Chapter 7
Isabella
After a few days of being in Gio’s room and his bed, I start to feel better. Wakening up in Gio’s arms and him watching me is a new experience. Embarrassing at first, but comforting too. I like it, but I know it won’t last long. Once I’m healthy, I’ll be on my alone once more. “Mornin’, Princess. How are ya feelin’?” I raise my head leaning on my elbow to really get a better look at this handsome man lying next to me. Now, that my fever has broken I’m feeling much better and seeing a lot clearer.
I didn’t get a chance to really evaluate his body closely in the SUV on the way down or the last few days. He’s grown-up into a gorgeous hunk of a man. A tattooed bad boy since I last saw him. His face is more defined and so is his body. Wow, he was built when he was a teenager, but now. Now, he’s like ‘The Rock' built. His eyes are harder looking than years ago, probably from seeing a lot of horrible things, but they soften some when he looks at me.
My heart skips a beat at the sight of him, shiny black hair is longer on top with waves and shorter on sides. He’s sporting some scruff on his face.
His chest is covered, but I can see the colors of his tattoos through his lite gray tee shirt. One of his arms has a tribal sleeve, and the other has two Marine tattoos. He’s defiantly an Adonis, Mister God’s gift to all women.
Unfortunately, he’ll never want me. No man will… I’m fine with that, I’m broken, and my scars aren’t on the outside. Inside scares are a lot harder to heal. They feel like the worse kind a person can have.
I will always love him, though.
“Enjoying the view, Principessa?” he asks winking at me, and I shake those thoughts away and blush.
“Sorry, I’m good, but I could use a shower,” I say looking away from him. My body feels a little weak and dirty. I haven’t had a shower in days, and I’ve been sweating on and off from my fever and night terrors. I must stink to high heaven.
“Don’t be shy, Princess,” Gio says laughing and shaking his head.
“Come on.” He gets up from the bed to comes around to go into the bathroom. “I’ll get you a towel, your shampoo and body wash are already in the shower for you. Your toothbrush and hair stuff are on the counter. There’s also one of your bags with your underwear and bras under the counter. Your clothes are hanging in my closet, for now.” Wow, he had all my things brought to his room instead of my sisters. I wonder why I’ll have to ask him later.
I go to get up off the bed to follow him. I don’t make it off the bed, falling back closing my eyes feeling the dizziness take over my body.
“Whoa,” Gio says running to help me lay back down on the bed gently. He props me up against the headboard with a couple of pillow behind me.
Then I feel him place a bottle of water and some pills in my hands.
“Take these first, and I’ll set you up a bath instead.” I open my eyes seeing him watching me making sure I take the pills before he walks into the bathroom.
I close my eyes again when I’m done than hear the sound of the water running filling up the tub.
After a couple of minutes, he returns to help me up. “Can I borrow one of your shirts, please?” I ask shyly. I don’t know how many of my big shirts my sister packed. I don’t want to wear anything too tight. One of his shirts will be perfect.
“Sure,” he pauses looking cautiously at me.
“Do you want me to help you or should I get Jules?”
“Help me into the bathroom, and I can take it from there,” I say, and he nods helping me up from the bed. He walks me into the bathroom and places me on top of the closed toilet lid.
“I’ll be right outside the door if you need me.” Before he leaves I grab his hand feeling our familiar electric current.
“Gio,” I say as he turns back to look at me.
“Can you get Gigi? I want to see her when I’m done, please,” I ask needing to see and talk to her.
“Sam says you shouldn’t be around people until the infection is completely gone,” he says regretfully.
“I don’t give a shit what she said Gio, I need to see my sister. Bring her here, or I’ll find her myself,” I shout with a little sass feeling stronger than I’ve felt in days.
He gives me a stern look. “Don’t sass me, woman. I know you’ve been through hell, so I’ll let it slide, this time. Next time, I’ll take you over my knee and spank your little ass red,” he pauses a minute to deliberate, and I take in his words. I don’t know how I feel about being spanked even though his words are making my body tingle inside. He probably didn’t mean it. I’ll let it go, for now, I have too many other things to worry about.
“Fine, I’ll have Dusty bring her up when you’re done for a few minutes.” I give him a stern look.
“Thank you, and thank you for everything you’ve done. I don’t know how I’m ever going to repay you and your club.” He gives me a small smile.
“You just worry about getting yourself better. That’s how you can repay us.” With that, he walks out the room closing the door to give me privacy. Not completely, though, just enough allowing him to hear me if I need him.
