Giovanni (20 page)

“Wh-what are you doing?” Kim asked, sobs catching in her chest.

“I just had to get you out, okay? I’m sorry I didn’t step in, but he wouldn’t have allowed me to take you out of that house if I had. The way he was going on, he probably would have shot you and me both right on the spot. You needed to get out. I
couldn’t
help. I’m so, so sorry.”

Kim cried harder as Cody wiped the wetness from her face, being extra careful around her bruises. “What am I going to do?”

Cody sucked in a hard breath. “It’s Giovanni, isn’t it?”

Kim stilled, refusing to answer his question. Playing dumb seemed like a better plan for the moment. “What?”

“Gio. It’s him you’ve been running around with. I knew his jacket when Lucas showed Franco the other day, and, well …”

“Well, what?”

“I asked the taxi where he picked you up from. I’ve dropped some shit off to Giovanni since he’s been here. I know the address of the hotel he’s staying in. How long?”

“New York was the first time,” Kim whispered.

“Oh, Kim.”

“I love him.”

“I hope so,” Cody replied softly. “Because otherwise, getting yourself killed over a good fuck seems really ridiculous.”

Kim laughed bleakly. “You’re such a guy.”

“I know. It’s a pride thing.” Cody pushed the hair from Kim’s face, wiping away more of her tears in the process. “Shit, he bruised you bad. I’m sorry.”

She was reminded of his words weeks ago as they drove to Franco’s. It sent a race of chills running down her spine. “Cody, you can’t go back there and do anything.”

“I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

“No, you can’t. You’ll only get yourself in trouble, or worse.”

Cody sighed. “Kim—”

“Promise me, Cody. I know how important getting your button is. Please don’t ruin all you’ve worked for because of me.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Gio explained some things. I thought you were just being an asshole to me because of Nunz, but that wasn’t it at all. You needed to have distance to do what needed to be done. If they knew you were sympathetic to me, it meant you’re not following family rules. By staying away or giving me a cold shoulder, you didn’t have to hurt me in a different way. I get it now.”

“Christ.” Cody shook his head as he leaned back into his seat. “He’s been using me against you, hasn’t he?” 

Kim nodded. “You, me, my friends. Anyone, really. If it was only me he would come back on, I wouldn’t care if he just got it over with and killed me.”

“But not just Franco.”

“No, Dad tosses his two cents in whenever he gets the chance. You’ve heard what he thinks of me.”

“Fucking
bastards
.”

“Cody, promise me,” Kim demanded again.

“I can’t do that.”

“Promise me!”

Cody tossed his hands up in surrender. “All right, calm down.”

Kim sunk into her seat, the heaviest weight resting down on her chest. “I shouldn’t have left the hotel. I need to call Gio.”

She promised to call if something physical happened again. Giovanni was probably pissed as hell at her for leaving without a word, and likely worried out of his mind, but she wouldn’t break that promise.

“Here.” Cody plucked his cellphone from the drink holder, tossing it into Kim’s lap. “Giovanni is under the contact Skip. Tell him to meet you behind the hotel in the employee parking lot.”

For the first time that day, Kim made the right choice. One she hoped wouldn’t land her and Giovanni in a makeshift grave.

• • •

Kim waited while Cody got out of the car to talk with Giovanni in private. She fidgeted in her seat, feeling blazing green eyes surveying her from outside the vehicle. Could he see the bruises on her face or the swelling needing ice?

Quickly, Kim glanced up in just enough time to watch the two men stand toe to toe. As fast as lightning, Cody’s fist struck out and hit Giovanni, knocking the man to the ground. All of the air rushed out of Kim’s lungs in a huge whoosh of air. Panic saturated her insides, but she was frozen to the spot.

When Kim was finally able to move, she fumbled with the seat belt to unlatch the damned thing so she could get out of the car. By the time it was unlatched and her hand was on the door handle, Giovanni was standing, a smirk playing at the edge of his mouth as he wiped a smudge of blood from his lips.

The two shook hands, both nodding.

Kim felt like she just got dropped off in the Twilight Zone.

