Chapter 7
Leo
It was noon by the time I forced my eyes open. I wasn’t usually a late riser, but I had slept like a baby the previous night. I woke up to find Isabella in my arms, sleeping with her head on my chest and the first emotion I felt was panic.
Memories of the previous night flooded my brain and I couldn’t help but think about what the consequences of this were going to be. Marco would have me shot. Hell, he would do worse than that. He would probably torture me first I had betrayed his trust and slept with his daughter. It didn’t matter how I felt about her. In his eyes, I didn’t deserve her.
Then she moved, blinking her eyes open and stared up at me with her beautiful angelic face.
“Good morning, Leo,” she said huskily and when she smiled, I couldn’t help but kiss her again. My mind went blank, just like it had the night before and all I could think about was how content she made me. My teenage fantasy of having Isabella Aducci in my arms was coming true and I wanted to make the most of it. How much worse could it get than this?
While we kissed, my hands travelled down her body. She was warm from being under the covers and the more I touched her, the more my cock grew. I had her the night before, but I wanted her again.
Isabella looked up at me, moving in bed as my hands slid down her breasts, her flat stomach and down to that secret spot between her legs. My cock throbbed with desire.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you,” I grunted and she smiled. She was pleased with that statement.
I threw the covers off us again and slid down. I wanted to make her feel good, as good as it had felt for me to come inside her last night. She rolled her hips in anticipation, parting her legs for me again and this time, I wedged myself between them.
I brought my head down to her pussy, hovering over her juicy wet folds as she moaned and quivered on the bed.
I reached for both her breasts, cupping and squeezing them slowly, I stuck my tongue out and grazed her swollen clit. Isabella gasped, raising herself up but I pushed her down.
“Try and stay still,” I said to her and she collapsed back on the bed, sinking her head into the pillow and closing her eyes.
She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen and I wanted her to know it. I wanted her to feel like a princess, and I was going to treat her as one.
With my hands slowly kneading her big juicy breasts, I used my tongue to part the folds of her pussy. She cried out again, a moaning deep cry and I plunged my tongue in. Isabella rolled her hips, panting hard while I licked her pussy.
I nibbled on her clit and sucked on her folds, sliding my tongue in and out of her pussy from time to time. She couldn’t hold still, and I smiled with the way her body was reacting to my moves. I could taste the sweet juices dribbling out of her, I licked and sucked and slowly rocked her into another orgasm.
Isabella was moaning loudly as my hands travelled down from her breasts and now I used them to hold her thighs down. My tongue didn’t stop, I kept plunging into her, teasing her swollen clit, bringing her to the edge till she had no choice but to jump.
“Oh my God, Leo! I’m coming!” she squealed and I picked up speed, my tongue sliding in and out of her pussy, my lips rubbing against the mound of her clit. I could feel her juices trickling out, her body shaking. Her moaning voice filled the room as she came, hard. She was gripping the sheets in her hands, her body rocked and rose and fell and her eyes rolled in her head.
I didn’t stop licking her, till her breathing finally started to subside. She released one harsh long breath and I slid my tongue out of her pussy and straightened myself up.
Her breasts rose and fell heavily as she lay there on the bed, looking up at me with a shocked expression. It was like she couldn’t believe that she had an orgasm like that.
“Leo…no man has ever made my body do that,” she declared. Her voice was still husky and deep. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and grinned at her.
“It’s a pleasure to be of service to you,” I said and she jumped up and flung her arms around my neck. She hugged me tightly and we sat up in bed like that for a few moments, in each other’s arms.
We might have stayed like that for longer, but my cellphone rang in the pocket of my jeans. I reached for it on the floor and saw that it was Marco calling.
I slipped out of bed, somehow it felt strange to be naked with Isabella while talking to her father.
“Bring her to me,” was the first thing that Marco said. I gulped and ran a hand through my hair.
“Sure, boss. At the house?” I asked.
