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Mia seems to be fragile, but she’s holding it in. I don’t know how long she can go before she breaks. I can’t imagine how terrified she must have been and what she endured. I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s haunted my dreams the past few nights.
The whole thing makes me fucking mad, especially since she seems very sweet and unsuspecting. She’s innocent and didn’t deserve this. To think they bound her wrists enough to leave marks and that they practically starved her.
We’re all in shock about Allegra, the entire family is. To think she was behind the blackmail…the kidnapping…the lies. I’m sick to my stomach.
She was married to Roberto, our cousin who was killed many years ago. We thought of her as family, and she betrayed us all.
We may have dealt with most of the perpetrators already, but not all of them. Some think they’ve gotten away, that they can hide. I almost chuckle when I think about it. About what happens when Rocco, Darko, or even Angelo finds any of them. Angelo doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty where punishment is concerned, but unlike Rocco, Angelo favors knives.
Falmouth is gated like Fortress, and trees line the twenty-three-acre property all the way down to the cliffs facing the ocean.
It’s always so peaceful here. Maybe that’s because none of the life we live outside these walls gets to reside here. It’s like this space is sacred.
The ferocious waves roll in, but the view from the front of the house is breathtaking. Even the air out here is magnificent. Everything feels renewed, surrounded by a forest that meets the ocean.
Angelo calls Falmouth his own personal slice of paradise. He doesn’t use it much, maybe a few times a year. However, that doesn’t stop him from having a cleaning service company every week to ensure it’s always ready, if needed.
As we pull up, Rocco and Darko take the bags in, and I head in and light the fire.
It’s starting to get chilly out.
“How do you think she’s doing?” I ask Angelo as I glance up at him from the fireplace when we’re alone.
He perches on the edge of the couch, deep in thought.
“Pretty fucked up,” he replies. “I’ll arrange for Josie to meet with her if she feels up to it later in the week. We need to know exactly what she’s thinking and make sure she’s not suffering in silence. PTSD and all that shit.”
I nod. It’s totally understandable. “Is Vaughn tracking her new phone?”
“Yeah, for the time being, just in case. You know how it is, brother. Until this shitstorm dies down, which I suspect will take a while since yesterday I was technically dead.”
Ma believes it’s a bad omen to speak of the dead. Marco says it’s a bad omen to talk about death, much less fake it. I guess we’re damned, no matter which way you look at it in this scenario.
“Do you think she will talk to anyone about what happened?”
He contemplates this for a moment. “Rayne needs to make her understand how important it is that she can’t do that,” he says, not answering the question.
“There’s enough media swarming around as it is.” The last thing we need is another family drama aired out in the open for all to see. “What’s the plan from here?”
“We lay low. I want the girls to relax and spend some time together. That’ll help Mia. It can’t have been easy. Rayne needs a break after everything. I’ll travel back and forth until every last fucker who had anything to do with this is dead.”
I nod. That needs to be taken care of. With Rocco at the helm leading the soldiers and Darko by his side, they are more than capable to find all the traitors in our ranks.
We don’t get sentimental often, so when I say, “I’m glad, that it’s Rayne. She’s good for you.”
He turns to look at me.His lips twitch. “While that’s all completely true, I’m not so sure I’m good for her.”
Marco will be the one who needs convincing. He does not deal with betrayal very well. His girlfriend left him many years ago and aborted their unborn baby without telling him until after she’d done it. To say he has an issue trusting women is an understatement. He’s also fiercely protective, much like the rest of us.
“Are you doubting yourself?”
“Have I ever done that before?”
“Not with a woman.”
He looks away.
Angelo was married once. His wife and unborn child were killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. I don’t think he will ever fully recover from that. He’s not been in a serious relationship ever since.
