Chapter 17
A strange silence hung in the air between me and Geovani on our way back to his apartment. Something shifted between us tonight, something I don’t understand at all. But when we got home, Geovani didn’t go straight to his office like I thought he would. Instead, he followed me into our room and climbed into bed beside me, holding me all night. He didn’t say he was scared he could have lost me to the other boys or what he feared would happen when that truck came barreling through the wall at The Precinct, but he didn’t need to. I could feel it all.
He likes to be in control. Last night, he lost it. It rocked him to the core. When I woke up, he was still lost in a heavy sleep, so I crept out of the room in search of something to eat, thankful that for once he’s sleeping, and for another thing, I get a morning off from the gym. My poor tired body couldn’t handle another one of his brutal sessions.
As I savor my coffee and indulge in a slice of fresh sourdough with jam and butter, I am treated to a breathtaking view of the city landscape. I haven’t had much time to myself to enjoy it before now. There might only be four of us living here, but there is always something going on. Knowing he’s always watching me makes it hard to switch off and just relax.
Marco and Dani stroll out of the gym, with Marco’s sweaty arm casually resting on her shoulders. But she doesn’t seem to mind, she looks completely smitten with him. I find myself feeling a little jealous of them. Their relationship seems so simple compared to the mess I find myself in.
“The boss having a sleep-in?” Dani smirks.
“Last night was a lot,” I mutter, still trying to wrap my head around everything that happened myself.
She rises onto her tiptoes and plants a kiss on Marco’s lips. “I’m going for a shower,” she tells him before taking off up the stairs to their room. My brother moves into the room with me.
“Do you know who Bianca is?” I ask, hoping for some answers. That name has stuck in my head all night. She seems important to Geovani and Alessandro.
Nervously, he shifts his gaze toward the stairs and then back to me. “You need to have a discussion with Geovani about her. I can’t tell you anything, Sis.”
The sound of my teeth grinding fills the silence. I’m getting sick of that kind of answer. They all stick together, keeping me in the dark. “Uhm,” I grumble, pulling my legs up under me and staring out the window again. Sometimes I wonder why I bother opening my mouth. She’s someone important, that much is obvious by how quickly he shut me down about her.
I hear Marco move toward me then sit on the wood coffee table with a creak. “It’s his story to tell,” he explains more softly. “But you should definitely ask him about her.”
I give him a once-over, making it clear I’m not impressed he’s brushing me off, even if he’s trying to be nice about it. This small amount of time we have this morning with Geovani asleep is all I’ll get to ask this burning question and get an honest answer.
“Lana,” he says my name with exasperation. I shift my attention back to him, wishing I could have my big brother back. The one I really knew, or I thought I did. “What happened last night? Did you get to see the Morettis?”
“Yeah, I saw them.” A heavy sigh escapes from my lips. “Filled them in on all the family tree stuff Elisa worked out. They were shaken up about it, and then everything turned to chaos. I thought you said that bar was safe.”
His brow creases with deep worry lines. “It should have been. Why, what happened?” He sits up a little straighter.
“We were in the middle of our chat when a truck blasted through the wall of the private room we had been allocated. Someone knew exactly where we were. How do you suppose that happened?” My eyes narrow in on him, not accusing him of anything, but something’s not right, and I want to get to the bottom of it before we all get caught up in madness like that again.
Baffled, he runs his fingers through his long hair. My heart hurts for everything we have both lost. I know my papa sold me to Carlo, but he was always so good to me, so protective when I was younger. I just can’t understand how he could have just stopped caring about his little girl. My mind shifts to my ma, and I see her lifeless body lying on our bathroom floor. I know Marco told me he let her slip away, let her addiction take over, but I don’t believe that either. There is something we’re both missing, I’m sure of it. “Marco, who told you about what happened to our ma?”
Marco stands, walking over to the window staring out at the casino absentmindedly, the silence between us deafening. “Enzo.”