For five long minutes, Kim watched and waited as the two talked. Giovanni’s stare didn’t leave Kim for a minute. Sure enough, the anger was there, but the concern writing lines over his brow was far more prevalent. Guilt flooded her.

What had she done?

Finally, Cody returned to the car, getting in and shutting his door. Smiling the saddest sight, he said, “You know I love you, yeah?”

Kim nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay. I’m not going to see you again because, after today, you’re not coming back here. I won’t be able to have contact with you if I’m going to keep my place. The last thing I can do is give you what’s best and hope you do well. I just wanted to make sure you knew.”

Kim didn’t get the chance to ask Cody what he meant before her brother leaned over and opened her door. “Good luck, Kim.”

• • •

Giovanni was silent as he closed the door to the hotel room. Kim noticed two duffel bags on the bed, packed and closed. All of his things that had been scattered throughout the large space were gone, too. The mattress had been stripped down to nothing, a pile of blankets and sheets at the foot of the bed. It looked ready for a cleaning crew to come through and ready the room for the next guest.

“You’re leaving?” Kim asked.

Giovanni sighed. “No, we are. For tonight, anyway. A new hotel so no one knows where we’re staying just to be safe.”

Kim forced down the lump lodging in her throat. “I’m so sorry.”

Giovanni faced her, a wetness shining in his gaze and making her heart stop. In two steps, his hands were cradling her face with the softest touch, the pads of his thumbs rolling over her cheekbones. Kim couldn’t stop the tears from falling again. Soft kisses dotted down along the seam of her lips.

“Look at you,
Tesoro
. Look at what he did to you.” Giovanni kissed her bruised cheeks over and over, wiping away every tear tracking lines down her face as he went. Kim’s heart broke a little more as she felt the tremor rocking his hands. “I can’t believe he did this to you.”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated.

“Don’t apologize, just … Jesus Christ, don’t you ever do that to me again. I didn’t know what to do when I came out of the shower and you weren’t here. I knew, though. I fucking
knew
. I love you so much,
bella
.”

“I love you, too. I shouldn’t have left, Gio, but I thought if I did, you would be better off. Safer or something.”

“I bet. Cody said three besides him and Franco were there?”

Kim nodded. “They didn’t do anything to help me.”

“They couldn’t. Did you recognize them?”

“Just Lucas, but not the other two,” she answered.

“Good.”

“How is that good?”

Giovanni shrugged. “They’re likely someone else’s men who were there for something. It means their loyalty is not to Franco and that bodes well for me.”

“What do you mean for you?” Kim asked quietly.

“I need to figure out a plan, so I have to start somewhere. That’s better than nothing.”

“Giovanni—”

“Please don’t argue with me. Right now, the most important thing is keeping you safe.”

Kim forced back her desire to prod him for more information, but there was one thing she wanted to know. “Cody said he wouldn’t see me after today because I wouldn’t be coming back. Why would he say that?”

“I told him to do what he had to do to keep his spot. He loves you. He’s also worked incredibly hard to get into Maximo Sorrento’s sights. We shouldn’t take that away from him.”

“I get that.”

“He’ll give us the rest of the day and night. Early tomorrow, he’s going to let Maximo—not Franco—know he watched me pick you up outside of a convenience store in the morning after you tricked him. It’ll all be a lie, of course, but it’ll let him keep his spot and help you at the same time. I’m okay with that.”

“But Franco thinks I’ll be back tonight.”

“Cody will take care of that. He’s going to call and let him know you’re staying the night at your father’s.”

“Maximo will talk to Nunz and then he’ll know Cody lied, though.”

Giovanni smirked. “That’s the kicker. Something else Cody let me in on and it might be the one thing that bites Franco in the ass. It’s what I’ve been trying to figure out since I’ve been here. Maximo has no idea Franco is working through Nunz on his deals. Max believes Franco is doing this on his own, and Cody came in after the mess with you.”

Kim was finally starting to catch on. “He said he was watching me before he caught me counting cards.”

“Exactly, because he was using Cody’s well-formed scheme and passing it off to Max as his own. Cody let him do it because he needed the extra power to get it done and it got him in a better position for a bigger family.”

