Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Valentina
I pushed through the back door and raced into the kitchen. “I’m here, I’m here. I’m sorry I’m late!”
The kitchen staff were at their stations, working, while Giovanni was in discussions with his sous chef. Everyone glanced up at my arrival, a sea of confused faces staring back at me.
I plopped my bag—my old purse, the one I’d carried for years—onto the stainless prep counter. Before I could say anything more, Roberto limped out from inside the office. “Ciao, signorina. Did you need something?”
“I’m here for the meeting.” I gathered my hair and dragged it into a messy bun on the top of my head. “I’m so glad you all waited for me before starting.”
“Val, bella. Come. Sit with me. Let’s talk.”
I glanced around the kitchen, but everyone was already back at work to prep for tonight’s dinner service. Roberto tugged on my arm and led me into the dining room. He held out a chair for me, so I lowered myself down and put my purse on the floor. After he sat, I said, “What’s going on? Was the meeting canceled?”
“The meeting was three hours ago.”
I jolted in my chair. “No, that can’t be right.” Leaning down, I fished my cell out of my purse and opened my calendar app. “No, no, no. I’m sure I had the time as?—”
Shit.
I missed the meeting.
My calendar showed the right time, but I hadn’t double-checked, instead relying on my memory. Which was spotty at best these days. Ever since Luca left, in fact.
“Damn.” I tossed my phone back in my purse and lowered my head into my hands. “What in the world is wrong with me?”
“Bella,” he said gently, as if about to break bad news. “You don’t need to push yourself so hard. Take some time off?—”
“I do not need to take time off. There is nothing wrong with me.” Except for heartbreak, but I’d get over that soon. I had to. “I’m fine.”
“You are not fine. You have lost two people who are very important to you.”
Luca and my father. Flavio left town the second Luca did, saying it wasn’t safe for him here. He promised to contact me from a burner phone every now and again, but he wouldn’t tell me where he was going.
But that loss was nothing compared to Luca’s betrayal.
I shook my head. “Like I said, I’m fine. I need to be here, helping to run things.”
“We can manage for a few days. You could stay with your friend Maggie. Or?—”
“Roberto, I’m not going to disappear and sulk. I need to keep busy. I’m sorry I missed the meeting, but I can’t sit around at home and feel sorry for myself.”
“You are very stubborn.”
“Yes, I know. You’re the one who should be taking time off. Your leg isn’t even healed yet.”
He waved his hand in that elegant Italian fashion. “It’s nothing. A scratch.”
“Now who’s lying?”
“Ciao, Val!” a deep voice called from across the room. Gabi came out from the back with a beer keg on his shoulder. He looked so much like a younger version of Luca that it physically hurt to look at him. I’d been avoiding him, actually. Partly because of Gabi’s resemblance, but mainly because I didn’t know what to say. Your dad’s a dick and he lied to me, and oh, did you know he was planning to kidnap me?
Gabi set the keg on the ground and straightened. “Come stai? You missed the meeting.”
Ugh. “Yes, I know. The day got away from me somehow.”
His mouth twisted in a sympathetic smile.
Roberto’s phone buzzed, so he got up from the table. “Perdonami, signorina.”
I was left alone at the table, feeling like a failure. A failure at love, a failure at work. Wow, I was really crushing life this week.
It has to get better.
It had to. I couldn’t eat or sleep. I could barely focus. All I wanted was to stay in bed and watch cooking shows on my phone. When would this terrible ache leave my chest?
You hold my heart and my soul, fiore mio. Per sempre.
Maybe, but he didn’t love me. He wanted to sleep with me, maybe keep me around as a mistress for a few weeks. But he’d lied to me—and I would never believe another word he said.
“Come,” Gabi said, waving me over to the bar. “Sit, bella. Keep me company while I work.”
Roberto wasn’t returning, so I got up and went to the bar. When I was settled, Gabi poured me a glass of juice. “Drink that. It’ll help.”
“I doubt it, but thank you.” I sipped the juice and blinked in surprise. “I thought this was orange juice.”
“Bergamot juice. Popular in Italia. Do you like it?”
“It’s good. Tart. Not as sweet as orange juice.”
“I keep it around to impress the ladies,” he said with a wink .
I toyed with the glass and peeked up at him through my lashes. “You don’t have to stay, you know. I don’t need to be babysat.” Or spied on, whichever the case may be.
“I’m not going anywhere. I like it here.”
“Gabi, come on.” I tapped my fingernail against the glass. “You could be back home, doing more than cutting limes and lemons.”
“My father asked me to stay and look after you. This is a great responsibility because you mean everything to him.”
I couldn’t help it—a snort emerged. “We both know that isn’t true.”
He put down the knife he was using and braced his hands on the bar. “Val. Bella. How can you not see this? He has never allowed a woman into his life before. Leo and I have never met any of his women, other than our mothers, because he keeps them separate, capisce?”
This was immaterial. “Your father is a liar.”
“He’s not. But he is a man with great responsibilities on his shoulders, and sometimes he hurts people without realizing it.”
The way Gabi said it . . . “Has he hurt you?”
He straightened and took up the knife again. “I am a second son. The focus has always been on Leo, the heir. As it should be.”
“Not at the detriment of your mental health.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Our world isn’t so concerned about mental health. But being here has helped.”
“You mean at the restaurant?”
“Yes, but New York in general. I like having something to do.”
“You were bored at home?”
“Not bored, but my father kept me protected from most of the family business. I mostly drove old men around.”
“It’s better than being shot at.”
“Are you kidding? I’d much rather be shot at than listen to old men fart and blow their noses all day.”
He’d rather be shot at? I couldn’t pretend to understand it. “I would never let a son of mine into that world. ”
He shook the knife at me. “Never say never, Val. My father will return one day.”
