Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Gianluca
“Do you always conduct business with your women around?” Ramón asks.
“Yes. We have no secrets from each other. We’ve learned that only leads to people getting hurt. And besides, why do you need to hide anything? It’s not like our wives and daughters don’t know what our lives are about.” Zio Enea says as we all nod.
“My wife and daughters are on my MC council.” Giacomo adds.
“Isn’t that forbidden?” Elvio asks.
“It’s my club and my rules. My papà and my wife’s papà started our club.
We sat down one day and decided that we needed to change our club.
That the old ways of doing things weren’t going to work anymore.
So my wife is our historian, my Isabella is our secretary, my Luciana is our treasurer.
” Giacomo says as he smiles at his family.
“That’s something I’ve never heard of. And I’ve also never considered talking about things in front of our women.” Ramón says.
“There are quite a few things we do that’s not like the old days. But it works for us and it’s saved us before.”
“Ivan threatened that he could take over my territory. My men are all on high alert right now. And that the only way to keep that from happening was to merge our families. As I said before, he wanted my Gabby to marry Yakov—”
Apollo snorts. His papà, Zeus gives him a stern look. He puts his hands up.
“I’m sorry. His name just makes me laugh. I’m truly not trying to be rude.”
“Such a pain in the ass.” Ares says under his breath. “But you’re not wrong.”
“Right?”
“You both realize you’re not really whispering, right? I apologize for my sons.” Zeus sighs.
Ramón finally cracks a smile.
“They’re a welcome break in a too serious situation.”
“I told you all I’m funny.” Apollo says as he takes a bow.
Zeus sighs.
“So what was your plan with Ivan?” Zio Antonio asks as he’s chuckling at Apollo and Ares.
“My plan was to either take the Bratva out or try to offer him a smaller portion of my territory.”
“Did you really think that would work?” My papà asks.
“I think there was a part of me that hoped we could make a deal. But then he said that he was sending someone to take Gabriela. That’s why I sent her here. I worried that he would take her. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“We’ve been actively dealing with the Koslov Bratva for the last five years. Even longer within our extended families. When we took out Fyodor, we thought it was over. But then Ivan came after another one of our family members.” Enea explains.
“We also know that Fyodor killed my previous consigliere. While he was having dinner with his wife and children.” Elio adds.
“I have to apologize to all of you. I should’ve talked to you instead of assuming that I knew what was right. I’m sorry. And I would really appreciate all the help you can give us.”
“First of all, what does Ivan think you’re doing right now?”
“He thinks we left Valencia to pick up Gabriela. I’m sure he knows where we are, I noticed that he made a comment about having Gabriela meet Yakov in Chicago. I pretended I didn’t hear him.”
I hold Gabriela tighter to me when he says that last part. I will kill him myself if he touches my Gabriela. I don’t care what the consequences are. He already hurt my son’s mama. He won’t hurt another woman I care about.
“How long are you staying here for?”
“We planned to only be here a few days and head back home with Gabby.” He says as he looks at me.
Oh fuck no. She’s not leaving Lake Renegade.
“There is one way you can keep Gabriela out of Ivan’s hands. But I don’t know if you’ll like it.” My papà says.
“I’m listening.”
“You can let Gianluca and Gabriela get married. She would carry the Mancini name and she would be more protected.”
“How? We don’t change our names when we marry.” Lourdes says.
“Yes, I know that.” Papà says as he looks at my mamá. “She will still be a Mancini. And for Ivan, that means something.”
I look at Gabriela. I thought about telling her we should get married now. But I didn’t want to scare her off. But now that my papà has suggested it? I want it.
“I suppose it’s not my decision, it’s Gabriela’s.” Ramón sighs.
I look at Gabriela’s mamá and her brothers. They’re all watching us and for once, I see her mamá smiling at us.
“Can Gianluca and I step away and talk for a minute?” Gabriela asks.
“Of course. This isn’t something you should be taken lightly. Marriage is a sacred thing in our family.” Zio Enea says.
“If we merge our families, how will this help my situation back home?” Ramón asks.
“We have a deal in place with Ivan. We might be able to sit down with him and talk.” Enea answers.
“We’ll be right back.” I say as Gabriela and I stand up and leave the room.
I take her to the main area and sit down with her.
“I don’t want you to marry me because you’re being forced to. We can find another way.” She says to me.
“First of all, what do you want, Gabriela? I know what I want. But I want to know what you want.”
“I want to be with you, but I want you to choose me because you love me and not because it will help our families.”
“I do choose you. And I won’t lie, part of it is because I know that being my wife will keep you safe. But even if that wasn’t the case, I would ask you to marry me anyway. I wanted to bring it up before, but I didn’t want to scare you by asking you too soon.”
I hug her tightly. “When I said I loved you, I meant it. There’s only been two women before you that I loved.
And neither of them made me feel what I feel for you.
When they left me, they both said that they couldn’t deal with my life.
And it wasn’t the mafia side. It was my baseball side.
