Page 6 of Little Deer
5
MASSIMO
Nico’s doctormeets us in my room, with Papa, Aurelio, Nico, Alessio, Lazaro, and Dante all hovering just outside the door. Papa’s face becomes a mask of fury as he takes in Lucy, but he simply states as we get close, “Take her in, Massimo, and then come back out to tell us what you found while the doctor and Sofia see her.”
I walk over to the bed, lay Lucy down, and step back, but I don’t turn away. I look at Sofia and the man on the other side of the bed. The doctor is in his mid-to-late fifties, a blank expression on his wrinkled face, but his green eyes soften as he moves to the bed. “Do we know how long she was sedated?” he asks me quietly as he grabs items from his bag.
“No, but whatever they did, she can barely talk, and it’s taking all her strength to open her eyes and say just the couple of words she keeps repeating. She was like this when I rescued her, but she also couldn’t talk until the last half hour.”
She’s so pale, so small, and I want to pick her back up and hold her close, telling her again and again she’s safe.
“What does she keep saying?” Sofia asks me, drawing my attention. She’s the youngest child, and only daughter, of Aurelio, our head of security, and Nico’s housekeeper. She’s always been a stunner, with long, curly black hair that right now is pulled up into a messy bun on the top of her head, though her mouth is turned down into a worried frown. Sofia and I have always been close, though perhaps not in the way our fathers had hoped. She’s always been a little sister to me, though at one point I considered marrying her to protect her. A fact that both of us are eternally grateful I never offered.
I’m much happier to think of her as a sister.
“Milk drugged,” I answer, frowning slightly as I focus back on Lucy. “It doesn’t make sense though. She was taken off the street, and I doubt they gave her drugged milk to keep her this way. I figured that whatever she was trying to say first isn’t milk but something else, but I’m stumped on what it could be.”
“We’ll take care of her,” the doctor assures me. “Please step out while I examine her. Ms. Cattaneo will stay to assist me and keep her comfortable just in case.”
I glare at him. Who is he to tell me what to do? Does he not know who I am? Before I can snap at him, Sofia says firmly, “Massimo, she is not going to be comfortable if she wakes up and sees you hovering over her while he’s examining her. You know this. Wait outside with the others and we’ll come let you know once we’re done. I’ll be right here with her. I promise.” She comes to stand next to me, rubbing my arm soothingly.
I give a stiff nod, before leaning down to kiss the side of her head. “Thank you,sorellina,” I murmur before pulling away. “She’s covered in blood and urine, so I don’t think they let her get up off that chair after they drugged her.”
“We’ll get her cleaned up,” Sofia promises.
“I’ll be here to help too,” Rori’s voice says firmly, drawing my attention. I turn to see her walking into the room with Hades, her black Cane Corso at her side, a determined look on her face. “She won’t freak out as much if there are two women helping her.”
“Aurora,” Alonzo barks sharply. “Get your ass back here. We have to talk.”
Rori is a stunning beauty of a woman, and I can see why she has my best friend in knots. Decently tall, with shoulder length bleached blonde hair that’s edging toward white, sharp green eyes, full lips, and an edgy look to her, the woman is a badass on her own, but add in the dog at her side, and she’s not someone I particularly want to mess with. She’s also the exact opposite of Alonzo’s type, which is probably why the two of them work. Well, will work when they finally figure out whatever the hell is going on between them.
She completely ignores Alonzo’s order, and says to me, “We’ll take good care of her, promise. Now, get out of here so we can get her cleaned up.” She gently nudges her elbow into me. “And you might want to get out of those clothes.” She winks at me. “Feel free to strip right here. I do love some eye candy.”
Alonzo lets out an angry sound, and I can’t stop the grin from spreading across my face no matter how hard I try. “You’re playing with fire,bella,” I warn her, winking. “And I don’t plan on spending the week with internal bleeding once Alonzo is finished with me. So you best behave yourself.” I give her hair a teasing yank, making her scowl at me. She does have a point though. I head into the walk-in closet and find one of the suits I had purchased.
When I come back out, I shake my head when I see Hades guarding the door and keeping an angry Alonzo outside. Rori calls him off when I walk toward them and then shoots Alonzo a smug smile before shutting the door. Alonzo glares furiouslyat me and I just hold up a hand. “I didn’t do anything and had nothing to do with that.” Alonzo turns on his heel and stalks off. Somewhere down the long hall I hear a door slam, and I feel a pinch of sympathy. I can’t imagine what all of this is making him feel, but soon enough he’ll let me know.
