Chapter 18 #2
Silence. Then, ‘Last chance. Return the girl,’ he finishes, ‘or we move to the piattu forti.’
The main course.
He hangs up.
I’m staring at the black screen when Rafa growls, ‘What the fuck did he just say?’
Cesare steps forward, eyes narrow, voice low and dangerous. ‘He wants war.’
Dante cracks his neck. ‘Good. I’m starving.’
I pocket the phone and look at the blinking lights of the villa high on the cliff – where Giada sleeps under heavy guard, unaware that her uncle just set the table.
And I whisper, ‘Then let’s make sure he chokes on it.’
* * *
Giada
The villa is humming with tension when they return, all carrying the metallic scent of adrenaline and blood, even if their clothes look clean.
Something inside me goes cold.
Renzo’s eyes find mine instantly. And whatever he sees on my face makes his jaw flex like a man preparing for war.
‘What happened?’ I whisper, though my body already knows. Already trembles.
Before anyone can answer, my lungs seize with a tight, climbing pressure that feels like a fist squeezing my windpipe.
Renzo is beside me in three strides. ‘Giada.’ His palms frame my face. ‘Look at me.’
But the room blurs and the world tilts and the shadows behind the brothers stretch long and monstrous. The threat Renzo warned me about… it’s here. Already here. And suddenly the villa feels too open, too bright, too full of entrances for danger to slip through.
My breath breaks on a sob.
‘Baby.’ Renzo grips my wrist, pulse thundering beneath his thumb. ‘Come with me. Now.’
He doesn’t wait for my answer. He drags me, gently but unyieldingly, down the hall and into a dark-panelled study. The door slams shut behind us.
‘I can’t – Renzo, I can’t breathe—’
‘I know.’ His voice drops, molten and commanding. ‘I’ve got you.’
His mouth crashes onto mine, swallowing my panic, replacing air with heat, fear with brute certainty. I cling to him, fingers clawing his shirt, and he growls into my mouth like he’s furious at whatever terrified me.
He lifts me and my back hits the bookshelves, and his thigh slots between mine.
‘Hold on to me,’ he orders.
I do. God help me, I do.
His hand slides under my dress, between my legs, and even through the panic, my body leaps towards him, desperate, needy, frantic for something to hold on to.
‘Renzo—’
‘Yes, angel. That’s it.’ His thumb strokes my clit once, slow and devastating, and a different kind of emotion punches through me, jolting me from my waking nightmare. ‘Come back to me,’ he croons.
Another stroke. And another. Then his fingers glide lower, swirling outside my hot core before moving inside. One finger. Then two. I gasp and he pushes in and out. In and out. Making sure I feel and think of nothing else but him.
The magic he’s dragging from my dark thoughts.
‘Renzo… don’t stop.’
‘Never. Not when you feel so fucking good.’ His fingers move faster, filling the room with wet strokes and ragged breaths. ‘Come for me, angel. Do it.’
The pressure breaks like a dam snapping, my climax hitting fast and blinding, ripping a moan from my throat that he swallows with another kiss.
The panic doesn’t vanish completely… but something steadies. The world stops tilting and my breathing evens.
His forehead drops gently against mine. ‘You with me?’
‘Yes.’ Barely. But yes.
‘Good.’ A soft kiss to my temple. ‘Let’s go back out. Before the wolves tear into something they shouldn’t.’
He doesn’t let go of my hand as we return to the living room.
To their credit, no one jokes and no one smirks.
The air is too thick, too dangerous.
Cesare is pacing, feral, his usual iron control cracked open at the edges.
‘My wife and son are here,’ he growls. ‘We make no more moves until they’re safely home. And then we finish this fucking bullshit.’
‘Home?’ Maddie’s voice cuts through the room like a blade.
She crosses the room to stand in front of him, rubbing Nico’s back as he dozes on her shoulder.
‘And sit in Fallbrook tearing my hair out every hour you or Renzo or Rafa or Dante don’t answer your phones?
Absolutely not. You don’t want us to stay in Ortigia?
Fine. But you find us somewhere close where I can see you every night. ’
Cesare grinds his teeth but he’s already lost the battle, even before he says, ‘Maddie—’
‘No.’ Her voice is so soft it freezes him. ‘We stay together. All of us. We all leave or none of us leave.’
Sofiya crosses her arms. ‘She’s right. We’re not scattering like damn prey.’
Rafa yanks her close, kisses the top of her head, and something inside me clenches. I’m ashamed to register it as envy. Another sin on top of the many I’ll need to pray for.
‘Okay,’ he says. ‘We’ll sort a safe house. And then we’re hunting this fucker.’
Cesare scrubs a hand over his jaw, exhaling hard. Then nods once. ‘Fine. Let’s get that done.’
Everyone turns to me. And I feel the question before anyone asks it.
Will you run?
Will you hide?
Are you with us or will you try to return to a convent?
The truth rises, fragile and clear, and I shake my head. ‘I’m staying with Renzo.’