“I don’t really get what this means, Gio.”

“It means Franco is working with another boss without his father’s knowledge or consent. He’s paying dues that should be Max’s to your father and lying all the while. And I highly suspect it’s been going on for a long time. Franco needed to stand on his own two feet according to Max, but the idiot doesn’t have the intellect to get his own thing rolling. It’s so disrespectful to his family I can’t even explain.

“Besides that,” Giovanni added as he swiped the remaining wetness from under Kim’s eyes, “… it makes a person wonder why Franco would do that at all, unless he believes he has something to gain. I suspect the marriage to you was Nunz’s idea and a way for Franco to be involved with your family without making Max suspicious.”

“When I was on the floor—”

Giovanni flinched. “
Dio
, you don’t know how that kills me inside to hear.”

“Sorry, but when I was down, he said something about his seat as Don being protected so long as he married me with his father gone. Max isn’t gone, Gio.”

“No, but I think Franco wants him to be.”

“What do we do now?”

“Right now, you do nothing,
Tesoro
. We’re going to switch hotels.”

“And then?” Kim asked. 

“And then I have to call my father and tell him what I’ve done.”

Chapter Seventeen

“Dad, hey.”

“Gio?” Antony asked on the other end of the line. His father sounded surprised to hear from him at first, but his voice quickly turned to worry at the stress in Gio’s tone. “What’s wrong?”

“I fucked up.”

Nothing new, right
, Gio thought.

Sweet Jesus. He was so sorry to do this to his father. So fucking sorry.

Gio had misled his father about his stay in Vegas for a long time. Antony assumed Gio was doing good, staying out of trouble, and keeping his eye on things. For the most part, that was true. But, Gio left out personal shit. Like Kim … and how he loved that girl like crazy.

“Yeah,” Gio rasped. “I really fucked up this time.”

“Can it be fixed?” Antony asked quietly.

“I don’t know. Probably not. It’s bad.”

Gio just couldn’t leave Kim alone. That was the problem. He was stupid looking at her and high loving her. It was impossible for him to even think about leaving her alone in Vegas to marry that cocksucker. Especially after seeing the bruises on her pretty face.

Franco was incapable of being a good man and he wanted a toy for a wife.

“One to ten scale bad?” Antony asked.

“Twenty,” Gio replied, flinching.

Gio waited for the rush of rage from his father or the twenty-one questions sure to follow. He stayed silent and braced himself for the impact of yet another bad decision that would leave a mess to be cleaned. Sure, Gio might have cleaned his messes himself, but his father always suffered some kind of backlash for it.

Antony surprised him. “Talk to me,
Tigrotto
.”

“Shit. Don’t call me that.”

“Twenty-six-years-old, I get it. You’re always going to be my youngest boy. I constantly had to chase after you a little more than the other two, even when you stood below my waist. Indulge me, Giovanni. Let me feel like I can help you for once instead of letting you do it all yourself.”

The pressure in Gio’s chest released with one hard whoosh of air. Across the hotel room, he could hear Kim’s shower still running though she was awfully quiet in there. They’d screwed up terribly, him and her.

“I don’t know what to do,” Gio whispered

The faint movement in the background of Antony’s side ceased as Gio heard a door close. “That bad?”

“Worse.”

Antony heaved a sigh. “Just tell me it wasn’t because you were too screwed up on something to know better, Gio.”

“You know, it might make it easier if that were the case.”

Antony finally seemed to understand this was not one his son’s usual missteps. “Can I even fix this, Gio?”

“I don’t think so. It’s not something you can pull rank on, and I knew better. I
did
. I just … needed to be the one to tell you.”

For an entire thirty seconds, Antony went silent on his end. Then, Gio heard the ding of his father’s laptop being turned on. “The next flight to New York, you’re to be on it. Give me five minutes, and I’ll have you a time.”

Gio swallowed air like it was a drug. “I can’t.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Yeah, that might fix it for a short while, but I still have to answer for what I did. And so does she, you know? I have to make sure that no one comes back on her for this. So I can’t leave it here like that, Dad. Hiding won’t fix this, and Marcellos don’t hide.”

