Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Giovann
‘ W hy the hell would I have changed my mind? Ask yourself that.’ Dante gripped my hand he was holding a little tighter.
I focussed on his strength for a few seconds. I had to. With all the emotions I was experiencing, I was beginning to feel a little hot and lightheaded. Perhaps it was because he just touched me?
‘Salvatore told me that with your papa now exonerated and your family once again in a secure position within the family, you were happy to let me go.’
‘Happy to let you go?’ His voice increased in volume. ‘That’s a fucking joke.’
Dante released my hand suddenly and strode back to the drinks cabinet. Feeling his anger, I watched as he poured himself out a large whiskey and downed it in one, before he lit up a cigarette, and took a long drag. Then he turned and studied me, making goosebumps appear under his perusal.
‘Where’s my manners?’ he asked sarcastically. ‘Would you like a drink, Miss De Luca?’ I had no idea if it was what he was asking, or what he’d just called me, that made me feel so instantly ill. But sudden realisation hit me at my stupidness, and I dug my fingers into the back of the chair I was holding hoping it would give me the support I needed.
‘Don’t,’ I reprimanded him.
‘Don’t, she says.’ He laughed, but it didn’t reach his face. ‘Giovanna, would you care for a drink?’ he questioned again.
‘Yes, okay. Non-alcoholic please.’
‘Of course,’ he voiced, showing me that he still remembered.
Unlike me, it appeared, who thought I could get away with the beer I’d just had with the bodyguard I’d had to drug to get here. I watched as Dante stubbed out his half-smoked cigarette and poured out a glass of wine for me and another whiskey for himself.
Oh God! You fool. Hold on Giovanna.
It seemed to be Karma for the lies I’d told to get here. Now, it appeared, I really was ill.
If I hadn’t been so emotionally overwrought and struggling to keep what felt like a possible allergic reaction at bay, I would have laughed out loud at my predicament. I looked down for my handbag and checked it was within reach, in case I needed it.
‘Tell me more about what fucking Salvatore told you?’ He slammed the glass he had drunk from again back down on the tray, making everything on it clang together, and me jump in the process, before moving over to offer me the wine.
‘Don’t call him that.’ I took the glass he was offering.
He laughed loudly. ‘There are many, many more colourful things I could call that bastard. Can’t you see what he’s done?’
‘I’m not sure I understand.’ My voice sounded small, and my heart was beginning to beat out of my chest as my body struggled to cope with the poison I’d put in. I gulped at the wine Dante had just handed me to hopefully dilute what I’d previously consumed.
‘Think, Giovanna. You’re not stupid. Other than my plan of vengeance against him, and me not needing you as my wife anymore… what else did he say?’
‘He said how disappointed he was in me.’ I sniffed as I remembered how ashamed I’d felt of myself. ‘How me going against his wishes could have cost me my life. He reminded me how important I was, to him and the rest of my family, especially given our recent losses. Then he repeated what he’d said before about a De Luca woman’s scalp being a prize that many of our enemies would celebrate.’
‘Bastard.’ Dante spat out. ‘That’s true, but uncalled for.’
‘He was right!’ I spoke louder, because now being older and wiser I could see how he only wanted to protect me, even if it felt stifling at times. ‘Then he’d asked me to sit down on the seat next to him and he held me close. He explained that because of his new position in the family, it was good you were happy to walk away, because he couldn’t have allowed you to kidnap me and to get away with it. And if I went against his wishes again, a divide would once again be driven between our two families.’
‘Nothing he’s prepared to say or do surprises me,’ Dante forced out between gritted teeth.
‘You can’t think he played us against each other?’ I asked in disbelief. ‘What did he say to you?’
He moved back to stand in front of me. He gently placed one hand on my hip, making my skin underneath feel suddenly feverish, and using his thumb and forefinger under my chin, he raised my eyes to his. A whole raft of feelings swept over me. Feelings that I’d packed away a long time ago. Momentarily, I was transported back in time to how I felt when I was alone with him, and my knees began to tremble.
‘He explained… you’d changed your mind.’ The aroma of expensive whiskey and the cigarette he’d half-smoked rushed over my face as he spoke. ‘The rest… well, it was more of a wordless explanation.’ He nodded and smirked at the same time. ‘I remember his bodyguards holding me while his fist collided with my face several times over.’ My lips parted as I took in what he was saying.
‘He hit you?’
‘Yeah, he did.’ He said no more, but continued to hold me, flicking his eyes over my face as though he couldn’t believe I was for real.
‘Oh God, Dante. I’m so sorry.’
‘Don’t be. If the boot had been on the other foot, I’d have done worse to him.’ He stated the fact, and I knew he was telling the truth. ‘I’d always understood he couldn’t and wouldn’t allow me to get away with kidnapping you, let alone marrying you.’
