Page 75 of Little Deer
“We need to talk to Rori again, find out what we can from her about them. How they work,” Papa states, looking at Alonzo.
Alonzo shakes his head. “She’s not going to say anything. I’ve already tried to get more out of her, but she’s a fucking rock.”
“I’ll speak with her. Alone,” Papa adds with a firm look to Alonzo. Alonzo gives him a tight nod, but I can see he’s stressed.
Suddenly, there’s a quick knock on the door before it’s thrown open and Gia rushes in, face flushed as her eyes quickly zoom in on Nico. “We figured something out,” she gasps out.
35
LUCY
Moments earlier
I stareat the papers covering the wall of Amara’s salon. There are more than there were yesterday. “You guys figured all of this out since I left yesterday?” I ask incredulously.
Soren’s taken up residence in Rori’s arms, kicking his feet happily as Hades sniffs and rubs his big nose against his feet. Rori grins at me. “I thought the same thing when I came back this morning.”
“We can’t look at everything the way we were,” Gia reminds us. “I mean, look at all this. This isn’t just about power and using us to get it anymore. This is a battle for an entire city. Secret journals, offices, routes, and alliances. Maybe this is what all of this was building up to.”
“This is what I think,” Sofia agrees. “All of this has been building. Look at all these connections. Gia was promised to Dante. Why? Before finding out about Nico’s mother’s operation, it didn’t make sense to me. What does Leonardo getout of being promised to a small Don in another state? Esposito has a small territory, and he’s not a big player. So you have to think that he offers something else, right?”
“You’re thinking that he’s the mastermind behind all of this?” Sienna asks, gaze sharpening.
“I mean, think about it. Nico’s mother wouldn’t have known who to approach, right? Maybe they cooked it up together, or maybe it was her idea but she needed him to help her get it going. Either way, once the connections were made, it would be Esposito that would need to do a lot of the big work. Leonardo and Giovanni despise women. Seamus might appreciate women a bit more, but he’s still not going to let a woman run something on her own. He won’t respect her. So there had to be a man, right?”
“She’s right,” Gia rushes out. “My father would never work with a woman. He doesn’t think we’re smart enough. Giovanni is exactly the same. So she had to have someone do the talking. And she wouldn’t trust anyone but her brother.” She looks around quickly. “We need Nico here. We need more information.” Then she rushes for the door.
“Okay, while she’s dealing with that, Lucy, you said you finished the journal?” Amara asks me.
I nod. I give them a quick rundown on what I know. “There weren't any big revelations beyond what we already know,” I finish. “She hated her life, but she also just wanted her husband to love her. She hated her children, but she also wanted them around her so she wasn’t alone. I know she’s technically my birth mother, but she wasn’t a mother. She spent a lot of time on pills and using alcohol other than when she was pregnant. She also knew of Leonardo’s affairs. She followed a few of them too, but she never mentions any of them by name.”
“Did you have time to read your mother’s journal, Amara?” Sienna asks.
Amara nods. “I read the first few pages, and most of it is from when she was told she was being sent to marry Giovanni. She had hope that it would be an okay marriage. She knew her duty, but I haven’t gotten past that.”
“Gia said that she rarely saw your mother, so I have to assume she suffered under Giovanni’s hands too,” Sofia says sadly.
Amara nods, a somber look in her eyes. “Once I get through it all, I’ll let you know what else we can add to this. The one thing I do think is that all this with Marco, Giovanni, and Leonardo is about to come to a head. When they realize that we have closed off their secret entrance, and their informants won’t be giving them anymore information, they’re going to get desperate.”
That’s exactly what worries me.
I try not to panic about it, telling myself that Massimo and the others won’t let anything happen to us. Instead, I force myself to put it out of my mind and focus on what we’re talking about. It’s that or I start thinking of Massimo again, and I’ve already done too much about that since last night.
Ever since he left last night, the only thing I’ve thought of is his words, the way he kissed me. Hell, I woke up dreaming about him hovering over me in bed, and I swear to God my entire body was on fire. I’m still surprised that I haven’t combusted. I haven’t seen him yet today and I catch myself looking at the door, hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
“There’s still one thing I don’t understand,” Amara remarks, frowning as her eyes scan the papers on the wall. “Maybe this is in the journal, but why didn’t she ever go to her family? Why didn’t your mother go to hers?”
“Well, our mother said that her family saw her as a way to get an alliance with a bigger family, more power and access to routes that they couldn’t get where they were. So it sounds to me shewas from the same kind of family. She probably wouldn’t expect them to take her in.”
My heart hurts thinking of being trapped the way she was, but then the other words she wrote echo through my head and the hurt disappears. She could have changed the cycle, or she could have tried to run. She did none of it.
“I don’t know anything about my mother’s family, and we’re missing that,” Amara muses. “I really need to read that journal. There might be something important in there that really will help us fit some of the pieces together.”
The door opens and in walks Gia with Nico and the others at her back. All of them spread out through the room, but Massimo makes a b-line for me. I give him a shy smile, but my eyes widen in shock when he pulls me into his arms and puts his mouth on mine. When he pulls away I gape at him.
What the hell is he doing?
My face flames, and I see the amused looks from the others. Well, other than Kida. She can’t hide the unease in her eyes, but she’s distracted by Zeno coming up to her. I can’t hear what he says, but the way she scowls tells me that it wasn’t something nice.
