Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
Lissia
“Ricardo!” I shouted as I hurried down the main staircase.
I wasn’t going to stand by and watch my father kill Marchello, but I couldn’t let Marchello go after my father either. This was more than business to me. This was my life.
I was caught between two ruthless men who would kill for territory, money, and power. Did they even care who they left in their path of destruction?
Why did it all have to feel so hopeless? It was time for me to take desperate actions if I wanted to fix this.
“Ricardo, where are you?”
“I’m here.” He met me at the bottom of the staircase. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything!”
“What can I do to help?”
“Can you help me figure out Marchello?” I pleaded with my eyes. “He’s a fucking mystery. And don’t tell me to watch my language.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“I’m sorry.” I leaned against the banister. “I’m acting hysterical.”
“I wouldn’t call a woman hysterical either.”
“You’re a smart man.”
“No.” He tapped his head. “I’ve had too many concussions to be smart.”
“How did you end up here?”
“What’s wrong with here?” He shoved his hand in his pocket. “I get to see you.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” I said. “You make Marchello’s rage episodes bearable.”
“He’s not that bad.” He shrugged. “He seems to have a soft spot for you.”
“Really? I must have missed that.” I sat on the steps. “I meant how did you end up working for the Accetti family?”
“My father worked for them for years. He was on their security team. Mr. Accetti has always cared for my family, and when my father died, he continued to support my mother and siblings. There are five of us.”
“I’m sorry you lost your father.”
“Thank you.” He nodded. “My father was responsible for Mrs. Accetti.”
“Marchello and Milo’s mother?”
“Yes.” He gazed out the window. “She was a beautiful woman. Young, vibrant, so full of life. Not just her life.”
“Marchello told me she was pregnant,” I whispered. “Do you know how she died?”
“I do.”
If I had a phone or access to the internet, I would have searched for the details by now. I couldn’t press Marchello. The demons in his expression when he opened up to me about his mother were enough to torment me for the rest of my life.
“Will you tell me?” I scooted over and patted the step above me. “Please.”
“It isn’t my place.”
“Please, Ricardo.” I pointed to the step for him to sit. “I need to understand who Marchello is and where he comes from.”
“You know where he comes from.” He took a seat on the step I had indicated. “The same place you come from. Nico and your father are not that different. Although, they may have different values.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nico Accetti would never promise one of his children to a man like Danny Collins.” He gripped his thigh. “No alliance would be important enough for Nico to do something like that.”
I still wasn’t over that whole situation. I wanted to believe my dad would have come to his senses if I hadn’t gotten myself kidnapped. If I lost complete faith in him, where would that leave me?
“Yet you still compare Nico to my dad. How come?”
“I believe they started out in the same place at a time when this world needed men like them. Regimes were changing, and they both proved themselves at a young age. Nico became useful to the Convetti family, and your father climbed the ranks with the Biancoli family.”
“I have uncles and cousins in that family.”
“Who now report to your father. But it wasn’t always like that. Nico stayed loyal to his organization, and when the time was right, he took over peacefully and with respect.”
“And my father?”
“A lot of blood was shed in that war.” Ricardo patted my shoulder. “You’re too young to remember.”
“So, Nico is a man of honor and my father is a traitor?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” I closed my eyes. “My whole life isn’t at all what I thought it was. I knew my father was a dangerous man, but I never questioned what was happening. It wasn’t my place.”
“I’m sure he sheltered you as much as possible.” He shrugged. “If I had children, I wouldn’t want them to know the stuff that I’ve had to do in the name of my job.”
“Why do you do it?”
None of this made sense. Why couldn’t Marchello be a car dealer and my father be a nightclub owner? Why did they have to kill people? Why did they have to associate with men who were far more dangerous than they were?
“Like I said, Nico always looked out for my family. When my football career ended, I left college with very few skills. I had always been an athlete. Not much else mattered. But then I needed a job, and he gave me one.”
“It’s not a life sentence.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere else. I know it’s been a struggle for them to find the right kind of work for me since I don’t exactly fit in. I’m not like all the other security people.”
“You have a heart.” I rested my hand on his knee. “You’ve been so good to me.”
“Marchello has been good to you too.”
“He’s coming around.” I smiled. “I think.”
“He’s not an easy man to deal with.”
“That’s why I want to understand him better. If I could do that, maybe we could find a way to be together.”
“You are together.”