“Yes. Is she okay?” he growled into the phone and I looked over at her. She was lying back down on the bed again, she hadn’t bothered to cover up her beautiful naked body.
“She’s fine, she’s sleeping. I’ll wake her up and bring her over,” I told him.
I heard the click of the phone call ending and I started pulling my jeans up. Isabella knew what was happening. The expression on her face had changed from happiness to frustration.
“He wants me back, doesn’t he?” she asked and I slid my t-shirt over my head.
“Yes, it’s time to go back to the real world,” I said.
***
When we arrived back at the mansion, Marco was furious. Matteo and Francis were standing around in the study, listening to him shouting on the phone when we walked in.
“Papa, were you hurt?” Isabella rushed towards him and instead of taking her into his arms, Marco glared at me with bloodshot eyes.
“It was that motherfucker, Gino Cavallini!” he growled, banging the receiver down. Isabella flinched away from him, surprised at his reaction.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked, stepping forward to his desk.
“Yes, I’m fucking sure! That bastard had the balls to raid my daughter’s homecoming party! He had an order to execute!” Marco kept shouting. I caught Isabella glancing at me with worried eyes.
“What is happening, papa? What does this mean?” she asked and Marco sat down with a thump on his leather chair.
“I’m going to kill that swine. I’m going to have his head!” Marco yelled.
“Gino Cavallini? You mean the son of Andrei Cavallini? The man who murdered mama?” Isabella gasped and her hands flew up to her mouth. Marco looked at her with his wide bloodshot eyes, like he was noticing her in the room for the first time.
“Yeah and then I executed him, that fucking pussy,” Marco breathed harshly as he spoke.
“Okay, we need to check our sources first. We need to make sure that it was the Cavallini family that launched this attack, before we plan our own one,” I said and Marco jumped up from his chair again.
“Do you not hear me, boy? I know it was him! It was that mewling Gino, out to take revenge for his father’s death. After all these years, he’s still not let it go!” Marco raged.
“But his father killed mama first, didn’t he? Why does Gino Cavallini want revenge? His father killed mama and you had his father killed as vengeance,” Isabella spoke softly and Marco flung a pen stand to the wall beside him.
“Exactly. He’s a fucking lunatic, that’s what he is!” he growled.
“Papa, please calm down. We need to think about this. Leo is right, maybe it wasn’t him,” Isabella tried to pacify him and he turned on her, with fire flaming from his eyes.
“What do you know about any of this? You’ve been back here for one day, and you talk like you know everything about this city! You know nothing! You’re just a girl!” Marco continued to rage and I could see Isabella cowering away from him, she was on the verge of tears. I clenched my fists, trying to control my frustration. It made me mad to see Marco talking to her like that, but what right did I have? She was his daughter.
“Fine, I’ll go. Since you don’t need me here. Since you don’t care about my wellbeing or my opinion,” Isabella hissed, lifting her chin up in the air.
“Go up to your room and stay there till you’re called for,” Marco said, in a deep guttural growl.
Isabella scoffed and then turned from him, marching out of the study. She was still in that navy silk dress from the party and she still looked beautiful in it, no matter how messy her hair was or how smudged the makeup was on her face. I tried to keep my eyes off her and on Marco, hoping that he wouldn’t suspect anything was going on between us.
“Rally our allies,” Marco said gruffly, after Isabella had left the room.
I stepped up towards him.
“Boss, we can’t start another war, not right now. We barely have any allies left because of the bloodshed we’ve caused in the past decade,” I tried to speak firmly, logically but Marco wasn’t willing to listen to me.
“I said, rally our allies. We have to plan our retaliation. I want that Gino bastard dead!” Marco growled, picking up the phone again.
“Boss, we won’t come out alive if we start another war. We have nobody on our side. We’ll have to leave Naples,” I tried again, before he started dialing.
Marco glared at me, his face shaking slightly as he gritted his teeth.
“Leave Naples?” he growled.
