Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
I was sitting in the back office of a coffee shop; one that Tommy’s family owned. Dario was out front talking to a few burly-looking guys that had to be enforcements for the family. I was freaking right out, wondering if everything was okay. Bianca had insisted on doing this and they’d pulled me out at the last second. She hugged me hard before going in, saying, “We’re family. I’m here for ya, babes! And your man is familia, too, so there’s no way I’m not helping. I can do this.”
Dario had assured me that Bianca would be fine. Said she could double as a paid assassin if she wanted to, she was that tough. I laughed, like it was a joke, but neither of them laughed. She gave me a serious look, as if to agree. I prayed she’d be okay. She had a son to think of. And she might be or could soon be my only living relative, unless I counted Aunt Carol – which I did not.
The door swung open and there was Tommy. I jumped to my feet and threw myself at him. He looked fine, totally fine, except for a bruise on his cheekbone.
“Hey, baby,” he breathed into my hair.
“You okay? Thank God!” I wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted me and held me tight. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he sat on the desk and kissed me roughly, deeply, possessively.
I heard a throat clearing noise and looked over my shoulder and Dario was in the doorway. He jerked his chin up at Tommy. Tommy returned the chin jerk, then turned and set me down on the desk. “Okay, baby. Gotta go end this. Bee’s driving you to where the girls are. Be back soon.”
I winced. “I so want this over.”
“It ends tonight,” he said firmly and kissed me quickly on the mouth and then turned and he was gone.
Bianca popped her head into the office. “Ready?”
Trembling, I nodded and followed her out.
That night was like an eternity: the night that wouldn’t end. When I got to Bianca’s mother’s house it was about 10:00 and it was like a locked down fortress. It was a gated place just at the outskirts of town and there were half a dozen men guarding the place.
Inside the big, warm, welcoming house was Lisa, Tess, Luciana, the kids, Bianca’s mother Marie and Bianca’s Aunt Joanne. The five kids (Luc’s, Tessa’s, and Bianca’s) were in their pjs, getting put to bed by Bianca’s mom who waved at me as I came in, but ascended the stairs with the four tots and one older child. Luciana looked tired and ready to pop any second. Tessa’s eyes were red and puffy. Lisa looked pale and sickly. I hugged each of them and when I got to Tessa I whispered in her ear. “I’m so, so sorry.”
She nodded, her chin trembled, and she put her arms around herself and just curled into a ball on the sofa and closed her eyes.
Bianca’s mom had come back from putting the kids all in her bed with a Disney movie on, and then pulled me into an embrace and told me it was nice to meet me and that she had thought very highly of my mother. Then Bianca’s aunt put a big plate of pasta in front of me and told me to eat. Food was the last thing on my brain at that moment.
“How’s Tom?” I asked Lisa, who’d sat beside me at a breakfast bar in the big open kitchen that had a big island surrounded by stools. To the right was a sitting area, where Luc and Tessa were curled up on opposite ends of a big sectional sofa.
She shrugged. “It’s breath by breath. Tommy okay?”
I nodded. “Just a bit banged up. He’s okay.”
She nodded and sipped from a big glass of wine.
“I’m going to bed,” Luc announced and left the room.
I tried to eat a few bites but really wasn’t hungry. I didn’t want to insult them, so I sat at the plate for a long time, moving food around with my fork, while Bianca talked with her mother and her aunt in Italian.
Bianca sat beside Tessa and put her arms around her. Tessa cried softly into Bianca’s shoulder and I felt her sorrow, the whole room would’ve felt it.
“Athena, you wanna get a bath or something? I’ll get you some towels.”
I nodded at Marie. She took me upstairs and showed me to a guest room and pointed out the bathroom next to it and said she’d get my bag, that Nino had brought the bag with my and Tommy’s clothes from the barn as well as my make-up case.
I took a long shower and then got dressed in yoga pants and a hoodie, tied my hair into a braid, and went downstairs. Tessa had gone to bed. Bianca, Lisa, Bianca’s mom, and Aunt Joanne were watching TV. Sarah was sitting there, too, having just arrived. She pulled me into a hug and then she told me that Tom was hanging in there and then in hushed whispers they all sat and talked about the fact that the boys were ending things tonight and that everyone would be back here afterwards. Marie told me to go to bed and sleep in the room she’d put my stuff in whenever I was ready, that Tommy would find me when he arrived.