10. Tessa
10
TESSA
“ T hat’s Dante?” I whispered as Nina and I tucked into my room upstairs. I locked the door as she ran to the window to look out it.
“Yes,” she replied, just as shaken up as I was. Our reunion was unexpected and swift, but we were both too wrapped up in fear to really do more than hurry to safety.
“Damn.” I shook my head, joining her at the window to look out over the weedy lawn. It was extensive, but so thick with grasses and vines from the lack of maintenance from long ago. Multiple seasons, at least. I held my breath as the three men stalked carefully through the yard, looking out for danger.
Nina exhaled a long breath, and I hated the fatigue in it. “I’m sorry.” I winced as I faced her profile, stunned by how healthy and happy she looked. The last I saw of her was at the Hound and Tea, when we’d joked about finding a sugar daddy to make our lives easier. She had, sort of. Dante was at least twenty years older than her. Before she met him and agreed to pretend to be his girlfriend, the tiredness in her eyes made her look haggard and beaten down, just like me.
Now, she was glowing. No bags under her eyes. Less of that constant stress lining her face. And… thicker? She seemed to have put on weight. Or maybe her dress made her boobs look that much bigger. Of all the things to notice, Tess…
“I’m sorry I almost stabbed you. I thought it was the bikers coming to the door and…”
She placed her arm around my shoulders and pulled me close in a side hug. “Don’t apologize for being scared.”
“I wouldn’t have hurt you,” I said anyway.
“I know. I know.”
“But I was shocked as hell to see you show up here. What’s going on? Why’s Dante here and…” I shook my head as we both still peered out the window. “Why are you here with Romeo?” It had been one shock after another. Seeing the Devil’s Brothers. Then Nina showing up. The worry that I could’ve hurt her in my fear.
“Did Romeo tell you who he is?” she asked carefully, giving up her post to glance at me.
“No. Just that his name is Romeo. He works for an organization and he…” I dragged in a deep breath, determined to plow ahead and really catch her up since I’d lost touch with her. That meant coming out with the full truth. “And he killed the three men who raped me last night.”
She lost all focus on staring out the window. Her worry about Dante couldn’t have disappeared, but she turned her full, anxious attention to me. “ What ?” She gaped at me and shook her head. “No. You didn’t just say…”
I nodded, showing her my bandaged hands. “I was waitressing late, and after my shift, these men chased me down the alley and…”
Her arms clenched around me so tightly, I choked for air. I hugged her back, sniffling at the familiar burn of tears threatening to spill. I’d missed her, so damn much. Being near her again, regardless of the confusing details I still wanted to piece together, felt good. It felt right to be reunited with my best friend, the sister I’d always wanted. When no one else would ever stand up for me, Nina was there, supporting me however she could with her equally limited power and resources.
“Okay.” I reared back as she wiped at her cheeks, crying for what I’d shared. “ What is going on?”
First, I’d noticed her boobs practically spilling out. But now, with that hug, I knew I wasn’t imagining the bump in her belly. “Are you pregnant ?” It was my turn to gape at her.
She nodded, trading in the teary frown at the news that I’d been raped for a slight smile. “Yes. Dante and I are expecting our baby in the spring.”
“Oh, my God!” I hauled her in for another hug. “We have so much to catch up on.”
“We do. And we definitely will. Because you’re not going anywhere.”
I huffed a laugh. I wasn’t prepared to make any predictions or plans for myself. She was pregnant! I was still so stunned that I didn’t know what to say.
“Because Romeo is Dante’s son, Tess. That’s why I’m here. He said he found a woman and helped her out of a situation last night.”
I pointed at myself. “That’d be me.” I was impressed—and pleased—that he hadn’t told them I was raped.
“I was eavesdropping on what he was telling Dante and Franco.” At my confused look, she added, “Franco is the man with them out there. I was in the house and heard bits and pieces of what Romeo was talking about, that a woman needed help, and he rushed to help her. Then when he said this woman was afraid of some guy named Elliot Hines, I knew he had to be talking about you!”
I nodded. “Romeo brought me here and had a ‘friend’ named Danicia check me over.”
She grinned. “Danicia is so helpful. She was on vacation when I learned I was pregnant, but she’s been so helpful and comforting.”
“When he brought me here, I was, um, struggling with processing what happened. I guess I blurted out that no one—that Elliot—wouldn’t want me since I was damaged goods…”
I swallowed hard. It was still so hard to say it.
“Well, Romeo was curious about who he was. It seems like Romeo and the others might know a little about Elliot and some of his cases.”
“But who are they, Nina? Who does Romeo work for?” As soon as the words left me, her earlier comment replayed in my mind. It was so much to catch up with that I failed to react sooner.
“Because Romeo is Dante’s son.”
“The Mafia ?” I hissed. Romeo was involved with the Constella Family, one of the cornerstone organizations of the syndicated crime world. Not only was he included in their ranks, but he also had to be high up if he was the son of Dante—the boss.
