Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
SERENITY
MAKING MOVES
My cheek brushes against Nico’s thick, hairy chest. I let my hand trace the contours of his strong, muscled arm as he sleeps soundly beside me.
I cherish this moment with him. Who am I fooling?
I’ve always loved Nico. Countless times, I fought to keep my feelings at bay.
Yet, he’s the one who’s always there when I need him most.
Knowing his enemy singled me out from all the women Nico dates confirms that I’m the one he spends the most time with. A flutter of butterflies stirs in my stomach. Maybe Nico and I could be a couple again. I nervously bite the corner of my lip.
He brought you a gift, Serenity.
A smile tugs at the edges of my lips. This past September, on his twenty-fifth birthday, Nico claimed the mafia throne.
I wanted to be there for the ceremony, but he might have seen my presence as a sign that I’m ready to settle down.
But now that he’s told me he wants a relationship, will he want to marry immediately?
Hopefully, I can persuade him to take things slowly.
So much to think about.
Right now, I have a bitch to torture. My eyes squeeze shut and I doze off into a deep slumber.
I leave Nico asleep in my bed. This is me building trust with a man who broke my heart. This is good. Healthy. My sweaty palms open and close.
Are you ready to come clean to him about your past.
I grip the passenger headrest and take a deep breath.
“Serenity, are you okay?” Fitz asks.
“Yes.” I smile through the panic attack.
My bodyguards are used to my anxiety attacks and give me a moment to collect myself.
“Javier, I’m ready to go.”
“You’re leaving Nico in the house?” he asks.
“Yes, I’m building trust.”
Javier nods and rolls through the wrought-iron gates. I have so much to do.
I have another meeting coming up with Dillon. I sit down with him every three months just to make sure I’m happy with my extensive security detail.
He said when I’m ready to retaliate against Ettore and Aleksandr he’ll supply an army.
I was overjoyed.
Dillon’s wife, Sierra, is a sweetheart. The way he gazes at her as if she’s the only woman in the world stirs something in me, making me crave more.
“Nico informed me that Alvin, the guy Nico took care of, was actually there to take me out.”
“What?” Javier roars.
He pauses for a beat.
“Why? Alvin told you he was involved in the underground world. Steven said the information Alvin told you about his position checked out,” Javier says.
Steven is the guy who runs all the final background checks on people who enter our organization and associate with us. He’s worked for our family for years.
“I followed Alvin a couple of times,” Fitz adds. “He dealt with shady characters. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. I also frisked him myself.”
Maybe he planned to choke me to death.
“Nico said his real name was John Talis. He worked for Auttoro. Who is Nico’s enemy.”
“Steven should’ve known his real name,” Javier growls.
“When would you like us to pick Steven up?” Fitz asks.
“In a few days. I have a busy schedule. Let him enjoy his last days on earth.”
“Serenity, you have to bring the boss in on this.” Javier peeks at me through the rear-view mirror.
I sigh. “I know.”
I had expected Nico to arrive while I was punishing Amy, who had betrayed my family’s company, but he told me he couldn’t join because he had urgent matters to deal with.
Amy was considered reliable, at least until I joined Cichello Industries. Dad requested that I conduct an internal corporate investigation, during which I uncovered funds being redirected to an offshore shell company.
But during my interrogation, I discovered the money she stole wasn’t for herself.
It was for her boyfriend, Neo Brazzi, from New York.
He’s a rising Italian mafia gangster in lower Manhattan, known for supplying artists with their drugs of choice.
Neo aims to expand his influence with the help of his best friend, Drake Rostova.
Who’s connected to the Rostova Bratva in Manhattan, and I can’t help but wonder if there’s a link to Aleksandr. Together, they’re amassing an army, plotting to seize another of my dad’s territories as well as part of the Baccaro domain.
This is just the usual mafia game. Small-time gangsters trying to muscle in on the territory of bigger bosses.
But my dad’s power has only grown stronger, especially now that he’s backed by the New Jersey Four Families.
After torturing Amy sporadically for a week, I chopped her body into little pieces.
My men took the yacht out into Delaware Bay and scattered her remains across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, I assigned two bodyguards to watch Steven closely, to see if he socialized with anyone after work.
Torturing Amy drained me deeply. I began sleeping eight hours each night to ensure I’d be fully rested when it was time to deal with Steven.
Despite everything, I keep showing up at work every day.
Three weeks later, I strut into the warehouse, smiling as I approach Steven.
“Hello, Steven. How’s everything with you?”
He barks through the gag, his wrists and ankles thrashing against the zip ties.