“Or make peace. We could end all this now if you made peace with the Cavallini family,” I suggested and Marco banged the phone down. He stood up from his chair, and I could sense Matteo and Francis stepping closer to me. Marco was glaring at me, enraged, like a mad King.
“Listen to me, boy. You are my soldier and you will do as you are told. I didn’t ask you for an opinion. I didn’t ask you to think. I’m ordering you to do. Go and make the calls. Rally our allies and prepare them for a counter attack on the Cavallini’s. You hear?” Marco spoke in a deep controlled voice through gritted teeth.
Matteo and Francis were standing very close to me now, and I could sense that they were waiting for a signal from the boss to pounce on me.
“Yes, boss,” I said and I turned from him and walked to the door of the study.
“And Leo,” Marco stopped me in my tracks and I looked over my shoulder.
“The next time you question my orders, you will not be walking out of the room alive, you hear?” I heard him say.
“Yes, boss,” I replied and stepped out of the study.
I could still hear Marco growling from inside the room as I made my way out of the house. I kept my hands firmly shoved into the pockets of my jacket. I had been given an impossible task. I already knew what was going to happen when I called our contacts at the other families.
Outside in the driveway, I looked up at the room which I knew Isabella was staying in. She was at the window, looking at me.
I got in the car and drove away. Now was not the time to think about what was going to happen between us. In all likelihood, she was over it already.
***
Things unfolded the way I had predicted them to. None of our previous allies were sympathetic to our cause. None of them wanted to take part in the bloodshed.
I spent the rest of the day in my apartment, making calls to families we previously had a peaceful relationship with, but it was obvious that over time, they had all become estranged from us.
Out of the six calls I had already made to mafia families in and around Naples; all of them were reluctant to give me their word that they were going to be on our side when the time came.
My final call was to Claudio from the Giovani family. He had been connected with the family for several years, a little older than me and we used to drink together when times were more peaceful. I hadn’t seen him in over a year, but he was my last hope.
When I called him first, he didn’t answer and I tried again.
“Leo Moretti! How are you, brother?” I could hear the forced cheerfulness in his voice even through the phone.
“Claudio, I’m well. How are you?” I asked and he chuckled.
“You know, trudging along. My missus had the baby, a little girl, we’ve named her Emily. Too cute, I say,” Claudio was speaking in a casual voice but I knew that he knew just as well as I did what was coming next.
“That is great news, brother, congratulations to you and the missus. Emily is a beautiful name,” I said, while pacing around my apartment.
We fell into silence for a few moments while I tried to think of what I could say to break the ice on the subject. I didn’t have to do it, because he raised the topic himself.
“I know why you’re calling, and the answer is that you need to watch your back,” Claudio said, this time more firmly. The casual air had left his voice.
“What are you talking about?” I asked him and he sighed deeply before he spoke again.
“This is some friendly advice. You need to get out of Naples before that mad fucker gets you killed, along with himself.”
“Are you talking about Marco?”
“Yeah, your bloodthirsty boss. Who else?” Claudio said and then sighed. I remained silent, I didn’t know what to say to that, because I was slowly starting to believe that Marco was mad, that he had always been mad. I’d just refused to see it before because of my unwavering loyalty to him for saving me from an orphan’s life.
“Something big is coming, brother, and you need to get out of there. Pack up your things and disappear. Marco Aducci is going down and he’s going to take you down with him,” Claudio continued.
“I have my loyalties to him,” I growled, clutching the phone tightly to my ear.
“Fuck loyalty, brother. That man is trigger happy, and the rest of the families aren’t happy. He’s going to get himself killed,” Claudio said.
***
I drove back to the mansion, rolling around Claudio’s words in my head. I couldn’t stop thinking about everything he had said to me. That call had ended awkwardly. I couldn’t openly tell him what my plan was. I needed to get Isabella out.
After the call, I’d got in my car and driven back to Marco’s house, with the intention to give him a report of what the status was on our allies.
