Chapter 21 Supporting the Weight
Chapter twenty-one
Supporting the Weight
“I can’t believe how much of the day we slept through,” Reiko said as she polished off her very late breakfast. Santino had insisted they start the day with breakfast, despite that it was mid-afternoon.
She’d almost made a joke about marrying him just for that, but the fear that he might order someone to deliver a pastor to their room next had held the words inside.
She refused to be married looking like some Bride of the Mummy. If that was a thing.
Santino leaned into her space, his lips trailing from her temple down to the base of her throat and thoroughly re-grounding her in the process.
His words were murmured against her skin.
“That’s what happens when you lose a full night’s sleep to traumatic events.
Bodies need rest.” He pressed a final kiss to her shoulder before straightening. “How are you feeling?”
Reiko offered him a soft smile, ignoring the blush probably staining her cheeks. “Much better, I promise. Just a little sore now.”
Tapping on the exterior door cut off whatever Santino opened his mouth to say in response and Reiko stiffened instinctively.
Santino had explained that they’d reserved a room at a random hotel under a false name, and only a very tight circle knew they were there.
He planned to keep it that way until he’d excised the remainder of the poison from his family.
She really had no problem with that. There was nothing quite like being attacked in one’s own wardrobe and abducted from a seemingly secure home by a man she was supposed to trust to make her understand the importance of real security.
So, she set down the herbal tea she hadn’t yet finished and told herself to hope it was Armando at the door.
Santino stood and lifted a handgun from the kitchenette counter.
“It’s me, Boss,” Armando’s muffled voice came through the door with a second round of tapping.
Reiko let out a breath of relief.
Santino tucked the gun into his waistband and crossed to the door, quickly throwing the latch and pulling it open halfway. “Morning, sunshine,” he teased. “There a particular reason you’re not out and about?”
Reiko couldn’t see him, but the banquet nook where they’d shared breakfast was close enough that she heard what sounded like nerves in Armando’s tone when he spoke again.
“Word is that Elder Guerra wants to visit his daughter.”
Santino didn’t flinch. “Mamma should already be at his house.”
“His other daughter, Boss.”
Reiko rolled both lips between her teeth. They were speaking about Santino’s aunt. Danilo’s mother. They had to be.
The hand Santino had left on the open hotel door tensed, his knuckles flexing, and when he spoke, his tone had hardened to match.
“That’s off the table. Zia Lorenza’s off-limits until further notice, I don’t fucking care what temper tantrum he throws.
And if she shows up at his home, she only gets in if she is completely unescorted, and her possessions thoroughly searched. ”
Zia… Santino generally referred to the elder generations of his family by title, with enough of an accent to his tone that she was sure his version of “mama” wasn’t the English one, too.
So Reiko assumed “zia” meant “aunt”, or was another term to represent the same relationship.
He didn’t know with certainty if the betrayal rose so high that his aunt was a part of it, and he still spoke of her respectfully.
It was so much different than the family Reiko had grown up with.
Her heart hurt to hear and see the emotional pain he was enduring.
Reiko slid from behind the banquet table quietly and padded across the small space until she could wedge herself up against Santino’s side. She curled her arms around his torso, letting her fingers twist in the material of his shirt, and offered him a smile when dropped his gaze down to hers.
He shifted his weight and hooked his arm around her waist. “Something wrong, beautiful?”
She held his stare for a long moment. “Lots of things,” she said honestly, before tilting her head to lay it over his chest. “I just thought I would come stand here with you.”
Silence held for several seconds, and she knew if she opened her eyes again, she’d find Armando staring at the floor or turned completely aside. She was learning not to find that so strange. What mattered, in the moment, was supporting Santino.
He exhaled audibly and tightened his grip of her. “Get the word out to everyone on the staff, including Nonno’s permanent team. I’ll try to have this cleaned up by Monday, but as far as anyone is concerned, the answer is no. Indefinitely. I don’t give a shit who he used to be.”
Armando made a low sound of acknowledgment. “Understood.”