His pale face burns a deep red, clad only in white briefs.
“What? I can’t make out what you’re saying.”
I edge closer to pull off the gag.
Javier and Fitz growl low but don’t block my approach.
“You had no right to have me picked up. Where is Tizáno?”
I throw my head back and laugh.
“Don’t worry about my father. I’m the one you should be worried about right now.”
He spits phlegm onto my shirt. “You’re a fucking child who needs to be put in her place.”
Before he can finish, Fitz and Javier slam their fists into his face.
“That’s enough,” I command.
Steven’s chest heaves. Fitz hands me a tissue. I wipe the spit from my shirt and flick it onto the plastic tarp.
“Tizáno will put you and your little crew in your place,” Steven gasps.
I slide my fingers into my leather gloves. “I understand what you’re doing. You’re trying to get me enraged so I’ll kill you before my dad arrives.”
I walk toward him, grab a handle, and spin.
“No, stop,” he yells.
“It’s time we tell you why you’re here.” I grin, watching the rat spin on the wheel.
I stop the wheel once he’s right side up. “My men told you to perform a check on Alvin.”
He winces, and I can’t tell if that’s a sign he knows what I’m talking about or the pain from his face being pulverized.
“The information I gave was accurate .”
“No, it wasn’t. He worked for Nico’s enemy.”
His one good eye widens. “Worked?”
I spread my arms wide. “You know the consequences of going after a mafia boss’s daughter, right? Back then, I had no idea Alvin was sent to kill me. Or should I say, John Talis?” I tilt my head, watching for a flicker of recognition—a lip twitch, anything that shows he understands.
He doesn’t even flinch at the name. That’s fine. I’m not finished with him yet.
“Being the daughter of a mafia boss, many assume I live like a princess who shops daily. But after everything I endured as a child, Dad showed me how to harness that anger instead.”
I step right up to Steven, confronting him. “You can’t possibly understand what it feels like to see my mother tortured right before my eyes. Then those monsters talk about how they intend to rape me—a fourteen-year-old girl. Of course I snapped and ended their lives.”
On some weekends, I’m confined to a padded room built into my basement.
Before buying this house, I spent an outrageous sum just to rent a padded room at the psychiatric hospital where I was once admitted.
The nurse I employed watches over me nonstop.
My bodyguards, Javier and Fitz, stand guard nearby.
Ms. Jonas, my psychiatrist, comes to meet with me.
I recall our recent conversation this past summer.
“You’ll be turning twenty-five next year. Have you thought about marriage and starting a family?”
Sitting restrained in the straitjacket, I lower my head and stare at the tiled floor beneath my bare feet. The leather straps bite into my body every time I move. My breathing comes too fast.
The sterile scent of bleach hangs heavy in the air.
The fluorescent lights above throb painfully in my skull.
“I have,” I whisper.
Across the room, Ms. Jonas watches me intently, her clipboard resting on her lap.
“My ex-boyfriend will need to marry soon. I thought about marrying him, but…”
My throat tightens around the words.
“Continue, Serenity,” she says gently.
A bitter laugh escapes me, cracking midway.
“He’ll want children.”
The image slams into me instantly.
Blood.
Screams.
My mother curled on the floor.
Hands bracing her stomach.
Begging.
I squeeze my eyes shut so hard stars burst behind my eyelids.
“He has to have children,” I choke out. “He’s going to be a boss. He needs heirs.” My voice shatters. “I can’t give him that.”
“Because of what happened to your baby sister,” Ms. Jonas says.
My eyes snap open.
“You know what world I come from.” Panic claws up my throat. “Someone could kill my child inside my stomach. They could kidnap my baby. Torture them. Use them against me.” My body rocks violently now. Forward. Back. Forward. Back. “I can’t live through that.”
“Serenity—”
“Lock me in.” The words burst out of me. “Please. Just lock me the fuck in before I lose it.”
“No.”
My head jerks up.
“No?” I repeat hysterically.
“You have to push past the fear.”
Fear?
Fear?
My laugh rings hollow, unhinged even to myself.
“Where are my meds?” I scream. My voice ricochets off the padded walls. “Where the fuck are my meds?”
Tears blur my vision. My hair falls into my face as I bend forward, shaking so hard the restraints creak.
“I can’t do this,” I sob. “I can’t. I can’t.”
I hear Ms. Jonas’s heels clicking lightly on the tiles before she kneels before me.
“Look at me, Serenity.”
I can’t.
My bodyguards linger outside the closed door. I never want them to see me like this. Shattered and broken in the mind.
Weak.
Fractured.