I undress slowly and gingerly submerge myself in the warm lilac bubbly water. I lay my head back on a rolled up towel he musta left for me. I close my eyes enjoying the heat soaking into my sore body.
Clearing my mind of all the questions running through it. If I dwell on what happened, I’ll be living in a cloud. I can’t do that. I have to think about how I can be strong for myself and Gigi. How am I going to take care of a teenager by myself?
After a few minutes, I let it all go till later, and darkness takes me under.
Knock, knock I hear through the cloud of sleep.
“Princess, you okay in there?” I open my eyes blinking to adjust to the light.
“What?” I clear my mind. Shit, I must have fallen asleep.
The door slowly opens, and Gio stands by the door. I register that I’m in the bathtub naked and the water is cold, and the bubbles are gone. I immediately cover myself in shock, and God bless Gio’s soul, he keeps his eyes up on the shower wall.
“Did you fall asleep?” he asks me not looking happy. He already knows the answer before I can reply. I avert my eyes from his face.
“Princess, do you know how dangerous that could be especially with your fever,” he says then he mutters to himself. “Fuck.”
I look back up at his face seeing the lust in his eyes as I catch him checking out my body. It should repulse me or creep me out, but it doesn't. Instead, it sends flames of heat rushing through my body straight to my core.
I clear my throat, and he looks in my eyes shaking his head.
“Sorry. It’s time to get out you must be cold. I’ll give you a minute,” he says as he turns and points to the counter. “Your towel and my shirt, Princess.”
Then he’s gone. I wash my body with the loofah he left for me then drain the tub and dry off. His shirt is huge and fits like a dress ending above my knees. It feels perfect against my naked skin.
I emerge from the bathroom and find Gio with his back to me on his laptop at his desk. He hears me and darts to me helping me into the center of the bed, which now has clean sheets.
He props me up on a couple pillows and hugs the blanket up to my waist tucking it around my bare legs.
“Can I ask you a few questions before you call for Gigi,” I whisper as he sits at the side of the bed next to me.
“Shoot.” I take a deep breath and gather my thoughts.
I look away from him towards the window on the other side of the room. I can’t see the look on his face when I ask these questions. I have to try to keep my emotions in check.
“How much do you know about what happened the night my parents died?” I feel him get up from the bed and I turn to watch him pacing back and forth in his decent size room.
He rubs the back of his neck furiously and running his hand through his hair. He looks nervous about answering my question.
Finally, after a few minutes of silence, he breaks it. “I know Anton’s been working with the Mendez Cartel to take over you father's organization. He had 20 of Mendez’s men with him that night. They ransacked your home, probably looking for documents and killing all your guards including your parents…” he pauses obviously uncomfortable.
He’s still pacing the room and rubbing the back of his neck. “Vito, one of your guards, switch sides at some point and is working with Anton. Vito removed your sister when they entered your property and brought to Jules saying there was trouble on the Estate. Ricco - Jules bodyguard - was suspicious, especially when he stayed with them until the next morning when…” He stops pacing and stares up at the ceiling taking deep breaths while rubbing his hands over his face.
My hands and body are trembling, the front of my shirt is wet from my tears rolling down my face, and my heart is racing.
Oh my God, he knows what happened to me. As much as I didn’t want him to know how tainted I am, he does.
“The next morning, Vito got a call from Anton to tell Jules and Gigi that your parents were murdered during the break-in. He also said that you were in the hospital.
“At first, Jules thought you had been shot during the break-in. Once she got to the hospital and saw you, and she learned you had been attacked. Actually, you had been sexually assaulted in a violent way.”
He stops again as a sob rock through my body. Crawling to side in a ball with my back to him, I let it all out. Gio cautiously touches my shoulder, and I don’t recoil from his touch, I allow him to touch me. He gets into bed behind me taking me in his arms, my back is flat against his chest with his arms wrapped around my shoulders.
I calm myself down enough to speak after a few minutes. “Did you hack my hospital records?” I ask in a shaky voice. I know he can hack into anything on the internet. He’s been doing it since we were kids.
“Princess, please don’t be mad at me, I had to know what that bastard did to you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you. I truly am,” he says with anger, regret, and sympathy laced in his voice as he rubs my arm. I’m not upset with him; I just wish he didn’t know.
