Chapter Two
It took a week, but Mia finished her space, and then, after sitting in it for two hours, felt herself get even more depressed.
There was no color. The furniture was black, and the cupboards and storage boxes were also black. The walls were magnolia, which did match the white carpet, but she hated it. There was not even a speck of color. There was no warmth.
After a few hours, she left the women’s space, and that had been two weeks ago now. Three weeks in total of her life, gone.
Mia stood at the porch with a thick jacket wrapped around her as she looked out across the yard. She had also put on a hat, as well as some gloves and a scarf. It had snowed overnight. She didn’t know if it was going to be the last snowfall of the season, but it looked stunning.
All she wanted to do was go out and walk in it.
Actually, she wanted to build a snowman.
How fucking childish was that? Instead, she stood outside in the freezing cold with her red-hot coffee, only wishing she could go and play.
There would not be any playtime for her.
All childish games and attitude had ceased.
She was a grownup now. At least, that was what she kept telling herself.
She was a grownup and didn’t need to do childish things. So, instead of playing in the snow, she was drinking her coffee and reminding herself of all the things that had been said to her over the years, to keep herself on the straight and narrow. No playing in the snow. No walking in the snow.
Once she had finished her coffee, she made her way back into the house and went to the kitchen where the staff was working. She offered them a smile and a thank you before stepping out.
At first, she didn’t have a clue what to do. Giovanni had already left for work. Usually, she was busy organizing one event after another, but there was nothing for her to do. There was no event to organize.
She made her way to the library, as that was the only place that offered her any comfort. Mia grabbed a book off the shelf and took one of the comfortable chairs. She sat down and flipped the page of her book open.
She started to read the first couple of sentences, and even a couple of paragraphs, only it didn’t register what she read.
This, sadly, reminded her of being back home.
If she attempted to do anything else in her parents’ house, she was always criticized.
She loved reading, and whenever she disappeared into the library to read, they wouldn’t complain, mainly because she was quiet and wasn’t causing trouble.
Getting married was supposed to get her away from all of that.
Glancing down at the book, she attempted to try again, only the words were still not computing in her brain, and it was starting to drive her crazy. She closed the book, got back to her feet, and slid the book back on the shelf. She needed to do something.
Pulling her cell phone out of her pocket, she knew there was no point in calling Liana, as she was dealing with being pregnant. Also, by some miracle, Liana and Diego had been able to come to terms with what had been said that night at the party, when he called her a doormat.
She gripped her neck. Mia was happy for her friend, especially as she had a baby on the way. For herself, Clarissa, and Tatiana, it hadn’t gone quite as smoothly.
She called Clarissa first. “Hey, uh, I know this is just kind of out of the blue, but do you want to hang out? Have a spa day or something?”
As mafia wives, they were not allowed to work. Their role was to provide children to their husbands and put on a good show at parties and functions, so they didn’t become the topic of conversation.
“Yes, please, I can’t just sit around doing nothing anymore. It’s driving me crazy.”
Clarissa was considered boring. Her friend loved to knit and sew and tended to enjoy quite solitary hobbies. Since that night her husband called her old and boring, even though she was the same age as herself, Liana, and Tatiana, it had stung.
Clarissa had a lot of darkness in her past. She had held her older sister as she was dying, after a gang hit-and-run, and it scarred her for life.
Mia wasn’t going to ask why she wasn’t in her crafting room. There was no point. She wasn’t in her woman’s shed organizing a party or some kind of fun event. Their husbands’ remarks had hurt them.
“I’ll call Tatiana, see if she’s wants to join us.”
“I’ll call Liana,” Clarissa said.
“I thought she had a couple of pregnancy appointments coming up?”
“She does, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t want to join us for a girls’ day.”
Mia hung up and arranged to pick up Tatiana, along with Clarissa.
Liana was meeting them at their regular spa.
It was owned by her man, and Mia couldn’t drive, so she had no choice but to go to one of her designated soldiers called Javier.
He was one of four she had to see whenever she wanted to leave the house. They had babysitting duty.
Javier was in his forties, married with a couple of children, and considered one of the best soldiers within the mafia.
She had done her research. Giovanni had not spared any expense in finding a man to help with her life.
She rarely used Javier. She had never felt comfortable asking anyone to take her anywhere.
Today, she needed to get out of the house and just breathe. That house was starting to choke her.
Tatiana and Clarissa both looked as entertained as she did. She sat in the back of the car, and Javier slid the privacy screen up, but it didn’t help ease the tension. They didn’t feel comfortable talking to one another as they knew somehow their husbands were listening in.
It didn’t take long to get to the spa, and when they arrived, Liana was inside, along with Diego, who was kissing his wife goodbye. Mia was happy for her friend. However, in that moment, it made her miss how she had been with Giovanni. It had been such a short time they were happy together.
Mia saw the love in the way Diego looked at Liana. This was the first time she had ever truly seen Diego with his guard down. It shocked her. If she had any doubts about his feelings for her best friend, she didn’t anymore. She could see they were happy.
Whereas she and Giovanni were not. Or at least, she wasn’t. Rather than show her upset, she forced a smile to her lips, because that was what friends did.
Diego gave them all a nod, then she rushed toward Liana. “You look happy. Are you happy?”
Liana chuckled. “Yeah, I’m happy. I’m so glad you girls invited me. I was starting to worry that because I forgave Diego you were not going to be my friend.”
