Chapter 10
TEN
Lissia
I loved Marchello more than I had ever loved anyone or anything, so why was our relationship so complicated? The jarring pain in my hip reminded me that all hell had broken loose before I got the chance to tell him how I felt.
Every time I wanted to confess my love for him, something got in my way. It was usually him who stopped me from baring my soul, but this time all hell had broken loose.
What is that about?
“You’re awake.” Ricardo hurried to the side of my bed with his rosary beads in his hand. “Thank God.”
He made the sign of the cross over his forehead, chest, and shoulders as he mumbled something in Italian. I think he thanked Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes.
That can’t be right.
“Ricardo?”
“I’ve been so worried about you.” He patted my shoulder. “I’ve been waiting for you to open those pretty eyes of yours.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Keeping you company.”
“How did you get here?” How long had I been out?
“Marchello sent for me.” He poured a glass of water from the pitcher on the nightstand. “You must be parched.”
“I am.” I pushed up against the mattress, wincing as I went.
“Are you okay?” The panic in his voice startled me.
“I was shot.”
More mumbling in Italian.
I took the glass from him. “I’m fine. Just a little stiff. Don’t look so worried.”
“I don’t just look worried. I am worried.”
“Is that why you thanked the patron saint of lost causes?”
“Hmm…” he said. “I forgot you speak Italian.”
“Which one of us is lost?” I asked.
“We’ll discuss it another time.”
I glanced around the quiet and empty room.
“Marchello will be right back,” Ricardo said, sensing who I searched for. “He was with you all night, but Milo convinced him to shower and get a cup of coffee.”
“Oh, that’s good.” I sipped the water. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“As soon as I got the call, I went to the airstrip. Milo had a jet waiting for me.”
“I’ve missed you.” I reached for his hand and studied his face. The bruises had faded, but I imagined how horrible they must have been when they were fresh. “I’ve wanted to see you. I wanted to apologize for what happened. I’m sorry I put you in such a poor position.”
“Whatever happened I deserved.”
“How can you say that?”
“Because I shouldn’t have let what happened to you happen.” He took the water glass from me and set it on the nightstand. “You could have been killed. I deserved far worse than what Marchello did to me.”
“No, you didn’t.” I patted the edge of the bed. “Sit with me.”
When he sat by my feet and smiled, I realized how much I had missed my teddy bear of a friend.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Not too bad for being shot.” I shrugged. “I guess it wasn’t that bad.”
“The bullet grazed your hip.”
“Oh?” I peeked under the covers and saw I was wearing one of Marchello’s T-shirts. There was a white bandage on my hip. “Do you think it will scar?”
“Probably.” Marchello leaned against the doorframe, freshly showered and shaved. He wore his black Armani suit and that sexy, brooding scowl of his.
My gangster.
“I guess no more bikinis for you,” he said.
“What?” I tugged at the bandage. “I need to see it.”
“Leave it.” Marchello came to stand by the foot of the bed. “We don’t need it getting infected.”
When he glanced at Ricardo, my friend quickly hopped off the bed. Marchello’s scary glower didn’t have the same effect for Ricardo as it did for me.
“I’ll go get you something to eat.” Ricardo scrambled to leave. “You’re probably hungry.”
“Don’t leave,” I said. “Come back here.”
“Oh, well, I…” Ricardo looked to Marchello for permission.
“You heard my girl.” Marchello sat next to me. “Whatever she wants.”
I held out my hand for Marchello to take. “I want you to do something for me.”
“Anything.” He brushed my knuckles along his lips. “What is it?”
“Apologize to Ricardo.” Now would probably be the best time to ask for anything I wanted with being shot and all.
“That’s not necessary.” Ricardo waved his hand.
I looked at Marchello.
“Ricardo put you in danger. But so did I.” Marchello sighed, then nodded at Ricardo. “I’m sorry that I got a little extreme with you.”
“A little?” I shook my head. “More like a lot.”
“It’s okay,” Ricardo said. “Apology accepted.”
