29. Valeria #2
“Why did you come here today?” he asks. “You should have left already.”
I’m silent.
He’s here to intimidate me, but I couldn’t possibly look like a threat with my teeth chattering and my arms wrapped around my shoulders. I just need to wait for him to finish and return to the house.
Instead, he takes one long step toward me. “Don Ottavio was not pleased to see you.”
A shiver crawls down my spine. “Sorry. I’m leaving now.”
Giovanni rolls his head back, cracking his neck. “You should have left already. Did you think Nico would be happy to see you? He does not care. He is already fucking a new girl.”
My nails dig into my arms. Jealousy burns away the cold for a brief moment. I don’t care if he’s fucking her, I tell myself. His heart belongs to me. He’ll come back for me.
“You should think you are lucky,” he continues in his accented English. “Your family are all worthless traitors. Don Ottavio was right to want you gone. You are a snake, sleeping in his son’s bed, waiting to strike.”
I stare at him, nothing on my face, his insults sliding off me like rainwater.
He gives a short laugh. “You are either very brave to stay, or very stupid.”
Right now, it’s feeling a lot like the second. I glance at the movement of a figure behind the blurred glass of the back door. “I’m leaving tonight. You won’t see me again.”
“You were supposed to have left already. But you have not. So I do not trust you. Maybe physical pain will motivate you.” Giovanni takes a step closer. “Do you think if I broke your pinky, that would be enough? Or are you like your father? You need more to learn?”
Anger flares up inside me. “Don’t talk about my father.”
Giovanni sighs and strides forward.
Like a dream, I stumble back, but I’m already moving too slow, my limbs stiff from the cold and fear, and my heel catches in the crack of the back patio pavement. I fall.
BOOM.
A gun went off.
The baby.
I clutch at my stomach, expecting the sensation of blood to well through my fingers. Where did the bullet go? Did it hit me?
Please, please, not my baby, please.
But I don’t feel a thing.
Giovanni curses in Italian behind me.
I turn.
The entire Family pools out of the back door.
Nico passes the gun to Annetta, who stares at Giovanni with an unfamiliar, unforgiving look on her face. He takes long, angry strides past Giovanni groaning on the ground until he reaches me.
He came for me.
He lifts me to standing, his arm wrapping around my waist. His other hand comes to my cheek. “Did he touch you?”
I try to pull away—the Family, everyone can see—but I’m so cold. It’s the adrenaline. The pregnancy. I’m shaking. “N-no.”
I glance at Giovanni. His hands are covered in blood. Nico shot him in the side.
Distantly, I wonder if we’ll still be able to convince the Family that Nico doesn’t love me now that he’s shot a man for me. I suppress a manic giggle.
“Nico, you fucking idiot!” Alessia shoves past the others and drops to Giovanni’s side. She snaps her head back toward the crowd. “Call the doctor, now!”
She gathers the ends of her skirts, tears them, and packs the material against Giovanni’s waist.
Murmurs pass from person to person.
Don Salvatore stands at the front, a phone pressed to his ear as he observes the scene with something that looks like amusement. At his side, his wife watches with morbid fascination.
It’s Ottavio who I turn from. Gaze burning, jaw clenched—he’s furious.
I try to curl into Nico’s arms, praying that he’ll fix this, somehow. That he has a plan.
But he won’t let go of my jaw, his eyes locked onto my lips.
He’s going to kiss me.
I rear back, to protect us both, but his fingers are strong and sure as he seals his mouth to mine.
My thoughts rocket in every direction. What is he doing? What about our plan? They’ll all see—but the scent and warmth and overwhelming sense of rightness at Nico’s kiss overwhelms my thoughts.
For the tiniest sliver of a moment, I melt into his arms and just exist.
He’s with me now. We’ll figure out the rest.
When Nico pulls away, his expression is solemn as he turns to the watching crowd. His gaze lands on his dad.
“I’m marrying Valeria,” Nico announces, just loud enough to be heard across the patio and Giovanni’s heavy breathing. “The next time anyone threatens her, I won’t miss.”
He jerks off his coat and settles it over my shoulders like a shield.
Ottavio’s scowl deepens, and next to him, Don Salvatore’s mouth flickers with something that could be a smile.
The Family falls behind as Nico drags me around the side of the house. He’s walking so quickly, it’s difficult to keep up with my heels, but he doesn’t let me trip or fall as he floats me to his car.
“How did you know?” I ask. “That I was out there?”
“Annetta,” he says through gritted teeth. He jerks open his car door and helps me inside.
Before he’s even fully seated, he starts driving.
I fumble with the heat settings and wrap his coat tighter around myself.
He drives in silence, his hands strangling the steering wheel, his jaw tight.
“Do you think Giovanni will be okay?” If he dies, what will Nico’s dad do to us?
“I don’t know,” he says, before adding darkly, “I hope not. He’s had that coming for a long time.”
“Where are we going now?”
“To the apartment.”
“And they’re just going to let us?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do we do next?”
“I don’t fucking know!”
Nico swerves to the side of the road, flicks on the emergency lights, and faces me. “I don’t know what happens next, I just know—” He looks at me, a fierce, deep devotion blazing across his features. “I don’t regret a damn thing.”
Ignoring the multiple calls from his sister and mom and ex-fiancée, Nico drives us straight to the apartment.
I catch Lacey up as quickly as I can while Nico steps onto our balcony, a phone pressed to his face. She promises to pick up her things tomorrow and leaves me, Nico, and “Valeria Jr.” to rest.
I follow Nico outside. He wraps his arm around me as he listens intently to whoever is speaking on the other line—his dad or his brother, I’d guess. He faces the glittering city lights, his fingers tightening over my chest.
He only gives one word responses.
“Yes, sir.”
“No, sir.”
His fingers twitch, and his answers change.
“Because I love her.”
“Because she’s good for me. She’ll keep me in line.”
“Mom and Alessia approved.”
“Because she’ll give me an heir.”
His last statement sends a current of panic through my limbs. There’s no backing down now. I hold my hand to my belly, and Nico shifts to place his hand over mine. I hope that we’re strong enough to weather whatever comes next.
When he finishes his call, he pockets his phone and holds me like that for an eternity, so long that a light drizzle showers onto the streets below us.
“What happens next?” I murmur against his chest.
“Father said the baby changed everything. He wants us to go to the best doctors possible and to move forward with the marriage.”
The look of fury in Ottavio’s eyes flashes in my mind. “And Giovanni?”
“He’s in a stable condition now. You don’t have to worry about him—he won’t hold a grudge unless he’s told to. Father wished us a happy marriage. We’re safe.”
I don’t believe him, and by the sound of his voice, he doesn’t believe it either, but I hold Nico close all the same. I’m terrified of what the future holds, but I don’t regret a thing either.
“I missed you,” he murmurs. “I thought about you every day. And I want you to know, I never touched Giorgia. I told her I was saving myself for marriage.”
“I don’t care about that,” I say, even as my heart balloons.
He places a kiss on top of my head. “I do. I don’t ever want to do anything to hurt you, Val.”
“I know you don’t,” I tell him and lift my face to kiss him back.
When he cups my face, kissing me and walking me backward into the apartment, the doubt and fear fade away.
For now, we have each other. And that’s enough.