My chest feels like it’s going to explode. “And you just believed him?” I gasp out. “What if everything we know to be true is all some bullshit made up by Enzo to control you.”
He stares back at me, and I see the lost little boy who’s still trapped inside. He’s had the same thoughts, I can tell. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
I stand in a rush, pacing, way too much erratic energy filling me. I fucking knew it. That story was made up by Enzo to control my brother. All this time I have been blaming my papa, and it wasn’t him at all. Something way more sinister was going on, and I would bet Enzo had something to do with it even back then. I fucking hate that man. “What were you doing in Italy when he sent you there?”
He watches me stride back and forth wringing my hands. “Making sure all our contacts knew our family businesses were in good hands with the Morettis. Alessandro was running the car dealership back here. And all we had to do was wait for the two of you to be married so the families would be joined. Enzo would keep me on, filling the gap our papa left behind.” His haunted eyes meet mine, and I know what he’s fucking saying.
“And by car dealership, you mean trafficking drugs for Enzo?”
He nods. “I would do whatever Enzo wanted me to.”
My heart races out of control, imagining what Marco has done at the hands of that man. “You killed our papa because he told you to,” I cry.
“Our papa traded you to Carlo, he died because he signed a deal with the fucking devil himself. I did that to save you. I understand if you hate me for it, but I will never apologize for protecting you when our papa was too useless to. Never forget, Enzo might have been dishing out the orders, but our papa still chose to force this world on us. He was no fucking saint, Lana.”
His words hurt, even though I know how true they are. “What made you side with Geovani?” I whisper.
“He offered me a way out. Enzo was sending me back to Italy, and when Dani come to me with a better life for us, I took her up on the offer. The possibility of continuing something our papa had started that was safer and could also get you out of the Morettis’ clutches, it was a no-brainer. I have known Alessandro, Ricky, and Maddox my entire life. I would take a bullet for any of them. I won’t follow them blindly while they insist on leaving Enzo at the top. He will destroy all of us. I wasn’t going to let him hand you over to Carlo for him to use you to get to our family legacy or worse.”
Sickness fills me from his expression, and I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “What does or worse mean?”
“You’re going to need to ask Geovani about that as well; what his pa is involved in is his story to tell.”
I nod, understanding and feeling so na?ve still. I thought I knew what was going on, but there is so much more at play. Taking my seat again, I stare back at him.
He runs a hand through his curls. “I don’t understand how someone worked out you were at The Precinct last night. I called the bar and made that booking myself. No one knew except the four of us in this apartment, the boys, and the manager at the bar.” He turns back to me. “You should have been safe.”
“Then why was someone there to attack us?” I throw back at him, trying to understand why he would put me in that kind of danger.
Someone in our close circle betrayed us last night. I want to know who the fuck it was. I don’t think it was my brother, but could he be hiding stuff from me? Yeah, definitely. “Do you trust Dani?” I close the gap between us. “What about Geovani? Someone told Carlo’s men where we were, so who was it?” He knows what I’m asking him, does he trust Geovani?
“Razor is on the Moretti payroll,” Geovani’s cool voice comes over us as he enters the room wearing just a pair of gray sweatpants. Jesus Christ, those things should be illegal. I stare at him, my heart fluttering. “Just got off a call with Maddox. After we left last night, Alex went on a rampage. Your friend—the manager—finally choked out in the early hours of this morning who was buying his loyalty.”
“Fuck. So much for neutral territories,” Marco mutters. “Enzo has control of this whole damn city.”
A shiver runs down my spine. If he’s worried, I know it’s bad. “Where are the boys now?” I ask, my voice shaky, wondering what upheaval Alessandro caused.
Geovani narrows the distance between us. “Staying at the Pink Flamingo apparently.” He fixes his gaze on me, and I start to question what I might have done to provoke such a reaction, given the unpleasant expression in his green eyes. “It seems Alex doesn’t trust the safe house anymore.” In one quick move, he reaches out and snatches me up to my feet by the wrist. I’m forced to stare right into his unsympathetic eyes. My heart races like crazy and not in a good way. “What did you do, Red?” He stares me down and I feel the color drain from my face under his scrutiny. “Did someone slip up and say a little too much last night?”