“Of course not. I’m glad you and Diego are in a great place.” The truth was, she wished she and Giovanni were in a great place as well.
“How about we all relax, and Liana can tell us everything?” Clarissa asked.
Mia was more than happy for Liana to tell them everything. It would be nice to just ... breathe.
****
Giovanni didn’t like this feeling he’d been having ever since the attack, when the faulty drug products had been located and destroyed, and the gang seemingly ... gone. They had killed every person that had come for them. There had been no other trace of them anywhere else.
In response, he had been cleaning up the streets.
Removing every drug dealer, or anyone who thought they could take Colombo territory from them.
He didn’t turn a blind eye anymore. There was no room for error as they came to his home and attempted to kill him and his wife.
He lost good men that night. Even now, thinking about it pissed him off.
He wanted to kill all those motherfuckers ten times over for what they fucking did.
Anger swirled in his gut as he glanced over the security cameras in his casino. He had gotten news of a potential dealer at the casino, attempting to steal from him. One of the dealers at the card tables had given him the information. He was waiting for the signal.
His men were in place, and he’d been watching this guy for nearly an hour, as he moved from table to table. It was odd that he hadn’t lost a single game. Now, some people could be that lucky, or more likely, he was cheating.
He’d already been given the signal that this man was attempting to poach some of the female staff. Apparently, he had amazing job offers. Giovanni didn’t like this. He was waiting for another jackpot win, and the moment he got it, Giovanni gave the signal.
There was luck in gambling, and then there was fucking cheating. He had already taken a picture of the man’s face and sent it to his friend on the police force. For a pretty price, he got all the information he needed, and for them to look the other way. It was a good working relationship.
As he waited for him to get back in touch, Giovanni left the main office to make his way down to the basement.
His guards were there, and he was already halfway down to the basement when his cell phone vibrated.
It was his informant, and the moment he looked over the details in the text message, he was pissed off.
The guy’s face was certainly recognized as he was linked to human trafficking, drug smuggling, murder, and other details. Giovanni was no longer a happy man.
Stepping into the basement, the man, Julio Valentine, was struggling in a chair. Chains has been wrapped around his chest, his wrists, and ankles.
His soldiers had lost friends. Just looking at the men in the room, Giovanni saw the anger and rage consuming them.
They wanted to kill this motherfucker, and not because he was some kind of monster—no, because he had links to the men who had killed their colleagues.
The Colombo Mafia was fucking deadly, but they took care of their own, and no one fucked with them.
“What the fuck is this? I come here and win big and what, I am punished for it?” Julio asked. “What kind of business is this?”
Giovanni reached into his jacket pocket and held out a small, clear bag with white powder.
He’d asked his employee to buy a bag, just so he could see if it was the same product that had been killing people in their territory.
He didn’t have time to test it, but the packaging was all the same.
He didn’t give a shit if the powder was the same or not.
“Do you recognize this?” he asked.
Julio looked a little taken aback. “I’ve never seen that in my life.”
“Ah, so this isn’t you?” Giovanni held up his cell phone, and this is what he loved about recording people—watching them. It helped him get an idea of what they were like. Especially when they didn’t think anyone was watching them. He was a little addicted to it.
“It was ... she asked for it, okay. It’s just something to make her happy.”
“And what will happen if I get you to take it?” Giovanni asked, as he opened the bag and poured the entire contents onto his hand.
The man shook his head.
“No, no, you don’t have to do this.”
Giovanni smiled, and then he smashed his hand against the man’s face, holding him in place as the product went up his nose and inside his mouth, and he didn’t stop until he was sure he had consumed as much of it as possible.
He stepped back, and didn’t have to wait long, but it wasn’t what he was expecting. Rather than dying or seeming to go into a drug-induced coma, he fell asleep. Giovanni checked his pulse.
He looked back at his men. “Check everything.”
Stepping back, he kept his gaze on him. Julio had given this to one of his pretty blonde employees.
She worked at the poker table and was known for taking a great deal of money.
The men were often wowed by her beauty and played bad hands of cards.
If this was to knock her out, the human trafficking link had to be the connection.
“Sir, you might want to see this,” one of his men said.
He had a messy-looking piece of paper with several stains. One of them looked like blood. Giovanni took the piece of paper, which was actually two pieces stapled together. He frowned as he read descriptions.
“Blonde hair, blue eyes, big tits.” He frowned and glanced over the details. It read like a shopping list. This was not the first time he had seen something like this.
“This is an order form,” he said, hating the sight of it. They were looking for girls and women that matched this description. He also didn’t like that he spotted the description for his own wife, as well as his three friends.
Pulling out his cell phone, he had no idea who he should call first, so he started at the top of the list and dialed Diego.
He was bringing nothing but bad news with each call he made.
What was worse, when he got to Lorenzo’s call, his friend was already aware of it, as two women within the Colombo Mafia had gone missing.
They were not employees or associates. They were daughters of members.
By the time he ended the call, the man was still out for the count.
He had no idea if the man was even conscious, but his body couldn’t move.
He had heard of date rape drugs that caused that—where the woman was aware of everything that was happening to her, but she couldn’t do anything.
It pissed him off to see it, especially if this was the case.
Giovanni folded up the piece of paper and knew he would have no choice but to reach out to his informant about any missing women. He sent a quick text to Mia’s guards, advising them not to allow Mia to leave their sight. She was to remain visible to them at all times.
This was not a game.
This was serious.
If there was a gang targeting their women, they all needed to be on high alert.