Capitolo Dieci

With Vincent in and out, I’m not using the audio. I don’t want him to know because, well, it’s intrusive, but I don’t care. I know her.

I have known her forever.

Just like the previous three nights, I am outside her door and he is in the lobby.

I watch the hand-held, and every damn time she opens the balcony door, I am on edge.

There have been no packages, she doesn’t even come out of her fucking apartment, but music plays all day and night.

I smell her cooking. She’s fucking cooking and not even throwing it out in front of me.

I feel something, like something is horribly wrong, yet I can’t figure out if I need her to be a bitch, or if I should just sit here and continue to not only feel of no use, but confused.

When Vincent comes up in the morning, he tells me to go shower, so I do.

In the shower, I focus on the last two women I met, the ones I fucked, or rather, they fucked me. I think maybe this feeling is some type of homesickness. I need something normal. Maybe it’s the need to come, to make someone come. Someone who wants to be treated like a woman should be. It certainly can’t be because Valentina isn’t being a brat.

When I was home, I could go weeks without seeing her and dread the day I had to return, yet she is right here and I feel like I am failing as her protector.

I spend too long trying to get off. I swear I nearly pull my cock off. Still, I just can’t get there. I picture her, too. I picture the way she looked with the women in Italy, it normally works. But not this time.

When I step out of the shower, I dry off and dress. When I walk out to the lobby, I see that Melyssa has messaged about losing a prescription she needs. She thinks maybe it’s in the couch cushions.

I phone Valentina. When she answers, she sounds winded, but not depressed. Why then does she hide in there? I ask myself.

“Franco?” she says my name again.

“Melyssa has lost some antibiotic. She thinks it’s possibly in your couch cushions. I can come look.”

“No,” she says immediately.

“No?” I ask.

“I would have seen them. Just tell her … tell her that she must have dropped it somewhere else—I don’t care. Just tell her not to come over. I’ll look between the couch cushions later.” Then she hangs up.

I try to phone her again because she pisses me off. I don’t care that she doesn’t give a damn about me, but this girl is sick. She needs her medicine.

She denies my call.

She has come leaps and bounds with her brother and Laney. She’s had friends, actual friends, here. I will not allow her to lose all humanity again.

I look at the message Melyssa sent then send her a text, telling her to feel free to come and have a look, that Valentina is home. Then I pace the lobby for the next twenty minutes until I see Melyssa pull up.

I open the door and smile. “I’ll take you to her.”

She covers her mouth with a scarf and coughs. It’s deep and from her chest.

Opening the cargo door to the elevator, I look back. “Let’s hope we find them.”

She smiles apologetically. “I’m sorry to bother you all.”

Melyssa is a beautiful woman. She’s petite, blonde, and fair-skinned. She’s also very sweet and seems kind. I hope that it will rub off on Valentina. I also hope this visit brings her out of her damn apartment.

When we get to her door, the music is loud, so knocking is of no use.

“I don’t want to be a bother.” Melyssa coughs again.

“It’s no bother,” I tell her, pulling the keys from my pocket.

Entering the apartment, I see the mess in the kitchen. Pots and pans everywhere.

I look at Melyssa. “I’ll get her. Feel free to look.”

As I walk toward Valentina’s room, I turn the volume down on the stereo and hear a noise coming from the bathroom.

It’s her.

“Again!”

Then I hear a loud slap.

“More,” she begs.

I am almost embarrassed for her. My assumption is she’s masturbating.

I look over my shoulder and see Melyssa blushing furiously.

She whispers, “I don’t see them. I’m going to go.”

Then I hear a man, a fucking man, groan loudly.

She is not alone.

That little bitch.

I try the doorknob as Melyssa says, “Please don’t bother her. I’m fine.”

Then I hear Valentina scream in release and my boiling blood overflows in anger.

I open the door and see him, Sabato Efisto, jump back.

“Leave us!” Valentina screams at me.

Shocked, pissed, angry, really fucking angry, I reach for her wrist. “He is wanted for shooting his father!”

“He is hurt!” she screams at me, moving away from my grasping hand.

When I reach for her again, I feel a fist to my face. I stumble back then lunge toward him.

“No!” Valentina cries, stepping in my way.

I nearly strike her, but hit the wall instead.

She looks terrified, crouched down in a ball, like she did in the vineyards when she was sad.

“What the fuck are you doing here!” I hear him yell at Melyssa from outside the bathroom.

I start to go toward him.

“Just leave him alone!” Valentina cries. “Just go! I hate you! I hate you so fucking much!”

I hear Melyssa stammering, “M-my medicine. I came back for …” She stops, and I fear he has hurt her.

I leave Valentina and run toward the kitchen. The apartment door is open and so is the one to the balcony.

“What have you done!” Valentina cries from behind me, stopping me from going after Melyssa who left the apartment in a hurry.

“What have I done!” I roar. “What the fuck have I done? What have you done?”

“I was helping him. He could have died!”

“Helping him? Is that why you were bent over the sink? Is your little cunt somehow a fucking cure-all for murderers!” I scream.

“I was helping him!” she screams back.

“You’ve never fucking helped a person in your life! You’re nothing but a self-serving little bitch.” I push past her and into the bathroom where I grab the Melyssa’s medicine off the counter. “Your friend”—I hold up the bottle with Melyssa’s name on it—“she is sick, and these are hers.”

“She’s not my friend. She’s Laney’s!” she screams at me.

“That’s right, because a girl like you doesn’t deserve friends,” I snarl as I walk toward the door, hoping to catch up with Melyssa. “You leave this apartment, I will fucking tie you up, you hear me!”

“You have no friends, either. You have nothing! Nothing but me.”

“Not for long, Valentina, not for fucking long.”