“First, her name isn’t Capelli,” Ronan said.
“Well, I figured it probably wasn’t. She’s hiding from somebody.”
“Yeah. Her name is DiCaviatoppi.”
Bane froze. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me?”
Ronan shook his head. “No, I’m not. She ran to keep him from beating her, and the kids, and has been hiding ever since. If he finds her, she’s afraid that he would kill the kids just to make her watch, then take her home and torture her to death. And even with that thought in her head, she’s not afraid for herself, she’s afraid for her kids.”
“Nothing is ever easy, is it?” Kaid said redundantly.
“Nope. And that’s how you know it’s worth it,” Bam said.
“She’s afraid because she thinks that he’ll kill me, too.”
“You tell her?” Maverik asked.
“Kind of. She thinks I’m teasing her, but every word I said was accurate,” Ronan said. “Problem is that with all us working together for and in conjunction with our families, it looks to her like we’re in the same business her ex is in.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Kaid said.
“No, think about it. Family compound, always together, keeping to the family, lots of money to help each other when we need it,” Ronan said.
“Never thought about that,” Bane said. “But yeah, I can see it, too.”
“So you want us to just keep an eye on her, or what?” Kaid asked.
“Well, yes, but she mentioned to me that she doesn’t sleep at night, she stays up and listens for every little sound. She’s nervous and scared to death. We went out Friday night and the boys stayed with Havoc, then we spent Saturday together and they all slept over Saturday night. Sunday she asked me to take them home. I wasn’t planning on taking them anywhere. I asked her to just stay with me. She knows how I feel, but she said she needs some time. I took her home, and when she made it clear she is suspicious of me, of us, I gave a simple explanation of just a family and group of people who’ve made the right choices and worked hard. Told her there is nothing illegal in our lives at all. She said she needed time, so I immediately backed off. Told her to call me when she wants some company. I wasn’t mad, wasn’t trying to do anything other than honor her wishes. I need her to choose me, like I chose her. I don’t want to pressure her into anything she doesn’t want, not with her past the way it is.”
“That bad, huh?” Daniel asked.
“Her father sold her to the DiCaviatoppi family to settle his debts when she was sixteen. She’s been a prisoner basicallysince then and married off to the old man’s oldest son, with the plan to keep her pregnant because a pregnant woman is easier to control. They gave her a small allowance because a woman with money is a woman with options. Her husband beat her, and abused her. He was jealous of the kids and pissed off he had to compete with them for her attention. He’d drag her by her hair into their bedroom when he’d had enough of waiting for her to take care of the “fucking kids’. He didn’t let them use the pool because the squealing and splashing wasn’t the composed behavior he wanted displayed around his friends, who were always there. If they spilled something, they’d get beaten, just to tell you a little of what she confided in me.”
“I think we just need to track him down and kill this motherfucker,” Bane said, flashes of Janie surviving something very similar provoking an almost visceral reaction from him.
“Same,” Bam said. “You don’t treat your woman like that, and when you cross the line in abusing your kids. You need killing,” Bam growled. “You don’t fucking hurt kids.”
“Agreed,” Daniel said.
“I’m not saying we go off and hunt him down. I’m saying that I need to make sure she’s safe. She’s still so spooked, won’t even put the kids in school because she’s afraid he could track her that way.”
“It’s possible,” Kaid said.
“Like I said, she stays awake at night waiting for something to happen. So, I’ve decided that I’m going to watch over her at night. She won’t even know it, but I’ll know she’s safe.”
“Just let her know,” Daniel said.
“He can’t. She hasn’t picked him and it’ll make her feel like she’s being forced into something again,” Bam said.
“I was going to talk to Daniel to let him know and ask for whoever’s there during the day to keep an eye on all three of them because the daytime is when I’m in New Orleans forclasses. I got the nights, though,” Ronan said. “But also, I’m wondering if I help, is it possible to add some kind of security to the shelter, maybe even the area the tiny houses are in?”
Bam grinned.
“What?” Ronan asked.
“Tell him,” Kaid said with a smirk.
Bam pulled his phone out of his back pocket and swiped his finger across the screen to wake it up, then he scrolled through his phone until he found the app he was looking for. He opened it and handed it to Ronan.