“And get hold of Dario,” Santino added. “I need him here and ready to move in an hour. Have Freddie arrange a team to follow for backup.”
“Yes, Boss.”
Santino pulled Reiko with him as he stepped backward, Armando already striding away, and the door swung shut with a heavy thud.
Santino relatched it swiftly, as if there weren’t two other armed guards in the hall just that she’d been able to glimpse, then dropped a hand to her ass and lifted her off her feet.
She squeaked, instinctively curling around him, and her body tingled from the vibration of his chuckle.
“I liked that,” he rumbled, his lips brushing along her ear as the hand not digging into her butt tangled in her hair. “You coming to stand up with me, just because.”
Reiko pressed a light kiss to his jaw. “We won’t work if I’m only ever taking support, and you have no one you feel you can lean on.
” She pushed up, attempting to find his gaze, until the hand in her hair lowered to her nape and allowed her the bit of movement.
“This is your world and I don’t know how to navigate it yet, I know that.
But at least for the quieter things, for the things you might keep away from your men, lean on me. Trust me that much.”
Santino lowered them to the small sofa that occupied most of the space in the sitting area and slid his hand up from her butt to her back. With him holding her so tightly, at least half of her back was covered by his palm alone. The sensation was scintillating.
“I’m not used to having someone I can share those types of things with,” Santino said, his tone uncharacteristically quiet. A smile played with his lips and affection warmed the blue in his eyes. “You sure you want that weight, beautiful?”
Reiko moved her hands to cup his jaw, careful not to let her fingers stretch beyond the bottoms of his earlobes.
He hadn’t said a word, but she was sure the wound to his ear was painful, even if the doctor that had treated them was fairly confident it hadn’t damaged anything important.
She held Santino’s gaze and allowed herself to speak openly, from a secret place she herself had long neglected until he’d barreled into her life.
“You’ve already done so much for me,” she said, “but more than that, I want—I think I’ve always wanted—to be able to be there, in some way, for the people closest to me.
So, if this is how I can support you, then it’s what I want to do.
” Another thought occurred to her as she spoke, so she tagged it on for good measure as a smile lifted her lips.
“Besides, it might help me better anticipate and prepare for the emotional needs of our children.”
The weirdly terrifying and exciting thought gained a whole new level of weight the moment the words left her lips.
Our children. They’d talked about it. She’d agreed, even, though it was debatable whether or not she’d been in a rational state of mind at the time.
He’d certainly put in some effort since. She could be pregnant already, in fact.
Santino lit up, pride and excitement and a warm affection Reiko was less confident in labeling overtaking his face.
His hands moved over her until he had her head framed between his palms, holding her in position as if she’d tried to move.
“That was the sexiest, most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.
” He kissed her, rough and wet and far too briefly, before staring into her eyes again. “Fuck, I love you, Reiko.”
The breath stalled in her throat, but he wasn’t done.
“If you want me to share my secret emotions with you, that’s the first thing you should know.
” He stroked a thumb over her cheek in a soft caress and repeated the words he’d spoken in Italian earlier that day—when she had been listening for sound, not to see if she could identify anything.
But amore meant “love”, didn’t it? “My love for you is infinite,” he said, his tone a reverent whisper.
Then his lips kicked up into a familiar grin. “You never asked.”
Reiko curled her fingers into the back of his neck as she struggled with her tears.
He was never going to believe she wasn’t much of a crier.
Or maybe she hadn’t been, because she’d worked so hard to numb herself to life before him.
That was irrelevant. She licked her lips, searching for an adequate way to return his words and reassure him she returned his feelings.
That was when she remembered the seemingly silly, but endearing promise he’d made what felt like forever ago. A promise that required her to first write down the kanji of her name. And for that, she needed a type of pen or brush she didn’t have. I’ll ask him if we can stop somewhere when we go out.
Reiko exhaled carefully and lifted a hand to glide her fingers over his too handsome face. It was truly unnatural how gorgeous the man was, and she didn’t allow herself to appreciate that often enough. “Aishiteru,” she finally said.
Amusement danced in his eyes. “Cheater. You know I don’t know what that means.”