Chapter 30 #2
An hour later, she walked from the water dripping wet and sinfully beautiful, but for her purple lips.
I wrapped her up in a towel, then handed her the already wilting weeds.
She blinked for seconds, staring at the sad bouquet.
I felt like a pauper. My throat closed around an apology until she looked up with the brightest smile.
Then I was a king. In the next second, she threw her arms around my shoulders and kissed me as a thank you for the paltry gift.
A giddy throb of pleasure settled in my bones, spreading to my fingertips that dug into her ass.
I silently promised her kittens and puppies, stormy nights followed by mornings full of rainbows, anything she wanted, even babies, but only after we marched beyond the gates of hell.
We walked hand in hand to the cottage, and once inside, I started breakfast while she went for her second shower. When she came out, wrapped in another towel, she tore through her bag on the bed, and when she didn’t find what she wanted, she looked through mine.
“What do you need, uccello?” I asked. A stretch of silence pulled my attention from the bacon spitting grease in the frying pan to Vivi.
Her brow furrowed as she looked down at the two phones she held—both were mine.
I lowered the flame, then moved to her side and retrieved a third cell from a pocket in my bag.
I’d meant to give it to her when we returned home, but she found it before I had the chance to explain.
“This belongs to you,” I said as I handed it over.
The V between her brows deepened. “But why?”
“It’s untraceable, other than to me. When you carry this, I’ll always know where you are. Always, Vivi. Don’t let it go. See?” I took the others from her hand. “This one is Cabello property. The other is a replica of the one you now own.”
I punched in the code and held up the texting window with messages from Caden. If I gave her my truth, maybe she would share hers. I scrolled through the bubbles and explained what Dami found in the field after the funeral.
“Caden is a friend of mine from the Navy. He has high-ranking connections in the government, and I asked him to find the owner of an unmarked, very rare 339 rifle. He tagged it back to a buyer in New York willing to pay an exorbitant fee. The same gun Vigo purchased for me when I came to the family. Anyway, the burner allows me to talk to Caden without repercussion, which means you and I can also communicate knowing no one is listening.”
Her eyes blinked up to catch my gaze. “Someone tapped my phone, didn’t he? That’s how they knew we’d be at the Cantina.”
I nodded. “I removed the cameras from your room but didn’t check the electronics until I had four days to wait for you to wake up.”
“That’s why you brought an entourage here.”
As in the guys who slept in the cruiser, rotating shifts to patrol the sliver of land Doc owned on the island. The property wasn’t large, and security might not have been necessary, but I couldn’t be too careful.
“Sì, and I only brought the phone Vigo forces me to carry at all times. No laptops or tablets. He knows we’re here. That’s not a secret. But if we left and I carried this cell with us, he’d also know exactly where we went.”
“Because he’s watching.”
“As much as he can. He’s also listening to your calls and reading your emails.”
A moment passed where her frosty eyes narrowed from silent thoughts. Then the color drained from her face. “My father tried to kill me.”
I nodded. “Without knowing where your loyalty lies or Simone’s, I think he wanted to silence both of you,” I said softly, hoping to ease the blow. “When he didn’t succeed at the mission, he tried to end you at the funeral.”
Vigo was meant to protect his child, not bury her next to her mother in the backyard.
The wife he’d murdered. When his strategy failed with Vivi, he adjusted his game plan and tied his only daughter to me.
This marriage was a calculated tactic on his part.
Vivi and I were his puppets, and it was time I cut his strings.
What he hadn’t bargained on was that I loved her.
Long black lashes fluttered over white skin as she tried to make sense of the impossible. “But why? Why would he kill Mama?”
“She knew too much about the business.”
“But why now? She’s known something for years.”
“Because someone else wants that information too. There’s a spy in the household leaking details about your whereabouts. Your lunch at the Cantina was disclosed to another family.”
“To the Angelinis.”
Silence extended between us for so long that her thoughts caught up to mine, and she shook her head. “If not them, then who?”
“The men at the restaurant were ordered not to harm you. The Angelinis would’ve tortured you for the information, and Vigo has already done the same.”
Her shoulders slumped. “So many enemies.”
“Or an ally. Could it be a friend who wants your knowledge but isn’t willing to kill you for it?”