“
She
?” Antony asked, surprise lighting up his voice.

“I—”

“What did you
do
?”

For the first time in longer than Gio could remember, he wanted to crawl into a corner and disappear. There were too many times in his life when he disappointed his father. Too many times he bent and broke the rules for his gain. This was going to shatter any faith Antony had left in Gio. It would totally destroy his father.

“I love her,” Gio said, wanting to get that out first. “That’s what’s most important here.”

Antony was likely too shocked to reply. It felt insanely good for Gio to say how he really felt out loud to someone other than himself. Of course, he told Kim repeatedly, over and over until she couldn’t doubt the truth in his feelings. This, however, was bigger than even that.

“She’s intelligent and beautiful.” Gio sucked in another breath, feeling the weight in his chest start to bear down again. “She’s Italian through and through. She’s crazy sarcastic when she’s bored, independent as hell, and she doesn’t take any shit from me. She’s so good for me, too.”

“Good how?” Antony asked.

“She keeps me clean.”

“Gio, that’s—”

“No, it’s not like that,” Gio interrupted his father quickly. “It’s not some co-dependent crap. This is natural, and she gives me what I’ve been chasing down for years. It’s like I don’t need or want to run after it anymore because it’s already here. I can’t explain it any better than that.”

“So why can’t I call your mother and tell her she can finally stop worrying about you?”

Gio barked a laugh, but it was strained. “
Cristo
. She’s always going to worry.”

“I know,” Antony murmured.

“I really fucked up this time,” Gio repeated.

“Yeah, I heard that, son.”

“It was inevitable. There wasn’t any way of getting around it. She was mine, but she wasn’t.”

Gio suspected his father needed a minute to chew over his words, so he let Antony stew in his silence. All the while, Gio listened for the shower to see if Kim had finished, but it was still on. Other than the rhythmic sounds of his own breathing, everything else was quiet. Too fucking quiet. Gio was restless all of the sudden. He needed to do something other than sit. Sitting wasn’t going to keep him alive. What would?

“Start from the beginning,” Antony demanded.

“At Lucian’s wedding …” Gio did not want to go through all the private details of that night like this. Certainly not over the phone, and not with his father. He didn’t have a choice.

“What about it?”

“I met her there. It was supposed to be a one-night thing, and I was gone before morning. She didn’t even tell me her last name, so I didn’t know that first time.”

“I hear a but in there,” Antony said.

“Yeah, there always is. I knew she was
someone
, I just didn’t know who and I didn’t care to ask. She wasn’t affiliated with any families close by because I know them all pretty well.”

“How did you know she was anyone at all?”

“Because she knew me. Or us, I guess. She didn’t know details, but she was a guest at the wedding, which should have been clue number one. Number two would have been the fact she knew what I was. Is that clear enough?”

Antony groaned low. “We’re getting there. Who is she, Gio?”

“At the meeting of the Commission.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Franco—the Sorrentos. Max mentioned the upcoming wedding with Nunz Abella’s daughter. The first time at Lucian’s wedding, they weren’t together and I didn’t know. They didn’t get officially engaged until she went back to Vegas.”

“She’s Franco’s
fiancée
?”

“Yes. Or was, I guess.”

“Jesus Christ.” Antony’s breath whooshed into the phone, making the speakers crackle in Gio’s ear. “You keep saying the first time. It wasn’t just the once, was it?”

“No.”

“And after you went to Vegas, you knew and did it again, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Gio admitted.

“How long?’

“It’s been ongoing since I came out here. Yeah, I knew. And I didn’t care.”

“Giovanni David!”

“I’m sorry. It was stupid and reckless. It goes against everything you ever taught me. I know it’s bad.”

“It’s more than bad, Gio,” his father hissed. “It’s a fucking disaster. I can’t fix this. Do you get that? This can’t be fixed!”

“I’m sorry. I made a shitty choice and put us in this position, but I won’t apologize for loving her. I can’t do that. I don’t regret it.”

“Jesus, Gio,” Antony muttered, the anger bleeding out of his voice. “What am I going to do?”

