Chapter 7
STEFANO
Hours after Moscatelli had taken my fiancée, I paced my office like a caged animal who couldn’t find its way out—seething, worrying, trying to make sense of it all. But more than anything, I was angry as fuck.
She belonged to me.
She belonged to our son.
She belonged in our home… and in my bed.
It didn’t matter to me or Enzo how many secrets she kept from us or that she came into the world a Moscatelli. I didn’t even care that she’d given my son a fake name.
They were both Vignali now.
Why did her father wait so long to come for her?
I raked my hair back and looked down at Enzo.
“Back on the couch, son. Take it easy. You’ve been hit on the head.”
Tony knocked on my office door, waited a beat, then came in and stood in his usual spot in front of my desk.
“Got some intel back on the Moscatelli family. The old man is fourth-gen Italian. Family goes way back, like to the Capone era. His great-grandfather ran everything in Chicago, north of the river. Seems old Saul lost some footing when he took over. Still, he runs everything from Streeterville up to Old Town.”
I stopped walking. Fuck. I’d focused my energy on the East Coast. Considering my original plan was to blow up shit, the Midwest syndicates never hit my radar.
“That doesn’t mean anything to me, Tony. I don’t know the Chicago territories or those families.”
My leather chair creaked as I sat down, sparking memories of Val naked on the desktop.
I imagined her there before me, head hanging over the edge, breasts heaving, manicured nails spreading her thighs apart to offer me what was mine, her sweet-tasting wet pussy.
Tony ruined my fantasy with his big mouth.
“North Chicago. Still south of Lincoln Park, but mostly along the coast. Looks like Moscatelli runs a few legitimate real estate companies. Otherwise, he covers as a shipping company moving supplies and inventory from manufacturers across the Midwest to local businesses.”
I nodded, mostly to purge the images of Val.
“What else do you have?”
“The little thug was right—your girl’s name is Valentina Moscatelli. She’s the family’s only daughter, contracted to marry into the Russians.”
“Why the fuck would an old-school mobster like Moscatelli sell his daughter to the Russians? We don’t do business with the Russians.”
“Hard to say, boss. But my guess is, the deal would’ve helped him expand without breaking treaties. Could’ve scaled his shipping business tenfold with a marriage like that, running his weapons and drugs through Canada to Europe and back without much trouble.”
From a business standpoint, Tony’s logic made sense. After nine-eleven, using ships and trains had become the most reliable way to transport arms and narcotics. TSA made international trafficking a huge pain in the ass. Border Patrol could be bribed more easily now.
New York families controlled all East Coast shipping. The families would rather slit every throat in the city before sharing lucrative Asian trade routes with outsiders like Moscatelli.
“What was in it for the Russians?” I asked.
“I believe Moscatelli was gonna help them with new transport lines moving south and west into Texas and Mexico. But the deal was broken the day of the wedding. When…”
He hesitated, then took a seat.
“When Valentina died.”
I blinked at him. I had to have heard him wrong, or maybe he’d misspoken.
“What did you say?”
Tony nodded. “Yeah, big story at the time. She was on her way to the church when someone hit the car on one of the bridges. The vehicle went into the river. When they recovered a female body, everyone assumed it was her.”
I understood Tony’s words, but the story didn’t make sense.
I looked at my son, his expression unmoved, as if he knew the story. This boy knew much more than his mother realized.
“What do you mean ‘everyone assumed it was her,’ Tony? There must be more to it than that.”
“No positive ID on record, boss. Authorities must have been paid off.”
“By whom? Are you saying she faked her death? And how the hell did she end up in New York?”
He shrugged. “It was eleven years ago. Had to be someone inside Moscatelli’s organization helping her, then she skipped town. It’s genius, really. Her family was too fucking dumb to look here in New York. Even if they wanted to, they would’ve had to risk their own lives for breaking the treaty.”
