Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Nicolette
I was locked in my old bedroom from before I left for New York. My father had been dead for several years, but the place was still the same. Someone had paid the rent all this time and kept the place spotless. Not a speck of dust anywhere. I doubted very much that it had been Liam, who seemed hellbent on ruining me. Keeping my childhood alive didn’t seem like his style.
It had to be Gio. Who else would keep the place exactly the same as it had always been? It was still a run-down dump, but keeping it so clean and with fresh flowers in a vase on the table, which my mother had done when I was a child, was very much an act of love, so who else but Gio and Marko?
I’d been right—although it brought me no joy—about Liam and the threat. I was exactly where I should be based on a stupid desire to be free for an hour. What I wouldn’t give to turn back the hands of time and have a redo. And not just on the more recent the decision to follow Hetty, but the one on the day I’d left.
Marko and Gio had been right. I should have told them about Liam. Deep down, I’d never felt good enough to receive all their love and attention. I’d always felt that they’d taken a downgrade when they chose me instead of making an alliance with a mafia family that could add to their standing and provide back-up.
Sure, the average mafia family may have an issue with their offspring becoming a threesome, but I was sure Gio wasn’t the only mafia prince who desired to keep things tight. Marko may not have been his family by blood, but he was definitely his family by choice.
Gio had been lucky to have had the parents he did. Luciano was the most intimidating man I’d ever laid eyes on, and he’d passed that quality on to his sons. All of them were so self-possessed and in control. They’d never make stupid mistakes like the ones I had made. Even after all that time within the family fold and observing them through the good times and the bad, I apparently hadn’t learned the same lessons as the guys.
Every stupid, nasty thought I’d ever entertained about myself came to the surface, spilling into the most self-indulgent negative self-talk. But I couldn’t help that. Amergio had been killed right in front of my eyes. He’d been so young, and beautiful and alive and because of me he was dead.
You don’t deserve to live, Niki, you’ve always been trash. How could you be so stupid Niki?
Hadn’t my father said those very words to me every chance he got?
What do they see in white trash like you? If only your mother had lived, then you could have been her problem.
And on it went until I wanted to shove knives in my ears to block out the voices.
When I was young, I’d always sat on the windowsill in my bedroom, watching the outside world, and dreaming of when I’d be able to get out of this trash heap. And what did I do the moment the opportunity came?
I fell in love with Gio Vitale, and his best friend. I still fit in the confined space and found myself there, despite the thick paper covering the window, holding a picture of the three of us that had been on my bulletin board by my closet. Of course, I’d already tried opening the window by making a hole to access the lock, but it was sealed shut. Through the paper-thin walls, I heard raised voices in heated discussion and caught the occasional word uttered in English.
The conversation switched to Russian, and I recognized a few words. I heard heavy booted steps coming toward my haven. A key unlocked the door, and it swung open.
“Time to go.” Liam Kelly speared me with a dark look. “But before we do…” He stalked toward me, and my entire body tensed. It was like watching my father come toward me just before… And there it was, a slap so hard my ears rang, and blood gushed from my lip, dripping all over the white frame of the window.
“Sorry lass, but I want those fuckers so angry that they’ll slip up.” He grabbed me by my upper arm and tugged me off the sill. “The bait is set.” I was dragged from my childhood apartment and was almost sorry to see it disappear behind us as we drove away, leaving me wondering what fresh hell we were headed to.
Half an hour later, we were on the edge of town at the docks, a place I was very familiar with. I used to tag along with Gio when his father would bring him here to inspect their wine shipments. This was Fausto’s territory and inevitably the two brothers would end up in an endless learning session with their papa while I sat nearby smirking at their discomfort.
The docks were huge, and the Vitales were far from being the only ones with warehouses. They were, however, the only ones who owned the shipping routes, I ‘d learned when I had my visit with Vittoria and Gaby. They’d filled me in on what they could from more recent history, but there were still many years unaccounted for that Marko, Gio and I hadn’t gotten around to sharing yet.
I’d dreamed many times about us having a reunion, where we drank rich Vitale wine and talked deep into the night. That hadn’t happened yet, and if Liam Kelly had his way, it never would.
When Vittoria shared her own story, I’d laughed imagining Romeo in disguise as Mikey, catching her in midair when she’d tried to escape out her bedroom window the day of her wedding. It was so utterly romantic. Gaby's story about being called into Gaetano’s office was super hot and I couldn’t help feeling a little envious.
