Chapter 10
VAL
Santo’s words hung in the air between us, echoing, but he was wrong. My son would never be like him.
But how well did I really know Stefano?
I knew the charming and cocky young man I’d fallen so hard for more than a decade ago, but power and his desire for vengeance had changed him.
How many people had he tortured and killed as head of his family? Would he do it again to get me back yet again?
I questioned how much Enzo had witnessed when Stefano tracked me down to get me back from my previous captor.
The man had taken my nine-year-old boy with him on a dangerous rescue mission and gave him a fucking gun.
And I’d left my son with this man.
I didn’t have a choice. I had to do it.
Stop it. You do know Stefano well enough.
My gut—no, my heart told me his had stayed the same.
Savage enemy or not, when Stefano Vignali loved, he loved very deeply, and nothing else mattered to him.
He hadn’t built a massive empire because he craved power. He built it because he’d loved his family so much.
Love was the reason he’d become so hell-bent on revenge.
But now he had to defeat two cities.
My heartbeat thumped inside my ears as I stared down at my pizza slice, trying to hold back the overwhelming tremor vibrating in my bones. My stomach flipped, the greasy cheeses no longer sitting well.
My mind spiraled, and I didn’t hear Marco when he entered the room, not until he sat heavily on the other side of the bed, bouncing me on the mattress.
“Did you guys save me some?” he asked.
Santo slid the pizza box across the bed.
“Yeah, eat up, bro.”
Observing the calm in Marco’s demeanor created an intense panic inside me, and tears burned my eyelids. I wanted to scream out loud. I wanted to fall apart. But I couldn’t let my emotions take control. I had to think clearly. I had to come up with a plan.
Find a way to escape. Get back to my son.
Beg Stefano to forgive me and help me. If he killed Saul, maybe it would all be over, and for good this time.
Aris would have to die as well.
I didn’t know about Marco or Santo yet.
All I did know was I had to find a way to get to Stefano.
Santo pointed at the stains on Marco’s white shirt.
“Where did the blood come from?”
“Christ,” Marco grumbled. “I just bought this shirt.”
Santo let out a genuine, boyish laugh.
“So whose blood is it?” I asked, forgetting myself.
“Doesn’t matter,” Marco said, waving off my question.
Then he settled the pizza box on his lap and dug into a slice.
Santo folded his arms and smirked like he knew something.
“Where’s Aris… did he learn anything this time?”
Marco sighed. “He’s downstairs with Father right now, getting some things handled. You should go help.”
Santo shrugged. “Or I could stay up here and avoid the sociopath altogether.”
“Which one?” I blurted.
Oh mother of Christ, had I really just said that out loud? I immediately pressed my lips together.
Me shit-talking Saul to my brothers was a big no-no.
We all thought it, but voicing it crossed a line.
“Go now, Santo,” Marco ordered.
Santo rolled his eyes, cursed under his breath while looking at me a little differently than before, like he was seeing me now instead of looking through me.
Then he left the room, leaving me alone with my older brother for the first time since they’d taken me.
Santo’s departure prompted an instant change in mood, the tension making the air feel thicker and amplifying the silence.
Marco got up and shut the door, turned the lock, and let the overwhelming quiet suffocate me. Time slowed as he made his way back to his seat on the bed.
I once trusted him, the brother who had protected me from Saul and the leering eyes of Saul’s disgusting friends.
Now Marco locked us in a room together, his shirt sleeve notably splattered with blood as he glared at me.
Had Saul turned Marco into a monster?
Had the old bastard beat the honor and goodness out of my older brother like he beat the joy out of Santo?
“You should have stayed dead, girl.”
I released a long exhale.
He didn’t look angry. His words didn’t come off like a threat, just a stated fact. Then his stone-cold expression melted, and my brother came around the bed to stand in front of me.
The brother I’d needed in my life for the past decade.
The brother I’d missed so much.
I swallowed back the thickness in my throat.
“You mentioned that on the plane. It was the plan, believe me. How long have you known about me?”
After grabbing his pizza, Marco sat on Santo’s previous spot at the foot of the bed, facing me, leaning against the footboard.
“So now that you’re back,” he said, ignoring my question, “some things have changed.”
The permanent knots in my stomach tightened.
“Changed how, Marco?”
