Femme Fatale Loved (Pericolo #3) (17 page)

“Listen to me!” Alessa screams, before Bruno or Enzo have another chance to talk. She’s uncaring that we’re all on show, but she wants to be heard instead of allowing Enzo to be stupid enough to run first. She’s now in front of him and a force to be reckoned with. “I have only ever loved you. If anything, it got worse when you broke my heart. You want to know why, Enzo?” she asks, pointing a finger at him and jabbing his chest. “Because you are my soul mate! I moved across the country to escape how I feel every single day about you, but it never mattered. I could’ve moved halfway around the world and it wouldn’t change a damn thing.”

“But I broke your heart.”

She huffs infuriated. “I know you did, so call me stupid. You can’t help what the heart wants, Enzo. It’s clear you know that, which is why you’ve become this man – this weak male who gives up. Why would you give up if you love me? I know you do; I can still see it when you look at me. However much you try to hide behind the anger and strive to make it seem like you hate me being here, I can see that you laying your eyes on me felt exactly the same for me as it did for you ... It was one of the best moments for a long time.”

“Maybe so, but I don’t deserve you. I never did, and I never will.”

“Will you shut up,” Alessa says, approaching him, cupping his face. “Will you just shut up and feel something other than guilt, Enzo?”

Silence laps around us, consuming us all as we watch what will become of these two. I can see why Enzo is reticent, but I hate how he second-guesses his own heart. I’ve been the girl who denied what her heart wanted, and it only exacerbated the cracks, threatening to force them to such extremes that no one would ever mend them.

He needs to see that taking a leap of faith will allow him to dare to love again.

Alessa’s shoulders drop as all her walls tumble down, and she mutters something so silent, I almost miss it. “Oh, fuck it.”

Her quiet words end with her pulling Enzo down, allowing – for the first time in years – for their lips to meet in pure tenderness. I suppress my sound of pleasure as I watch their lips connect, Enzo clearly showing Alessa how much he has loved her over the years, how the distance only made his heart grow fonder. He finally trusts his heart to guide him through this moment. He finally believes her words and accepts the feelings he’s suppressed for too long.

“Leave them be,” Zane whispers, wrapping a strong hand delicately around my tiny wrist. “You can come back and ogle another time, my little romantic.”

I steal one last look before I obey and go back into the house.

Finally, all of the Abbiatis are getting the good life.

I awake when I roll over, and my leg hits a cool part of the mattress. In the dark, I reach out blindly to touch Zane, to pull him close, to sink against his body, but I find myself gripping desperately at the sheets.

Peeling my eyes open, I strain to make sense of the black shapes in my room until I cave and pull myself across the lonesome bed to peer at the bedside clock. It blares 4:37am, and I bury my head into his pillow, allowing his scent to intoxicate me and wake me at once. Rolling onto my back, I listen for noises, but I hear nothing.

For hours, I heard whispered voices, loving that memorable sound of a full house. Enzo had stayed until well past the stroke of midnight with Alessa talking, reminiscing, and finally venting. Dante and Ryleigh settled in the room I had now decided would be the nursery. It was opposite the master room and doused with such natural light that it felt perfect for such brightness to shroud our baby’s room.

Dragging my tired and weary body from the softness of the mattress, I creep through the house, careful of where I was stepping, noticing every move I made. Multiple times I stopped, barely breathing in case I woke anyone, but the house remained quiet apart from one noise – that heartbeat.

Once I made it to the steps, I wasn’t slow in rushing down to find the only lights shining in the house was the moonlight outside and the dim light from the television on the wall. When I walked into the front room, I noticed Zane sitting on the edge of the couch consumed with the sight in front of him. I notice how awake he is, his eyes wide as saucers as he stares.

“How many times have you watched this?” I ask, making the assumption based on the coldness of our bed.

Zane looks up. I notice his eyes full of tears, his mouth having fallen open in what I can only assume to be awe.

“I think this is my twentieth time, but I’m not sure.” His statement barely ends before he returns his attention to the screen. “That noise, Amelia ...” He trails off, staring at the flutter on the screen. “It didn’t feel real until I watched this. I mean, I thought it didn’t, but seeing that ... We made a baby.”

I fall against the doorframe, leaning my head into it, and smile at him.

“We really did,” I reply, crossing my arms across my body. “Now, will you come back to bed? I don’t have brain functionality to deal right now.”

“I want to watch it one more time,” he says, lifting the remote to restart the disc.

I know getting him to leave the room – and the first glimpse of our child – is one battle I won’t win. Relenting, I cross the room, my feet dragging some with my sleepy mind, and I plop down on the couch next to him. I sit close to him but find myself dragged back to lounge beside him. If he’s going to capture me here like this, I’m going to make myself a bit more fucking comfortable. I throw my legs up on his and sink down further. He pushes play, and that all-too-familiar whooshing fills the room, rumbling from the surround sound.