It all made perfect sense and still confused the hell out of me at the same time. So the sons of bitches would break the treaty now, eleven years later, to get her back?
“I agree. Coming here was a smart move, or it would have been had she told me the truth.”
Damn her. My beautiful little devil. So smart…
And stupid.
Still, Val had to be desperate enough to fake her death. Had to have known about Klimov, that she should fear for her life, which actually surprised me.
Princesses were usually kept in the dark.
Now I understood her panicked fury over our engagement announcement and why she left me in the first place.
If I had introduced her to my family, my father would have found out about hers. He would have dug into her background, and he would have sent her back to Chicago.
Val had known about the hatred between our families, that my father would return her to avoid a costly war, and she knew enough to keep herself out of Klimov’s hands.
Enzo’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
“Do you know where she is?”
I met his stare.
“Her father took her to Chicago. You said your mother had secrets. Secrets that weren’t yours to share, remember?”
He nodded.
“Now is the time, Enzo. I need to know everything.”
My son folded his arms.
“I told you before. Those aren’t my secrets to share.”
Taking a deep breath, I stood and dismissed Tony with a nod. When I reached my son, I kneeled in front of him to bring our eyes to the same level.
He needed to see the truth of the situation in my eyes.
“I know you said that, son, but to get your mother back, I need all the information I can get. Given the circumstances, she will understand. I don’t think she even realizes how much you do know.”
He lifted his shoulders nearly to his ears, hunching inward.
“I don’t know…”
“Yes, you do. Even if she gets mad, isn’t it better to have her here with us, mad but also safe with us, rather than in danger?”
I hated asking him these questions. Prying info from a child made me feel like a real shit. And this, from my own child.
It had to be done. Any information he had might be the difference between getting her back and losing her forever.
Enzo looked at the floor.
“Don’t be ashamed, son, for any reason. We do what’s best for your mother, no matter what it is. That’s who we are.”
“I guess you’re right,” he whispered. “I just know you’re not the one she was hiding from.”
I patted his knee. “That’s right. She never actually ran from me. I loved her so much, I agreed to let her live without me.”
His gaze met mine.
“You loved her?”
“Yes, Enzo. I did. I do.”
Relief washed away the line between his brows for a fleeting moment. Then he nodded.
“All this wasn’t because she wanted to keep me away from you. She had this money and all these plans for us to run away, but it wasn’t because of you. Well, it was a little because of you, but not all because of you.”
I nodded. “Go on.”
“Someone else scared her more, and I heard her say to Nonna that you would bring them to us.”
“What can you tell me about them?” I asked, careful to keep my tone even.
Whatever he knew, it scared him.
Fear was crystal clear in the glistening eyes of this brave boy who’d fought me, threatened me when he thought I meant to hurt his mother.
“The people who were in my room tonight,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Her father and brother—he said they’re twins.”
Twins? He and Val might have shared the same light blue eyes, but the man had looked empty. Val was full of light.
“Okay, so she’s afraid of her father and her brother,” I repeated. “Is that it?”
Enzo shook his head, staring at the floor again.
“Was she afraid of her other brothers?”
He shook his head.
“Someone else in her family, Enzo?”
He let out a heavy breath.
“I think it’s the man she was supposed to marry before she had me. She had a newspaper about it hidden in her stuff.”
“Klimov?” I asked.
Enzo nodded. “Yeah, maybe. I think so.”
“Anything else I should know, to help your mother?”
Tony approached the doorway, papers in his hand.
While I needed the intel he’d gathered for me, I wanted to take care of my son first. I wanted him to know he was helping me get his mother back, that we would, in fact, get her back.
“I know she had a grandmother,” Enzo added. “Another nonna, not the same one at Con Amore. One from before. I don’t know how, but I know she helped Mama.”
“How do you know all this, Enzo?”
“Con Amore Nonna told me stories. She didn’t know I could tell it was true. I think she was sick.”
“Okay, son, go on then.”