“I’m not mad, I could never be. I just wish you didn’t have to know, I wish no one knew,” I say taking a few deep breaths before I ask my next question.
“Does your club know what happened to me too?” I sob out the words.
It’s one thing for him to know and another for his club to know. That’s a whole other ball game that I need to prepare myself for.
A few minutes pass before he speaks.
“In order to get the club to help me, I had to appeal the table members. Gator and Ace are the only ones that know the whole story about what happened to you. The rest of the club only knows he hurt you, but they don’t know the details of your attack. They probably figured you were beaten almost to death with the bruises on your face and the fever when you arrived. I’m the only one that saw...”
He sounds as heartbroken as I feel. I can’t fault him for telling his club certain things, they are helping to keep us hidden from the monster. I just needed to know what I was dealing with to handle myself right.
I lay there staring out the window at the sunny day. I begin to feel exhausted after our talk, but I still need to see my sister.
My eyes become too cumbersome for me to keep open. They are giving me no say in the matter, so sleep it is. I’ll talk to Gigi when I’m refreshed after a nap.
When I wake, Gio is back at his desk on his laptop. I lay watching him for a few minutes fully waking myself up.
So much has happened in the last couple of weeks. I’m still overwhelmed with a ton of questions running through my mind. Emotionally, I don’t know if I can handle them all at this point. In time, one day at a time that’s what I need.
“How was your nap, Princess?” Gio asks still looking at his computer startling me.
How did he know I was awake? “How?”
“I heard the change in your breathing.” He answers turning to face me with a half-smile.
I look at the window in front of his desk and see it dusk out. I’ve slept most the day away.
“I have soup coming up for you. Do want a sandwich too?” he asks watching me. I’m hungry, but not enough for a sandwich. I don’t think my stomach could handle that much food. “Soup is good. Thank you. Where’s Gigi now?”
I miss my sister and need to make sure she’s handling this move.
“She’s in the dining room with Jules and the guys having dinner. I told Dusty to bring her up when she’s finished. She’s fine, Princess, I promise you on my life. My brothers won’t let anything happen to them,” he says reassuringly, and I nod sitting up leaning on my pillows.
Gio comes over to me checking my head with the back of his hand for any signs of a fever. It’s there just low grade one. It’s sweet how he’s been taking care of me.
He takes a bottle of water out of his mini fridge and hands it to me with a couple of pills. I accept them graciously.
“Gio, do you know if Jules has gotten in touch with Ces. I think I remember her saying she was told not to contact him. I want to make sure he’s alright since we left him? maybe we can bring him here?” I’m concerned that the monster may have gotten his slimy hands on our best friend to find us. Ces has nothing to do with the family business, but he’s been part of my life for years now. I need to know he’s safe. Maybe Gio plans on bring him here with us.
“Jules hasn’t been able to get in contact with him. I have a friend trying to locate him. Princess, I hate to say… But that monster may have already gotten his hands on your friend. Once we find him, we’ll take it from there. Okay.” Gio gives it to me straight, and I appreciate him for that.
“Thank you.” Is all I can say? He and his brothers have done so much for us; I don’t know how I’ll ever repay them.
Our dinner arrives, and we eat in a comfortable silence. When I’m done eating, all I can of my soup I place the remainder on the nightstand by the bed. A couple of minutes later there’s a soft knock at the door. Gio opens it and finds Gigi standing there with Dusty. She comes running to me giving me a big hug before sitting next to me on the bed eyeing me curiously.
“I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll be back in ten minutes,” Gio says sternly before shutting the door behind him. Once he’s gone, I give my sister my full attention.
“You know he hasn’t left your side since we got here. Nor will he let anyone in this room near you. The guys are calling ‘Bull Dog’ instead of ‘Beast' because of the way he’s been growling at them if they attempt to breach his door. I was surprised he was letting me up to see you,” Gigi says laughing before I can get a word out.
She watches me take in that tidbit of information.
Then we start laughing, God it feels terrific to be happy and laugh with my sister for a few minutes instead of being angry and sad.
Gio being over protective of me feels right and well over due.
I’m glad Jules contacted him. He saved me from a horrible fate, Jules and Gigi too, from God, only knows what that sicko had planned.
“He’s just making sure I get healthy. I asked him to let me see you,” I say sobering up.
“I needed to see how you are handling things after…” I can’t say the words. Mommy and daddy are gone. It’s a lot for me to take in for me, it has to worse for her. I still can’t believe it.
