Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Valerio
T he storm roared above me. I looked left and right and found myself in the very same forest where it all began when I was nothing but a small boy. I would know this cursed place anywhere.
This was the day that ended me completely.
What was I doing back here?
The rain beat down on my skin. The thunder roared, causing the ground I stood on to tremble.
No, I knew this place well, and just like I had done when I was a boy, I bolted into the forest. I couldn’t allow him to get me, not like he had all those years ago.
“Vale!” His loud voice moved through the air, causing the blood in my veins to curdle. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, boy!”
I looked up at the tall pine trees and saw lightning rip through the sky violently, momentarily illuminating my surroundings. The sound that followed hit me right in my chest. It was a resounding rumble of the Earth that shook the soil beneath me.
I pumped my legs faster and faster. My lungs screamed in the middle of my chest, threatening to give out at any second. The fear flowed through my veins, paralyzing my heart. I only had one singular thought in my mind and that was to get the fuck away.
“Valerio! Come to your father.”
Fuck no. I needed to get as far away from him as possible.
I looked back down the path I had come from and saw nothing but blackness, but when I turned back to face the front, I bumped into something hard. Or rather—someone.
Instantly, arms came to envelop me in their grasp. I felt my entire soul leave my body, and the screams that followed tore at something in my soul.
His electric eyes stared deep into my soul. “No escape here now, boy.”
“No!”
My body lurched forward, skin damp with sweat. My chest rose and fell erratically as I tried to calm my mind.
A dream, it had been just a dream.
But it had all felt so fucking real. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a nightmare.
“Fuck.” I dragged my hand over my face.
If that man weren’t dead, then I would have killed him myself. He was haunting me from the grave, and he didn’t want to leave me.
“So much for fucking therapy,” I grumbled under my breath.
I had spent two fucking years trying to get my mind back into place, only for these issues to find their way back to me again.
I pulled the sheets off my body and made my way to the one thing that I knew would help.
Violence had always offered me some form of reprieve, and it would be no different now.
Sweat dripped down my body as I threw punch after punch.
With each attack, I imagined my father’s face on the hard leather. I drilled my fist strike after strike, until I felt the raw and bleeding knuckles scream at me to stop, but I never did.
Grief was already such a complex emotion to sift through. But the grief of losing a toxic parent was unlike anything I had ever experienced.
Punch after punch, I surged my fists forward, trying to hit my way through the episode. The sun still lay behind the horizon, and the day had only just begun.
“You’re up earlier than normal.”
I snapped my neck behind me and made eye contact with my sister-in-law. She leaned against the door frame of the gym. She was dressed in her athleisure, and she looked like she was fresh out of bed. Ever since becoming a mother, she had become domesticated. You would never guess that she was the leader of one of the most feared and wanted Mafia Families on the East Coast.
Motherhood suited her, it made her soft. It made her more humane.
“Sister,” I drawled. “I would say good morning, but seeing your glare so early is not as pleasant as one would think.”
“Ha, ha. You are ever the comedian, Valerio.” She kicked off her spot by the door and walked into the makeshift gym. “Nightmare?”
My eyebrows pulled together in a scowl. “No.”
I hated how easily she saw right through me. When I had first started therapy, she had been the person to wake me from my first nightmare. She had sat with me and calmed me until my chest stopped beating and my breathing had calmed.
It was the first time I had ever allowed anyone to truly comfort me. It had been a momentary lapse of judgment on my part. As the underboss, I was not allowed to have such emotions. I had ignored the incident ever since it happened after I had asked her to never speak of it again.
She was the only one who knew about it, and I cursed the day that she discovered my truth. I didn’t like looking weak in the eyes of others, especially my own family.
“You know it's okay to talk about it.”
“There is nothing to talk about.”
“I happen to think there is plenty to talk about.” She crossed her arms over her chest and offered me a pointed look.
I sighed deeply. “If you want to scold me, can it wait till morning, sister?”
“It is morning.”
“I mean when the sun is up, preferably afternoon. I’m free at 2.” I turned back to the punching bag, ready to resume what I had already started.
“You can’t have her, Valerio.”
My fist stopped mid-air. I tried to control my reaction because I didn’t want to seem suspicious. I knew exactly who she was talking about, but playing dumb was my best bet here.