“Father’s already contacted the Russians to let them know you’re here. Part of the deal fell through after your disappearance, but not all. A few covenants must still be upheld, and one of them means the Russians still have a claim on you.”
My mouth fell open, though it shouldn’t have surprised me.
“A claim on me? I’m a person, not a fucking dairy cow.”
Marco scoffed. “Don’t act na?ve. It doesn’t suit you anymore. We both know how this works. You belong to Father until married, then you become your husband’s property?—”
Before he finished speaking, I shook my head.
“It’s archaic and it’s wrong.”
He shrugged and finished chewing.
“Immoral, cruel, totally fucked-up, but it’s still how our world operates. I can’t change it for you. You know as well as I do, the family must come first.”
The blood splatter on his sleeve caught my attention again, the spray pattern moving up his arm from knuckles to elbow.
I hoped like hell he’d broken Aris’s nose.
“So what happens now?” I asked. “I’m expected to pick up exactly where it ended eleven years ago and marry the man who bought me? Like nothing ever happened?”
“No.” Marco leaned against the tall wooden footboard, then set his cardboard plate to the side.
Relieved just a little, I let my shoulders relax until I noticed the growing concern in my brother’s frown.
“Then what, Marco?”
“That ship has long since sailed and thank fuck. Klimov married another teenage bride about a year ago. You’re way too old for him now, not to mention impure.”
Was that disgust showing in my brother’s eyes?
“Great,” I muttered. “So what are my options?”
“Well, Father’s still negotiating the particulars with Klimov. I don’t have any specifics yet, but I do know they want to see you before they make any further commitments.”
“Of course. Inspect the inventory before the final sale.”
I couldn’t believe it. After having been raised in this world, knowing exactly what I meant to the men in my family and which “duties” they expected me to perform, it still made my fucking blood boil.
And it hurt terribly. Marco not putting a stop to it broke my heart.
Then again, I’d also had ten years of freedom. Being forced back into this role now was sure to sting.
But in their eyes, especially Saul’s, I wasn’t really a human being. No one would ask what I wanted. My opinion had no bearing on the conversation, and no one would ever request it. I would never be consulted before a decision was made, but I’d certainly be informed afterward.
Fucking asshole mafia men.
“And what does Saul get this time?” I asked.
Marco blinked, then stared at me for a minute.
“I don’t know yet for sure…”
He let the sentence hang, not giving voice to the horrible things already filling my head.
I released a slow breath.
“When are they coming to evaluate the goods?”
“Masquerade ball at the Palmer House in three days. They’ll send someone to get the first look at you before reporting back.”
“What?” I stared at him in disbelief. “I can’t be there. I’m supposed to be dead.”
“No, Valentina, you’re not. The papers here picked up Vignali’s announcement, so everyone realizes you’re alive. You’re expected to make an appearance, to make small talk, explain your absence, and celebrate your happy return to the family, however brief it might be.”
I leaped to my feet and paced, vibrating out of my own skin.
“I don’t care what I’m expected to do.”
The walls had closed in on me, and I just couldn’t take it anymore. Too much energy coursed through me, too many senseless thoughts swirled around inside my head.
Marco watched me, his gaze following me back and forth.
“Father wanted them here to conduct whatever inspection they wanted, which would have meant getting their answer as soon as tomorrow. But I convinced them the masquerade ball would be a better opportunity to negotiate further.”
I shot him a quick glance, unable to stop my frantic pacing.
“How? Or did you really just want to show me off?”
“I think you know me better than that. Father never gave a fuck about you. He didn’t care what happened to you, and he still doesn’t. I made the arrangement because I would prefer the assessment be made in public, where they can’t hurt you.”
God, I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, so I chose to behave like any other Moscatelli asshole.
“Yay for me. Oh, I guess I should thank you for this great reprieve, but fuck you, Marco.”
With that one gesture, though, he’d already done more for me than Saul ever had or would, but I needed to lash out.
“What you should thank me for is giving Vignali a window of opportunity to claim you and take you back to his home where you belong, with your son.”
“What?” I tripped over my own feet as I spun around to stare at my brother. “What did you say?”
“Come here, sorellina . Sit and talk to me. Let me fill you in on the plan, yeah? If this is going to work, I need to know a few things about your man. I need to know if he’s gonna come through if I set this thing up.”
Sorellina. His baby sister.