“For now, but our families are at war, and you said so yourself that my father is brutal. I want to stop what’s coming.” I sprung from the step and paced the foyer. “If one of them kills the other or they both end up dead, what good does that do any of us?”
“These are not your problems to solve.”
“Was it Marchello’s mother’s problem? She ended up dead. How did Nico let that happen? Mistakes arise. Things don’t always go as planned. How many more people have to die?”
“Lissia.” Ricardo got off the step. “I know you want to help, but you can’t.”
“You don’t know me that well.” I pushed the hair from my face. “I don’t like being told I can’t do something. Marchello isn’t fighting an unknown enemy. He’s fighting my father. I can stop this.”
That was a big statement, even for me. I had no reason to believe my father would listen to me, but if I didn’t try, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
“I don’t want to be the damsel in distress. I want to be the princess who saves them all.”
“You can’t save these men,” Ricardo said. “They don’t want to be saved. They want control, money, and respect. They don’t want wild cards or anything that stands in their way.”
“Then Marchello shouldn’t have taken me. I’m the definition of a wild card.”
“I have a feeling he knows that, and it scares him.”
“Nothing scares him.”
“Don’t be so certain.” He held onto the banister. “He may be holding you hostage to get at your father, but I think you’re here because he wants to protect you. He’s trying to keep you safe.”
“I want to keep him safe.”
“Then do what he asks of you.” Conflict settled into his dark features. I had a way of doing that to men. “The Accetti men don’t develop feelings for a reason. What I see happening between you and Marchello is something I never expected. I’m sure Milo, Nico, and Lucas are all surprised.”
“Why?”
“Because when Julia Accetti died, so did her husband’s desire to get close to another woman. He ingrained that in his sons. If you don’t fall in love, you can’t suffer.”
“That’s terrible.”
Was that why Marchello tried so hard to keep me at a distance?
“Marchello and Milo have watched their father suffer, and they suffered along with him.” He shook his head. “Enough to make them never want to feel for a woman they could lose.”
“How do you know all of this?” I asked.
“Like I said, I don’t fit in because I feel too much. There are things I’m not willing to do, but that doesn’t mean I’m not loyal. I observe and learn. I know this family. I care for them.”
“What’s your connection?”
“I already told you, Nico has been good to my mother and my siblings.”
“There’s something else.” I moved toward him. “I observe too. Why do you work for them? What keeps you here?”
“It keeps me close to my father.”
“But you said he was dead.”
“He died with Julia.” His lips formed a hard line. “They were getting ready to go shopping in the city.”
“Oh.” I sat down on the step again. “What happened?”
“They went to the car that was parked at the side of the house. Nico always insisted that the car be brought to her, but Julia wanted some fresh air, so she walked with my dad to the car. If she had listened to Nico, she would probably still be alive.”
“How?”
Ricardo moved closer to me and stood over me. “If my father had gotten into that car first and turned the key, he would have died, but Julia would have been safe in the house.”
“The car blew up?”
“With both of them in it.”
“Oh my God! What kind of person blows up a pregnant woman?”
A horrible thought crossed my mind. Am I the daughter of the man who murdered Marchello’s mother, Ricardo’s father, and that innocent baby?
“Marchello was on the porch when the car exploded. He waved goodbye to his mother, and a second later she was gone.”
My stomach churned. “That’s horrifying.”
“I stay employed here because that’s how I stay connected to my father. When I’m at the main house, I take comfort in knowing that’s where he spent most of his day. I can stand in the driveway and feel his presence. Some of the trees still have burn marks on them from the explosion.”
“That’s… I’m sorry.”
I needed Ricardo’s help now more than ever. The death and destruction the Accettis experienced on a daily basis was too much for anyone to handle. Marchello was a ticking time bomb. If I thought my father was dangerous, I had a feeling Marchello was a lot worse. Pain was his motivator.
“Thank you for sharing that with me,” I said. “I’m sure it’s difficult for you to talk about it.”
“You said you wanted to understand Marchello. I’m not sure you ever will because he’s too guarded—too calculated with his emotions. But maybe knowing what he’s been through can help.”
“You can help me.”
“How?”
“The other day, you were about to.” I stood and took his hand. “I need your phone.”
“Lissia, I’ve thought about that, and I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Please, Ricardo.”
“You need to let Marchello handle this,” he said. “Don’t put yourself in the middle.”
“Let Marchello handle it the way his father did? What good did that do Julia?” I squeezed his hand. “I can stop this.”