Now that she was in front of me, present and communicating after the month of no contact, more and more clicked. She’d mentioned Romeo in her calls before I lost touch with her. Or she’d hinted at Dante having a son. Never in a million years, though, did I think we’d meet like this. That my best friend was dating the father of the man who’d rescued me, who’d killed for me.
“Wow.” I blinked quickly, shaking my head with this stupefied sense of surprise.
“He’s Dante’s son,” she repeated. “Romeo is like a prince of the Mafia.”
I shot her a look. “Jesus. Mafia royalty? That’s a thing?”
“I don’t know. But Dante more or less declared that war would be coming when his old friend Stefan teamed up with the Devil’s Brothers to kidnap me.”
I gawked at her again. I was raped. She’d been kidnapped. We needed to talk for hours.
“Yeah, it’s complicated. But I’m safe. Dante and I are engaged. We’re having a baby. Romeo’s protecting you. We will be safe.” She backed up the promise by grabbing my hands and squeezing them without touching the bandages.
“Don’t…” She winced and studied me. “Don’t let these labels intimidate you. The knowledge that Dante and Romeo are Mafia men. They are good men.”
I held up my hand. “No. No. I’m not…” I sighed, hoping I could explain. “I’m not worried about Romeo being in the Mafia. I’m not scared of him.” I loved her all the more for rushing to console me, but it wasn’t necessary. “Somehow, I know he won’t hurt me.”
She whooshed out a deep breath of relief and hugged me again. It seemed like she couldn’t get enough of holding me close, as though she needed to make up for all the lost time.
I wasn’t nervous about Romeo. I wasn’t scared of him. He wasn’t a threat. I knew that from the bottom of my heart, and I didn’t care how quickly that idea had settled in. It was a fact. I felt safer when he was near. I felt stronger and supported when he was within reach. I wondered if it was a sign of an attachment issue, an instant sense of hero worship because he’d saved me from those men and then killed them for what they did to me.
And if I am falling under some spell or suffering from an attachment issue…
I wouldn’t want it any other way. Being near or connected to that sexy, tatted Mafia prince didn’t sound like a bad thing at all.
“I kept texting you and calling you,” Nina said as the front door opened downstairs.
“Tess?” Romeo called up.
I smiled quickly, liking how he shortened my name. “Up here.”
“It’s all clear,” Dante yelled up to us.
Nina and I left the room to meet up with them, but she didn’t stay quiet. “I kept calling and texting you. I was so worried when you didn’t reply.”
I frowned at her. “Me too. I kept texting and had no clue why you went AWOL on me.”
“Huh.” She scrunched her face. “I’ll ask Dante to have someone look into it. I got a new phone because mine was so old that it broke, but the number is the same.” She shook her head. “I got scared that your parents or Elliot coerced you into an elopement and I’d never hear from you again.”
I took her hand and squeezed it as we walked down the stairs. “Never. We’re best friends for life.”
Seeing her grin at me was the reward I didn’t know I’d needed.
But spotting Romeo down in the foyer felt just as good. In a different way.
Attachment issues or not, I lit up at his presence.
“We’ve got to move,” he announced, looking me over as if he was worried I’d been hurt, not just scared. “The MC knows I’m here, and it’s no longer safe.”
“What about the guard?” I asked, feeling stupid to mention it.
“They killed him,” Dante said as Nina went to him. “You need more security, and this place won’t be easy to patrol with the state that the property is in.”
All those weeds sure would make it easy to hide.
“Franco is arranging for more men to help as a security force,” Dante said, “but it’s unwise to stay here.”
“But what does this mean?” I locked onto Romeo’s ice-blue eyes.
“It means I’m taking Nina home. Now,” Dante told us as he focused on my friend. “We can talk later.” When he looked at me, then Romeo, he said, “You can remain under the protection of the Constella forces, Tessa. It’s up to you where you’d want to go.”
“The family has—” Romeo stopped, looking between me and Nina. “Did she fill you in? That I’m Romeo Constella and he’s…” He gestured at Dante.
I nodded. “The boss of the Constella Mafia.”
“I started to catch her up on what’s happened since we worked together at the Hound and Tea,” Nina replied.
Romeo faced me. “The family has multiple properties. I'd planned to stay here for a while and renovate this place, but I’ll move to another location after Joseph was attacked.”
“Romeo has been supervising surveillance on our enemies,” Dante said, full of authority, “and with this incident today, he will increase his effort in that regard.”
Please, please don’t expect me to leave him. I licked my lips, nervous as I watched Romeo stand there so serious and quiet, patient and open to listening to what I could decide.
The distance between us in this foyer felt too wide and far. The mere thought of being away from him hurt me. It tore at my mind and chipped at my vulnerable heart.
“Do you want to stay with me?” he asked.
I nodded, running toward him.
He held his arms open, and once I reached him, secure against his hard chest and hearing his heart beat steadily, I sighed with the basic and simple relief of knowing I was back where I thought I belonged.
With you.