Leandro and I nod at the same time, but I know that I’m going to have to make the damn call.“Excuse me for a moment.”I wash my hands while Sophia washes up next to me.“Thank you for what you did, kitten.How’s your sister?”
Sophia looks up at me with moist eyes.“I think she’ll be okay, but time will tell.I’m going to go back in with Anna, okay?”I give her a kiss on the top of her head and wrap my arms around her waist as we walk out the door into the hallway.“As soon as mom is good, I’ll send Ray in for your sister.I’m going to call dad and my brothers now.”
“Love you,” she says, reaching up and kissing me on the lips before walking back into her sister’s room and closing the door behind her.
I don’t know how I got so lucky, why destiny brought her to my door.And no matter what has happened or the trouble that’s knocked on our door I’ve always thanked the fucking stars that she’s mine until seeing my mom flayed open like a fucking fish.Half gutted all the way down her middle, left to die and rot in her own blood for all the world to see.
That’s what being a target brings you, and being someone a don of a notorious crime family loves puts that fucking target on your back and pretty soon, far sooner than I had hoped, I’m going to be stepping into that role.And then it will be Sophia who all the rival families are after in order to get to me.
Only she doesn’t listen the way my mother does.She’s already been taken once and was damn lucky we learned she was missing so fast and could get resources in the air as soon as we did.That’s not always the case.Fuck, we’re lucky my mother didn’t bleed out before we even located her, and if it weren’t for Sophia remembering her father’s old boating spot, she would have died.
That’s not going to happen to mom or to Sophia or my baby sister.No, the women in our house, they’re going to be more than protected from now on.My mom and sister, I can handle, but Sophia, she’s got a mind of her own, Cassone blood that is likely to get her killed if she stays with me.
Sophia is having to assimilate.Her love for me is making her dark.The light she possessed that pulled me away from the dark is having the reverse affect.Instead of pulling me into the light, I’m pulling her into the dark.And putting the light out in Sophia’s eyes, I already know, it’s something that I can never do.
Dad answers the phone.“We’ve got mom, Dad.She’s in bad shape, but doc believes she’s going to pull through.I need you to come to my house, and not tell anyone, none of your men, not even one, Dad.Jimmy’s on his way to pick you up and I’m having all the boys meet you here.Leandro’s already with me.”
My father’s voice cracks.“She’s going to make it?”
“Come now, Dad.”It’s all I can say, because after what I’ve learned about the rats I’m not telling him any more than he needs to know until we’ve eradicated every stinking one of them from our home.I make the same call to my brothers, one by one, and disconnect, leaning against the cool wall of the hall, just inhaling a breath, trying to dispel everything about this fucking night.
What if this happens in ten years, fifteen years, but Sophia is the one someone grabs, and what if there are children involved?There’s no way I can live with myself for pulling her into the dark.There’s only one way to fix this.There’s no way around it, I have to put her back.
11
Sophia
Layna is finishing up, having cleaned up the superficial cuts, bruising, and grime from my sister after I went to be with Massimo’s mom.“That will be all, Layna.Thank you,” I tell her, taking her spot as she discreetly leaves and closes the door behind her.
Massimo’s physician comes in a few moments later.He’s just finished examining Anna when I hear loud voices and heavy footsteps stomping up the hall, letting me know exactly who has arrived.No matter how many times I meet or run into the elder Roselli it’s never very pleasant.The only times he acted decent at all he ruined it with a well-placed barb to try and put me in my place.But he’s Massimo’s father and deserves respect as such.Even if he doesn’t like me or won’t accept me as part of the family after our year is up.Better that I’m in here with Anna while he sees his wife and visits with his family.He’d probably just blame me.
My headstrong husband may think the time will come and his father will change his mind, but I sure as hell wouldn’t put my money on that.Anna squeezes my hand, and my heart lurches as she struggles to open her eyes and the fluids and meds on board begin to do their work.My eyes flood with tears as she opens her mouth.“Sophia?”
I stroke her face, pushing a piece of her dark hair from her forehead so I can kiss her glistening skin.“I love you so much.I thought we would never find you.I tried to call you over and over.I’m so sorry.I didn’t know you were in trouble, or I would have been there sooner.”
Her eyes flood with tears.“Papa.”
My chest tightens with angst.“What about him, Anna?Tell me.”I may be the younger sister, but all motherly and protective instincts are sharpened by her lying here utterly helpless.
“Alive.”
I swallow over the lump that’s formed in the back of my throat, making my tongue feel too thick to even say a word.Easy breaths, easy breaths.I have to stay strong for Anna because I know what the sick fucks can do to people.“What happened?”I ask in a voice that doesn’t even sound like my own, but the meds have already taken effect, and my sister has already fallen back into a deep drug-induced sleep.
My fingers stroke her hair before I pull the covers up, tucking them around her, simply trying to take care of her in any way that I can.She’ll tell me in her own time when she’s stronger, but it’s clear that whatever happened to Papa is weighing heavily on her mind.
And no matter what he’s done, that he didn’t safeguard us and protect us from Barcelo, whether he knew what was happening or not, he is our father, and up to that point took care of us, protected us, put a roof over our heads and fed us for the majority of our lives.And trained us, me especially, probably because I wanted to learn more than Anna.Maybe it just felt good to be able to disappear a little bit and physically train hard with Delz, and it got me out of the house when the other choice was to sit in that ivory tower of a bedroom while life passed me by.
Loud voices reverberate through the walls of the house, distraught men, all trying to talk at once, both arguing and agreeing on nothing that I can make any sense of at all.I lay my head on the mattress trying to drown out the noise, still holding Anna’s hand as she sleeps while fluid drips into her body, hoping against hope that it will help bring her back to me and make her strong again.
The shuffling and voices get lower and then louder but it all seems like a bad dream, one that I would do anything to escape.I grasp Anna’s hand in mine as the adrenaline from earlier begins to leave my body and pure exhaustion takes over as I lay next to my sister, listening to her shallow breathing.
12
Massimo
Istand in the doorway for far too long, watching my kitten sleep, her hair splayed over the arm of her sister while they both rest, safe and out of harm’s way.The way it should have been all along for the Cassone sisters.
My mind keeps going back to what Sophia said to me after we rescued her from the warehouse.I didn’t know if you would find me.I knew you would try, and I hoped that you would.But there was a moment when that warehouse door closed that I thought I was on my own.I was prepared to fight, but I also knew that I may not come out on top.All I could think about was not seeing you again, not touching you, not feeling you.This thing we have, it’s good if only for a short while.It’s like in that very minute she had decided that this was her life.As much as she had fought being part of the family, wanting to go to school, and to get away from the life, because of me, she had switched gears, and was accepting her fate.
