61. Dominic
61
DOMINIC
She’s a wreck, and I can’t begin to imagine what she’s feeling. Disillusioned, her life ripped from her again and now dunked in grief. She lost the people closest to her in her adult life, and worst of all? Their deaths wouldn’t have been quick and painless. Not from what I’ve seen of Franco Fiore’s handiwork or from what she’s experienced first-hand.
I hold her close and let her cry, knowing that arriving in Italy has set things in motion at a speed we can’t keep up with. It’s clear from Pietro Garlini and Franco’s messages that her fake passport was rigged. Whoever is waiting for Ariana Morelli to come back to Italy just got notified she’s entered the country.
We’re sitting on a ticking bomb, and something’s going to have to give.
When my phone pings a message, I glance down and quirk a brow. That quick, huh? An underlying buzz to avenge her ripples through me again. It’s a need slowly ballooning in me. That motherfucker. I’m ready for him.
“Ariana, sweetheart,” I murmur where she’s pressed against me, right where she belongs. “Pietro Garlini is already on your case. Your passport was rigged to trigger your movements.”
“What?” she asks, pushing away and staring up at me with tear-washed eyes.
“Ah, fuck it, sweetheart.” I slide a thumb over her cheek to catch her tears. Seeing her like this fucking hurts.
“I never break down like this,” she murmurs as she wipes at her chin.
“I know. It’s okay, I know you’re strong.” I press a kiss to her forehead. “You have to look at this, though. Here.” I open the image on my phone and hold it out to her. “Does this man look familiar?”
I can’t fathom how I would have done any of this if it weren’t for Matteo’s trip to Sicily, for which we had months to plan. I made contacts in that time and set things up I can just fall back on now, taking action with ease to put the right people in position.
Ariana wipes at her nose as she takes my phone. “It’s my apartment block.”
“Yes. Who’s at the main entrance?”
She zooms in on the image and inhales in shock. “That’s Pietro Garlini.”
“Thought so. He got notified you entered the country. He’s either coming over to see if you’re in Rome already, which is impossible because you don’t portal from place to place, or he’s there waiting in ambush, or plans to rig your apartment with a bomb or something. Could be anything. For all we know, he is de-rigging stuff he’d put in place. Best I get a team on it.”
“A team on it?” She checks the photo’s date and time stamp. “This is minutes ago. How?”
I hitch my brows. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. You’re under my protection now, and I don’t fuck up.”
Ariana blinks at me, and then her shoulders sag. It will take time for her to let go of her past and accept the only future she really has.
“What do we do? He’s out to get me.” She pushes a fist to her stomach, looking like she’s going to be sick.
I tip her chin up, forcing her to look at me. “We’re going to take him the fuck down, and we’re going to do it in such a way that nobody would ever link it to you, since you’ll be dead on the DIA’s side of things. I know Garlini’s type. He would have swept clean as he went, making it impossible for anybody to pinpoint these crimes on him.”
And how the fuck does it seem the universe had this plan for me…for me and this woman, with the Don’s iron hand shaping me to his will, but actually preparing me for this moment when I get to avenge the woman I love?
My mind reels with the realization, but now isn’t the time to contemplate our future. Now is the time to secure it.
“We’ll lure him back to your apartment when we are ready. And then we take him out.”
“How?”
“Benedict has Franco’s phone. Franco might be dead, but nobody knows this except us. It’s time for Franco to have some last communications with Garlini, and we’ll stage it for when we are ready, but it needs to be soon. Strike while the iron is hot.”
She drops her head into her hands as a sob rakes through her. “I’m still getting my head around everything, I can’t?—”
“Leave it to me.” I’ve killed before. This woman has never pulled the trigger or cut a throat, irrespective of her plans for Randazzo and her vendetta. I’ll be her henchman.
I lean in to tap Gus on the shoulder. “Find a space where we can work and spend the night outside of Rome. Somewhere inconspicuous, touristy, but not flashy.”
“On it, boss.”
“What about Gabriella? We’re going to Potenza?” Ariana says. “You can’t drop everything?—”
“We must. We’re sitting on a ticking bomb here, sweetheart. Potenza is on the other side of Rome. We need to deal with Pietro Garlini first.” Because who knows what the fuck else he has planned. I know my position, my strengths. I can guess his, but at this point, surprise is our biggest weapon. “I’ll phone the convent and take things from there, but for now?—”
“There’s several smaller guesthouses in the countryside outside of Rome, boss.”
“Pick one with enough rooms available for most of the team, with the rest on standby close by.”
We carry on in silence until Gus announces he’s found the perfect spot. He passes his phone to Dominic who scans the bed and breakfast and gives it a thumb’s up. “Good, we’ll take three rooms but with a tiered arrival.”
“Yes, boss.”
I don’t have to give detailed instructions. My team understands my needs. We’ll have guards in-house and men stationed in the vicinity as back up.
As soon as we drive up the guesthouse’s driveway, I know it’s the perfect spot. We’re in the country, surrounded by vineyards, hanging heavy with grapes in the late summer sun.
It’s early for a check-in, but the elderly owner seems only too happy to have guests filling her empty rooms and offers us breakfast, too. We get the room keys, and I send Gus ahead with the little luggage we have. He knows what to do. Check the room for hidden cameras. He will sweep the general guest areas later, but this isn’t the type of establishment that seems high on tech solutions, or on invading your privacy.
We have a coffee while waiting for the all-clear, and as soon as Ariana and I are alone in our room, I suppress the urge to pin her to the wall and kiss her, just to do something with the fucking tension in my body.
“Can you call the convent?” I ask instead, focusing on where to hit hard first. “Speak to the Mother Superior or whoever runs the show and ask about Gabriella?”
