Chapter 32
Francesca
My father had stayed with me for a couple of hours, chatting about such trivialities that he had me forgetting where I was and why.
Simple, normal life things, like how my mother was holding up, what my brothers were up to, and even Tommy’s retirement.
I was comfortable for a while before he had business to attend to. I couldn’t stop my stomach from turning at that notion. What business? More scheming? More plotting of my husband’s demise?
He left me to rest, having someone from the staff bring me lunch, dinner, and several snacks to my room as if I were in a damn prison cell. More like a gilded cage with all the luxury of a palace to disguise the truth.
From the exuberance around me, I had no doubt business was prosperous. If all this was any indication of his current economic status, he was more than well off. But I couldn’t help but feel it was all just a little too much, as if it was just for show, to impress whoever they needed to flash their wealth to. I’m sure it wasn’t me.
All this did nothing at all to impress me. If anything, it disgusted me.
We weren’t saints. I wasn’t a saint. But there’s a difference between running less than legitimate businesses and ruining innocent lives to get a bigger stack of green.
I could hardly sleep at all.
Between the uncomfortable feeling of being held captive, a strange bed, and the unrelenting nausea that constantly reminded me about my blessed state, the night was as long as winter.
I was itching inside with the need to tell Matt about the pregnancy. His reaction would tell me a lot about where we stood at the moment. There was no denying I feared it, too.
Were we really meant to be if he wasn’t as happy as I was?
It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns. I knew that. But it’s our child! Whatever comes would take the background in the light of this news, right? Whatever comes, this baby would always be protected and loved.
I sat on the chair for most of the night since laying down was proving to be impossible while my mind ran a thousand miles an hour, playing out all the details about how I would break the news to Matt.
Would we even make it out of this alive for me to tell him?
I couldn’t be sure he was coming for me. He had searched for Hiro's hideout for months to no avail. How could I expect that he would find him now out of thin air?
When I finally drifted off to sleep, my chest was heavy. I felt something dark and grim was about to happen and that I needed to make sure Matt knew he was going to be a father before all hell broke loose.
The sound of rusty hinges and the door opening woke me up with a jolt. I sat straight, my stance as defensive as it could be without a weapon in sight to hold up. I saw Nikolai slowly entering the room with his hands up in some kind of surrender.
“I come in peace,” He quickly said, noticing my discomfort. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“I hardly slept, anyway.”
“Your father and Mr. Naoki are waiting for you to join them for lunch downstairs.”
“Lunch?”
I looked out the window, noticing the full tray of food set on the table in front of it, indicating that someone had brought me breakfast and that I’d slept right through it.
“Lunch,” Nikolai replied. I nodded my head back in recognition before I started to head towards the door as Nikolai turned to lead the way.
“Nikolai!” I called out as he stopped in his tracks and turned towards me again. “I don’t quite see you as my father and Hiro’s message boy. Why are you up here?”
“To make sure my package gets delivered undamaged,” He replied, stretching his hand to point the way as we both left the room. “My assignment is done as soon as you go into that dining room. After that, I will gladly get the fuck out of here.”
“So, you are nothing but Hiro’s little bitch, here to do the dirty work.” Big men in high places have matching egos that bruise easily when their power and manlihood are questioned.
I was fishing for answers and trying the old ego-hit bait to see if Nikolai was biting, earning an eye roll from Nikolai as soon as he heard my condescending and derogatory tone.
“Here I was, taking you for Bratva royalty when you’re just the message boy.” I was sure he wasn’t. He was related to the Russian Pakhan, even if not his son as I said back in the car yesterday.
“I know what you’re doing here, Miss Amato, and all you’ll get from me is this – this is not my war to fight. My job is to deliver a certain Mafia princess to her father and the Yakuza Oyabun. Nothing else. Besides, I’m aware of your husband’s reputation, and I don’t want to be here when he arrives. I didn’t pay to see that shit show. I have nothing else to gain from this situation,” Nikolai admitted. His cold demeanor was exactly what I would expect from a Russian like him.
But I knew somehow he was feeding me information between those words.
Matt was coming. I was sure about it now. But there was more to this. We had no issues with the Bratva.
They were ruthless, cold, and mean and on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from us. Their loyalty was to the cause, to the business, to themselves. Fuck family or whoever even thought of messing with those premises. The long-lasting peace between us settled upon the distance that separated us.
Our nose was out of their business, and they kept the fuck away from ours, which made everyone happy.
So this simple job meant something more. Something big enough to send a Volkov to oversee and risk starting a bloody war. Maybe Nikolai could shine a light on that, so I tried pulling on that thread to see where it got me.
“Oh! So, I get it that this whole kidnapping of a pregnant lady is all part of a bigger deal between the Bratva and the Yakuza? A small token of your serious intentions, maybe?” I tried to meddle as we started walking down the stairs.
“Bigger than you think and than what I can tell you. Either way, you are better off not knowing about it at all.” He wasn’t divulging information, but he had it, and that told me a lot. He was not just a middleman. He was not just an ordinary bag of muscles sent to get the job taken care of.
“If you’re leaving, I take it that my debt is paid for,” I asked in a lower, hushed voice since we were just outside a pair of shut doors that I could only imagine would open to an opulent dining room.
“No, not at all. Just that ten dollars seems like a very petty amount to die over. I’ll just let it grow some interest and collect whenever the time is suitable.” His voice matched the secrecy of mine.
“Then, I guess I’ll see you soon, Wolf!”
“Have a good life, Italian Princess.”