They’d asked how I’d met Gio and Marko, so I’d told them about my father, and being transferred from East Side High to West Ridge High, meeting the guys the same day.
Vittoira and Gabriella’s jaws dropped when I repeated the conversation with Gio and Marko from that day. Suddenly I wasn’t jealous anymore of ladies unconventional first meetings with their now husbands. What I’d had with my men that day had been special, and if I got another chance, I swore I’d never fuck it up again. But how often in life does one get three chances?
I was left in the vehicle while the men gathered around Liam. By the way he waved his arms this way and that, I assumed he was telling them where to station themselves. This made no sense to me, why would they bring me to such an obvious location?
Then Liam got back in the car and off we went. Now it made sense, the docks were the decoy. He aimed to take out as many as he could before they figured out I wasn’t where they thought.
Hail Mary, full of grace. What have I done?
For the first time in over a decade I prayed in earnest, hoping that the Vitale men and their crew would make it through this safe and sound.
We left the busy city as the sun was making its descent. With the vibrant orange beams reflected on the windows, had this been a different time and place, a different man, or men, this could have been a romantic date rather than a kidnapping.
I watched Liam from my peripheral. With the light reflected, I couldn’t help but notice the network of fine lines around his eyes and the corners of his mouth which seemed set in permanent scowl.
In some weird way, I felt bad for Liam. I had no idea what drove him to his actions but the boy I’d known had morphed somewhere along the way into a stone-cold killer.
He must have felt me watching him and turned his head. “What, lass, find me attractive, do you?”
I chose not to answer his question and instead asked one of my own. “What happened to you, Liam?” There was so much I wanted to know, but the question didn’t come out charged as I’d wished, instead sounding flat.
His brow furrowed. “Are you asking what happened to the neighborhood kid that I was? That was a long bloody time ago. Starvation and responsibility will drive one to do things they never thought possible.”
“What happened to your brothers and sisters?”
His eyes narrowed and at first, I thought he wouldn’t answer. His mouth was set in a grim line. He’d lived a hard life, but I could hardly feel sorry for him. This was all about ambition, climbing to the top.
“Come on, no one is here but us. Just tell me.”
“I can’t tell you. I’d be writing my own death sentence if I did that, but trust me when I say this is for your own good.”
I found the absurdity of this being for my own good so laughable I couldn’t hold it back.
Liam scowled. “When you slipped through my fingers and were no longer a bargaining chip for the Russians to use against the Vitales, they killed my brother, Caelan. He was seventeen years old, Nicolette. Not that you ever gave a shit, but I sure as fuck did.”
Spending most of my time outside of school at the Vitale mansion had removed me from the drama back in the hood and I hadn’t heard about Liam’s brother. Despite feeling a sense of remorse that he’d lost a sibling, that wasn’t what was bothering me about what he’d just shared. After all, his brother dying was on him, not me, but the Russians, what were they doing mixing with the Irish? I had to ask.
“Why would the Irish be working with the Russians in the first place?”
Liam’s scowl deepened. “Stupid girl. Because they had the power and the connections I lacked. Turning on my people for a time was the best way to have the Russians remove all the dead weight in our organization and my competition in one fell swoop.”
Something felt off… “In exchange for what? I can’t see the Russians doing you a solid for nothing, especially after losing me.”
I pondered, trying to connect all the random dots until it came to me, Gabriella’s story about being kidnapped by the Russian mob so they could trade her to her birth father, a Russian Oligarch, in exchange for an ungodly amount of money. My mouth fell open as the realization dawned. “This was never about getting revenge on me or Gio and Marko. Our love triangle was a means to an end, right?”
Liam smirked. “As much as you made an impact on me, Niki, I’ve had my fill of women, thank you very much, but perpetuating that story threw the Vitales off what mattered, didn't it? I outmaneuvered those Italian bastards good!”
I was reeling from this new information. How could we all have been so blind? This had always been about power and money. “It’s about the shipping routes, isn’t it?”
“It’s always been about the routes. Whoever controls them has the keys to the kingdom. We’d had a deal with Vittoria’s father, Don Calogera, but when he brought his unknown heir from Italy, we knew he’d turned on us. Luckily, both father and son died with the Vitales none the wiser to our plan. Through marriage they received what Don Calogera had dangled in front of Don Vitale in the first place. Had we been successful, The Calogera and Vitale riches would have been ours.”