I can’t stop the women from doing what they do.
But I can promise you that I’ll never hurt you by cheating.
I just need you to promise me that if you start to feel differently, talk to me. Don’t just decide to leave.”
“I’ve seen the way women act around you, I’ve even heard the things they say. But I know that you’d never cheat on me. So I promise, if I start to feel insecure or worried? I’ll talk to you first.”
I lean down and kiss her. “Then let’s tell everyone what we’ve decided.”
“Do you think Giancarlo will be happy that we’re getting married? I don’t know if he’s too young to realize what that means. But I also don’t want him to feel like I’m taking you away from him.”
“We can talk to him first if you want. He’s downstairs with the other kids. I can text Hollis and ask him to bring him up.”
“I think that’s a good idea. He might be too little to really understand. But we can still try.”
I text Hollis and ask him to bring Carlo up for us.
Gabriela
I hoped that Gianluca loved me the way I loved him. And knowing that he does is incredible. But I worry that Giancarlo won’t like it. He’s been through so much in his little life. I don’t want him to feel like I’m taking his papá away from him, like his mamá was taken.
“Thanks.” Gianluca says to Hollis as he takes Carlo’s hand and brings him over to me.
Carlo smiles and hugs me.
“Papà and I wanted to talk to you.” I say as I hug him.
“Otay.” He says as he nods.
“Would you like it if Gabriela moved in with us?” Gianluca asks him.
“Forever?”
“Sì, forever. And what if Gabriela became your new mamà?” He chuckles.
Giancarlo looks at both of us.
“Otay.” He nods. “Can I go pway now?”
“Sì.” Luca laughs.
Carlo gives us both a hug and kiss, then runs back downstairs.
“I’m not sure he understood what we were talking about.” I laugh.
“Yeah, probably not. But in time he will. I’ve wanted to thank you for helping him remember Faith. I know in time he probably won’t remember her. But at least if he ever asks, we can tell him what we knew about her.”
“I don’t ever want him to think that she didn’t matter. She’ll always matter to him and to you. Is she one of the two women you said you loved?”
“No. I cared a lot about her and if she had stayed? I might have fallen in love with her. But she left before I could figure that out.”
“But you were with her for six months.”
“I was. But we didn’t see each other daily.
She never lived with me, she lived in the city in her own apartment.
Most times I saw her after games. She would come to my game and we would spend time together after.
Then one day she told me that she couldn’t deal with the women.
She felt like she was competing against them.
I told her that wasn’t the case. But she said she couldn’t do it. So I said okay.”
“Why me? How do you know that you want to spend your life with me?”
“I don’t know how to explain it. I feel you in my soul, I look at you and I see everything I want in life. From the moment I saw you, I just knew.”
I love listening to Luca tell me how he feels. Because I feel the same way. When I met him, I just knew. It was like a part of me knew that he was that person that made my soul complete.
Gianluca takes my hand and we go back into the conference room to tell everyone what we’ve chosen to do. When we walk in, everyone turns to look at us.
“Have you made a decision?” my papà asks.
“Sí, papá, we want to get married.”
“Are you sure, mija? This isn’t something that you can just decide a year from now that you don’t want it anymore. And what about the boy?”
“What about my son?” Gianluca frowns.
“I want to know if you’re doing this because you need a wife to take care of him.”
I can feel Gianluca’s anger rising and I can’t say I blame him.
“Papá. That’s not fair to say that to Gianluca. He was raising Giancarlo before we met and he was doing a great job. You haven’t even met him and you act like he’s a burden. He’s a great little guy and I love him already. It’s an honor to help raise him.”
“He’s not your blood.”
“He doesn’t have to be. He’ll be my son no matter what.”
“Ramón, por favor.” My mamá says to him as she turns to Gianluca and me. “You have to understand that our Gabriela is our baby. We worry for her and want the best for her. I do see how much you care for her. But do you really love her? You have so much in your life, where does she fit in?”
“She fits in every part of my life. And no, I’m not looking for someone to be my son’s mother. But it’s a bonus for me that Gabriela loves him and he loves her.”
“And what about baseball?”
“What about baseball? That’s my job. Are you asking me to stop playing? Is that your rules for marrying your daughter?”
“No I won’t let you quit.” I say to him.
“What if we said yes? That in order for you to have our blessing, you need to walk away from baseball.”
“You’d have to give me a good reason for asking this of me.”
“The women. The lifestyle. We’ve seen the news reports and your name has been brought up in them. The women you sleep with. How you’re never with just one person.” My papá snaps at him.
“I thought we established that you can’t believe everything you hear? I stayed away from relationships. Yes. But that doesn’t mean that I would do anything to hurt Gabriela.”
“And it’s my decision. I choose Gianluca. I don’t care if you give us your blessing or not. He’s my world. And I won’t walk away from him. No matter what you say.”
The look on my papá’s face is one I’ve only seen when he’s been really angry. But right now? I don’t care. He won’t keep me away from Gianluca.