Gigi starts crying, and I hold her in my arms. I can’t stop myself from crying with her.
“I’m sorry, baby girl, we’ll get through this together. I promise you; we’ll be okay. I know we will. Soon the guys will be here too. We have Jules and Gio and the club to help us through it.”
As I say the words, I will myself to believe them. Not just for me, but for her too. She’s so young to have to deal with all this adult stuff in such a short time.
I’m going to have to get Gio to get me an IPad, so I can do some research on how to help us through the grieving process. It will allow me to download books on this subject to help us both process.
I don’t know if she knows what that monster did to me and I don’t have the strength to ask or talk about it. That will be another subject for me to research for myself. I need to heal from this ordeal.
“Did Gio find the guys yet,” she asks through her tears as I continue to hold her. That’s one question I’ve meant to ask and haven’t. “I haven’t had a chance to ask him yet. When he comes back, we’ll have to ask him,” I say then change the subject to lighten the mood and the heaviness in my heart.
“What have you and Jules been up to?” I ask her curious on her day to day here at the clubhouse.
She pulls back from me, whips away her tears, and proceeds to tell me all the things they have been doing to stay busy. She’s been cooking and baking for the guys, playing pool, basketball and riding the horses with them too.
She tells me all about her favorite horse Midnight Dream an American Bashkir Curly Horse. He’s brown with some white spots. She says he loves when she visits and rides him. He’s not only her favorite, but she has become his too.
I can see the spark coming back into her eyes a little as she talks about the horses. She loves horses, and we have our own back home. Gigi would ride a couple of times a week.
The guys are keeping them busy to keep their minds off things. I appreciate them for being there for them more than they will ever know. Being that I’m not able to do it myself at the moment.
She’s in the middle of telling me a story when Gio walks in on us laughing. She’s telling me about how one of the guys split his jeans down the seam while they were shooting hoops.
Gio gives us a great big gleaming smile and saunters over to sit in front of Gigi on the bed beside me. She finishes her story, and we’re in stitches. It feels good to let things go and live and laugh with two out of the four most important people in my life.
The room becomes silent again, after a minute Gigi eyes Gio giving him her serious look. I watch them stare at each other until Gio breaks it. “What’s up, Mini Princess? Spit it out,” Gio says, and she giggles. She likes being called Mini Princess after me. The older kids started calling her that when she began to follow me around.
She gets all serious and asks in a sad voice as the tears start to fall down her face “Gio, have you found our brothers? Are they okay? Are they coming for us?”
It breaks my heart to see her like this. She’s making me cry now. Gio takes her in his arms and places his hand in mine squeezing it.
“I wish I had good news for you girls, but I don’t. I’m sorry. We’re all doing what we can. We’ll find them, it’s just going to take more time. They’re smart guys, I know Val has them hidden for now,” he says placing a kiss on the top of her head.
Gio and Val have been best friends since they were babies. They haven’t been close since he left for the military, but I know they kept in touch. Val kept him updated on the families.
Val and dad always tried to get him to come home, but after being away for so long in the middle of the war zone, he changed. I see it, he’s different now.
Dusty comes back a few minutes later and takes Gigi back downstairs to the guys for dessert that she and Jules baked.
I tell her I’ll see her tomorrow cheering up a little and hugs us before leaving.
Once she out of the room I have two things I need to ask Gio tonight.
Gio’s back on his computer, and I have the TV on channel surfing. I go through the channels a few times and give up turning it off.
“Gio...”
“Yes, Princess,” he says turning to face me.
“Can you order me an IPad? I’m sure Gigi and Jules didn’t take mine. I’ll pay you back.”
“Sure, I’ll order it through my Amazon Prime, it will be delivered sometime tomorrow. And you don’t have to pay me back,” he says turning back to his computer screen relieved that my question wasn’t too heavy. He pulls up the website and places my order.
I’m not done with my questions and another request for him. One of the thing I’m not really sure I want to see, but I need to.
“Gio, can I see the copy of my records from the hospital, please,” I spit out quickly in a whisper allowing him to hear me from across the room. He freezes with his hands hovering over the keys. Without turning, he grunts.
“Princess...” Then pause, and I panic. Could it be so terrible that he doesn’t want me to see my own records? Cue the panic attack and water works, here they come at full force. I’m so sick of crying, I’ve never cried this much in my whole life.
