25. Killian
“Grandma, you’re back!”
Connie shouts and runs to Isabella, wearing knee-high green socks I’ve never seen on her, and leaving Maricela standing in the hallway with Amado on her hip, babbling to himself.
Isabella scoops Connie up into her arms and wraps the little girl in a big hug.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you. How have you been, tesoro del mio cuore?”
Connie plays with Isabella’s hair, putting it in a braid. She looks so youthful and happy like I’ve seen her in old photographs.
“Cuore is a heart. I remember that.”
Connie knows Spanish because Serena taught her. I hear Maricela doing that with Amado and Connie both by singing them songs and telling them bedtime stories in Spanish. However, she doesn’t know Italian. Knowing Santino, he would have taught only Amado, leaving Connie out. I will have to rectify it.
“I called you the trustee of my heart, mia cara.”
Connie smiles, and then her face falls.
“Are you sad, Nonna?”
Isabella doesn’t answer her with words, but she nods. Mom is always sad. Her first son killed himself, and the second became just like her husband, if not worse.
“Me too. Papa took Mama to Heaven. He did something bad.”
“I know, sweetie. I’m so sorry he took your mommy. I want you to know something. Can you listen to your nonna?”
Connie nods, hiding her face in her grandmother’s neck.
“You are loved, no matter what. You have me and your aunt and uncles and Pedro and Marlina—”
“And Dario?” Connie looks at the wall-like man as if he’s her long-lost friend.
“Yes, you have me too, Little Froggy Princess,” he says, tugging on one of her socks.
Connie leaves her nonna’s arms to stand before Dario with her hands clasped in the same way her kindergarten teacher did when she scolded the boy who attacked her.
“I am not a frog.”
“Your socks say otherwise.”
“Auntie Fairy said I can wear whatever I want if it’s good for the weather. It’s important not to be too cold or too warm.”
I look at Maricela, expecting to see a warm smile. Instead, she’s still lurking in the corner, with what looks like fear and shame plastered all over her face.
“Auntie Fairy?” Dario crouches to Connie’s level, and she gives him a big grin.
“She’s my mommy’s sister. She’s good. Not like daddy. He was bad.”
“I see,” Dario summarizes.
“Tati didn’t come?”
The nickname Connie bestowed on Franco always made me giddy, especially since she said it near the press for the first time, so he had to accept it and appear happy about the fact.
“No, he can’t come. He coughs a lot,” Isabella explains to the girl in the gentlest way possible.
“Amado was coughing, but Aunt Fairy gave him medicine, and he stopped.”
Connie bows her head, then says,
“I think it’s because Tati is bad like daddy was.” Connie has seen more anger and bad blood than any child should see in her four years.
“Your grandfather is old. He needs to rest. But I think you’re right. It’s because he’s bad as well.”
“What’s old? Maddox said he’s almost thirty, but he says that’s not old. Grandma, are you old?”
“I’m nearly forty-six. In your eyes, someone like me is old.”
“I want to be big and old too.”
“You have nowhere to rush, little one.”
Isabella raises her head and sees Maricela. Without thinking, she hurries the few steps to hug her with the child still in Maricela’s arms.
I approach them, taking the boy from Maricela, who doesn’t seem pleased with their forced embrace.
“Maricela,” Isabella murmurs in awe, looking my woman over before hugging her again.
She whispers something to her that I don’t understand, which has Maricela closing her eyes and hugging her tighter.
“I know, I know. Come,” my mother says in a soft voice, holding her hands out to the baby as Amado starts to protest.
“Come here, you.”
She takes her grandson into her arms and returns to the living room. Maricela comes to stand beside me as if needing something.
“We made cookies,” Connie announces, taking Dario’s hand and leading him into the kitchen.
“Did you now?”
He sounds interested, and I shake my head at the man who I’m discovering is nothing like what I thought he was.
“Yes, and I cleaned too. Aunt Fairy said it’s important to clean if you love people, and I love Marlina.”
“Your aunt is right.” I hear them speaking to Marlina, who came back early, no doubt wanting to see my mother.
“Mom,” Maddox calls out as he enters with Hero beside him.
Hero is far from the puppy Liam and Kai insisted we bring home more than four years ago. He’s a full-grown German shepherd, full of muscle and energy. But Connie wants him here with her, and I couldn’t say no.
Although everyone agreed that Hero’s place is on his yellow sofa, he first needs to prove himself with Connie and Amado.
“It’s Hero!”
Connie shouts, running toward Maddox, a cookie in hand, and not even saying hello to her most loved uncle.
“Are you trading me for a dog, little one?”
Madd grasps his heart dramatically, making his one genuine love giggle.
“Hero, place,” I order, and he walks over to his place and sits while he no doubt wants to jump up and lick Connie.
“You can go pet him, but gently.” Connie looks at me with round eyes full of childish joy that I don’t think anyone ever would have seen in mine.
“Hello, Hero,” she says and sits on the floor beside him. She gently strokes his nose, and he doesn’t hesitate to lick her fingers.
“You’re funny,” she states with a giggle and drapes herself over him as if she belongs there. Hero relaxes on the spot, and they lie like that for a long minute until Hero jumps up and trots over to Maricela.
He whines and circles her until she bends down and pets him and lets him lick her all over, sending everyone around her into full-blown laughter.
“I think he found his two soulmates,” Madd exclaims with one hand on his bald head. “I’ll have to bring another dog into the mix.”
“Liam and Raven are coming up soon, and Kai went to find out when his bride’s plane lands,” I tell my mother, who is clearly looking for them.
“So, it’s happening?” Maddox asks. “He’s going to marry The Ice Queen?”