“Massimo,” Papa says, making me turn to look at him. “We need a full report, so quickly shower and meet us in Nico’s office.” It’s an order, and I nod. My father is approaching seventy, but he doesn’t look a day over fifty. I don’t look much like him, other than being close in height, and it’s always been a bit of a sore point that I haveherface, after what our mother did to him. To us. His hair is a salt and pepper color, and his face is clean shaven, unlike my brothers’ and me. But even now, he still commands instant respect.
“You can use our shower,” Lazaro offers, nodding to the door just down the hall. Aurelio’s oldest son, he’s also the tallest, standing at six-seven with dark eyes, and a crazy amount of muscle. “Amara is spending the night with Gia and Sienna in Nico’s room.” He shoots Nico a wicked grin, while Nico glares at him furiously. “Nico’s already lost his shit about it once, and I’m pretty sure Sienna threatened to cut off his balls if he even so much as yelled at her, and Amara offered to help.”
His woman, Amara, Lucy’s cousin, is the newest addition to the group even if she’s still getting used to the idea.
“She is my fucking wife,” Nico seethes. “It is my job to comfort her.” Nico Armani is not what I would call a gentle man. The local Don of his territory, he’s the one that started this shit in the first place by kidnapping his now wife right out from under her father’s nose. Standing at six feet, with dark hair that is currently mussed from running his hands through it in frustration, he has the same powerful feel about him as Papa. Still, the man is a bear when it comes to anyone but his wife. Thesame wife that is currently refusing to see him and driving him insane.
I bet a hundred bucks that he’ll be in his bed tonight with her after kicking out the women. The man is completely gone for her.
“And right now, she doesn’t want to be comforted by you,” Alessio states simply. Then he grins wickedly and winks at me. “And I’ve already told you, Boo Bear, that this is our chance to have our final night together. We can snuggle up, and I’ll find that diamond encrusted cock—” He lets out a sharp grunt when Nico spins around and socks him right in the nose. Considering it’s not broken, only bleeding a little bit when Alessio swipes at it, I have to assume he pulled it back. “Well, alright, we can play it rough too,” Alessio continues, sounding a bit nasally this time, but his grin never leaves his face.
I shake my head and chuckle. Alessio seriously has a death wish, but it’s fucking hilarious to watch him continually needle Nico. Still, he deserved that. Nico looks like he wants to hit him again, but Aurelio claps him on the shoulder and says, “If you wish to fight, we will do this after our meeting. Let’s go down to your office.” Nico shrugs him off and stalks down the hall, infuriated.
“Someone really needs to pull that stick out of his ass,” I remark loudly, a laugh in my voice. “Alessio, I thought you were going to work on that.”
“I have been,” Alessio whines loudly. He lets out a grunt when Aurelio slaps him upside the head, making him rub at it sheepishly. Alessio is the oldest of the three of us and the one who looks most like Papa. Right down to the same facial features, though he wears a thicker beard and has a bit more of a jokester feel to him at times. Few know that deep down he’s as cold and ruthless as our father. He’s just more adept at hiding it.
“You are going to go home with a bullet in you that you did not have before we got here,” Aurelio warns him in exasperation. Aurelio Cattaneo is one of my biggest influences. Before he became our head of security, he was Papa’s UnderBoss. Standing at six-six, he’s right in the middle of his sons, large like them, and with the same dark hair, though his is starting to go a bit gray. He has always been like an uncle to us, helping us figure our shit out when we struggled against Papa’s rules when we were younger. It’s also why I have a healthy fear of him, including right now. As he leads Alessio down the hall, I try to duck into Lazaro’s room, but I don’t quite manage to avoid the smack to the back of my own head for my joke. I think he pulled it though because when he normally does that, it hurts a lot more.
I shut the door behind me and head into the bathroom, quickly turning on the shower before stripping down. I’ll have to see if Sofia can burn my suit. I doubt there’s much saving it. Which is a mild inconvenience considering that was one of my favorites. I make a mental note to have another one ordered from our tailor back home. He’s the only one I trust to make it exactly the way I like it. Some might find it ridiculous the amount of money I spend on my clothes, but I know what I like, and I also know that it plays to the image that I need to project.
