Chapter 48 Serafina
SERAFINA
Icouldn’t help myself. It was too easy.
Lev’s body crashes into the pool with a loud curse. Using years of practice, my legs kick me far away, gaining distance before his own paddling catches up.
Instead of splashing, the pool goes silent, and I stop, twisting right as a hand grips my ankle and yanks me beneath the water. Pressure builds over my head, and my arms scramble to return to the surface, even though Lev would never drown me.
Because he cares about me.
The people who care most about me are Madre, Zeno, and Nero, but Lev’s admittance was nothing like Madre’s forehead kisses or Zeno’s hugs.
Lev’s care is more. It’s heavier—a weight on my heart. It has the power to rip it in two if this ends badly. It’s everything light and right. It’s sun on a warm day, a hot drink on a winter night. It’s cookies at Christmas and champagne on New Year’s.
The grip around my ankle releases to let me return to the surface, and I rub a hand down my face to clear away most of the water from my eyes. Lev pops up beside me, looking even more ominous than he did sitting beside the pool.
“I’m wet because of you.”
“Now you know how I feel every time you touch me.” I wink before moving back a few feet before he finds it in himself to drown me again.
He follows, treading the water too easy for a man fully clothed. “You’re playing a dangerous game, printessa.”
“Ah, but I’m winning, and that’s all that matters.” He lunges, creating a large splash, and a light feeling blooming in my stomach pushes me out of his trajectory. I giggle, a sound that betrays today’s grimness. “At least I made you put down your phone.”
“Am I supposed to thank you for that?” He bears down on me, a predator I’m finding myself becoming too tired—too enthralled—to swim from anymore.
Still, I swing my arms through the water, splashing him. When the waves die down, he appears in front of me, backing me into the nearest wall. Water makes his mixed hair nearly black, dripping down the side of his face. His arms come around me, his smile threatening pain and promising love.
I touch the corner of his mouth. “There he is. I missed seeing you smile.”
“Today didn’t give me much of a reason.”
“I know,” I murmur, stroking the side of his face until my hand comes around to the back of his neck, fingering strands of hair clumped to his neck. “I’m sorry for being the cause.”
“I don’t want your apology.”
“No? Then what do you want?”
“You.”
“You’ll always have me.”
I expect some sort of heated comment; instead, I get his small head shake. He pushes off the wall and away. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
He treads towards the staircase, but I grasp his elbow, twisting him back around. “What if I can keep it? Let me prove it to you right here, right now.”
“Not here. Location considering, let’s leave something untouched.”
My heart pangs when he lifts himself onto the stairs and out of the water, pacing the length of the pool back to the other side. He takes a seat again, his legs stretched stiffly in front of him.
Not wanting him to retreat into his head too much, I decide to join him. Swimming the pool, I lift myself out and spread my towel over both our laps.
Minutes pass, and he does nothing but glare at the stars. Every so often, his lips move like he’s speaking, but nothing verbal comes out. Five in total before the voice I adore fills the calm air, but his question makes it tense.
“What did Vitale talk to you about?”
“Reminding me of his expectations.” And you. “He’s annoyed you took my virginity—he guessed, all things considered. He doesn’t care if we continue until the wedding, but afterwards, I’m not to see you again.”
If he’s disappointed or upset, I’ll never know.
Because he remains silent.
Nero has some ungodly sleep schedule, so before anyone wakes, I slip downstairs to ask him for a change of clothing for Lev. He’s alone, making coffee when I reach the kitchen, swinging inside with my grip on the doorframe to balance me.
“Hey, I’m stealing some of your clothes. Please don’t ask questions.”
He turns from the coffee machine. “Mini-Mancini, you know me better than that. But you won’t look so good in my stuff.”
“They’re for Lev.” And there it is.
His eyes dart out of the kitchen and back, his brows now completely disappeared into his hair. “Sera, you didn’t…?”
In the past, yes, but not last night.
“I was swimming last night to clear my head. Lev found me after you all went to bed, and we got to talking. For fun, I yanked him into the pool. I doubt his clothes dried fully overnight.”
Nero, being in the organization years prior to my birth, witnessed more than I could ever imagine, which means he probably sees through my lie. If he does, his regular playfulness returns with a shrug. “Sure. Grab whatever. I won’t ask questions until your brother does.”