“Thank you.” Marchello got up from the bed and extended his hand. “There won’t be another chance.”
“I understand.” Ricardo shook Marchello’s hand.
“Ricardo can be my guard again?” I asked.
“No.” Marchello walked back over to the bed and stood by my side.
Ricardo looked at the floor, trying to shield his disappointment.
“But he can be your companion.” Marchello glanced at me before looking at Ricardo. “This is your second shot. You’re only getting that because my father is fond of you.”
“I won’t screw up,” Ricardo said. “I promise.”
“Wait.” I held up my hand. “Don’t promise that.”
“Why?” Ricardo asked.
“Because I’m unpredictable.” I smiled. “We all know it.”
“Dear God.” Marchello pointed to the hallway. “Go get her something to eat.”
Ricardo scurried out of the room.
I inched a little higher against the pillows. “He’s afraid of you.”
“As he should be.” Marchello sat with me on the bed. “How are you?”
“My body hurts. My hair is knotted. And do I still have last night’s makeup on?”
“You’re beautiful.” He leaned into me, clasped my hand, and gently kissed my dry lips. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. You didn’t shoot me.”
“No, I didn’t.” He tightened his jaw.
“Do you know who did?”
“There were plenty of targets there last night.”
“Well, it sucks that I got shot, but I’m happy to think that you and Milo weren’t the intended victims.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“What are you saying?” Did he know who did this or not?
“It’s part of the job.”
“Maybe you should get a new job?”
There may have been a lot of dangerous people in the room last night, but were they all caught up in a mob war with a rival family? A rival family whose daughter he happened to kidnap?
I hadn’t spoken to my father since the day he betrayed me and sent Danny to come for me. That action of his was a bitter pill to swallow. It proved that my dad would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, even if I was the sacrifice.
As much as I wanted to forget him, I couldn’t. He was still my father. Despite his faults, I wanted to believe there was a way to salvage all of this.
“Would you like it if I were a car salesman?” Marchello let go of my hand, bringing me back to our harsh reality. “I can give you anything you want, but I can’t give you that.”
“Don’t you think about it sometimes? Like what would have happened if you went to college and chose another path?”
“No.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You knew who I was before you pursued me, but that didn’t stop you.”
“I’m not afraid of who you are.”
That wasn’t entirely true. I wasn’t afraid of him, but I was terrified of what could happen to him because of this stupid world he lived in. Bullets, enemies, territories, cartels, guns… Where would it end?
“You should be, because who I am and where I come from will impact your life on so many levels. It already has.”
“Do you want me out of your life?” I asked.
I had no intention of going anywhere, but hearing his answer might help me understand him a little better.
“Don’t you know the answer to that question already?”
“Considering you keep me with you under the guise that you kidnapped me twice, no I can’t really say with any degree of certainty if you want me here or not.”
“I see that getting shot has not tamed you in the least.”
“You don’t want me tamed,” I said. “You like when I suffer at the mercy of your very kinky hands.”
“I don’t want you out of my life.” He brushed his finger along my cheek with a tenderness that made my stomach flip. “You somehow managed to put yourself front and center.”
“That’s a habit of mine.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“But you’re not sure you want me front and center.”
Maybe it was my near-death experience that had me asking him the difficult questions, but I needed to know where I stood with him. I almost took a bullet standing by him. Shouldn’t I at least know if he really wanted me there?
“Two months ago, I knew without a doubt I didn’t want you with me because of your last name. Not to mention, I thought you were a spoiled brat with an agenda.”
“That didn’t hurt my feelings then and it still doesn’t now.”
“I’m not trying to hurt your feelings.”
He softened his gaze, but the torment in his eyes crushed my heart, and his tortured soul sucked the air right out of my lungs.
How can I help you?
“You’re the most fearless woman I know.”
“Thank you.”
“It scares the shit out of me.” He gripped the comforter. “You have no idea how much.”
“Nothing scares you.”
“You do.”
“Why?”
“Because you do what you want and never worry about the consequences,” he said. “It could have been much worse last night.”