Nikolai turned to leave as I turned to face those double doors with God knows what waiting on the other side.
I inhaled all the courage I could, holding my breath as I pushed them open, my eyes landing immediately on my father’s, some false sense of security invading me but not easing me completely.
Hiro had his back to the door as he looked out on the double French doors that oversaw an enormous garden towards the back of the property, only to turn at the sound of my father’s voice.
“Good afternoon, amore mio ,” He greeted, pulling me in for a tight hug and a sweet kiss on my forehead as he always had since I was a little girl. “I hope you rested well last night.”
“Not well at all,” I confessed, giving in to his fatherly embrace before he released me, leading me towards Hiro.
“ Kon’nichiwa , Miss Amato,” Hello . He said, placing a sickening kiss on the back of my hand and bowing slightly towards me, a sly grin covering his face.
Jackson was nothing like his father. I could clearly see his good looks came from his mother’s side. His smile was warm and sincere, while Hiro’s held a promise of depravity and pain behind a fa?ade of impeccable manners.
“I hope that your stay with us has been pleasurable.”
“Mr. Naoki.” I coldly acknowledged him. “And it’s Mrs. Battaglia. I’m sure you know that my stay could never be pleasurable, despite all the comforts, when I’m being kept here against my will.”
“I am sorry to hear that. But it was your father’s imposition and one that I couldn’t just overlook. He has your safety and best interest in mind.”
“And what would that be? Keeping me away from my husband? I could see how he could feel that would be in my best interest a year ago, but right now, bringing me here might just be in your best interest. Am I right?”
“I’m afraid I don’t follow!” Hiro bluffed.
“You know that by having me here, you can bring the fight to you, that Matt will follow me here, straight into this viper’s den, just as you want him to. Don’t pretend you are just acquiescing to my father’s request.”
“You raised a smart one here, Romolo,” Hiro chimed, talking to my father as if I wasn’t even standing right in front of him. “Your husband knows what he’s doing. If he comes for you, he knows the danger that decision carries. Besides, your father knows it well, too. Our thirst for revenge is one and the same.”
“No, it’s not. He knows the truth now. He knows the Battaglias didn’t kidnap him. Your mask has crumbled, Hiro. He knows you have done nothing but play him.”
“Look at you, defending your dear father.” He mocked me, shaking his head in disapproval. “Have you really not seen that he is here because he wants to be? Do you truly think that a smart man like your father, who has been dealing with Mafia scum and their schemes his whole life, would believe such a simplified excuse if he didn’t want to? I gave him what he needed to clear that heavy conscience of his, the weakness that was holding him back, tying him down to the wrong boat. I simply gave him the key to unlock the treasure chest that was waiting on the other side of the rainbow,” Hiro replied in a condescending tone. “Oh wait, you guys are the pasta type of mafia, not the Irish. My mistake.” His machiavellian laughter pierced my ears as Hiro’s manic, cold, and unhinged personality shone brightly through that horrendous sound.
This was the respect he had for us, for my father. None at all.
“That’s not true.” That came out almost more as a question than an affirmation as I looked at my father for the answer I wanted to find. He held his head low, not daring to look into my eyes.
“Oh, but it is, my child. Having a share of the cut doesn’t hurt either, does it now, Romolo?” Hiro stabbed his sharp knife even further, taking great pride in making me doubt my father and in unmasking the dreadful truth that I wanted so badly to ignore.
This was not the man I knew my father to be. Forgive me if it was hard to believe.
“This is your chance to come clean, Romolo. You can tell your daughter the truth. Your God will forgive you for your sins, for your treason and greed. You just need to confess to all of those.”
“Dad?” I half asked, half pleaded.
“I played him, he played you. This is how this marvelous world goes around, my dear. But it seems that he’s been castrated by your arrival somehow. Need I remind you, Romolo, that you were the one who gave me all the information I needed to finally kill Don Battaglia? His blood is on your hands, too. You might as well have pulled that trigger yourself. Just live up to what you have gained with it. Show off your wealth, show off your new castle, built on pillars of nothing but salt. Show off your head on a fucking pike as soon as your honorable brothers find out what you have done to one of your own. And now, thanks to you and your need to save your little girl, I will finally complete my revenge. I can finally end Matteo Battaglia’s life, take over his little territory, and transform it into an empire. The greatest empire modern age organized crime has ever seen.”
I was seeing the man beside me in a new light. One I never thought possible. This man Hiro was describing was not the father I knew, not the father who raised me, and definitely not the one I mourned for over a year. My memories of him stood on their own. I’ll leave those pillars of salt to these new memories of today, hoping they would easily dissolve in tears of joy once we were out of here.
“You will not touch a hair on his head,” I replied in what I hoped was a steady voice, walking closer to Hiro, my index finger held right to his face.
These revelations about my father had my heart breaking into a million pieces, but now was not the time to crumble along with it. I could not live with the idea of Matt not being by my side, of this madman hurting him and taking him away from me, from his baby.
Hiro grabbed my wrist abruptly, pulling me closer to him, his humid breath fanning my face as I turned mine away to avoid looking at him and being too close.
“You cannot stop what is already in motion, little girl,” He said into my ear, his creepy voice sending shivers down my spine. But it only lasted a second.
The double doors suddenly burst open, a limp body falling heavily on the ground with a loud thud before a new shiver drove down my spine. A shiver driven by the deepest and most terrifying, sexy growl I’ve heard in my life, matching Matt’s angry demeanor as he held up a gun in Hiro’s direction.
“Get your fucking hands off my wife!”