Upstairs, I let myself into Nero’s room, skipping over the carpet of clothing to find his closet and root around for clean clothes, ending up with track pants and a plain tee that should fit Lev. With them draped over one arm, I head down to the guest room.
A quick knock, and he opens the door in only his boxers, his bare abs a display I can’t be looking at with Zeno’s room down the hall. “Here.” I shove the stuff at him. “Dry clothes.”
He bundles them closer, shielding himself from me. “Thanks. See you in a bit.”
Taking the dismissal, I turn back to my own room.
“You’re not coming?” Vanessa asks in a near-whine as she hugs Zeno goodbye.
He shakes his head. “I should go check on Madre.”
Earlier, I asked to visit her before flying back to Moscow, but Zeno mentioned having Elio, his Captain, take her out of the country—location undisclosed to everyone but himself and Nero—until the wedding. He doesn’t want to call Alessio’s bluff. It’s good she’s safe.
“Is she mad?”
“Sì, but not at you. She’s annoyed with me.”
“You?” I release him from his hug. “What did you do?”
He sighs, rubbing a hand over his neck. “Didn’t end this. Didn’t kill Alessio before you offered yourself up. Stood there while he handed you his ring… I could go on. In her mind, my faults are stacked high.”
“Well, at least it’s you she’s mad at for once and not me. I swear, she’s spent the last few years complaining about everything I do.”
“That’s because you never stayed in one place for long. Constantly running off with your friends. Forgetting curfew, which we both know is bullshit. I should have expected nothing less.”
“Because you too were a pain in her ass?” With the age gap between us, he was close to being inducted by the time I was born.
Zeno rests his arm over my shoulder and steers me towards the vehicle Lev and Anastasia already sit inside, Vanessa by the passenger door. Nero’s in the driver’s seat, opting to drive us to the Bratva plane while Zeno visits Madre.
“Because Vanessa was correct the other day. For many reasons, I’m glad you were raised away from all this, but in the end, the mob is part of you. Madre came from the Costa clan, and the Bratva makes up half of you. It was bound to emerge at some point. I’m sorry it had to be for this.”
“Wow. I never thought those words would come from your mouth.”
“They’re hard to admit but truthful either way.
Regardless,” his voice raises as we stop beside the vehicle, “return to school and enjoy the month. Try not to think about Vitale. I’ll visit, since there’s no point in trying to hide you.
Lev will continue attending your classes because, deal or not, risking you isn’t worth it.
Last thing I need is Alessio kidnapping you. ”
With that dreadful parting comment, I slip into the backseat beside Anastasia, who’s taken the middle seat this time. Lev barely spares me a glance.
After Vanessa and Zeno say a final goodbye, Nero drives us to the Bratva jet. I’m more than ready to return since Italy is now tainted with him.
Vanessa goes to speak with the pilot while Nero pulls me into a hug. “See you in a month when you’re back for the wedding of the century.” He smirks before his own amusement flattens. “Say the word, and I’ll hunt his ass.”
“I already offered.” Anastasia comes up beside us, pouting. “I’ve done more than enough mercenary work to make it look like an accident. Zeno’s insisting the Commission will blame him.”
Nero drags his gaze up the length of her, stopping on her face. “Mercenary, hm? That all?”
Her arms cross, hip cocked. “Say what’s on your mind, Amato, and be careful how you word it.”
Taking that as my cue, I duck from under Nero’s arm and into plane, where Lev is waiting by the base of the stairs. “I’m excited to get out of here.”
Jaw tight, he stares out across the airfield. “Me too, Fina. Me fucking too.”
“I want to pretend the next month isn’t happening.”
“It won't be that easy.” His eyes dart to my left hand and away before he abruptly heads up the stairs.
Vanessa, finished with the pilot, arrives to hear the ending. Her hand rests on my shoulder as she leans into me for an embrace. “He’ll come around. Let him get his anger out.”
“Thing is, I can’t even blame him.”
“My father is still the villain, and he’s long dead. If I couldn’t hate him even more…” She angles me up the steps. “Ready to go home?”
“Ready to hide, that’s for certain.”