I was sifting through information, storing everything I was learning in case I somehow managed to survive and could fill in the missing pieces for the Vitale brothers. “What happens next? With me I mean.”
“If they manage to fight their way free of the apartment and make it to the docks, the Russians will be waiting for them. And I promise you, Niki, they won’t be outsmarted, not this time.”
He didn’t answer my question, but I was the least important person in the equation. Closing my eyes, I escaped internally to a place where I begged for the guys' safety. Mary, if you’re listening, please don’t let them die.
I must have been lulled to sleep by the praying and the thrumming of the engine, because Liam woke me up when we pulled up in front of a mansion. Judging by the neighborhood, I guessed it was the upper echelon on the outskirts of New York, Scarsdale maybe.
I took a closer look. The place reminded me of Sergei’s weekend home. When we exited the vehicle, the floodlights came on. It was Sergei’s home. What kind of fuckery was this? Was the female Russian voice somehow connected with Sergei? I’d been too worried about the trail of blood being left in the wake of my kidnapping.
Liam tugged me out of the car, holding my wrist in a tight grip. Was he afraid I’d run? I’d like nothing more, but if Gio and Marko made it this far, I wanted to be here when they arrived.
He led me through Sergei’s home, filled with priceless Russian art. That should have been a red flag. The first time I was here with the other high-ranking dancers was for a shmooze fest to entice reluctant investors into parting with their money for a good cause, the arts.
Stupid me, the signs had been there, but I’d been so blinded by my mission to keep Marko and Gio safe and my identity a secret that I’d missed what was right in front of my eyes. Granted, when I’d asked Sergei about the priceless art, he’d said his grandparents had been high-ranking officials and those were gifts from Lenin, the first leader after the fall of the last Romanov emperor.
I remembered being in awe of my surroundings. I’d never seen treasures so old up close. Much of what he had was three hundred years old, or older. The lost relics of a long-forgotten time. I shuddered as I passed through room after room, no longer in awe, but feeling dread build in my belly.
Who would go down with the empire this time? The Vitales, the Kellys, or the Russians? Maybe it would turn out worse and they would kill each other until no one was left. I’d never been one to flourish under emotional duress and I’d learned more in the past few hours than I cared to. Already my body was shutting down, my skin turning to ice. Remembering Amergio’s empty, lifeless eyes had my mind following my body into oblivion.
“Mmm, don’t stop.” Gio’s hands slid around me, eliciting goosebumps on my flesh as he thrummed my nipples. Marko was positioned between my legs, his tongue driving me toward an orgasm.
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
That wasn’t either of their voices. Reality slammed into me like a freight train. My instincts kicking into overdrive had my body backing up the bed as my eyes flew open. Liam sat with a smug expression.
“Sorry lass, but I had to have a taste.” It was then I realized I was completely naked and lying on crimson sheets in a strange room.
“You’re disgusting. Don’t touch me.”
Liam’s eyes hardened, reminding me that I shouldn’t underestimate him, or his depravity.
“May I remind you that you're my prisoner, and I can do whatever I want with you.”
“They will kill you,” I answered, praying I was right, and they’d get the chance.
“Doubtful, I mean look at you. Used goods, washed-up career, never made much money and you’re too scrawny to be arm candy. What good did your presence ever do for those two? I’ll tell you, nothing. All you ever were is a problem, Niki. You couldn’t even fend off your old man. You had no value then and you have even less now. Think about that while I’m killing your precious lovers.”
He stalked from the room, slamming the door, and I heard the lock slipping into place. I was alone and wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were cameras hiding so the creep could watch me strolling around naked.
Tugging on the sheet, I wrapped it around myself. There were two closed doors inside the room, and I prayed one was the bathroom. Finding it behind door number two, I scanned the small space for cameras but didn’t see any. I even investigated the vent in the ceiling. Still unsure if I was being watched, I kept the sheet tucked around me while I awkwardly went pee.
I stared at the shower wondering if I dare step in and attempt to unfreeze my limbs. Liam’s words pulled at me. Unworthy, too scrawny. Hadn’t my father always said so? I had no idea what the guys saw in me and maybe Liam and my father were right. Maybe I wasn’t good enough.
Without warning, my body became too heavy to hold up and I stumbled back to the bed and climbed beneath the blankets. Hiding in the dark, I drifted into oblivion.