I know he wanted better for Kai. I did, too. I shrug. “I told him he didn’t have to, but he said it would tarnish his name as a future ruler of the Bratva.”
“He’s not wrong.”
“And what about you?” Isabella asks Maddox. “Are you going to find yourself a bride?”
“Mom, you realize it could be a man, right?”
“Maddox, I know you’re bisexual. Trust me, I saw enough men enter your room when you returned.”
“I did that just to upset Franco.” He scratches his head sheepishly.
“And you did that well. I can promise you.”
Maricela jumps to her feet. “I’m sorry. I have to go to the bathroom.” Then she practically runs out of the room, but not before I see that she’s shaking.
“Excuse me,” I say, intending to follow her, but Isabella grasps my hand and shakes her head.
“Give her time. It will come in stages. She never had it.”
“What are you—”
“Family,” Maddox explains, completing Isabella’s thoughts.
Liam calls out a “Yo!” as he enters the penthouse, making Hero bark. “Hi, Isabella. I heard you joined the fiasco, Love.”
Amado stares at Hero from my arms, and I slowly bring him closer to the dog, which Connie has refused to move away from even when he barks.
She appears more relaxed with him by her side, and I think her earlier statement that Hero would protect her is precisely why that is. Hero doesn’t move and lets the boy touch his soft ears. Who would have thought this huge dog would be so gentle with the kids?
Liam pulls me from my thoughts with a slap on the back. “Put me in the house of shame and call me Lily. Mate, fatherhood suits you.”
“Uncle Liam, what’s a house of shame?” Connie asks. I glare at Liam, who shrugs.
“It’s a terrible place your uncle goes when he’s drunk,” Raven replies, letting me know that he’s unfaithful to her. No matter how much I want to rip his hair out of his head, it’s not something I can do.
“Where’s Mari?”
Raven asks and completely ignores me. She does this every time Maricela makes these meals. She talks to everyone except me and Liam and goes on with her life as if we don’t exist.
“In her room,” Isabella says, a look of longing on her face. Raven nods, taking Amado from me and hurrying to Maricela’s room.
The meal is full of questions and jokes from Maddox and Liam. Maricela warns them several times not to speak rudely in front of the children until Liam tells her, “Connie’s already used to us. She’ll be cursing before she’s in first grade.”
“Mrs. Shiro says not to use bad words,” Connie says seriously.
“Mrs. Shiro is right.” Maricela smiles.
“Mrs. Shiro is a whore,” Madd and Liam say at the same time.
“Whore isn’t a nice word,” Connie lets them know in a no-nonsense tone. “Norman said that word to Mrs. Shiro, and she put him in time out.”
“We need to wash your uncles’ mouths out with soap,” Isabella proclaims.
Connie appears to think about that for a minute before she decides, “It doesn’t taste good. Once, I got soap in my mouth while washing my face. It tasted yucky.”
Laughter fills the room, and the rest of the meal goes by smoothly, although watching Maricela, I could see she was keeping herself distanced from the scene. She was clearly uncomfortable, and I need to know why.
“What are we going to do with him?”
Madd asks after Maricela returns from the children’s rooms as if he wants her to know she’s an integral part of the family.
“Who do you mean?” Raven says.
“Our dear father.”
“Uncle Franco? But Dad said he’s in such terrible shape that he handed the business over to Killian two years ago. Otherwise, he would never have done it. What could he be doing that you need to worry about?”
“Your Uncle Franco—” Liam says, spitting his name out with hatred befitting the man himself “—decided to sell us out to the Albanians and the Irish.”
Isabella looks horrified.
“Is that why you decided I should leave the house?” She fears the Irish. They tried to kidnap her when we were kids, and I know for a fact that the Irish mafia athair wanted Isabella as a prize.
“Mom, you did a lot of things for us by spying on him, so this isn’t your fault. He must be contacting them only when he’s with his whores.” She nods.
“So, what are you going to do? Kill him? You don’t have to make his death difficult. He’s dying anyway. Everyone would believe he died from the cancer,” Isabella contemplates out loud.
“You can’t give him a simple out,” Maricela says, speaking for the first time, and everyone turns their gaze in her direction.
“He’s responsible for every scar Killian covered up with his tattoos. I imagine all your scars are from him, too,” she adds, addressing Maddox, who closes his eyes for a moment and gives her a dangerous grin.
Maricela is a street kid, a field photographer who has seen the most brutal things humanity has to offer if the only story she’s told me so far is any indication.
I ask, “And what do you suggest?”
“What would hurt him the most?”
“Killian’s power,” Isabella answers.
“On the face of it, he may have given my son the throne, but that’s only because he couldn’t handle it while seeking treatment and trying to save himself. He hid his illness for an entire year before that. He tried so hard to make himself the Don Corleone of the modern generation.”
“I heard rumors,” Maricela interjects.
“Journalists write a lot of stories with omissions.”
“Then you know he’s a man with a lot of charisma, but his hunger for power overrules everything. And now, before he dies, he wants to know that he still has that power.”
“That’s why he’s trying to take Killian down.” Maricela doesn’t ask but states it as fact.
Maddox stands and begins to pace. “So, I ask again. What are we going to do? We can’t leave it like this.”
“We’ll make sure he loses both his sanity and his power,” Maricela says in a cruel voice I’ve never heard.
“Fuck, man,” Maddox exclaims.
“I understand why you waited four goddamn years for this woman. Just seeing the hate in her eyes makes me want someone for myself.”
I would break Maddox’s teeth for the way he’s looking at her, but he’s right. And this is the first time I’ve ever seen Maricela show real hatred.