39. Georgia
39
GEORGIA
A hand was moving slowly through my hair when I woke. For a moment, I thought it was Elio, and we had fallen asleep in the orchard that overlooked town. No one was missing us, and we could steal a few more minutes of peace before we headed back home.
Then my stomach lurched, and the dream shattered. I turned to the side just in time to vomit on the floor.
“Shit, are you okay?” Toni’s voice came to me. She was sitting with my head on her lap. We were in the back of a car.
“What’s wrong?” a deep voice asked from the front.
“She’s sick. Too much sedative back-to-back.”
“It’s fine, it’s not my car, and besides, we’re here.”
The car stopped, and I sat up with a groan. The door opened, and a smell flooded into the car, recognizable even over the stench of vomit.
The scent of warm earth and olive groves. Fig trees and night jasmine. It was a smell I hadn’t thought I’d ever inhale again.
It flooded my head and sent me back in time.
“Out you get, Mrs. Santori,” the deep voice continued.
Yes, that was right. I’d forgotten about the man. The dark shadow of a man who had injected me with something.
Massimo.
Toni helped me out of the car, and I yanked my arm from her grip.
“Don’t help me. I don’t need your help,” I snapped at her.
Her face was pained as she followed behind us. I straightened my spine, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and spit on the ground just beside Massimo’s booted feet.
His mouth pulled into a smirk. “I like fire, Mrs. Santori, but save it for the Ravellis. This is nothing personal. Your husband is just a name on a contract for me, and you are just the method of attracting his attention.”
“Wow, your sense of honor is impressive. What a man,” I murmured, my eyes challenging him. Why exactly I was pissing him off, I had no idea, but I just couldn’t go easy.
He chuckled and turned away, unfazed.
“Let’s go. They’re waiting. Once you hand over Bellisario’s daughter, you’ve made good on your agreement. They’ll let Sara go.”
Toni flinched. “Do you promise?”
Massimo nodded. “I am a man of my word, always. You know that, Specter.”
Specter?
We walked across gravel. Toni was at my side.
“Who is Sara?” I asked her.
She hesitated then sighed. “My wife… well, not officially. My — partner. I’d never hurt the boss… never… but then he kidnapped Sara.” She shot a furious glare at Massimo walking behind us.
“Why’d he call you Specter?”
“It was my call sign.”
“You served together?”
Toni sighed again and nodded. My mind worked furiously over what the hell the implications of that were, considering that Elio also knew Toni from the military.
“Sara – she’s pregnant. We’ve tried IVF for years and it’s not stuck, but now,” she shot me an agonized glance, “it’s twins.”
Fuck.
“Don’t worry. They don’t want to hurt you. They just want to force your father into silence,” Toni said.
I scoffed. “How do you think they’re going to do that?”
Toni was quiet.
“Enough chitchat,” Massimo grunted from behind us.
As we walked, a house came into view.
I stumbled. It was the house of my childhood.
We went past the front gates and across the gardens. Men with guns were dotted here and there, watching us.
Massimo pounded on the door and waited, just behind us.
The door swung in, and a man I’d never met stood there.
He smiled deeply at me and stepped back.
“Welcome, Georgia. I’ve been waiting for you.”
Inside was nearly unchanged from the place I’d grown up in. The same art lined the walls, and even the same pictures were hung. Me as a teenager riding a horse. Me graduating high school with my wreath of laurel leaves.
My father holding me as a baby.
“Come through here.” The man led us deeper into the house to the sitting room, where there were drinks laid out on the coffee table.
“Help yourselves.”
“This isn’t a social call, Sergio. This is the end of a job.” Massimo took up too much space in the room. A black hole of darkness and violence.
“It’s not the end, since Elio Santori is still alive and kicking.”
Massimo nodded. “Yes, that’s true… but I’m sure he’s on his way. It wasn’t my idea to put him and his men in the hospital so that cops could be watching them around the clock.”
Sickness lurched through me again, and I barely managed to fight it down. Elio was in the hospital?