“Last night didn’t happen because I was being reckless. I was dancing with you.”
“But being with me is a consequence of your actions.”
I maneuvered out of the covers and made my way into his lap. I wanted to scream when the movement became too much, but my need to be in his arms outweighed the agony.
“What are you doing?” He held me against him. “You shouldn’t overexert yourself.”
“I wanted you to hold me.”
I rested my head against his chest, breathing in his calming scent. He surrounded me in his solid form, keeping me close. No matter what, he was my protector.
Did he think he failed me last night?
“You’re afraid that what happened to your mother will happen to me, aren’t you?”
His body tensed and his hold on me tightened.
“Tell me that’s what it is,” I said.
After a few moments, he whispered, “It is. When I saw that you were bleeding, I… It was like that day when the car…”
“That’s not going to happen.”
I hated that he lived with the memory of his mother getting in that car and then, in an instant, it was all over. That demon haunted him every second of every day. He didn’t have to talk about it for me to know.
“You don’t know that,” he said.
“It’s not going to happen because you’re going to protect me.”
“Did I protect you last night?” he asked. “When we were dodging bullets and taking cover?”
“You had no control over that.”
“If you believe that, then you’re naive.” Anger filled his voice.
“You said you didn’t know who the target was, so how could it be your fault? Maybe I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“If you’re with me, you will always be in the wrong place. It doesn’t matter if it was my enemies taking a shot at me or if it’s an associate’s enemies. I assume the risk because this is my life. My family’s legacy. How can I ask you to put yourself in danger every time we go outside?”
“You didn’t ask me to do anything.”
“You’re right. I forced you at gunpoint.”
“That’s not what I meant.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I did know who you were when we met, and that’s because I come from this world too. I’ve been living it my whole life.”
“It’s different now. Things weren’t this dangerous when you were a kid. The families were at peace for a long time, but this business is changing. The cartels are becoming more demanding of all of us because they need our resources. People who wouldn’t normally turn on one another are doing that out of necessity.”
“People like my father?”
“Our families have always had conflict.”
“Not like this,” I said. “I remember a time when they were civilized to one another.”
“Like I said, things have changed.”
“Would they be different if your dad was here?”
“My father’s absence created an opportunity for others to come after what’s ours. One that I should have been on top of.”
“I sidetracked you.”
“I made my choices, and I stand by them.”
Marchello didn’t want my help when it came to his father. Lorenzo warned me not to get involved, but my gut wouldn’t allow me to let it go. If I could find a way to get Nico home, maybe this war would end and everyone could just go back to that peaceful time.
Perhaps our fathers could find a way to make things right now that Marchello and I were together. They would never be friends, but they could co-exist. Couldn’t they?
“Whatever you’re plotting, stop it right now.” Marchello moved me away from his chest so he could look at me. “I mean it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re suspiciously quiet,” he said. “That’s never a good sign.”
He knew me better than I knew myself.
“I don’t want you to worry about me,” I said. “You have enough going on.”
“You had a trauma to your body last night. You have to concentrate on healing.”
“I will.”
“I want you to relax today. After you eat, I’ll help you bathe and get some fresh clothes on.” He ran his fingers through my matted hair. “The doctor sent some pain meds and an antibiotic. It’s almost time to take them.”
“Will you stay with me today?”
“I have to meet with Lorenzo in about an hour,” he said. “I won’t be long, then I’m all yours.”
“Does the meeting have to do with what happened last night?”
Not only did my gut nag at me to help Marchello and his family, but it also told me that he wasn’t being completely honest when he said he didn’t know who came after him last night.
“It’s being handled.” He tilted my chin and stared into my eyes, silently warning me to drop it. “You don’t need to know any more than that.”
There was so much more I needed to know about this mysterious man I had given my heart to, but when his lips touched mine, I gave into his demands. I abandoned my questions and surrendered to him.
Being in the dark had its advantages, especially when it came to Marchello.
But it had its disadvantages too, and I was merely a breath away from finding out how bad those could be.