As he sinks back, he doesn’t look away from the screen at first. I can tell he wants to talk, but he’s too mesmerized.

“Would you have ever thought, in your wildest dreams, we’d have survived?” he asks, allowing his head to fall so he can look at me. “I mean, did you ever think we’d win?”

“Honestly?” I ask, and he nods. “Never. I never thought we’d have ever turned out triumphant. Sitting here with you makes me fight the urge to pinch myself just to see if I’ll wake up. Fortunately, I only ever seem to wake up next to you ... except for tonight.”

“Sorry,” he apologizes, his eyes slowly rolling back to the screen. “I couldn’t get to sleep at all. I watched you for a little while, then I just started to think about everything and I remembered the disc sitting on the dresser. I snuck out while you slept, knowing everyone was up here. I was only going to watch it once.”

I giggle. “I kept telling myself when I had that ultrasound scan in my hand that I would put it down and not think of it until I was home, but I kept finding myself reaching for it.” I feel myself revert to that hospital room; the shock that befriended me was a heavy weight I can’t forget. “I guess I kept looking at that small shot telling myself that I wasn’t dreaming, that I wasn’t going to wake up, that I wasn’t going to have it all snatched away the moment I let myself have the good life.”

“This is for life,
vita mia
.” He winks, the moonlight catching the moment beautifully. “What about you, though?” he queries; worry begins to smother his handsome face. “After what Gio did, you were told this would impossible. How did you manage to conceive when we were told it wouldn’t happen? What happens now?”

I shrug, unable to form words because what do I say? I made a miraculous recovery, we had a miracle, and we really showed Gio who won? I only had the facts, and even those were conclusive as to how I wound up pregnant after having my heart shredded to pieces as my happy ending was snatched away with the threat to be left unfinished.

I know there was a lot of concern following the killer assault and subsequent surgery, but the doctor in California didn’t seem to be too nervous over my predicament. I guess we’ll have to see what my doctor here will say and go from there, but until something – if anything – happens, I will allow myself to love this baby. I won’t do it with a half-heart with the fear of something that may never materialize.

“I asked about what I was told back then,” I start to say, peering up into his eyes. “The doctor said from the initial scan both me and the baby seemed to be in perfect health. He had noted the injuries I had from the stabbing, but he said to make an appointment with an OB-GYN and let them deal with it. He said that nothing seems to be wrong, and it could just mean I’m closely watched, and that’s it.”

“So this is really our little miracle?” he asks, a hand settling on my flat stomach. “The one thing to give you the final piece of your smile.”

“This is the thing that’s completely healed me,” I note, agreeing with his notion. “Thank you for never letting me walk away from you.”

“I fought the devil and a lot of his demons to get you, Amelia. I wasn’t about to be beaten down by you.” He leans, pulling me closer as he does so. “As you saw, I still will.”

“It was very sexy,” I say, giggling as I curl more into him. “You give Dante a run for his money.”

“Nah,” Zane defies, shaking his head at me. “That man’s reputation precedes him, even now, and I’m in no way prepared to go up against that.”

“Mmm, I have to agree. Dante’s been to some dark places.”

“But so have you,” Zane rebukes, a scolding tone in his voice. “Dante may have done bad things, but he walked away. When he got what he needed from that life, he cut his loss. Likewise, you did, too. It took a lot of time and losing your mother and brother, but you made it. You and Dante were brought up in a world that was only built to destroy a person.”

“I had my madre for the most part, and Dante had Jackson then he had Ryleigh. He was caught at the right times, just like I was.” I feel my eyes burn as tears flood my eyes and my bottom lip quivers. “I love this life, I really do, Zane, but sometimes, I resent the fact that my madre and Manuel can’t be here to enjoy it.”

Before I can stop it, I burst into tears. This tender moment hangs around us, seeing Zane accept this new turn in our life together. While I enjoy every moment that elates every sorrow ever bestowed upon me, I can’t help but feel the void left by the absence of my mother and brother. For a short while, I miss my father. Well, I missed the father who doted on me before he saw me as a choice of weapon. Then I realized I never truly missed the man who tried to corrupt me from the inside out, but I missed the man he used to be, the man he’d never be again. Soon that void ebbed away, and I only had two notable pieces of hollowness, which I could only pinpoint when my mother and brother were murdered in cold blood.

The thought of them missing this makes my heart ache; it screams and howls with sorrow, but I know they gave their lives, in some sense, for me to be here.