“Who would that be?”
“Catarina, or rather, her family. Maybe they think you have the smoking gun, so to speak, to end your father’s reign of the Cosa Nostra, and they want that too.”
She grabbed my arm, her nails digging into my skin. “Mio Dio, Luca. I do have something from my mother, and I need your help to figure out what she was trying to say.”
?
VIVIENNE GAVE ME everything. Her mind, body, and the truth, and together we returned to the compound to unearth whatever evidence Simone buried in the backyard and a safe-deposit box in Raphael’s name.
“His wedding gift is what Mama deposited at the bank,” she whispered, holding my hand as we rushed through the doors of her apartment.
“Father Musa told you this?”
“Yes, after the ceremony. The note Mama left me had all these cryptic details, including banking information, but now I know why she was so secretive. Vigo seems to be everywhere.”
Rushing into her room, she disappeared in the closet only to return with a small, wrapped box—a bow meticulously knotted on top.
Thigh to thigh, we sat on the edge of the bed, where she pulled the ribbon free.
Her fingers trembled while peeling away the taped edges, ripping the top off, and pushing away layers of tissue, only to find a Bible inside.
Nothing more than clean pages of scripture.
“What a joke,” I snapped and shot up to pace the room. “A stupid puzzle that led you to a book. What kind of wild goose chase has she sent you on?”
“It has to mean something,” she whispered. “I just need a minute to understand what she meant by this sign.”
“Fuck her signs,” I hissed. “We don’t have time for your mother’s bullshit games. Vigo’s not giving us any.”
Her eyes snapped to mine. “What does that mean?”
I snatched the Bible from her lap and threw it inside the nightstand, slamming the drawer behind it. She stood and crossed her arms in a protection she didn’t need with me.
“Three days, Vivienne,” I said through my teeth. “Three days, and then we have to give your father something.”
A heavy breath left her lungs. “Why did you marry me?”
I groaned, stepping so close that her neck fell back to hold my gaze. “Because I want you, because you were put on this earth for no one else but me. We, Vivi. Don’t you ever forget that.”
She fisted my T-shirt, twisting the fabric and pulling me closer. “I don’t believe you. There’s more. Tell me why you married me now after years of looking the other way,” she demanded. “I’ve given you everything, Luca. Everything. And still, you’re hiding things.”
The pain in her voice tore at my shredded soul. I pressed my lips to hers, then to the pulse at the base of her throat, kissing up to the edge of her jaw, where she would feel the words.
“I love you, my perfect little bird. You are my treasure, and I’ll never let you go. This is why we’re married and why I’ll always protect you.”
Her shoulders slumped. “You married me to save me from my father.”
I pulled away to look at her, hoping she would see the truth written on my face. “We’re together because we’re meant to be, uccello. You know this. And together, we’re going to give Vigo what he wants and set you free.”
Tense again, she shook her head. “I won’t give him anything that belonged to my mother,” she insisted.
“Something,” I urged. “We’re giving him enough to believe you’re loyal to this family. Make up a story, I don’t care what it is, or hand over this stupid, useless Bible. Let him figure out Simone’s crazy mind, but we’re doing something to bring you into his good graces.”
Her forehead fell onto my chest. “My life is already a lie, and now I have to pledge it to him and the Cosa Nostra.”
I sighed while tracing my fingers up and down her spine.
“Not everything is a lie. Your mother, as insane as she fucking was, loved you. So do I. With all that I am, and more than I’m capable of.
My love stretches into the unknown. A dark hole at the center of a white light that takes us to eternity.
Lie for me. Lie for us and make him believe it, so we have no end. ”
Tiny fingers dug into my waist, a powerful grip I couldn’t escape. “I belong to you.”
“That’s right, amore mio.” I moved enough to tip her chin and hold it in place. “Whatever it takes, that’s what we do to stay together, promise me.”
She nodded. “Prometto.”
I kissed her like the zealot I was and walked her backward a step to the bed. Just as I meant to push her onto it to prove my devotion, my cell rang.
I released her to grab it. Then I swore when Vigo’s name flashed on the screen.
I knew what this was. An order I couldn’t refuse, and another manipulation that would separate me from his daughter during the time he threatened her life.