“Me?” She looks stunned.
“Yes, you. It would be better for a woman to ask around. Plus, in a way, you are related. It isn’t far-fetched to call her your sister.”
Ariana sinks down on the bed, and I hold my phone out to her, the number already on the screen. “Please.”
“I’ve… I’ve never had a sister before,” she says as her hands go limp with the slight weight of the phone. “I’ve never had family before. I—” She taps on her chest to get a grip on her emotions, and I give her the time she needs, then squeeze her shoulder.
I can’t even imagine a life without my brothers or how lonely and isolated she must have been. “Just press dial.”
I look on as she calls and puts the phone on speaker, my heart in my throat, beating wildly as the ringing cuts through the room. We’re bound to be disappointed, and this internal hype is all for nothing.
When a soft-spoken woman answers, she makes some small talk, then Ariana clears her throat. “I’m enquiring after my sister. I believe she might have been staying with you for some time. Her first name is Gabriella, and we were split at her birth. It’s a long story, but she’d be twenty-two years old now.”
“Gabriella? Just a moment,” the woman says. “I’ll put you through to the Reverend Mother.”
Ariana stares up at me, eyes wide. My knees go weak. It isn’t a no . What the fuck is this? I was expecting a dead end.
“Tell them you’re Ariana Scalera,” I whisper to her as we wait.
It takes a minute for us to be connected up the chain of command, and when an even older woman’s voice answers, I sit down next to Ariana.
“This is Reverend Mother Lucia speaking. How can I help you?”
Ariana repeats what she’d asked earlier.
“And who may I ask is enquiring?”
“It’s Ariana Scalera,” she says, and the name glides off her tongue with such ease and has such a beautiful ring to it, I wrap my arm around her back and hug her close.
“And you claim to be related to Gabriella?”
“Is she there, with you?”
“We have several Gabriella here. It’s a beloved name amongst the sisters at Potenza.”
“I see,” Ariana says with half an eye roll. “The one we’re looking for came to the convent in Potenza when she was seven years old. She had an American accent as she was born there. We’ve only recently learned about her…and her being here in Italy. I’m so sorry, but there have been grave misunderstandings, and we’ve been on a mission to locate her.”
For a long spell, it’s quiet on the other side.
“What did you say again your name was, dear?” the Reverend Mother asks.
I stare at Ariana, finding it weird she asks Ariana to repeat herself. “Scalera. Ariana Scalera.”
“And you are looking for?”
Strain settles in Ariana’s shoulders as she says, “Gabriella Scalera? But she had a name change when she got adopted?—”
“To Randazzo? You’re looking for Gabriella Randazzo?”
My gut twists as Ariana’s eyes widen.
“No,” she says. “Although…although there is a family relation.”
“I see.” The Reverend Mother clears her throat on the other side, and it suddenly feels like a dead end.
“Why are you asking?” Ariana asks.
This circle of questions feels like a slow puncture to our plans.
“I’m asking because someone else called and asked after a Gabriella Randazzo yesterday. It can’t be a coincidence.”
“Fuck,” I hiss under my breath.
“What did they ask for?” Ariana asks, urgent now. “To speak to her?”
“No, testing the waters, just like you, to come and fetch her.”
I sag as I press a fist to my forehead, my pulse racing, my heart in my throat. “This only means she is there,” I mouth to Ariana, and she nods.
“Is she safe?” Ariana asks, and I salute her quick thinking.
“With the name Randazzo linked to her?” the Reverend Mother says. “Have you been following the news?”
Fuck. This woman is messing with us. She doesn’t know who she’s dealing with…or does she? I take the phone from Ariana. “This is Dominic Scalera, Gabriella’s brother. I’ll send extra security your way. Please, we just need a day?—”
“A brother, you say? And how many brothers does Gabriella have?”
It feels like a test. “We were six, but now we’re five. Matteo, Alessandro, Dominic, Stephano, Luca, and Benedict,” I rattle our names off, in case it does something for her.
A chair creaks over the phone, and then a soft whimper sounds.
“I’ve kept that girl safe for more than fifteen years,” the Reverend Mother says. “I’d like to think I can manage a few more days, Nicky.”
Holy holy fuck.
Ariana’s hands fly up to her mouth as she stares at me, wide-eyed, in shock.
“How—” I ask, but the question breaks off in my throat. Secrets…so many secrets.
“You’re the gentle one,” the Reverend Mother says, her voice straining with tears. “Bianca—” She breaks off with a swallow. “Never mind, we don’t have time. I’ll need proof, my son, of your relationship to Gabriella, before I can release her to you. She is safe, and I’ve moved her because of everything that’s been happening, but you don’t have much time.”
“We’ll bring proof, everything we have,” I say, dumbfounded. “There’re documents. I’ll ask Stephano and Gigi to bring my mom’s journals, it explains everything. Please…just keep her safe.”
“I know the world you hail from, no need to spell it out for me, Dominic Scalera,” the Reverend Mother says, back in control over her own emotions.
How do I get more out of her? Here is something afoot I never expected. “I have questions?—”
“Of course you have, but I also understood the assignment from the start. There’s to be no answers, but I’ve been waiting for this call for as long as I can remember. Gabriella is here, and she doesn’t know it, but she’s been waiting for you, too.”
“I just need a day,” I beg, knowing we don’t even have that, not if someone else is looking for Gabriella Randazzo . “Two days max, please?—”
“Yes. I need time to prepare her mind, too, for God finally answering our prayers.”
I close my eyes as I ring off. We just bought ourselves enough time to deal with Pietro Garlini. And more, we’ve found her. We’ve found our long-lost little sister. The one we thought had died. She’s alive, and she’ll be with us as soon as possible. As soon as we’re done with this fucker in Rome.