“I need to talk to Billie,” she said softly, her expression blank. Giovanni had destroyed any life in her years ago. “Now that the players in this game are dead, I want closure too, and until I can get this off my chest, I won’t find it. I know the reason for the Ricci-Bellerose feud. I know it all.”
“Try fucking therapy,” Grayson growled, before he started to raise the window again, but I stopped him by wrapping my hand around his forearm. He turned to me.
“I want to hear her out,” I said with a nod. “Closure is important for everyone. I might have told Wilson I didn’t care to hear his explanation, but a part of me still does want to know. I want the truth.”
Grayson examined my features briefly, before he nodded. “Okay, Prickles. We will hear her out.”
He gave the guards instructions to search her and then told them to bring her to the main living area on the first floor. He drove us into the garage after that, and then, keeping his gun in one hand, he handed me a second gun.
“You sweet talker,” I teased, rubbing my thumb over the rough grip. “Always with the big gestures.”
Grayson shook his head at me, the tough guy back in place again, but I saw his small smile. We entered the house together and arrived in the living area at the same time as Fiorella and the security. They deposited her on the couch. “She’s clean. No weapons,” the first one said to Grayson, and then Grayson dismissed them.
We didn’t sit, choosing to stand over her, side by side and silent as we stared down at the petite woman, her dirty-blond hair perfectly styled, her pantsuit worth a few thousand bucks, and her soul dark and tarnished. My scowl grew.
Fiorella didn’t give a shit, though; she’d grown up in the mafia world and was well used to being looked down upon by powerful people. I almost felt sorry for her.Almost.Because she’d had a child who needed his mother, and she’d never been there for him, choosing to escape and leave him in the clutches of that evil world.
“What do you need to tell me?” I asked shortly. Grayson and I had make-up sex to get to, and I really didn’t want to waste time.
She cleared her throat, her joined hands fidgeting together. “I want to explain why your life turned out the way it did. Why my life turned out this way. And the reason you and Angelo have been and will always be tied together.”
Jesus and fuck. If she told me that my dad was Angelo’s dad too, I was going to shoot her on the couch. Then vomit.
“Calm, Prickles,” Grayson said soothingly, clearly picking up on my distress. “Hear her out before you shoot her.”
Bastard knew me so well. Fiorella went a little paler, but she didn’t try and leave, so I had to give her some credit.
“Your father and I were childhood sweethearts,” she said simply. “We grew up next door to each other, were best friends, and then lovers.”
The panic I felt at this moment was second to none.
“I loved him with all my heart,” she said with a choked sob. “And I believe he loved me.”
I lifted the gun, and Grayson let out a laugh, holding my hand with the gun so I couldn’t shut her the hell up. Not that I would, butdamn.
“When I was sixteen, I crossed paths with Giovanni. He was a few years older and had recently inherited a new position in the family business. He had a fight with Bruce that night, and the next day, I was taken—stolen off the street as a punishment to the man who’d offended Giovanni Ricci and forced to marry into the mafia family before the week was out.”
I almost dropped the gun and didn’t protest when Grayson took it from me. “You were kidnapped, and no one called the police?”
Her laugh was bitter. “The police are owned in this town. My fucking parents were owned. I’m fairly sure they were the ones who told the Riccis where to find me.”
She shook her head, face screwed up as pain and anger took over. “I fought as hard as I could, but there was no hope. If I didn’t go through with it, they would have killed Bruce. As it was, they beat him pretty badly.”
“Then what happened?”
She swallowed hard, her throat moving as if she couldn’t get the next words out. “I told Bruce I’d fallen in love with Giovanni. I told him that he had been just a stupid childhood crush and that he wasn’t man enough for me. I told him whatever the fuck I had to tell him to keep him alive.”
The parallels between our lives had my head spinning, and if Grayson hadn’t been at my side holding me up, I would have fallen. “Why have you never mentioned this story to Angelo?” I breathed. “Why keep it to yourself for so long?”
She shrugged. “Giovanni is dead now. Bruce and Wilson are dead, and I hope to find some sort of peace with whatever years I have left, maybe even develop a relationship with Angelo since I don’t have to panic that his father will use us against each other to get what he wants.”
“Wilson literallyjustdied,” Grayson said roughly. “How do you know he’s dead?”
She laughed. “I have my ways. I have survived by keeping up with all the underground news. You don’t take out a player like Wilson without news of it spreading very fast. Surely, you didn’t think you were alone out there?”
Great, at least that part of Vee’s plan was coming to fruition. The scarier and faster this takeover happened, the securer their new reign would be.
Fiorella continued, clearly wanting to get it all out. “The reason that we lived next door to you all, when Giovanni could afford a much better house, was to taunt your father,” she continued. “The reason he allowed Angelo to be friends with you was to torment your father, and the reason he took it all away in the end was to punish us all. I’m just sorry that you got caught up in the battle, that you ended up as collateral damage.”
