Chapter 17
Mario
Questa vita che volevo darti si è sgretolata tra le mie dita. —This life I wanted to give to you has crumbled between my fingers.
Ringo stepped forward. “That’s exactly what I said.”
He continued before I could argue with him again. “We will not pay a ransom, no money, no you. We’ll go in our way. Eliminate the source. This is bigger than your problems, Mario.”
My words were cold. “And sacrifice the patriarch of the family? Never.”
Even as I spoke them, I pulled Allie closer.
“Don Conti wants me. That’s all. It is a small price.”
Allie tugged free. “The hell it is!”
She didn’t understand—
Ellie raised a hand and pointed at her sister. “I’m with her. And fucking Ringo here, go in guns blazing. Where do I sign up?”
These women were infuriating. “They want me. If that is what stops a war, then—”
“Hell no. We wage war, our way.” Ringo’s voice was almost as cold as mine.
Allie spat at him, “Who wages war? Him? No. You? You tried to kill him. You have no say.”
“He’s still family,” I said, but everyone ignored me.
“No, he is not.” Ellie crossed her arms. “Even I know that.”
I spoke quickly, telling her what I’d told Don Manca, Loppa, Firenze, everyone… “He saved my life twice and didn’t kill me.”
Ringo threw a pointed hand in the air. “You know, I hate being talked around like this so I’m going to have my say right now.
Mario, you cannot do this alone. I’m going to the uncles.
I know I’m not wanted there anymore. But I know they all want a piece of that bastard.
Even if his villa is a fortress. They’ll follow your dumb ass in and mess this up permanently whether you want it to happen or not. Use your brain. Make a plan.
“The walls of Don Conti’s office are reinforced with iron. The door is nine inches thick. It’s made from two slabs of cypress banded around a metal core. There’s three layers of security before you even hit the castle. Best way to get in is—”
“We are not starting a war!” I yelled. It would ruin us all.
Ringo stepped back. His eyes flashed as he searched mine.
“Protect my home.” I lifted Allie’s hand, the one with my mother’s ring on it. Then, I indicated her twin, forcing him to face the damage he’d done.
His eyes held pain I’d not seen since he was a student abandoned to the world with no home to return to when classes completed for the year.
I’d taken him with me to Sardinia that day.
He’d been mine ever since. I’d given him my family, my home, my life.
We taught him a code to embrace when the world was too cold.
He studied me with those pain-filled eyes.
“Are you sure, brother?”
Ringo could protect Allie and Ellie. He was the only person who I trusted completely to do whatever was necessary to ensure their safety.
“Sì.”
“Mario,” Allie’s tone held a note of warning. Even without understanding us, she knew I’d released her. I could see it in her eyes.
“Questa vita che volevo darti si è sgretolata tra le mie dita.” I touched her hair before tipping her face to mine. “I swore I’d protect you with my life. I also swore to protect my family with my life. It is… honorable to live this way. I’m sorry.”
Her eyes remained dry, but the tears were plain to see because her shattered heart was right there. I hadn’t been careful enough with her or her family.
“You say live, but I hear die.”
I tipped my head. She understood what I hadn’t said. “Everyone dies.”
Her mouth tightened, and her jaw was tight. “I’m not ready for you to die yet.”
As if she could stop fate. I smiled.
“My heart.” I brushed her hair away so I could touch her soft cheeks.
“I’m not ready.” She fisted her hands in my shirt and shook me.
The glint of gold on her finger drew my attention.
I kissed it, reminding myself that life wasn’t complete without dying.
No one knew how long of a gift we were given.
I’d done my share of shortening that span for others.
I’d guided men like Ringo into that circle.
My mother died because of men like me. “Let me show you another photo.”
She released me reluctantly.
I found what I was looking for in the pile of information on the desk.
There were four photos in total. Two were taken from a sniper’s blind.
One was snatched from barely six feet away.
The final one was too dark to understand the full image, but Ringo told me what the camera couldn’t reveal.
“These were taken in Venice, two days ago.”
I laid them carefully, leaving space between the edges so Allie could see every detail.
In the first, Ellie laughed at a ragged juggler who plied his comedy in the Piazza San Marco. Over her shoulder, a man in a dark costume and mask stared at her, not the fool. In the second wide shot, the man who’d taken a seat behind her followed her as she moved through the square.
The close shot was of Ellie and her stalker. Someone snapped the photo for them. She stood too close. Trusted too much.
That man died in an alcove between buildings, a victim to Ringo’s vigilance.
Ellie inhaled a shaky breath. “How did you get those?”
I tapped the two shots that were taken from far away.
“A cousin took these from one of the rooftops.” I slid the close-up and the alley scene to cover the others.
“These were from a member of the Conti contingent’s phone.
” I laughed bitterly. “They thought you were Allie and tried create proof that my wife was unfaithful. They failed, miserably.”
Ellie’s hand moved to her neck.
I glanced at Ringo.
He addressed Allie. “Ellie was lured into a dark space and almost strangled. All because they thought she was you. When their hitman didn’t return, and they couldn’t intercept you when you fled Milan, they took Don Manca.”
Allie’s hand shook as she turned the darkest photo to change the angle. “Who took this one?”
“I took it. I searched the man I killed and found his phone.” Ringo paused. “And I brought your sister here, so she’d be safe.”
Ellie bit her bottom lip. “It’s true,” she whispered. “I thought it was just one of those dangers you warned me about but…”
As Ellie trailed off, I filled in the gaps.
“If what you and your sister told us is true, Dianora killed her brother. She tried to kill Ellie in Venice. Likely ordered her cousin to make an attempt in Milan. You were targeted today. My grandfather is perhaps too important to kill, but his power did not stop them from touching him. They will not stop unless I stop it. They want revenge for Adelmo, and for the dishonor to Dianora, but that’s on me, not you, nor my grandfather. ”
Allie met my eyes. “I don’t know you, do I?”