But instead of going through the front door, I took the back entrance through the garden which I knew wasn’t being watched. The house was empty as usual. All of Marco’s guards were surrounding him in the study. The housekeepers were nowhere in sight either.
I took the stairs, two at a time, trying to be as careful and silent as possible and within minutes, I was knocking lightly on Isabella’s door. She opened the door a few moments later, peering out into the dark hallway.
“Leo?” she said, surprised.
I pushed past her into the room and shut the door behind me.
“Your father doesn’t know I’m here,” I told her and walked over to the window and pulled the curtain shut.
“Why? What’s going on? Why are you hiding from papa?” she asked.
She was in a silvery pink silk robe, which she clutched tightly around her, like suddenly, she was ashamed of her nakedness underneath. I could see the concern on her face and I wanted to hold her again. I wanted to get on my knees in front of her and tell her exactly how I felt about her.
“I wanted to talk to you privately, there is something going on that you should know about,” I said.
Isabella rushed towards me, stopping in her tracks just moments before she touched me.
“What is happening, Leo? Papa doesn’t tell me anything,” she said, in a low whisper. I clenched my jaws, staring into her large green eyes. I wanted to take her away from this place, keep her safe from the dangers that Naples had in store for her. Now that she was here, now that I had tasted her, everything had changed. I had made up my mind about what I was going to do.
“The families are planning an attack on us,” I stated. Isabella’s eyes grew wide.
“Which families? What kind of an attack?”
“On a much bigger scale than what happened last night. It’s only a matter of time before all Hell breaks loose,” I said.
Isabella swung away from me. I could see the panic on her face. She started pacing around the room, running her fingers nervously through her hair.
“Does papa know?” she asked.
“I warned him of it already, but he’s not going to change his mind. He believes he is invincible,” I said. Isabella stared at me, gulped and then shook her head.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“If you stay here, Isabella, your father is going to get you killed, along with himself. This place is dangerous for him and all of us,” I continued.
“Why are you talking like this, Leo? What are you saying? What are you going to do?” Isabella was looking at me for answers, and right now, I didn’t have them. All I knew was that I wanted to keep her safe and I would do anything to make sure of it.
“All I’m saying, Isabella, is that I want you to trust me. We should leave, you should stay away from this place…from your father,” I told her and reached for her face. I touched her cheek with the back of my fingers and I could see the tears welling up in her eyes.
“But I just got here, all these years, while I was in America…all I wanted was to come back home, and now you’re asking me to leave. You want me to leave papa?” she spoke softly, trying to control the cry that was rising up in her throat.
“It’s dangerous sticking to him, and right now, keeping you safe is my first priority,” I said.
“Because papa ordered you to do that?” she asked.
“No, because that is what I want,” I said.
Isabella gulped and she broke our gaze. She looked away from me and walked over to the edge of her bed.
“Leo, I need to think about what you’re asking me to do,” she said.
“Isabella…it’s not safe here, it won’t be safe here for long. I’m going to come up with a plan and I want to get you out of here. We need to leave Naples as fast as possible,” I told her, following her every movement with my eyes.
She looked down at her hands, refusing to meet my eyes, then she nodded her head.
“Okay, I’ve heard what you had to say, but I need to think about it before I make my decision,” she said and then looked at me abruptly. “I can’t just pack up and go with you,” she added.
I nodded my head.
“You’re right, you don’t even know me,” I said and I started to walk to the door. What was I thinking? What made me believe that Isabella would leave all this behind, betray her own father…to run away with a man she just met yesterday! I was a fool.
“Leo!” she stopped me in my tracks just before I opened the door. “Thank you for coming here and telling me everything, I really do appreciate it. I just need time,” she said.
I nodded, then opened the door and went back down the stairs. I still had to give my report to Marco, for which I would have to enter the house through the front door again.
I had said everything I could say to Isabella for now, the rest was up to her. However, the one thing I knew was that I wasn’t going to leave Naples without her.