He gets up and walks over to sit next to me on the bed hesitantly he takes me in his arms. “Did he hurt me that bad? Can I still have babies?” I don’t know why I ask that last question, I just came out.
Now, I’m sobbing the pain is shrieking through my body.
Great, not only did he broke me, but he also left me barren too.
“Princess, relax it's no big deal, you can have kids. The worst thing in the records just said you had to abstain from sex for four weeks. That was in order to allow your body to heal properly. When Sam checked you last, she said you’re healing properly.”
He takes a breath giving me a minute to absorb this new information. I can have babies. That’s good, at least the bastard didn’t ruin me completely. I did always want to have a baby. Granted, I knew it would be by a doctors hands not the old fashion way. I have to wait another week and a half to have sex. That’s fine, I’ve gone almost 23 years without it. This sounds like all the good news. What’s the bad?
As I am contemplating all this information, he gets up from the bed to retrieve a file from his desk drawer. He wavers as he brings it back to me.
“Are you absolutely sure you want to read this, Princess?” I look into his eyes and nod my head yes.
He hesitates again before placing it in my shaky hands. Then walks away from me to give me space, but he’s still able to watch me. I stare at the vanilla folder for a minute calming my breathing before opening it and seeing my medical records from the hospital.
I read the doctors reports, test, and evaluation. The way I present when entering the ER with the bruise and hemorrhaging the doctors assumed I’d been a raped victim, but my fiancé insisted I hadn’t been.
They administered ‘The morning after pill’ regardless and ran a panel of test including a rape kit, STD’s and pregnancy. The rape kit was file away until a further invention. All test come out negative, they will need to be performed again in six months with the exception of the pregnancy test.
I’m clueless about most of what I’m reading in these papers, it’s all a bunch of medical mumbo-jumbo. After glaring at the same pages for five minutes, I’m filled shame, and rage, rising and rising with each passing second. I close the folder throwing it across the room. The folder hits the wall, and the papers spill out all over the floor.
Gio watches me from his position at the end of the bed in complete shock as I get up from the bed throwing the blanket off me onto the floor. I grab the bowl of soup from the nightstand next to the bed and throw it across the room causing more destruction, shatters the bowl into pieces on top of the papers.
I’m not done, tears are rolling down my face, and my breathing ragged. One of my hands is in a white knuckle fist, and the other is grabbing the lamp from the table yanking the plug out of the wall and throwing it next. Smashing everything I can get my hands on at the moment.
I feel ruined, ashamed, angry, and mad as fucking hell as the words spill out of me at an alarming rate.
“This was not supposed to be my life. Daddy told him to leave me alone. Why couldn’t he just follow orders? Why did he have to do this to me? I don’t want to be broken like this. Perché questo dOVevA accadere a me?! Perché AVEVA FRENARE ME?! Perché mI?! Perché LUI non RIUSCIVA seguire gli ordini come un buon soldato?!”
I didn’t realize I was yelling at the top of my lungs all those things, but I keep going getting it all out of my system.
“PAPA, rendere il dolore andare via. per favore!” I squeeze my fist shut so tight I can feel the pain of my nails digging into my palms. I punch my chest over my heart to stop the pain I’m feeling there.
Gio comes up behind me, and I turn throwing punch after punch at his chest yelling obscenities in Italian.
I’m treating him as if he’s the monster in my nightmares that did this to me. He blocks my fists trying to capture my wrists to stop me. He finally gets a grip on my wrist pulling me close to his chest.
I can feel his pounding heart against my own, and I give up the fight altogether. Legs weak, I fall to the floor sobbing with him still holding my wrist. He goes down with me and holding me to his chest. I’m sitting between his legs with his arms wrapped around me tight and rocking with me back and forth.
I hear the bedroom door open and one of his brothers asking if he needs anything. Gio tells him to send in Sam with a sedative for me.
After a few minutes, he lifts my lifeless, defeated body up in his strong arms and brings me to the bed laying us down still holding me on his chest on our sides.
I stay in his arms sobbing into his chest for a few minutes. Sam comes in with Gator in toe to administer my sedative. Gio keeps me in his arms the whole time.
Through my haze, I hear Sam and Gator talking to Gio. Sam says something about how it’s good that I allow him to touch me, hold me and comfort me. Most women in my situation don’t allow any man to touch them, let alone allow them to hold them and comfort them like he’s doing with me. He should take it as a good sign and know that he’s helping me more than he could believe.
I stay crying in his arms until me the exhausting knocks me out.