I wanted to throw my arms around him and sob.
He was giving me a fighting chance.
I’d been so afraid for so long, and I never let myself miss any part of my old life—not even my protective big brother.
I climbed onto the bed beside him, my heels tucked under my bottom, and gave him my full attention.
Just like when we were children.
“What do you need to know about Stefano?”
“Does he have any friends in Chicago?”
I shook my head. “Not like that. The Commission makes it impossible. The only person he knows who can move between the two cities is Benedetta Capaldo.”
“Would she help him?”
I sucked air through my teeth and shook my head.
“No, probably not. He set her aside for me. They planned to get married two days after he found out about Enzo.”
“So no love lost?”
“She couldn’t have avoided the scandal, not completely.”
Truth be told, I didn’t like the idea of Stefano anywhere near Benedetta. I didn’t know her well enough to know if she would help or try to take my place.
I couldn’t even be sure what I might do if I were her. It wouldn’t be hard for her to tempt Stefano away from me. She came with a lot of power. A lot of influence, money, and men. Everything Stefano had ever wanted.
Would he now let her into the home he intended to share with me just a few days earlier? Would he let her sleep in my place beside him?
Would she embrace Enzo as her own, or would she become his evil stepmother?
I didn’t know how far she might go to get Stefano back or if she even wanted him back. I wouldn’t put it past her having been the one to tell my family about the newspaper article.
“I don’t think he has any allies here,” I added. “His family honored the treaty practically to the letter. Is there any way to get him a message or… would it matter even if we did?”
Marco twisted his mouth the way he always did when he was working through something heavy.
“Father’s rash, but he can be reasoned with when promised something he covets. If the Russians back away from their claim, and Vignali is there to approach him with a lucrative offer around the same time, something Father expected back when you were first out… maybe you can go home to your boy.”
A moment of excitement flashed through me.
“Can we make the Russians back off?”
“Don’t know yet, but assuming they did, Vignali’s offer would have to be incredible. Too good for Father to pass up. That’s the only way I see him letting you go back to New York.”
“Okay, so we come up with an offer. What’s the going rate for a woman these days?”
A caustic taste of the whole idea coated my tongue and sharpened my next words.
“Lower than average because I’m not a virgin, right? Or higher because I’ve proven I can bear sons? Do we trade in goats, or is US currency also acceptable?”
A flash of a smile warmed his blue eyes.
“For Christ’s sake, sorellina. I’ve protected you since birth, believe it or not. I gave you a chance to live a normal life. It wasn’t forever, but ten or eleven years is still a long time. No one else in this family got a chance like that.
“I’ve always had your best interest in mind. Why else would I give our nonna the resources she needed to get you out? Trust that I have your best interest in mind now, all right?”
I blinked at him. “You?”
No, it couldn’t have been.
Nonna had told me she wouldn’t stand by and watch what happened to her daughter-in-law, my beautiful dead mother, also happen to me.
Marco nodded. “Me. I made sure the old woman who took you in gave you a good home and a job. When she passed, I transferred the deed to you.”
“Why?” I asked breathlessly.
“That’s not important.”
“Well, it’s important to me.”
He shrugged as he swiped the pizza crumbs off my bed.
“I mean to change things here. I want organized crime in Chicago to be more civilized. I want the bottom line to be the most important one. And I want to end the worst practices surrounding our traditions. Because they’re disgusting, yes.
“And because it makes us more vulnerable to law enforcement. We’ve locked ourselves in the same gutter for too many generations. It needs to be improved before we can no longer survive.”
I studied him a moment longer, then wrinkled my nose.
“That still doesn’t tell me why?—”
“I’m getting to that.”
He leaned forward to brush the crumbs off his hands onto the floor, then he stared at me, holding my gaze as he continued.
“I couldn’t take over before your wedding. I wanted to, but I didn’t have the skills or the support to do it then. Ten years ago, there’s no way I would’ve won that battle. But now? I’m close. I did what I could back then to save you before you were lost to us forever.”
He’d done that for me? He had helped his little sister fake her death, so she wouldn’t have to marry a deranged Russian? To save me?
The backs of my lids burned like crazy as tears filled my eyes.
“Marco, I?—”
He lifted his hand.
“Not important. What’s important is just how far Vignali will go to have you. Will he risk everything to get you back?”