Maddie’s eyes soften. Sofiya’s eyes narrow slightly with calculating approval. Rafa tilts his head as if reassessing the ground beneath us.
Cesare… studies me for a long beat. Then nods. ‘Bene.’
Renzo slides his arm around my waist, anchoring me. ‘While you sort out the safe house, I’m taking her to Monza tomorrow,’ he says, already glaring away any objections before anyone dares to raise it. ‘Security detail already prepping. Life doesn’t stop for a weasel with a death wish.’
Dante snorts. ‘Show-off.’
Renzo lifts his chin. ‘You saw the way she looked at my racing video. Only a damn fool doesn’t cash in those gold-sprinkled brownie points.’
Heat crawls up my neck. I swat his arm. ‘I’m standing right here, Renzo.’
He grins like a devil granted absolution.
Rafa’s phone buzzes. He steps aside, then returns two minutes later. ‘I’ve got something,’ he announces. ‘Safehouse in Ragusa. It’s fortified. Off grid. If we’re relocating, it’s our best option.’
Renzo nods. ‘After Monza, we head straight there.’
‘Good,’ Cesare says. ‘The sooner the better.’
Plans spiral out – security rotations, transport routes, weapons inventory.
Sofiya and Rafa slip towards the hallway. ‘We’re going to do some more recon, see why this fucker is jonesing for a fight,’ Sofiya says, eyes glinting dangerously.
Rafa kisses her again as they walk away. ‘Back soon. Or bloody. Either way, worth it.’
The room empties slowly, Maddie taking Nico upstairs, Dante grumbling about cleaning his gun before bed.
Eventually, it’s me and Renzo alone by the tall windows overlooking the sea.
He hooks a finger under my chin. Lifts my gaze to his. ‘You good now?’
‘Not really. But I will be.’
His voice drops. ‘Because you’re with me, sì? You know I’ll keep you safe?’ There’s expectation in there but also a hard probing.
I answer both with the simple truth. ‘Yes.’
His thumb brushes my lower lip, once and tender. ‘Good girl. Then let’s get some sleep, ragazza. Tomorrow…’ His smirk is wicked. ‘…I get to show you exactly why they call me a fucking legend behind a wheel.’
* * *
Morning light drenches the villa, brushing the walls in gold, stirring the salt-washed air, coaxing me awake before Renzo does.
Not that he doesn’t try.
A hand slides across my waist, warm, lazy, wickedly possessive.
‘Morning, angel.’
Heat blooms under my skin. It still startles me how easily he says it, how natural it sounds. How quickly I stopped flinching at it.
How quickly I stopped flinching at everything that once made me breathless with guilt.
A few days ago, the idea of lying naked in a man’s bed – this man’s bed – would’ve sent me into a spiral of prayers and shame.
Now…
Now there’s only a faint echo of that girl. The novice. The obedient one. The one who spent years lowering her gaze and quieting her own heart.
A nun in training, yes. But one who feels like she’s awakening from a coma.
I stretch under the sheets, still achy in places that makes Renzo smirk against my shoulder.
‘You’re thinking too loud,’ he murmurs.
‘Am I?’
‘Mmm.’ His nose nuzzles along my throat. ‘Thinking of running back to your convent?’
A soft laugh escapes me, surprising both of us. ‘No. I… I think I want to visit my sisters soon, in the States when this is over. I want to see Narciso. And Jacinta when she’s available.’
His hand pauses. ‘Where is that other Mancinelli?’ he asks carefully.
I frown, remembering Maddie looking pointedly at Sofiya when I asked about my other sister.
And Sofiya staring blankly back. ‘Either they don’t know or…
they’re not telling me. She’s doing something in South America somewhere.
’ A short, soft ache blooms in my chest. ‘But I spoke to my mother yesterday.’
Well, it was more quiet sobbing on both sides than speaking, but it’s a start.
Renzo goes very still. ‘How’d that go?’
I swallow. ‘She cried a lot. She tried not to say much… but I could tell she was… hurt. That I didn’t remember her.’
His hold tightens and his eyes narrow. ‘Not your fault,’ he says, firm. ‘Not on you.’
‘I know.’ I pause. ‘But it felt like losing her twice.’
He pulls me gently onto his chest, large palm stroking the small of my back, slow and grounding. ‘You’ll get those memories back. The real ones. Not the ones they fed you.’
I want to believe him. I want to believe so many things now. A pulse of pain throbs behind my eyes and I rub my temple.
His brows knit instantly. ‘Headache?’
‘A little.’
His jaw flexes. ‘Do you want me to get Conti?’
‘No,’ I say quickly. ‘It’s just… everything. It’ll pass.’
He gives me a look. I give him one back, equally stubborn.
He sighs. ‘Angel, for one million euros, this man is yours until I say otherwise.’
I roll my eyes. ‘Renzo—’
He kisses my mouth to shut me up, smiling the whole time.
And God help me, I melt every time he does that.