“You know who I am. You knew when you approached me on the plane. You knew I was dangerous. That I’m an animal. But I’m not without honor. You and your sister will be safe on Sardinia.”
She took a breath that shook. “Without you.”
“Yes.”
Her fist hit the desk, scattering a few photos. The binder with her careful travel plans slid to the floor and spilled the contents like blood. Her eyes dared me to fight her. “No. I’ve saved money, we pay a ransom.”
“There is no money that can fix this.” It was a matter of honor, pride, their wounded plans, and of a bitter family broken by too many power-hungry rivals.
“When I go to Don Conti in exchange for my grandfather, my family will send all of these photos to him, and tell him that his daughter was responsible. He will see he has been betrayed. And, Don Conti is not a forgiving man. I pity his daughter.”
Her head moved in silent denial. Those tears from her heart breaking gathered at the corners, threatening to spill.
“It’s late. Go to bed. Wait for me. I want one last night if he is…stubborn.”
Her mouth opened to tell me no. Nothing came out.
“You bastard.” Ellie grabbed her sister and pulled her out of the room.
I tipped my head to Ringo, indicating he should follow them. But he lingered instead.
“I told you to live a little, not stick your head in a noose.”
My fist tightened. “Like you?” He’d seduced my wife’s sister and discarded her on my doorstep with no more care than he treated his whores.
My quiet words made him flinch, but he rallied.
“No. You’re not me. You care. You were born to care.
I’m just a discarded blow-by. A mistake to bury.
Eventually, I’ll do everyone I know a favor and die, but you…
shouldn’t.” He frowned, showing more emotion than I’d seen from him recently.
“Maybe I should’ve killed you when I had the chance. ”
The quiet click of the door was louder than if he’d slammed it.
I spoke into the empty night. “You’d like to try again, wouldn’t you?”
Firenze moved from the shadowed alcove where there was a listening screen hidden. “He’s going to betray us all.”
“It is a possibility.”
“We don’t have enough soldiers to counter that.”
His words were true. “His orders are to get my wife and her sister to Sardinia. Be certain they are protected if he changes that plan.”
“Sì, Don Valentini.”
I stared into the shadows, counting my assets, moving the pieces around. No matter how I configured the plans, the solution was obvious. A trade was best for everyone.
Before I met Allie, it had been even simpler.
Buy out Adelmo, or give my promise to Dianora, then watch for the knife she’d aimed at my throat, survive.
I would have kept true to a truce that had lasted over eighty years.
I was willing to die within the strict confines of a code older than the bones of this country.
Within only a week, I’d followed my heart, and everything I knew, or thought I knew about living proved wrong. The desire to grab Allie, her sister, drag Ringo with me into exile, and hide from the assassins the Conti family and my own would send after us was calling me to ruin.
We’d last a month at most.
Don Conti knew precisely how to corner me. He embraced death by taking my grandfather. Everyone who’d been in this room knew his remaining days were counted on two hands only. No iron walls or modern security would stop the family from sending someone in. But moving quickly was a mistake.
A knife to the heart was much more effective than a war. And Allie had just handed me the weapon. I wanted to be the one who’d stab it into Don Conti’s chest. Before he died, I’d tell him exactly how his oldest betrayed them all. She might believe she was ruthless, but she knew nothing of the word.
To kill her brother? It was a crime beyond dignity.
The most brutal betrayal. And one our family would avenge.
When the dust settled and the accusations silenced, my family would survive like they had for thousands of years.
There was a reason the right hand needed the left. They washed each other clean.
I sent the images to my eldest uncle. He would see to it that the families knew. In my message, I added the name of Ellie’s lawyer so the network I’d built abroad would corroborate everything. There were two more attachments. The first was an amendment to my will.
I held up the marriage certificate so I could see Allie’s gentle handwriting clearly. “I have a wife.”
One I needed desperately.
Ringo stood outside Ellie’s room. “They’re inside.” He slipped away as I knocked lightly.
“Allie?”
“Go away.”
Funny how I knew that was Ellie’s voice. “Send my wife out, Ellie.”
The door flew open, and Ellie stuck her face between the gap. “What if I don’t?”
I stared over her head at my beautiful bride. Our eyes met. Hers were rimmed with red. “Please?” I begged her, not her dragon-like twin.
Allie approached Ellie from behind and set a quiet hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t. None of this is okay. You’re all a bunch of f—”
Allie’s hand covered her sister’s mouth. She whispered in her ear, hoarsely, “He’s my husband. Let it go.”
The mutiny in Ellie’s eyes was plain. “Never.”
Allie hugged her from behind. “That’s why I love you.”
Ellie patted her sister’s arms as she glared at me. “Fine. Tell that bastard, Ringo, if I smell his cologne in this hallway one more time tonight that Loppa gave me a knife and I’m not afraid to cut his nuts off.”
A shadow moved at the end of the hall. “I’m certain he already knows.”
Ellie shook her head but let Allie join me in the hall. She spoke directly at me. “Seven A.M., she’s mine again. Got it?”
“Understood.”
She shifted her gaze to Allie. “Don’t think tonight.”
Allie smiled at her sister with more sadness than anything else. “That only makes me want to think—”
Ellie shook her head but smiled back. “Nope. Not tonight. Manana, hermana.”
“Bananny, hermanny.”
With that, they hugged quickly before Ellie shut and locked the door noisily.
“Bananny?” I asked.
“Twin talk.” Allie’s eyes met mine. “Get used to it.”
If only I had the time, I would look forward to learning that language.