The Ravelli man, Sergio, sneered. “You were taking too long.”
Massimo just stared at him. “And now, thanks to you, it’s taking longer.”
Sergio tightened his fists and looked like he was about to argue.
“The job is practically done, so you can go ahead and give me the name now,” Massimo said, staring a hole through the other man.
Sergio shook his head. “Practically done isn’t done. After. I’ll give you the name after… if you can even manage to kill Santori.”
“Such confidence.” Massimo glowered at Sergio. “It’s like you really think you have nine lives, Ravelli, and you can afford to irritate me.”
Massimo stepped closer and loomed over him. Silence fell.
“Now, before you piss me off, why don’t you be a good fucking host, Sergio, or we might fall out.” Massimo’s tone was chilling, and clearly, I wasn’t the only one to think so.
Sergio turned to me and Toni.
“Since you came through, your little girlfriend will be released. You can leave.”
Toni glanced at me. “I want a guarantee.”
“A guarantee?” Sergio laughed and then jerked his head toward his man, who was on the phone.
A cell was put in her hand, and she listened to someone talking on the other side.
She closed her eyes, the relief visible on her face, and then handed back the phone.
“Happy? Now, get out of here.”
Toni swallowed hard.
“Mrs. Santori,” she murmured.
She looked wretched at that moment, and in an instant, I forgave her. I understood her.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine. Elio’s on his way,” I told her quietly.
“I’m sorry.”
I just shrugged. “You did what you had to, to save the person you love. I get that. But Toni…”
She gazed back at me.
“You’d better disappear before Elio gets me out of this. You better be far, far away,” I warned her. If there was anything that I’d learned about the man Elio had become, it was that he wouldn’t take the betrayal of one of his inner circle lightly.
Then Ravelli men were pushing Toni out of the room.
Sergio watched me with reptilian-like eyes.
“So, this is the woman who caused the downfall of Elio Santori. I have to say, he has taste… you are lovely.”
I stiffened and raised my chin. He circled me, appraising me like I was a pound of meat at the butcher’s.
“And you’re pathetic,” I couldn’t stop myself from saying.
Sergio stopped and raised his eyebrows at me. “Excuse me?”
“I said it’s pathetic how all your men in LA, countless faceless losers, couldn’t bring down Elio. It’s funny that you think you can win over him here and now.”
Sergio glared at me. “Yes, well, that’s why you’re here. Besides, I didn’t have help then.” He jerked his head toward Massimo.
“This all started because your whore of a father wouldn’t keep his mouth shut when he was arrested. After years of bending over and taking whatever the capo wanted to shove his way, he decided to grow a spine… but only to save himself. You know,” he reached out and grabbed my chin, “when I heard Elio had decided to marry you instead of cutting off body parts and sending them to your father, I was surprised, but meeting you… it makes sense. He owes me, you know… he left me to rot in prison and took the easy way out like a little bitch,” he spat. “He owes me. In return, I’ll take you… his lovely wife.”
He leaned in, his fetid breath touching my skin. His lips landed on mine, and I bit down as hard as I could. Blood filled my mouth. I savaged his lip, and he punched me as hard as he could on the side of the head.
I fell to the floor and stayed down. Massimo pushed between us and pinned Sergio to a chair.
“This wasn’t in our deal, Sergio. I’m not here to watch you slobber over an unwilling woman.”
“No, you’re not. You’re here to kill Santori. What I do with this bitch to send a message to her father is none of your business,” Sergio spit, holding his lip. He glared at me. “You’re going to pay for that. I think I’ll take a finger first… or maybe, a fucking ear.”
Fear flickered through me, and my lungs felt tight. A panic attack, after just throwing up and being sedated twice, wasn’t going to be great. I didn’t really know how I was going to manage it.
But I didn’t have to worry about it, it turned out.
At that very second, the lights shut off, and the entire house plunged into darkness.
Massimo chuckled. “Mrs. Santori, your husband is here for you.”