“For fuck’s sake, Lana,” Marco spits angrily, striding from the room in a huff. It seems I’ve pissed him off as well. I’m surprised he knew about Geovani’s stalking. But he didn’t seem that bothered when I tried to bring it up, so I shouldn’t be.
My lower lip quivers. Get your head together, Harley, you’re not scared of this man, even if he looks mighty threatening right now, with his arms bulging as he holds me. “What did you expect me to do? They were going to take me back to the safe house after we escaped from the madman at the bar. I wasn’t going back there so Enzo could find me, how stupid do I look,” I spit back, giving him the same fire he gave me. Fuck him.
He shakes his head in disappointment, making me feel like a five-year-old about to be sent to my room. Right now, I would welcome the space from him. This kind of intensity is too much. His hands move from my wrists to my arms, lifting me so my feet dangle off the ground, showing just how much power he has over me. “I told you Enzo gets censored videos now, he’s not getting a live feed of anything of value.” His face contorts with anger as he growls, his words dripping with fury.
The tightness of his grip sends waves of pain throughout my body, making it hard to breathe. “Pfft, like I was taking that chance. You don’t know that he hasn’t found another way,” I throw back at him, trying anything I can to get out of the madness I’ve landed myself in.
“And you don’t fucking know that he’s not spying on them at the club.” His grip on me tightens, his fingers digging into my skin. My stomach sinks as I stare back at him, the memory of what I did with Alessandro and Ricky in their office last night weighing heavily on me. “You know what I would do to anyone else in my organization who betrayed me the way you did last night?”
The overwhelming fury in his voice sends my heart into a frenzy, as if it’s on the verge of giving out. I thought I had seen him furious before, but that was nothing compared to the deathly look in his eyes right now. But I didn’t betray him, not really. “I thought I was doing the right thing,” I whisper, not sure what else to say.
“Those boys are your weakness, Red. They will get you killed,” he spits angrily before letting me fall to the concrete floor below, discarding me like I’m a piece of trash. Asshole.
My body aches with fresh bruises bleeding to the surface of my skin. I glare back up at him, my heart beating out of my chest. I feel so out of control. This hellhole is no better than being stuck with the boys. Both spaces are utterly suffocating, ruled by cruel leaders who believe they can manipulate and control me through their constant threats and stringent regulations.
His ragged breath and hardened expression meet my gaze. It seems as though he is struggling to determine how to handle the helpless inconvenience in front of him. That’s all I am, a thorn in his side. I half expect him to pull a gun from behind his back and put me out of my misery. But he doesn’t, he just glares at me, his nostrils flaring.
“What would you do to them?” I finally ask. I need him to show me who he really is.
“They’d already be dead,” he spits out.
And I knew that’s what he was going to say, but something inside of me needed to hear it. Needed proof that he is the ruthless motherfucker I already knew he was. Now that I have it, I can stop painting him as some fucking hero that he’s clearly not. “Who’s Bianca?” I hiss back, my emotions getting the better of me.
He slides his hand down his face. “I’m not having this conversation with you this morning, Red,” he snaps before striding off toward the gym, leaving me alone in a crumpled mess of limbs on the cold floor.
Eventually I pull my knees up into my chest, hugging myself as I stare out the picture window, looking down at the casino below with Maddox’s necklace tightly gripped in my hand, wanting to call for help. I need to escape this apartment. The walls are starting to feel like they’re closing in on me. But landing right back in the arms of the boys isn’t going to help me.
My gaze remains fixed on the ground in front of me, taking in every crack and pebble. I won’t cry over this asshole anymore. He showed me who he is. This is a good thing. Now I harden the fuck up, just like the rest of them, and work on a way out. I have more money than a small country, I should be able to get myself out of this fucked-up mess. I just have to work out how. Bringing Enzo down is at the top of my list.