Capitolo Tredici

I lie in bed, waking to total darkness. I smell her, her and me, and I want more.

You’ll kill her, my thoughts scold. We did just spend the entire day fucking, tasting, sucking.

For the first time in my life, I feel loved by a woman, in her touch. I feel empowered, like I am enough.

After the third time I made her come, I told her I would never need another, which caused tears to spill from her eyes as she kissed me.

“Promise me.”

“I promise you, Valentina.”

I feel love in the way she fed me, cleaned my wound, made sure I took my pain pill so when I was rested, and she was rested, I could make love to her again.

I never want this to end.

Ever.

I get out of bed, still naked and harder than before. I walk out into the open apartment and see my sister’s journal open on the counter. My instinct is to be angry at her for snooping, but I think for a second about how freeing the truth is and want to give her that, too.

The bathroom door is shut, and I hear the shower running. I am tempted to go in, but I see a note beside the journal.

I pick it up and read:

 

Is this a joke, a sick and twisted game? Will I never be free of him?

Your journal gives me all the answers I need.

Benito’s tattoo? Why would you do this to me, Franco? To show he still has power over me?

I trusted you.

I loved you.

I love you.

I will hide that, too, until the day I die.

 

Realization strikes like a bolt of lightning.

Benito was my sister’s demise.

Benito shattered her heart.

Benito killed her.

I storm into the bathroom, only to find she isn’t in it. She has left me to hurt me. What she doesn’t know, is I am already torn in two.

An hour of hell, and anger and rage, and trying to find Valentina to no avail, my phone rings.

“Where the fuck are you?” I yell.

“At my wedding,” a smug voice answers.

“Who the fuck is this?”

“Sabato Efisto.” He sighs. “I haven’t time for games. Valentina is—”

“I will kill you,” I threaten. “I will kill you and him if one hair is harmed on her head; do you hear me? I will—”

“I am calling to invite you to come stay the evening with Valentina in a penthouse suite because me and my wife”—he pauses—“will be heading to our home.”

“Why the fuck are you—”

“Valentina needs you. She needs someone like you to make sure she doesn’t put herself in harm’s way.”

“By harm, you mean your father and Benito,” I snap.

“My father’s body was found. He’s dead. And Benito is hopefully getting fucked in the ass, no lube or prep. My wife and Valentina run in the same circle. Valentina has been crucial to throwing this last-minute wedding together as a gesture of kindness. Take it or leave it. I’ll send the address, but if you feel the need to call the police, know that her family is here and they are having a wonderful time. I’ll face the police when I must. But tonight, I’d like to spend the time with my bride.”

“I owe you nothing!” I yell at him.

“No, but you obviously believe differently about her.”

“Fuck you,” I spat.

“Not my type, Franco, and I’m a married man, so I will be fucking one person for many years to come.” He sighs as if I’m a bother. “Goodbye, Franco. I’m sure we’ll meet again.” He hangs up.

I try to call the number back. Then I get a text.

When the door to the penthouse is opened, I look past the wait staff and see her standing with Josephina Steel.

“‘Bout time you showed up.” A man reaches out his hand. “Missed one hell of a wedding. I’m Zandor Steel.”

I shake his hand as I watch her stiffen and turn her nose in the air when she sees me.

“I need a minute with Signorina Segretti,” I say, walking toward her.

“Momma Joe, there’s a man here who needs you.” He laughs, and so does everyone else.

I find no humor in it.

“Valentina, a moment.” I demand.

“She’s been with me all night, Franco. She’s fine,” Josephina Steel tells me, like it should fucking matter.

“Now,” I tell Valentina, reaching for her hand.

She slaps me across the face. “Who do you think you are?”

I grab her and hoist her up over my shoulder with one arm. “The man who spent the better part of the day making you come; that’s who the fuck I am.”

The room erupts in laughter. It pisses her off, but I don’t give a shit.

I storm toward the closest inside door for some privacy as she kicks and pounds on my back.

“Put me down.”

Inside, I drop her ass on a bed and look at her. My heart squeezes and all the anger inside me changes to pain.

I drop to my knees in front of her and grab her, pulling her closer as I rest my head on her lap. “That picture … Are you sure—”

“I don’t even know why I am allowing this.”

“You fucking love me, that’s why,” I say, looking up at her. “Now answer me, dammit. Is it his tattoo, or was that an excuse to start a fight so you …? You fucking planned his wedding after you fucking him or while fucking and taking care of me!”

“You do not get to be angry at me, Franco!”

“The fuck I don’t.”

“You can’t toy with me and work for him, and—”

I take her hand and squeeze it. “That was my sister’s journal. That fucking picture … It’s a drawing of hers before she killed herself.”

She covers her mouth as she gasps, then she wraps her arms around me. “He did that to her. He did, and I swear to you he will pay. He will pay for what he did to you and what he did to—”

“I love you.”

She starts to cry softly.

“I am so sorry, but I refuse to let him ruin your life or mine.”

She lifts my face to hers. “I love you.”

I swallow back the pain and breath in her words. “I will never love anyone but you.”

“You promise me, Franco? You promise me that?”

I nod.

“Okay, good. Now that you’ve exposed us to my family, do you think maybe I can have a date to this thing? I’ve never had a date to a wedding.”

I stand up. “Yes. Of course.” I will give her whatever she wants.

Hand in hand, we walk out into the room full of people.

“Shit, V, that was quick. Franco, you need some tips on how to last longer? She comes from a breed that likes more than a five-minute quickie,” Zandor Steel jokes.

I don’t think it’s funny.

“Is the cast because you punched a wall because you didn’t last long enough? Bad move, man.” Zandor Steel shakes his head. “You should have been beating the meat; that’s a sure way of—”

“He has no problems in the bedroom.” Valentina smiles, and they all croon, “Ooooo.”

“He was killing a spider for me, right, Franco?” She looks up at me, smiling.

“Of course, Valentina, anything for you,” I agree, and they all say, “Ahhhh.”

It’s late when we finally lie down in bed … after laying on every other surface in this penthouse.

“I need to tell you something,” I whisper in the dark against her hair.

“Go on,” she whispers back, laying her hand over my heart.

“I am twenty-eight years old, Valentina, and this past week, you have shown me life, and beauty, and love. I will forever be grateful.”

She yawns. “I’m grateful for this past week, Franco, but even more so for you being the person I have depended on nearly my entire life, who has never failed me. I love you.”

I kiss her head one last time. “I love you, Valentina, forever.”

It’s four thirty in the morning, and I am inside a prison transportation van, waiting for Benito to be brought out, so I can put a bullet in the head of a man who, as far as I’m concerned, killed my sister and raped and tormented the woman I love, for her entire life.

I know this will not end favorably for me, but I know my job as her protector will not be finished until I have eliminated the perpetrator.

I hate Sabato Efisto with a passion. Calling in a favor to him was not without self-loathing, but he was shit, and unfortunately, shit needed to be done.

When the door to the van opens, I lift the gun, pull the trigger, and then watch in slow motion as the bullet cracks through his skull. To ensure he doesn’t make it, I put another through his heart then toss the gun out of the van and put my hands in the air.

One bullet, then two, and I can’t help laughing at number three.

Terzetto.

All three hit my chest, and I fall back.

I think of her, Antoinette, and smile.

I brought her justice.

I think of Valentina and close my eyes, imagining her coming.

I protected her.

I prepare to meet my Maker and say to the world, “Tell, Valentina, my love is forever.”