I didn’t know why I said that. I had no guarantee that I could fix any of this, but I had to try.
“Let me make you lunch.” He motioned to the kitchen. “How does soup and grilled cheese sound?”
“I’m not hungry.” I gazed up at him. “Let me at least call my mother. I could get her to reason with my dad. If they know I’m okay, maybe my father won’t be so brutal.”
“I may have gotten hit on the head one too many times.” He reached into his pocket and took out his phone. “But I know when I’m being manipulated.”
“Are you mad?”
“How could I be mad at such a lovely girl?” He handed me his phone. “I trust you’ll make the right choice.”
“Listen to me.” I held the phone, knowing it was my only hope. “No matter what happens, do not tell Marchello you gave this to me. If he finds out, tell him I must have taken it.”
Marchello would make Ricardo pay with his life if he found out.
“Be safe.”
“Thank you.”
“For what? I’m going to make lunch for us.” He turned and walked away, leaving me to seal my own fate.
I stepped out onto the porch and quickly dialed my father’s cell. One ring…two rings…
Come on, Daddy, pick up.
Three rings.
“Hello,” he answered.
“Daddy, it’s me.”
“Lissia, where are you? Are you safe?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Where are you?”
“A safe house in the woods.”
“How are you talking to me?” he asked. “Where is that piece of garbage? If he hurt you…”
“He hasn’t hurt me, but we don’t have much time.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to come home so we can figure all of this out, but you have to listen to me.”
“Is Accetti there? Is he making you set up a deal? Put him on the phone.”
“No, I stole a guard’s phone. Marchello isn’t on the property. I don’t know where he is.”
I glanced at the house where I had been captive these last few weeks. If things were different, I would want more than anything to stay here with Marchello. Build a life with him—a future. I could get that for us.
“Marchello didn’t kidnap me.”
“He’s brainwashed you.”
“No, I went with him willingly.”
“Why would you do that?” My father’s tone turned low and menacing. “What are you saying?”
“I went with him because I didn’t want to marry Danny. Marchello thought he was helping me. I didn’t know that by going with him, you would start a war.”
“What did you think I would do? Stand by and let my enemy take my daughter? If I ever find Nico, I’ll kill him for his son’s actions.”
“You don’t know where Nico is?” I asked.
“Why would I?”
“I just thought that… Well, you’re moving into their territory, so I figured you had something to do with his disappearance.”
“When did you become an expert on mafia warfare?” He raised his voice. “I’m not the only one going after this territory. When Nico fled, he left the door wide open. His sons cannot handle this business.”
“I don’t want to be involved in any of this.” That wasn’t exactly true. I wanted to be involved with Marchello. “I want to come home, but I need assurances.”
“What kind of assurances?”
If I was ever going to shoot my shot, now was the time.
“I don’t want to marry Danny. It wasn’t fair of you to ask that of me.” I needed to play on my father’s soft spot for me. I hoped he still had one. “You didn’t even ask if I would consider it.”
“You’re right.”
I am? “I don’t trust him. He’s not right for me.”
“Are you going to tell me Marchello is who you want? Is that what this is about?”
“I want Marchello to be safe,” I said. “He was only trying to help me. If I tell you where I am, you can come for me. You and Marchello can call a truce.”
“Do you think that’s how all of this works?”
“I don’t know how any of it works, but I know I’m not marrying Danny.” I took a breath, trying to steady my nerves as I lied my way out of this. “I want to come home, but I don’t want to be responsible for anyone dying.”
“None of this is on you,” he said. “I’m in control of my house and my family. I don’t care how you ended up with Marchello. You did the right thing by calling me.”
I hope you don’t make me regret it.
“You’ll come and get me?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“You’ll do what you can to end this war with Marchello?”
“I can’t make promises.”
Neither could Marchello. Such stubborn men. They don’t even know what the hell they’re fighting over.
“You’ll try?”
“I want you home so I know you’re safe.” He sighed. “I’m not happy with what has occurred between you and Accetti, but you’ve come to your senses. You contacted me. Let’s not waste any more time. Where are you?”
“I can send you my location.”
“Do it now,” he said. “I want you out of there.”
“Okay.”
Once I revealed myself, there would be no turning back. Marchello would see me going to my father as an act of betrayal, but all I wanted was to protect the man I had fallen in love with. My father was the only one who could help me do that.
It’s better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.
There was going to be a lot of begging in my future.