Episode Ten
“ B abe, your family is here,” Travis groans. His arm tightens around my waist, pulling my back closer against his chest.
“How do you know it’s my family?” I ask him.
“No one else is getting into this house and making that kind of fucking noise, Lil,” he grunts.
He’s right, but I’m still not getting up. “They’re your family too, so you can deal with them. I’ve been dealing with them my whole life. I’m tagging out.”
“You can’t tag out of your family.” He chuckles.
“I just need five more minutes,” I groan, burying myself deeper under the covers. I don’t care if my family is burning my house down right now. I’m not getting out of this bed.
“I’ll get up, but only because I love you.” Travis kisses my forehead. “And you’re fucking grouchy when you’re tired,” he adds before pushing up from the mattress.
When I wake up again, it’s to the noise of my brother’s voice yelling out a rapid string of curse words in Italian. I shoot out of bed. This can’t be good. I know Travis can hold his own against my family, but my brother has a trigger-happy finger that he’s quick to pull.
I run downstairs and through the house, following the noise. I find everyone in the games room. By everyone, I mean Travis, my brother and his girlfriend, two of my cousins, Josie, and my Zio Romeo. At my abrupt entrance, they all turn to look at me.
“What the hell are you all yelling about?” I ask, my eyes bouncing from face to face.
Alessandro is standing by the pool table with a cue in his hands.
Travis is on the opposite side. He quickly throws his cue down and storms towards me while ripping the t-shirt he was wearing over his head before trying to tug it over mine.
I shove him away from me and step back. “What are you doing?”
“Putting clothes on you, since you forgot to do that yourself,” Travis says, coming at me with that damn shirt again.
I look down at myself. I’m wearing a pair of sleep shorts and a cami, sans a bra. Sure, I could have put a few more layers on, but no one here is checking me out. Well, no one besides Travis anyway.
“Why are you yelling in my house?” I step around Travis to glare at Alessandro.
“I wasn’t yelling. I was talking passionately,” my brother replies.
“He lost ten grand to your boyfriend.” Cassidy laughs. “Again.”
I turn to Travis. “Stop betting against my brother. You know he can’t beat you,” I tell him.
Alessandro scoffs from behind me. I spin back around with my hands on my hips and tilt my head at him. “Yell in my house again like that and I’m going to have Papa rip your damn tongue out of your head.”
“He wouldn’t do that to me,” my brother says a little too confidently.
“Sure about that?” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“Nope.” Alessandro shakes his head from side to side.
Then I turn back to the rest of the room. “What are you all doing here?” No one answers me. Everyone goes silent as I look at Zio Romeo.
Running a hand through his hair, he sighs. “Your father sent us,” he says. “There’s been some threats against the family and he wanted us here with you.”
“What threats? From whom?” I ask him, although I know he’s not going to divulge that kind of information to me.
“Just some fuckers who think they can take us on. He’ll have it handled in the next couple of days, and then you can kick us out. Until then, I’m starving. What have you got to eat in this place?” Zio Romeo calls over a shoulder as he walks out of the room.
I follow him into the kitchen. “Where are Tilly and Zia Livvy?” I find it hard to believe he’d leave them in New York and come here if the family was under threat.
“They’re at Antonio’s,” he says.
“And you just left them? With him?” I’m sure he can hear the disbelief in my tone.
“Okay, look, I don’t want you to freak out, because we have it under control,” he says.
“Freak out about what exactly?” I press him.
“The threat isn’t against the family as a whole,” he says. “It’s against Travis.”
“What?” I screech, and not even a second later, Travis comes running into the room.
“What’s going on?” he asks. He’s now holding out my robe to me. I snatch it from his hand and shove my arms through the sleeves before knotting the tie around my waist.
“It’s fine. We’re handling it, Lil,” Zio Romeo says.
“It’s not fine. What’s the threat? What’s been said?”
“ That, I’m not telling you,” he replies. “Some things you can’t unhear.”
“What’s going on?” Travis asks again.
“There’s no threat against the family,” I tell him. “Just you, apparently.”
“What threat?” Travis wraps his arms around my shoulders before pulling me against his chest.
“It’s nothing either of you need to worry about. Like I said, it’ll be handled in a few days,” Zio Romeo tells him.