“Hey now,” Zane coos, reaching up to wipe my face. “I know you miss them with every day that passes by, but they are here in everything we do. I miss my mom every day, especially since you learned to love me again, but I can forgive myself for not missing her when I live in the moment. I allow myself every day to remember her, but I never allow myself to cry at having the life she wanted for me. Amelia, they wanted this for you, too. They wanted you to be happy and boundless. Everything we do is in memory of them, but we can’t stop to mourn them constantly. They’re with us, in our hearts, in our happiest of moments and in our saddest ones, too. Your mother would be proud of who you chose to become.”

“I just wanted her to meet you,” I say, sniffling as I calm. “Plus, baby hormones have a lot to explain for, apparently. It explains why I was so ready for that guy at the bar and why I’ve cried at the drop of a hat. They’re going to kill me.”

He laughs, his thumb stroking my damp cheek still, drawing my mouth closer to his. “But it’ll be so worth it.”

“That’s true,” I say, stifling a yawn. My emotions begin to settle, mellowing out now that I’ve admitted my heart’s greatest distress at this moment. “Can we go to bed now?” I ask, pouting playfully.

Instead of answering me, his lips touch mine gently, almost soothingly, and I sink against him, aided by my own desire for him and my tiredness. My eyes remain shut as he draws his lips barely away from mine and speaks.

“One more time,” he utters against my mouth, drawing our kiss to an end. I nod, opening my eyes and curling up against him as he restarts the film. As it starts to play – that nothingness before that whoosh of a heartbeat – I sink into a domestication like no other and just close my eyes, falling asleep to the most perfect sound ever.

And as if all at once, we fall asleep tangled on the couch.

***

“We’re not going in there all guns blazing.”

My reiteration is tiresome. Dante wants to go to my father with a loaded gun and reintroduce himself. Apparently, Dante’s spectacular flair for the dramatics hasn’t dwindled any over the years, and Ryleigh and I keep looking at one another to roll our eyes.

“We’ve been there once before; the man is a drunk.”

“He’s living in his own personal hell, so there isn’t the need to go around there and revert to our brutish ways, is there?” I ask, cocking a brow at Dante. “If you want to go around there for answers, fair enough, but there isn’t a threat anymore, not where Sal is concerned.”

“Okay,” Dante admits defeat, allowing his aggression to drip away from his system. “But I want answers. It’s been a long time, and coming home to find one of the strongest Italian families now defeated, I really want some fucking answers.”

“It was all a front,” Enzo comments, putting an arm around Alessa and drawing her in close. “We kept up appearances for the sake of it, but behind doors, we were a mess long ago.”

“Since Madre died,” Carlo admits, the sadness hitting his voice.

“That was a sad day for the Dio Lavoro,” Dante commented solemnly, looking away from us all. As he lifts his gaze, he offers a sad smile. “You guys really took a hit losing her.”

“I think she’d be proud of all we’ve become.” My comment hits them all, and they stare at me. We could wallow in the sorrow her passing still evoked, but what good would that do? “She taught us to be strong people who love their family with no doubt or shame. She brought us up to know love and right from wrong, and even though we got lost in what we thought was right, we came out the other side. We have one another, we have people who love us, and we’re a stronger family than ever.”

“She’s right,” Enzo breathes, fixing me with a look and a small, knowing smile. “Why are you always right?”

“It’s my mother’s charm,” I joke, winking at Enzo. “I just don’t want to wallow on what we had and what we lost. We live every day with that cross, but we shouldn’t let it overshadow anything.” I smile sweetly, watching them all with glee as they all start to agree. “Now, because I’m starving, I’m going to sort something for brunch,” I comment, turning to kiss Zane and get up. He grabs my hand, stopping me from standing. I look over my shoulder at him. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he says, and I see he’s struggling not to become too overprotective. “Sweetheart, just throw some fruit in a bowl. If anyone wants anything else, they know where the stuff is.”

“Eh, some of us are new to this little pad of yours,” Dante comments sarcastically. “I only know where stuff is due to the mess your brother left.”

“That’s true, but you can go in and explore. You can call it an adventure,” Zane quips, causing Dante to laugh. “Our home is yours, after all.”

“I’m going to grab some drinks,” Alessa announces, leaving Enzo’s side.

Alessa follows me inside, going straight to the fridge.

“This place is vastly becoming like some sort of Mecca, isn’t it?” she jokes as she wanders across the kitchen with the jug of punch she made up. “None of this for you, lady, so what would you rather have?”

“There’s some orange juice. I’ll just have that.”

While I cut some fruit, preparing to throw it in the bowl, Alessa comes over to me. Standing by my side, she prepares to pour the drinks. For a moment, I hear only the sound of the liquid pouring and my knife sliding through the pieces of fruit to hit the chopping board beneath.