‘But you did it anyway.’
‘Yeah.’
I watched, as still holding on to my chin, Dante looked between my eyes and my lips. Unconsciously, I swept my tongue out to wet them.
‘We both knew he wouldn’t be happy, but with us already married he could have come up with something and allowed us to stay together… if that’s what we both wanted?’ I could hear the doubt in my tone.
‘I wanted to marry you, Giovanna, and I waited, lying on the cold floor of the church we married in, for you to come back… but you didn’t.’ He spoke gently.
‘You waited?’ I shook my head, feeling strangely adrift from the saloon we were in. Feelings I’d been trying for years to keep in check. The same ones that every time he’d phoned and refused to talk to me rose up inside me, now unchecked and unfiltered.
‘I wanted to marry you, to be married to you.’
‘You did?’
‘Yes… why didn’t you come back to me?’ His eyes narrowed in question.
‘Salvatore told me you’d left with your uncle.’
‘Eventually, I did.’ He shrugged. ‘After Salvatore had wound in his fists, and he’d explained that there was no way he was going to give permission for us to be together, as you didn’t want to be married to someone who would use kidnap against you.’
‘I never said that.’
‘Colour me surprised.’ He lifted his eyebrows and exhaled.
‘What else did he say?’
‘He told me not to overthink it, and not to risk the newly acquired status quo between our families. Serafina was pregnant once again and he knew I wouldn’t want her to lose the baby, and permission would be given for Gabriel to marry Mia.’
‘You just have to say the words,’ I encouraged. ‘I’ll understand if you had chosen your family over me. I just want to understand what happened.’
‘I never chose them over you. You need to listen to what I’m saying. I was told you had changed your mind. And that if I wanted to live and cause no further upset to my family, I should accept my penance for taking you and making a stand against him. That way he wouldn’t be seen to be undermined, which would have created instability for everyone we both loved.’
‘Penance?’ I moved my head around a little, stretching my neck. I could still see and hear Dante talking, but the words he was saying weren’t penetrating. Parts of my body were screaming painfully, my skin itched, and my throat felt strangely tight and numb. My view was becoming blurry, and I instinctively began to blink over and over.
‘I’m coming to the end of a seven-year penance… Giovanna.’ His voice increased in volume.
‘Seven years?’
‘The army, and now here in Malta.’
Looking down at my body, I could see hives beginning to appear.
‘Giovanna what’s wrong?’ Dante questioned as he took hold of both of my upper arms.
‘Allergic reaction,’ I forced out from my dry mouth.
‘Fuck! It was meant to be non-alcoholic.’ Dante instantly looked worried and his hold on me changed. Suddenly, I was aware I was being lifted with ease, up into his arms. On instinct I snuggled against the hardness of his body and allowed his recognisable cologne to envelope me. After crossing the saloon, he walked up to the couch and placed me gently down on it. Pulling a soft pillow nearer he lifted my head and put it underneath. Then kneeling beside me, he took hold of my nearest hand and kissed it. I watched as longer strands of hair fell forward across his face and once again, as his eyes then found mine, he became the boy I’d once known.
‘I’m sorry, it should have been non-alcoholic… I’ll fucking kill him!’
‘Not your wine.’ I shook my head. ‘I had a drink earlier, with one of the guards… to get off the boat.’ I swallowed, desperately trying to keep my throat from closing over. ‘I put a sleeping pill in his beer.’
‘Of course you did.’ He exhaled sharply by blowing through his mouth. ‘What can I do?’
‘Epi-Pen. It’s in my handbag, a yellow tube.’
Dante moved fast. I heard the entire contents of my bag clatter onto the wooden floor of the saloon. Then he was back with the pen in his hands.
‘In the top of my thigh. Can you do it?’ I grabbed at his arm, as I pleaded with him.
‘I’ve got you, amore mio. Army training.’ He nodded.
‘You caught me,’ I whispered, wondering if he’d remember an earlier promise.
‘I told you I would.’ I heard him reply and smiled to myself.
A click sounded as he released the safety, and I turned my head away so as not to witness the swift downward movement of his hand. Then I felt him lift my dress, and the needle struck home. A feeling of having been punched reached me first, before the sting followed as the precise amount of adrenaline entered my blood stream. Together we waited. Dante sat back onto his haunches beside me, while holding my hand tightly, and tucking the occasional errant strand of my hair back behind my ears. As we anticipated the adrenaline working its magic, I concentrated on steadying my breathing and relaxing, while he reprimanded me for my stupidity under his breath.
And I knew then that he still cared.
Finally, the adrenaline did what it needed to do and after a few fraught minutes of waiting for my body to get back under my control, I fell sleep.