More blood is splattered across the counter tops. A large butcher knife lays on the floor. The phone on the wall is knocked off the hook, and all that echoes through the small space is the sound of beeping.
“Mom? Dad?” I ask into the terrifying empty space as tears well in the back of my eyes. “Are you home?”
A loud noise commands my attention behind and I turn quickly to see a man come in from the balcony. “I… I… I didn’t do it!” I shout, as I trip over my own two feet as I back up into the kitchen. “I swear I didn’t…” But the man seems unphased and lights a cigarette. I take the time in which the flame hits the white paper and he inhales to quickly make my way around the counter in the kitchen and try and get closer to the exit.
His eyes lift up, and he watches me as I try and hide the fact that I am attempting to escape. At any second, I know this man could lunge for me, and there is no way I could ever fight him off. He’s a beast. I might be strong for my age, but I am no match for a man of his size, no matter how tough I think I am.
“Where are my…” I begin to say, as I take a step backward and he takes one step closer. He stares at me with an icy glare that makes my blood turn and I almost lose it and admit defeat. Surrender and accept my fate. But someone shouts outside on the street. The man’s head turns towards the noise, and I instinctively take off for the front door.
A loud bang sounds behind me, but I don’t stop. With all the power I can find, I fly back down the stairs and out into the streets of Rome. The people I pass by shout as I run harder, faster, but I don’t stop. I can’t.
For all I know my parents are dead, and Maria Nitti is probably buried along with them.
Chapter 18
Maria
“I promised you I’d never stop, and I meant it Maria. Not ever. You’re going to have to trust me.”
I grip Leonardo’s hand tighter as I remember his words from last night while we held each other. He leads me through the streets of Rome, and I walk faster to catch up to his side. He looks back at me and gives me a reassuring smile before pressing on.
“Are you sure about this?” I ask, slightly a little scared by what we are attempting.
He doesn’t respond at first, just continues to press on as we climb up the steep streets of Rome and my heart starts to beat a little faster.
“We need answers, Maria. This is the only way,” he sternly says before he stops walking and spins around. “I’m not going to lose you. Not again. Even if I have to go up against Vincent and Luigi both, they’re not taking you away from me again.” Pulling me close, he kisses the top of my head and holds me still. “I swore to you a long time ago to protect you, Maria. And I made a promise to myself, if I ever found you, I would remember my promise. I may have messed up once, but it would take something larger than life itself to make me screw up once more.”
I grab onto him tightly and press my face into his dress shirt. Breathing him in deeply, the feeling of his body pressed up against mine and his smell as it engulfs me brings me a tiny bit of comfort in a moment that too soon will be shattered once we reach wherever we are going. Leo thinks he can protect me, but going up against the mass army that I’ve heard is Luigi’s might prove wrong. I know Leo is capable of things I don’t want to know about, but I worry even his past experiences, tough exterior and knowledge of Luigi’s empire is no match for what we are about to go up against.
Squeezing me tight one final time, he releases me and looks in my eyes. His stare is a mixture of worry, doubt, disbelief. But behind all that I see hope, and so I grab onto it with every ounce of my being and do the same, hope for the best in all of this as he turns and continues to pull me behind him to our predestined fate.
“I love you,” I blurt out as my feet follow quickly behind him. He stops again suddenly but doesn’t turn around. “I just needed to say it, Leo. I needed you to know,” I continue to whisper shyly to his back. “I’ve always loved you. Even when we were kids.” My emotions get the best of me as he slowly turns and looks at me. “I know you might not believe it, but I thought of you too, always. I always remembered the boy who used to play with me before I shut all memories of my past out and was consumed with the hell I was living in. I know now I couldn’t think about you, about here, about my former life. I remember now that when I realized no one was coming for me, and I was forced to stay with my new parents, I blocked all parts of my former life out because it hurt too much. But I always remembered the boy that stole my heart when I would dream of hopefully one day escaping. I just didn’t know that boy was real. He was a part of me. Even countries, miles, lies and secrets couldn’t keep me from remembering him. I love you and…”
He takes a step closer and holds my face in his large hands. “Maria,” he whispers as his thumb brushes over my lower lip. “Please, don’t. Not yet. Let me save you. Save us. And then,Amore…” he leans in and I melt into him once more on instinct. If this is the last time I am going to be with him like this, I need to remember the way he tastes. The way he feels. The way just us being together is so damn right and I was foolish to block this, him, me, us, out of my memory all those years ago. “Let me do what I have to, and then we can tell each other everything, with nothing holding us down. No chains holding us back. Free to finally be together after we understand just why, how, and what was so important to hide and keep secret all those years ago.”
“We know the secret Leo,” I say quietly. “It was my mother’s secret. One she wanted to stay hidden.”
He shakes his head before leaning in closer. “There is more, I can feel it. And whatever it is, we’re going to face it together and not let it stopanythinganymore.”
His lips crash against mine and I take his kiss with urgency as his hands fist my hair and people on the street walk past, but I don’t care. I pour myself into this kiss, into him, and promise myself if it is our last, I am going to remember the feeling of my tongue against his own. The spearmint on his breath. The heavenly way his body feels pressed up against mine as he holds me in his strong arms and I know without a doubt, he will do whatever it takes to protect me. Even if it means laying down his own life for mine.
A loud roar of an engine breaks us apart as a car rounds the closest corner before coming to a stop at our side. Instinctively Leo pushes me behind his back and clutches me tight against him. A man exits the driver’s seat and doesn’t even look us in the eye. Without breaking his stern composure, he reaches out and pulls the back door to the black sedan open and I feel Leo tense as a man comes into view. I peer over his shoulder to try and get a better look, but Leo’s strong hands keep me in place and prevent me from fully seeing who it is.
“Get in!” I hear the gentlemen say in a thick Italian accent.
“Never!” Leo shouts, which makes me shudder as I realize a hell we weren’t expecting may have found us first.
“We can do this the easy way,” the man says, as his long legs extend out of the vehicle and he stands before us. His dark thick brown hair is slicked back, and he is slightly greying at his temples. “Or we can do this the hard way.” He motions for his man who pulls a gun from his side and points it in bright daylight in our direction. “Which is it going to be?”
People around us look and stare. But they do nothing. I feel Leo begin to reach for his side, but the man before us is faster and beats the butt of his pistol against his face perfectly making Leo fall to his knees. Before I can protect myself, the man reaches out and grabs me and forces me towards the car.
“No!” I yell, as I fight to break free and they pull me around Leo who is kneeling on the concrete. In one swift move he pulls his gun from its holster and stands. Aiming it at the man in front of us, the leader of whatever nightmare is quickly becoming reality, and cocks it.
Everyone stills as the man before us smiles and puts his hands up in defeat before Leo looks my way and the man who is still holding me shoves the barrel of his gun up to my temple. “Let her go,” Leo hisses as he aims at his pistol straight ahead but never takes his eyes off my own. The man holding me tightens his grip and I cry as he drives the cold metal in his hand harder against the side of my head.
“You have something I want,” the older man says, causing us both to look back in his direction. “You come with me, and I won’t hurt her.”
“What makes me think I can trust you?” Leo hisses out as I struggle to break free from the man holding me, but my cries and attempts fail as the man holds me in a death grip and begins to force me to the other side of the car.
