twisted in my chest. I shouldn’t even care, but my body and mind were not yet on the same page.
“It’s been a long time, Carissima.” I heard and spun around immediately.
“Marcu,” I murmured, then practically flung myself into his arms. The eldest of the Catalano sons, he was the one who’d taken the most convincing back when we’d first met. He’d been the one to catch me following them, and the last to believe the incredulous ask I’d had of him. Since that day, however, he’d been my staunchest ally, and when his strong arms wrapped around me, I clung to him.
“Bella,” said another, and I looked up to see Andrea join us on the rooftop.
I also embraced him, and his woodsy scent blanketed me. The most playful of the four, he was also the one to take my virginity, so our bond would always include that. I’d been so scared. I had been training with the others for several weeks at that point, and while I had handled a lot of the sadistic things they’d done to me, I was still pure of body as he liked to say. On a night much like this one, I’d left my clothes and inhibition in a pile beside his boots as he fucked me. The first time, he’d been as gentle as I’d ever seen him. In later rounds that same night, he’d made me scream in agony, then pleasure, when he violently took me over and over. It’d been the continuation of my training, but the beginning as I learned to take different men, and some at the same time.
I savored the feel of his arms around me for a few more seconds before looking up as Fantino arrived as well. The middle of the brothers, he was a force to be reckoned with. He’d been skeptical of my ability to complete what his family needed, but his own twin had convinced him that I was the perfect one to carry out the vengeance we all desired against that singular man.
“Tesoro,” he murmured into my ear when I wrapped my arms around him.
Convincing each of these men that my motives were pure and true was hard, but it’d been all that I had. I could still remember the night that he and his twin, Angelo, nearly drowned me. They were often the muscle of any operation, and as such, they wanted to make sure I could handle any situation I found myself in. The waterboarding had started off slowly. They would hold my head under water for seconds at a time, gradually increasing them to the point where I could do what I had done with Nazario in the pool that night a few weeks ago.
“I’ve missed you all terribly,” I told them as I stepped back. I needed to remember why I was here, and even though everyone had heard of Stefano’s demise, I cleared my throat and rehashed the situation anyway. I told them about how I had drugged the monster, then tied him up and tortured him. I unfortunately had to also tell him about how Nazario came in at the last minute and ended his father’s life, robbing me and the Catalanos of the vengeance we all deserved. After all, the murder of Nazario’s mother had been pinned on them, and years later, it ended up being the very thing that had killed Angelo.
“I’m glad you were finally able to get away from him,” Andrea told me as he came up from behind and wrapped his arms around me. I leaned back against him. “If they would’ve hurt you, no amount of water or land between us would’ve saved their wretched souls.” He then leaned in and nipped at my ear, before lowering his voice to add, “Sei mio.”
You’re mine,” he’d tell me often, especially when he was pushing inside of me. While the others had all contributed to my sexual awakening, which had come in handy during my time in Naples, the man currently squeezing my breasts had been the one I knew I would one day marry. At least, he was until Nazario.