“Fine, it’s nothing we need to worry about.” I turn in Travis’s arms. “Let’s go to the market. I want fresh flowers.” I smile up at him. And I swear every time I look at this man, I swoon.
“You wanna go to the market?” he asks.
“Yep.” I nod my head.
“You’re not leaving the house, Liliana,” Zio Romeo grunts.
I wink at Travis, then spin back around to face my uncle. I put on a huge fake-ass smile. “But you just said it was nothing we needed to worry about. That means we can go out,” I remind him in a sugary-sweet voice.
“Jesus Christ, the females in this family are going to be the death of me,” Zio Romeo hisses under his breath. He straightens up and aims a finger in my direction. “You didn’t hear this from me.”
I nod eagerly at his warning. “Got it.”
“Your apartment in the city was broken into. Whoever it was left a note that mentioned some things about Travis.”
“What kinds of things?” I ask.
“Things I’m not going to repeat. Let’s just say… some delusional fuck is obsessed with you, Liliana, and sees Travis as an obstacle to getting you,” Zio Romeo says.
I don’t have to remind him that it wouldn’t be the first time. A cold shiver runs down my spine at the memory.
“Can’t say I blame the poor fucker. I mean, it’s not hard to be obsessed with you, Lil.” Travis kisses the side of my head before letting go of me and walking farther into the kitchen. “I wouldn’t read too much into it. I’m not afraid of some lunatic with a hard-on for my fiancée,” he says while opening the fridge.
“We’re not taking chances with either of you. This asshole was stupid enough to threaten a Valentino, or at least a Valentino adjacent. We don’t take threats lightly,” Zio Romeo grinds out between clenched teeth.
“Valentino adjacent?” I repeat.
“Well, yeah, he’s not a Valentino. But he’s with you. So Valentino adjacent .” Zio Romeo smiles.
“Do we have any idea who this guy is?” I ask him.
“No, but it’d help if you gave me a list of names,” Alessandro chimes in, walking into the kitchen.
“Names of what?”
“Guys you’ve dated. Other than Travis, obviously.” My brother smirks at the look that comes across my uncle’s face. It’s the same look on Travis’s face right now.
“I don’t have a list. And if I did, I’m not handing that over to you or anyone else.”
“Why not? It’s not like it’s gonna be long. What? Two? Three guys?” Alessandro presses.
“I don’t need to hear this,” Travis grunts.
“Yeah, not something I wanna hear either, but I’d like to be able to find the fucker who’s obsessed with my sister. So, Lil, list.” Alessandro hands me his phone.
I take it and sit down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter. “Might as well get comfy. This could take a while.” I smirk at my brother.
“Fuck me.” He scrubs a hand down his face.
“How long exactly?” Travis asks.
I shrug. “How long is a piece of string?”
I’m totally just fucking with them at this point. My list isn’t all that difficult to type out. Five guys. I’ve dated a total of five guys before Travis. It’s not easy dating when your last name is Valentino and you’re female. While it’s too easy for the men in my family. They can do whatever they want without consequences. But us girls? We get watched. Any guy who gets close to us is threatened away. Usually at gunpoint.
After about thirty minutes of trying to keep a straight face while my brother, my uncle, and my fiancée all pace around the kitchen, I finally hand the phone back to Alessandro.
He looks down at the list, up at me, then back at the list. “That’s it?”
“Yep,” I say, popping my P at the end.
“It took you that long to write five names?” He shakes his head.
“No, but it was just too entertaining to watch you all freak out.” I shrug. “Now, I’m going back to bed. Try not to wake me up again.” My hand lands on my brother’s chest. “If you do, I’m telling Papa it was you who scratched his Porsche back when we were in elementary school.”
“That was you.” Alessandro smirks. “I lied to cover for you, Lil.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t know that. Who do you think he’ll believe?” I’m totally playing on me being our father’s favorite. I’m not. But it’s a running joke in our house that I am. He loves us both equally. My brother and I know that. Our father is just a little more protective over me with the whole being a girl thing. “Travis, I need you upstairs,” I say as I walk away.
It’s not long before I hear Travis’s footsteps sneaking up behind me.