“Leo,” I hear her whisper from her spot on the couch. I glance her way and glare at her fucking beautiful soul. The only one fucking thing I have ever felt like I belonged to, even when we were only children running around without any idea of the kind of hell our futures would hold. “Please, stop…” I hear her whisper.
“Stop?” I snap. “I swore I’d never stop!” I growl, as I stalk towards where she sits like a predator. “Hell, I never did! Every damn day I looked for you. Every fucking night, I prayed for you. Every single fucking one, Maria. Up until you stumbled back into my world at the damn hotel bar! Fuck! Stop?” I yell. “Forget?” I shout, repeating her word from the doorway in Sofia’s house earlier just as the yacht jolts and we push off from the shore. “You have no idea what losing you did to me! The hold it has had on my whole damn life! What seeing you taken from me has made me suffer, endure, all these fucking years.” I reach out, pulling her to her feet harshly and feel her body tremble under my touch. “You’ll never know! Ever!”
Her stare is filled with shock as I hold her arm tightly in my grasp. “Tell me again!” She commands in a whisper. I look at her confused as she steps into my embrace. “Tell me you’ll never stop!”
My body wars with myself as I hold her, feel her, could grab her further into me if I wanted to and tell her all she is asking me to say. But I stop myself. I pause. Seeing her perfectly as she is and has always been.My fucking weakness.A woman who will always keep my fire lit like the goddess she is, the priestess I don’t deserve, and one who will always make me lose my damn control, unless I fucking end this now.
She makes me vulnerable. Weak. Always at her fucking mercy.
She owns me. And I don’t fucking belong to anyone!
Needing to reign this feeling in now more than ever, I take a step back from her slowly finally, putting distance between us and holding onto any amount of self-discipline I have left. She falls out of my embrace reluctantly and looks at me confused. Shaking my head, I step away from her and know I am making a horrible mistake when I look up in her beautiful, breathtaking face I swore I’d never see again and say, “Hearing you’re a Nitti broke any last piece of the spell you had on me, Maria! I’m taking you back to Rome, whether it’s the right thing to do or not!”
Pushing past her, I storm out of the door and swear to myself I’ll never go back. Never return to where she takes me. Not as long as she is a Nitti. That is something neither one of us can change. Ever. But I know I am a damn liar. Like I said, this woman fuckingownsme and it’s just a matter of time before I give into myonlydamn weakness again. My only worry in realizing the truth, the next time, it’ll change me forever.
Mia
Back? He’s taking me to Rome?
My heart hammers out of my chest with anger as I watch him leave. My ears register with my mind what I just heard, but my heart won’t believe it.
He is taking me to Luigi?
After everything! The night we spent together, the day we just had, and the realization of just how closely woven we are together in our past, he is turning me in? Handing me over? Tossing me to the wolves as if I mean nothing andalwaysmeant nothing to him?
I died that day over 20 years ago when I was pulled from all I had ever known and forced to live away from the love of myrealfamily. I left it in the grave. Forgotten. Disregarded as the hell in my new life took over and made me realize one thing, I would never be worth fighting for.
Not then when I was pulled from my parents. Kidnapped and taken away forever. I remember now blocking out everything I knew of my past the longer I sat and waited for them to come find me, to finally rescue me, take me home and make me feel loved.
Then, not again as I grew, always abused, hated and looked down upon by the man who I thought was my father and the woman who raised me in the shadows. A woman always so quiet. Too quiet for a mother. A mother who let her husband abuse me, in more ways than one, and made me begin to feel the truth. That all men are corrupt and will stop at nothing to put themselves first.
“I’ll show you how to finally stop the boys teasing you at school Mia, as long as you are a good girl and take everything I am giving you and don’t say a fucking word!”
I shiver at the memory and feel the bile rise in my throat. Much like I let myself lose it all after he had left me, exposed, helpless, defenseless to his advances when I was barely ten years old until the time of his disappearance. Always letting me know before he left how inconsequential I was and would always be to every man that came after him.
And finally, not even now, as the one man I trusted, the one soul I thought I’d never see again, has loved me. Brought me back to life. Sworn to erase every single horrible thing I have been through. And is currently taking me back to the enemy. The one that has the power to end my life once and for all and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.
I push up off the couch and cross the room to the bar. Grabbing a bottle off the shelf, I don’t even bother with a glass as I pluck the cap from the top and take a large swig. The alcohol burns as it slides down my throat and I welcome it.
I want to feel the hurt. I want to feel the pain. I want to know that it hasn’t killed me. It hasn’t broken me. And it never will.
They tried to ruin me, but they forgot one thing. I’m a fucking conqueror! A warrior! Thrown to the side my whole life, I have learned one thing. How to overcome every damn thing life throws at me and never let it destroy me. Never let it hold me down.
I’m not sure what Leonardo remembers from that girl he used to play with all those years ago, but I’ve been to purgatory. I’ve walked through the everlasting fire in hell. And I came back each and every fucking time stronger than I was before. It will take a whole lot more than what he is threatening me with to stop me. The battle has just begun, and just like in my past, I will prevail. I will overcome. And I will fucking win.
I take another drink and welcome the numbness that starts to slowly take over in the back of my mind. He thinks he can say something like that and I won’t say or do anything about it. He’ll learn. He doesn’t know who the hell he is fucking with. A fact I’ll gladly show him, after a little more liquid courage.
Leonardo
My feet pound against the deck planks as I make my way to the staircase leading to the bottom of the yacht. Taking the steps two at a time, a fire burns in my veins and I know only two ways to unleash it. And one is not an option tonight!
My eyes look up as I barrel down the hallway towards the door keeping Matteo captive and they lock with the two guards I’ve been making stand watch. I give one of them a nod, and he stiffly nods back before turning and unlocking the door and opening it just before I reach it and letting me pass through.
Matteo is hunched over in the corner, wrists in cuffs, his eyes closed and oblivious to my intrusion. Like the mad man I am, I take three large steps to cross the room, grab him by the hair on his head and yank him to his feet. His curses ring out in the room around us as he stands and meets me toe to toe.
“Did you know?” I hiss out, making a smile break out across his face. The mere act of it pushing me over the edge as I force him back against the wall and force his head harshly against the brick. A crack echoes through the room as his skull makes contact but it does nothing to stop the fire, the need to unleash hell on him and make someone pay for the truth I can’t escape.
“Lo sapevo, I knew,”he grits out as his eyes open and they find mine. The bastard fucking held the truth from me this whole time and didn’t say a damn word. Can’t say I am fucking surprised, but he’ll pay for this mistake. And I’ll gladly be the one to end him unless he tells me exactly what I want to fucking hear.