“Nothing. There isn’t a thing you can do. I knew that before I even called. It didn’t matter. You had to know, and I didn’t want you getting a phone call or something.”

Antony choked on air. “A phone call.
Right
. Because now I have to worry about your fucking body showing up somewhere instead. This is worthy of that, Gio. They can kill you, and there’s not a goddamn thing I can do about it. I wouldn’t even be able to retaliate
after
without setting off a war. Did you realize that when you were sleeping with a made man’s fiancée?

“I mean, if you were Dante or someone else in a higher position, they’d have to go through the Commission to be sure it wouldn’t set off something. Then maybe I could pull weight. I
can’t
with you. They don’t have to bring the issue to the Commission at all because it’s not the same thing. You’re just a capo, son. It also doesn’t help that you’re in Vegas on their territory breaking rules like that.”

“I know,” Gio said for what felt like the hundredth time.

“You’re a good capo, Gio!”

“My street smarts really aren’t going to make a difference to—”

“No,” Antony snapped. “I mean you’re a goddamn good capo. You know the rules better than anyone. You might bend and break every rule the outside world gives you, or completely ignore what I tell you, but Cosa Nostra rules? Gio, you could repeat those to me when you were only thirteen. You knew what they were before you understood what they even
meant
, before you and your brothers took the Omertà. You wanted this, Gio. You wanted those rules and this life.

“They were the only thing I knew you respected enough to understand the weight of and you believed them,” Antony continued sharply. “They were the one fucking thing I didn’t have to worry about when it came to you. Betraying the core commandments of Cosa Nostra and the beliefs of the family? My son? Never. You wouldn’t because you knew, and I know you knew.”

“I fucked up,” Gio said through grinding teeth. “I get it.”

“No, clearly you don’t. And I’m not going to let you handle this like it’s any other thing because it’s not. You won’t get to brush me off your shoulder and come out of it unscathed like every time before. Listen to me, you broke the most fundamental beliefs of the Cosa Nostra. You’re in territory that does not belong to you. You’re a dead man walking, Gio!”

Gio’s head dropped and he raked a hand over his face. Everything his father said was true. He couldn’t even deny it. “I’ll get it figured out. Something. I get it done. Always. I have to.”

Antony groaned. “You don’t understand.”

“I
do
. I know exactly the position I am in right now. It doesn’t matter. I just found her, and I am not giving in like that.”

“Franco—”

“Is the biggest piece of shit to walk the earth,” Gio finished for his father.

“I’m sorry,” Antony murmured. “But she’s his spoken for wife. The engagement makes it final. They’re as good as married. You know the rules, Gio. You must not look or touch another man of honor’s wife. You know this.”

“He hit her. Bruised and abused her. Fucking hit her in her face and knocked her to the ground in front of men who did
nothing
. That’s how he treats something amazing. That’s not honor, and I refuse to follow rules that put me on the same scale as that man. He doesn’t deserve my respect to do it.” 

“I promised your mother, Gio. I can’t break my promises to her. I never have.”

“What?”

“Don’t do this to me, okay? Don’t make me break a promise to your mother. She can’t bury one of her boys. She would never forgive me. Get on the flight to New York, and I will try to handle the rest. At least here, Max and Franco have to go through me first. That’s a lot better odds for you.”

“I can’t do that. I can’t leave it left open here. Kim never wanted to be married to him. It was forced because she made a mistake. That was all. Please understand.”

Antony hummed. “What kind of
mistake
?”

“How is that important right now?”

Outing the fact Kim had stolen a great deal of cash from a Cosa Nostra family, even if it had been by accident, surely wasn’t the way to get into Antony’s good graces. There were only so many things his father held in high regard after all, and money was up there on that list.

“Because I asked,” Antony said with an air of finality. “And right now, Gio, you owe me total honesty.”

Fuck.

“She was caught by Franco counting cards at the Royale Grace. She wasn’t aware the casino was owned by a fellow family. Her take was a little over two-hundred grand. Franco needs an appropriate wife, Kim was made aware of what would be her consequences for stealing, and the rest is history.”