“Like I said, the reason Mama kept me away from you was because she didn’t want the monsters to find us.”
“I understand,” I said. “But now the monsters do have her, and we’ll fight hard to get her back.”
Enzo nodded again and stifled a yawn. The day had been stressful, frightening, gut-wrenching, and also tiresome, though I doubted either of us would sleep for a while.
He reached behind himself, then offered some photos.
“Here. I grabbed them from home when Mama and me got our stuff to run away. They’re the only things she has left from her old life. I thought she might want them later.”
I took the stack of photos from him, and the photo staring back at me on top made my chest ache.
Val looked so young, maybe sixteen, dolled up, ready for a formal event. Beside her stood a young version of the man who’d dragged her out of my house by her hair.
I brushed the curls away from Enzo’s face.
“Thank you, son. Now go get some?—”
“I don’t want to sleep,” he interrupted. “I want to go with you to get her back.”
“You will,” I lied. “But I don’t have it all worked out yet. When I do, I’ll need you to be ready. So for now, get some sleep. If anything comes up, I’ll wake you.”
He looked up at me with my own dark eyes.
“You said all this before. Do you promise?”
“Yes,” I said.
Another lie that passed easily through my lips, sending a flash of guilt through my gut, for lying to my own son.
I couldn’t bring the boy with me into a den of lions. His mother would kill me this time for sure if we made it out.
“Now go to bed, Enzo.”
Yawning again, he obeyed without another word.
As soon as he left, Tony entered the room, but I lifted a hand to stop him from running his mouth. I waited a few seconds, then poked my head into the hallway to make sure Enzo had gone to his room.
He stood in the middle of the hallway.
The kid was definitely my son.
I raised a brow. No eavesdropping tonight.
“Move it, boy,” I said before shouting for Bella.
Enzo rolled his eyes and walked away.
His attitude needed adjusting, but it could wait for a less stressful time.
Turning back to Tony, I closed the heavy wooden door behind me, and motioned for him to start.
He stared at me. “Fatherhood suits you, Stef.”
I shrugged. “I have a lot to learn.”
Tony smiled. “I have an address for one of Moscatelli’s houses in the Gold Coast area. And got more on Klimov, but nothing much we didn’t already have.”
What I knew about Klimov terrified me, but I needed to hear everything, so I nodded for him to go on.
“He’s a fucking psychopath, we know that. And even the Russians are afraid of this guy. Yakuza won’t go near him. He’s extreme, quick to act, and shows no remorse when he gets it wrong. Jumping to conclusions is his favorite pastime, but the paranoia seems to have served him well so far.
“Good news is, boss, he’s already married. So what’s he going to do with an Italian bride? He can’t take a second wife.”
I sank down into my desk chair.
“He wouldn’t marry her now anyway. She has a child, and the fucker would only take a virgin bride. It’s the alternative that scares me.”
I thumbed through the rest of Val’s photos, looking for clues that might help me get her back, preferably without courting a war. Then I found it—my way in.
I showed Tony a photo of teenage Val posing with a group of girls in similar dresses.
“Does one of these girls with Val look familiar to you?”
He bent over my desk to peer closer.
“Which one?”
“Third from the left.”
Tony sucked in a short breath.
“Holy shit. That’s Benedetta Capaldo.”
The woman I’d planned to marry only a week ago, before Val came back into my life. And now there she was, in a photo with Val, taken when they were teenagers.
A new wave of hot fury surged through me.
I jumped to my feet.
“She knew Val. And she said nothing.”
Tony grunted. “Looks that way.”
I dragged in a long breath to help control the rage burning me from the inside out.
She’d known. She’d fucking known her all along. She could have prevented this by telling me she knew Val.
Did Benedetta have something to do with Saul Moscatelli coming for my girl?
I flexed my fists.
Then I gave my next order through clenched teeth.
“You get that bitch over here right fucking now.”