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I hold her close to me, loving the way she just fits against me, like she’s meant to be here.
“How long were you and Nell friends?” I ask into the silence.
“Four years. She was the first friend I made on the street. We were inseparable after that first meeting. There was something fragile about her, something that pulled at me. She became my sister.”
“You protected her,” I state. The way she talks about her, and the fierceness in her voice, I know she’s been protecting not only Nell but Teagan since she met them.
“Someone had to,” she whispers. “She’d been abused by so many before I found her. It was all she knew. From a very young age, she’d been spat at, looked down upon, and assaulted physically and sexually. It was her norm.”
Christ. How the fuck did these women survive? “Until you.”
She lifts her shoulders and shrugs. “I did what I had to do.”
“Who protected you, Portia?” It’s a loaded question. I want to know why she ended up on the street, but I don’t want her to resurrect the six-foot wall she built. I’ve managed to get through it, but I know the fragility of it. One wrong movement or word and it’ll be resurrected and reinforced quicker than I can blink.
She shakes her head. “I do,” she tells me honestly. “I have for a long time.”
Since her father died. “I’m real sorry about your father,” I tell her, and feel her tense beneath me.
“You know?”
“It took me a while. The first time I saw you, I told you that you were familiar. I’m pissed it took me so long to recognize who you were.”
“How long did it take?” Her voice is soft but there’s an edge to it.
“That night. It took me a few hours, but I figured it out.”
She turns in my arms and looks up at me, her eyes red and puffy from crying. “You never told anyone. Why?”
“Not my place to do that, Portia. You went to the streets for a reason. My guess is someone’s after you. You hid yourself well. I’m not going to be the reason that whoever’s after you, finds you.”
“Not even if it means Rocco being pissed?”
I grin. “I anger my brother on a daily basis, Portia.” Her grin drops and I watch all humor fade from her face. The sincerity that fills her eyes has my heart racing. “We failed you. The Famiglia failed your father. There’s no way you and your mom should have been left vulnerable. That asshole should never have been alive to marry your mom.”
She juts out her chin and glares at me. “Mama never wanted to marry that man,” she hisses at me, her eyes no longer filled with sorrow but flashing with anger.
“How did it happen?” It was beyond fucked up what happened once Davide died. It was as though everyone forgot about Marianna and Portia. My father let that cunt Scaffidi get away with murdering Davide and did nothing to get our revenge. He said there was no proof that Scaffidi killed him, yet we all fucking knew he did. Aldo Gallo never wanted a war. He would do whatever it took to stay out of conflict, including sending his men to die like pigs to the slaughter.
Since Aldo’s death, I’ve learned a lot about the man who fathered me. I always knew he was a piece of shit, but the things I’ve learned... God, I’m so fucking glad the man’s dead. He deserved a fuck of a lot more than what he got.
The shit that I give Rocco about Jade isn’t because I don’t love or respect either of them. It’s because the Famiglia has had the worst leader at the helm for a long fucking time. We had a man who put himself before anyone else, and it’s time for a change. We’re growing the Famiglia and we need a strong leader, one who has the best interests of the men at heart. One who will lead without fear. Rocco letting Jade help puts the Famiglia at a disadvantage. It’s also letting our men know that once again they, the Famiglia, are not priority.
“Marco wanted revenge for the death of his son,” she tells me as she pulls away from my arms.
I bite back a curse. I want her as close as I can have her, but right now, she needs the distance, and I get it.
“His son was a rapist, a child fucker,” I snap, pissed that my father didn’t have the guts to deal with this shit when he was at the helm.
She nods. “Yes. Papa told him so when he came into his office.”
I blink. “Don’t fucking tell me you were there when Davide was killed?”
“He pushed me into the secret tunnel he had in his office. He knew he was going to die, and he saved me, but I fucked up. I didn’t run. I didn’t escape. I stayed in that tunnel and couldn’t move. I was trapped in my own fear.” She takes a steadying breath as she turns to face me. “Marco vowed that he’d make my mama his, and I would become his whore.” She shakes her head, tears shining in her gorgeous eyes. “Papa said over his dead body, and Marco shot him. Killing him instantly.”
Fuck. She listened to her father’s death. There’s no way in fucking hell that hasn’t scarred her.
“Portia… What happened then?” I need to know what the fuck happened. Did she manage to run away then?