And what? Knock me up? No, thank you. And even if he did, I wouldn’t turn my child over to the mafia. “Can we please talk about something else? I’m done thinking about your dad.”
“Allora, then we will talk about something else. You need to move back into the mansion.”
“What?” My back went ramrod straight in horror. “No way. I’m staying at my house. Why in the world would I move back into that mansion?”
“Because it’s safer. And I’m tired of sleeping in my car every night.”
“You don’t need to sleep in your car. Get a room at the inn.”
“Staying at the inn won’t allow me to keep watch over you.”
Shock rooted me to the spot, frozen. “You’re . . . sleeping in your car outside my house? Why?”
“I promised my father to watch over you. I will not let him down.”
“Gabi, nothing is going to happen to me. You don’t need to follow me around.”
“I will not let him down,” he repeated, his attention on his cutting board.
“Oh, my god.” I put my face in my hands. “This is ridiculous?—”
His phone vibrated on the bar, the word FRATELLO on the display. Was this Leo calling?
Smiling, Gabi wiped his hands and lifted his mobile to his ear. “Pronto.”
I could hear deep rapid Italian on the other end, and Gabi’s smile instantly died. “Che cazzo?” he wheezed. “No, no, no. Non capisco.”
Olive skin paling, he listened as Leo went on, and I began to worry. Was this something about Luca?
I didn’t care. Luca and I were history. His mafia problems were not my problems.
I nibbled my fingernail, wondering if I should leave while Gabi went back and forth with his brother. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it sounded personal. Maybe Leo was in trouble.
Before I could get up, Gabi disconnected. Carefully, he set his phone on the bar.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when he didn’t say anything. “What happened?”
He swallowed. “My father is in prison. He’s been arrested by the Guardia di Finanza. They oversee?—”
“I know who they are.” My ears were ringing now, an orchestra of horror filling my head. Arrested? Luca? “What the hell? He told me that he had people in place to make sure this kind of thing didn’t happen.”
“He does. We do. I don’t know what the fuck happened. Leo is on his way to Roma. We’ll learn more then.”
I couldn’t wait that long. My heart was pounding hard inside my chest, about to explode. I needed information now . “Call Sergio.” I nudged his phone closer to him, my voice raising dramatically. “Ask him what’s going on.”
Gabi picked up his phone and unlocked it, while I tried to keep from freaking out. Oh, my god . Luca was in prison .
This was crazy. How had he allowed himself to get arrested?
Stomach clenching, I thought of him behind bars, caged in a tiny cell. Was he hurt? Were the guards treating him okay? I bet he was pissed to be away from his family and men.
Gabi was waiting for someone to pick up. “Zio, che cazzo?”
I folded my hands and rested my knuckles against my lips, almost like I was begging with the universe for this not to be true. I couldn’t understand what Sergio was saying, but Gabi’s dour expression only turned more dour. The news was not good.
Shit, shit, shit.
When Gabi rang off I nearly pounced across the bar. “What did he say?”
“My father walked into the GDF headquarters and was arrested. ”
“He walked in ?” This made no sense. “Why in the world would he do that? He had to know they would arrest him.”
“I don’t know, but Sergio said we’re keeping that part quiet. As far as everyone knows, the GDF arrested Luca.”
This had to be a pride thing. To admit you’d walked directly into your own arrest was humiliating. “Now what? Does Sergio have the lawyers working on getting Luca out?”
Gabi put his elbows on the bar and leaned over, his forehead resting on his arms. “No. He hasn’t spoken to the lawyers yet.”
“So Luca wants to stay in prison?”
“I’m not sure if he’s refusing or if the officers won’t allow it.”
“But that’s not fair. Aren’t there rules against that?”
“In Italia? Yes, but it’s not like here. The process could take months, years. They haven’t even brought him before a judge yet to formally press charges.”
This couldn’t be happening. I thought prison was a bad thing, a place all mobsters wished to avoid. “Does this make any sense to you?”
Gabi raised his head and his eyes were flat. “Not at all. Val?—”
He bit off what he was about to say. “What?”
“I need to go back. I have to be there for him, for Leo. For my uncles. I . . . ” He swallowed. “And I think you should come with me.”
I licked my dry lips, my head still spinning with all I’d just learned. “Why would I go with you?”
“First, because I promised to look after you. I can’t go back if you’re here. And second, maybe you can talk some sense into him. Convince him to see the lawyer. He will listen to you.”
“You don’t know that. He’s incredibly stubborn.”
“I think you have the best chance of any of us. Leo brought it up, and I agree.”
“Leo thinks you should bring me to Italy?”
He nodded. “Obviously, I won’t force you. But I’m begging you to come talk to him.” He put his palms together and shook his hands at me. “Per favore, bella. Help my family. Help my father see reason.”
Roberto joined us at the bar and I filled him in on what was happening with Luca. “I can’t believe this,” he said.
“Me neither.” Glancing down, I checked my phone. But there were no texts, no calls. If Luca had access to any form of communication, he hadn’t wasted it on me. “Luca’s family wants me to go and talk to him.”
“You should,” Roberto said instantly. “Italian jail, it is a dangerous place for a man like Luca. The longer he stays in there, the harder it will be to get out.”
“What about the restaurant? I can’t leave. You’re injured and we’ve just reopened.”
“Signorina, this is why you hired us. We will be fine.”
My throat hurt from the giant ball of emotion lodged there. While I was still angry at Luca, I didn’t want to see him suffer, rotting away in some dirty prison with men who would hurt him. Could I help? I wasn’t sure. But I couldn't stay here and do nothing. I needed to see him, make sure he was okay.
I met Gabi’s worried gaze. “I guess we’re going to Italy.”