Page 84 of The Capo's Nymph
“True, but teenagers will be teenagers.”
“Iam a teenager,” I point out.
Ersilia suppresses a smirk and rolls Amadeo’s ball back to him. He gives an adorable belly laugh when it bounces off his foot. “He’s very jolly when he’s free to move around.”
Yes, he is. They’re nearly seven months old, and while Lucia is often content to sit in my lap and look at picture books with me, Amadeo throws a fit if he’s held for long. “They grow too fast.”
Ersilia smiles. “My Patrizio was the same.” We chat about her nephew and the babies; our relationship far better than it was upon my marriage. I’m grateful for her, and she is grateful to be here. “I worry for my boy with the war,” she admits as we finish our cups.
I nod, knowing it can’t be easy for a Trio mother. Someday, the happy baby crawling to retrieve his ball again will stand tall beside his father and face the dangers all Made Men do. I want to stop all the clocks from ticking at the mere thought. “I wish the trouble would end.”
Antonio and Giacomo Barzetti are dead along with the remaining co-conspirators of their failed coup. Nico promised to take the traitors down, and he has. He has positions to fill and eager men hoping to advance. In terms of mob politics, it’s a field of landmines to traverse.
Meanwhile, he’s still hunting down the final few members of the trafficking ring. It has led to increased violence between the Trio and the Bratva. Not to mention the bloody skirmishes occurring in other cities between his territory and Alessio’s.
Cosima and Vera Barzetti are still ‘guests’ at the Morelli mansion, an added burden for Zeta to manage but one I’m glad not to have to deal with. The men deserved their fate, but their wives are essentially captives and will be for who knows how long.
“Nico’s home!” Maddalena calls from the foyer a few minutes later.
Maddalena’s opinion of my husband has done a one-eighty since our wedding day. After Nico’s rage over Mrs. Esposito’s failures, he surprised us both with a trip to our mother’s grave Christmas Day. Not a cheery sort of outing, but one that touched us deeply when we saw the heaps of beautiful flowers he’d had delivered. He got a proper granite headstone installed with a small bench made from the same material for whenever we wish to visit her resting place.
“As Matilde is my wife, you are my sister, Maddalena, and you are both mine to protect,”Nico promised. It was part of our original agreement when he decided we would marry, but I hope it might amount to more than protection in time.
Ever since then, Maddalena’s forgotten Giacomo ever existed and happily accepted Nico’s rules and security measures without complaint. Mostly.
Heading to the foyer to greet my husband, and wondering why he’s home so early, I find Primo and Maddalena standing side by side with their pinkie fingers linked. When they spot me, Primo quickly steps away, murmuring it’s time for him to patrol the perimeter. My sister rolls her eyes at me when I give her a pointed look. “Don’t you dare say a thing,” she giggles, making me giggle, too.
“Just be careful. It is not you who will pay the price if Nico is not pleased by this.”
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll be careful… in the backseat of his limo.”
“Maddalena!”
“Where else could we go?” she asks with a sly grin. “There are guards and cameras all over the house, and it’s notmyhusband controlling them.”
“Oh Dio,perhaps Ersilia was not wrong about us teenagers.”
We break into raucous snorts and giggles, but our amusement vanishes when Nico enters, his expression reminiscent of a thundercloud.
“Maddalena, would you mind helping Ersilia with the children for the rest of the day? I require my wife’s help with something.”
***
A half hour later, Nico stops the Mercedes outside an inconspicuous-looking warehouse in the South Side. The sign declares it’s a chemical facility and warns trespassers to stay away. The guards who followed us in another vehicle get out first, surveying the area as Nico opens my door.
“We tracked the van used in the abductions and finally found this address through its owner’s other business concerns. The danger is gone. The men that were here are dead or in chains.” I knew he’d find it, and he’d do horrible things to the men involved when he did. I shouldn’t have wanted that, but I did.
“Did you find the doctor?”
“We did. I haven't dealt with him yet." I can read between the lines. He's going to let me have a say. "Are you sure you’re okay with this,tesoro?”
I hope I am. “It may help them to see another girl. Maybe I can convince them they are safe now.”
He nods and leads me inside, keeping his hand lightly pressed against the small of my back, lending me strength through his touch.
I was out of it most of the time I was in this building, but I still have some memories, and the foul air awakens them all. With a shuddery breath, I touch one of the metal doors lining a narrow corridor. There’sa small rectangular slat where food and water were passed through. I waited inside one of these filthy little rooms with just a bare mattress on the floor, languishing in a nightmare and hovering in my drug-induced daydreams.
I remember the voices of other girls. Girls who aren’t here anymore while other girls took their place. “Are they dead?”
