Chapter 31
31
RAVEN
The one where you pick sides and realize you belong with the enemy more than you ever belonged with the allies.
I t had been a week.
A week of staying with my dad, wanting to murder anyone who looked at me or asked how I was holding up, as if I was standing in front of a wall making sure it didn’t fall.
My sister was the worst.
“I wasn’t there for you.”
“I’m so sorry. I suck, here let me bake you bread.”
“I’ll watch the baby!”
“All men suck.”
I genuinely think she thought she was helping when she really wasn’t.
I missed Ace. He’d freaking killed that woman in cold blood and within a day we had a hand written note announcing he was the new boss of La Nebbia.
Just like that, anther De Lange had chosen sides.
Dad actually smiled when he read the note like the news made him happy.
Ivan did the same thing.
Clearly, they had all lost their minds.
When I asked them anything about Ace they refused to answer me.
A knock sounded at my door.
Bella waltzed in, radiant in her white sun dress.
“Hey, I’m going to take Lily with me for a picnic under the tree—it’s like five feet from the house, but it’s good to be outside.”
She was already reaching for her before I could answer.
“Oh,” She made a face.
“Maybe put on some lip gloss and…pants.”
I wasn’t wearing pants?
I looked down.
I was in nothing but Ace’s long T-shirt.
“Right.”
“Go out front, I heard you had a package.” She shrugged like it was normal for me to get packages at my dad’s house, which it wasn’t.
In fact, most packages weren’t even delivered to the house on account of they could go boom and kill us all.
Intrigued, I put on a pair of jeans and added a fresh new T-shirt.
I slammed a black hat on and power walked down the hall.
Where were all the men?
Weird.
I made it to the front door and frowned.
Why was it already open?
I took a step outside and stared.
Ace stood on the front porch.
He was wearing a fitted black suit that looked too good on him.
Messy hair still present, he shoved his hands into his pocket.
“You like words, right?”
I smiled through my tears.
“I’ve been told I talk too much.”
“I believe it.” He took another step toward me.
“And poems, do you like those?”
“Yes.”
“I have one for you, some might call it a famous poem, I call it a riddle, would you like to hear it? Since your life is mine?”
Hot tears burned the backs of my eyes.
“Since our lives are yours—I’ll listen.”
“I’ll only ask one question after and then I’ll leave.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say don’t.
Instead I just stood there.
“Alright.”
He reached for me and grabbed both hands in his.
“The Road Not Taken.”
My tears spilled over onto my cheeks.
“By Robert Frost.”
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ? —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
“I choose you and Lily, but the road…” I shook my head.
“It’s not one I’ve traveled or would wish for you.” He pulled me close until his forehead touched mine.
“It’s your choice.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“Are you on this road with me?”
“I’m the one trying to read the map,” he rasped.
“I’m just not very good with words or direction.”
“Ah, so the enemy needs me?”
He tucked my hair behind my ears.
“More than you will ever know.”
I stood on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his mouth and said.
“We accept.”
“Thought you would say that.” My dad’s voice came from behind me.
I turned around. His blue eyes landed on Ace behind me then back on me.
“This isn’t the path I would have chosen.”
I walked up to him, all my life he’d been the protector, the savior, everything to me and I’d always wondered what parts of him I got since it felt like they all went to Tempest. I almost laughed when it suddenly dawned on me.
I got bits and pieces of his darkness, his determination, and his need to forge his own path, something new, something he was told not to do.
At a young age he was pulled into the mafia after being told not to do it and he did it anyway, he took over the family anyway, he made the hard choices.
My mom was standing behind him with Bella.
Both of them were paying too close of attention to Lily to even care what conversation was going on with us.
It was always life or death.
It was always like this.
It would always be like this.
“I want my own path.” I crossed my arms. “The way you did when the uncles told you not to leave New York. They hid you away to protect you.” His dad was the infamous Luca Nicolasi, Grandma Joyce had been an Alfero through marriage.
Long story short she had an affair with Luca Nicolasi.
They had two children, my dad and my Aunt Val.
“You’ve always searched for home even though we told you, you were in it.” He shared a look with Ace.
“I think you found it.”
“I have.”
Bella walked over to me.
“The car seat’s already in there. I told them not to be idiots and that you’d make your choice, see aren’t you glad I told you to wear pants?”
“You should have hinted at makeup and brushing my hair too.” I glared.
“But yes, thank you.”
“I could have done without pants.” Ace just had to say earning a glare from my dad.
“Nothing wrong with a beautiful naked woman.”
Dad reached for his gun.
Ace gave him a knowing look.
“Can’t kill me, remember?”
I took Lily in my arms. “Let’s go.”
I knew if I waited any longer I’d think more, and I wanted to leave with my husband, with my family.
It would be tedious this new relationship.
I quickly put Lily in the car seat and closed the door just to turn around and see Ace fire off two shots, one in my dad’s shoulder and one in Ivan’s.
“A guest should never walk away without leaving a gift.” He blew them a kiss and got into the car.
I didn’t scream.
I stared straight ahead and kept my hands in my lap.
Once we were through the gate and on the road, I smacked him in the shoulder “You shot them!”
He turned down the road.
“They were expecting nothing less. We’re La Nebbia, they know it, we know it, now it’s a game of cat and mouse and trying to stay alive.”
“Dangerous.”
“You chose the path.”
“Because you were on it,” I reminded him.
Lily was already fast asleep in her car seat as he took another turn and went down a winding road a few miles from my parents’ house.
At the very end of the driveway was a huge brick two story home.
There was a barn, horses in the nearby field, an extensive garden.
“I think I like this better than campus.”
“Thought so.” He reached for my hand.
“Lily’s room is ready—I just?—”
A knock sounded on the window.
Just in time.
“Hi, Sara, can you take Lily to her room? I need to talk with Raven.”
Sara was in her mid-sixties and was the only nanny we were allowed to have, meaning we had another pair of eyes on us in the house.
When she left, I kissed Raven’s hand and whispered low against it.
“We live with the enemies, we must become closer then family—in order to protect ours and yours, in order to peel away the layers and find who’s at the root. Are you with me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He jumped from behind the wheel and walked over to my side of the car, jerked open the door, pulled me out, tossed me onto his shoulder and carried me into the house.
I didn’t have time to appreciate the kitchen or the halls or the stairway until he carried me into a giant room that had windows overlooking a pond.
“It’s so pre?—”
“Strip.” He dumped me on the bed.
“I want to watch.”
Oh yes, I definitely chose the right path.
I fumbled with my jeans and tossed my T-shirt into the corner, nothing about how I was stripping was sexy but I needed him, wanted him.
“I need to taste you.” He shrugged out of his suit.
“And then we’ll have a normal family dinner. I’ll love on Lily we’ll make this a home but right now—” His jaw flexed.
“I need you.”
“Yes.” I reached for him, grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him down on top of me.
He kicked off the last of his clothes and thrust into me in one fell swoop.
Pinning me to the new bed, making me his.
Ace crushed his mouth to mine.
“Missed you.”
I wrapped a possessive leg around him.
“Keep me.”
With a moan his hips moved, the kiss deepened. “Done.”