Savina had a way of seeing right through the bullshit, and it was what made her such a good leader. But I had a knack for playing shit off. I had been doing it my entire life with my brother.
“You need to be more specific. I can’t have who now? Linda, the new cook?” I added a little smirk to make it more convincing. “Or maybe you mean Miranda. I’m afraid that I already fucked her a few weeks back.”
That was a lie. It had been months back, but she didn't need to know that.
“Valerio.”
I looked over my shoulder and saw the serious look in her eyes. However, I was not about to take the bait. She wanted me to out myself even though she already knew. I could see the truth swimming in her eyes.
“Do you really think anything in this house happens without my knowledge?”
“I don’t know what you mean, sister.” I was about to send my fist flying to the thick leather when she cut me off again.
“She is betrothed, Valerio.”
I paused. The silence that washed over us was deafening.
“You can have any other woman on the face of the Earth. Why must you pick one that is taken? I gave my word to protect her and keep her innocence intact. You will not make a liar out of me.” Her words were sharp and precise. There was no room for argument in her tone, but unfortunately, I had never cared for authority.
I threw my fist into the bag before I turned to face my dear sister-in-law. Though motherhood had softened her, she still held the remnants of that Ice Queen title they had given her when she took over.
“Like I said, I don’t know who you're talking about.”
“Valerio.”
“Savina.” I mimicked her tone. “I think my workout is done here.”
I moved to the side so I could leave the gym, but Sav blocked my path. I tried to move again, and she did the exact same thing.
“Don’t make me pick you up, Savina.”
She scoffed. “Do you like your balls attached to your body?”
I knew her enough to know that her words were not a threat but a promise. I had been on the receiving end of one of those said promises once upon a time.
“Who is she to you?” Her question caught me off guard, but still, my features remained the same.
“Who are you talking about?”
“Anastasia. The girl I have taken under my ward. Who is she to you, Valerio? Don’t lie to me.”
“She is the girl you have taken under your ward.” I was being a smartass, but the last thing I wanted to do was to have to get into this whole Ana mess. I wasn’t even sure why I was drawn to the girl.
Had she saved my life? Yes. Was she sexy as fuck? Absolutely. But there were billions of women in the world. Why was it that my mind was stuck on her?
She was my drug.
That was the truth of the matter. She was my newest addiction, and I was hooked on her like crack.
The same way that the lines had helped to calm the noise in my head, she did the same to me with her presence. I had traded one lethal substance for an even deadlier woman.
Savina pinched the bridge of her nose. “Enough now, I'm tired of these little games you want to play. I don’t care if you two had a history in the past, leave her alone. Your darkness will consume her, Valerio.”
“Excuse me?”
“You can try and fool your brother, but you can’t fool me. I see you. I was you once upon a time. I just didn’t have an addiction problem.” She stared into the very depths of my soul. “That girl is all things light and pure, no matter how much of a brave facade she wants to put on. She isn’t like us. She isn’t built for this world; she can’t hold the darkness the way we can. If you continue to do what you're doing, you will kill her.”
My lips parted.
“Leave her alone, Rio. Go fuck some prostitutes if you must, but leave that poor girl alone. She is already suffering from being used as a pawn by her brother. You can't risk her being found out by Sergei. He will kill her if he even senses another man has touched her.”
The mention of his name made me murderous. I didn’t like that little shit, and I never would. She deserved better than what her brother was getting her into.
“Noted.” This was the first time I was acknowledging her direct concerns. “Now, if you will excuse me.”
This time she allowed me to walk past her and make my way out of the gym.
I walked up the stairs of the basement and made my way to my room again. I had just walked past the kitchen when I caught a glimpse of her. She was on the front porch, stretching out her body.
I paused and observed her for a moment. My sister-in-law’s words screamed in my head loudly, but I couldn’t hear those cries above my own.
I wanted this woman, terribly so, and I felt this possessiveness over her that I had never felt before in my life. But maybe that had to do with the fact that I was addicted to her.
She was my new drug and that made her dangerous. But I craved danger the way a man in drought craved water.
I was in deep waters, and I couldn’t give a fuck less about it.