Page 65 of The Mafia's Captive

I’m afraid to leave her alone and I want to stay by her side all night. She was gone from me once. She will not be away from me ever again. However, I hear familiar voices from behind the closed door. A knock follows. When I open the door, all my brothers are crowding the hallway looking anxious.

“We came as soon as we heard the news,” Nico says.

“How is she?” Rico says. Gio says nothing, but looks just as concerned as the others. I close the door behind me and gently push Nico to give me space. “She’s okay. It doesn’t look like she’s injured or anything like that.”

“That’s great,” Gio finally says.

“Can we see her?”

“You would only be disturbing her.”

The twins look like they’re about to protest, but Gio backs me up. “He’s right. Who knows what she went through? She probably needs some time alone. Plus, we need to talk strategy.”

“Strategy?”

“No one messes with us and gets to live.”

Oh. They don’t know. “Saccone’s dead.”

“No fucking way.” Nico says. Gio curses.

“His car blew up with him in it. My men who stayed on the scene confirmed it. His charred body has been taken to a morgue, one of ours, to do full DNA confirmation, but I’m pretty sure he’s dead. I saw the car blow up,”

“Holy shit. You were there.”

I nod.

“Fuck,” Rico says.

“So, what do you need us to do?” Rico asks after a long bout of silence. “For starters, get out of my hallway.” Nico and Rico both roll their eyes but do as I say. A few minutes later, we’re in my office. I tell them everything. Sal, Jesse, Saccone’s twisted plans for Corina. The more I speak, the angrier they get. I can see they want blood and they want it now.

“Enough,” Nico says when I get to the part of how Sal betrayed us. “Where’s that fucker?”

“Calm down, you’ll get to him soon enough. Right now, we need to deal with Saccone’s people and business. They’re in shambles at the moment. I’m sure some don’t even know that he’s dead and others are probably trying to take advantage of the chaos. We should use this as an opportunity.” Gio nods. So do Rico and Nico.

“I might have a few ideas on how we can do that,” Gio says. For the next half an hour, we hammer out the plan. It’s risky, we’ll need a few men to pull it off and some stealth, but if we do, we will successfully fold Saccone’s family into our family and decimate any legacy Saccone ever had while ensuring our family becomes the most formidable in the city. The perfect revenge.

23

Iwake up from what feels like a year’s long sleep. Dante’s scent fills my nostrils the minute I open my eyes. I look around for him, but I soon realize I am alone. The blinds are drawn so I can’t tell what time it is. There’s something about waking up in his bed that’s comforting. The familiar surroundings are calming. I could get used to this. Where did that come from? Thoughts like that should be squashed, not entertained. They only lead to trouble. Just because he came for me, rescued me, doesn’t mean his feelings are different now. His soft demeanor from the last time I was awake didn’t count as well. I should banish those images from my mind as well. So what, he was kind? He was probably kind because he felt sorry for me.

My stomach grumbles, taking me out of my thoughts. How long was I out? I get out of the bed and almost collapse to the floor. My legs feel weak and my feet feel like walking on tiny needles. I try to walk again, shaking my legs in the process to let the blood rush down my body. I stumble towards the windows and open up the blinds. Light streams in, blinding me. I squint at the city skyline. Everything looks gorgeous, more so now than before.

My stomach grumbles again. I really need food in my belly. Walking is hard, but I do the best I can. I stumble towards the kitchen where, expecting to see Colin and Vera, I instead come face to face with Nico and Rico. They’re both at the stove arguing about something they're making when I walk in. “Corina?” Nico says. He looks surprised to see me. “She’s awake!” Rico shouts, without taking his gaze off me. They both stare at me in a way that makes me feel self-conscious. “What a surprise! We were getting worried there for a second,” Nico says. Before I can respond, Gio comes in from the living room followed by Dante, who looks like he has aged years in a few days. That didn’t do anything to diminish his looks. His gaze goes to me immediately, and he stares.

My legs buckle. Even though he’s at the other end of the kitchen, he closes the space between us so fast and catches me before I fall. “You could have called me. There’s no need to stress yourself,” he says as he perches me on a stool and sits on the one next to it.

“I was hungry.”

“Of course.”

“Being out for three days does that to a person.”

“I was out for three days?” I turn towards Dante. He places one hand around my shoulder and softly rubs it. “Saccone gave you some drug, and the doctor said you would sleep it out of your system. I guess he was right.”

“Dante didn't trust him,” Nico says. “He almost killed the poor fellow when you didn’t wake up after day one.”

Rico laughs. “You should have seen the way he—” Dante glares at both and it renders them quiet. Nico clears his throat. “You said you were hungry. Just so happens I was making breakfast.”

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