Crucified (4 page)

My smile widened.
“I didn’t know that.”

“I found out from
Gianna that he’s Frano’s new trainer.”

“That’s even more
perfect.”

Matteo turned a
corner. “Who do you think will kill who first?”

“The Landi will
win, which means that Alessandro is as good as dead.”

“What a waste. He
may be pretty, but he’s got the best looking cock in porn.”

“He does porn?”

“Yup. That’s why
he’s famous, just a pity it’s straight porn. Gianna told me all about it a
while ago. She’s bit of a crazed fan when it comes to Alessandro.”

“I thought he was
a model.”

“That’s what he
tells everyone, but it’s porn.” Matteo sighed. “Still a waste of fine meat. He
has one hell of a body.”

“For a body bag.”

The chauffeur
pulled up to the D’Angelo house, and not soon enough. I normally loved women,
liked everything about them: the way they looked, smelled, talked,
everything
.
They were such fascinating creatures, especially the beautiful ones. But the older
of the two Donatelli women in the backseat was the exception to the rule. She may
have been physically beautiful, but her personality was uglier than a troll.
She was a complete
troia
, who wouldn’t stop complaining about everything
and anything. My brother must be mad to like her, because she made Camila look
like an angel in comparison.

I got out of the
car and opened the back door for the younger of the two sisters, who was the
first nice Donatelli I had ever met. She was lovely, a rose amongst the
Donatelli thorns. Like her sister, she was a stunning raven-haired beauty,
only her lack of intelligence letting her down. Though, I
suppose that could also be a plus, because the ditzy ones dropped their panties
without me even trying to get into them. She also had a cute little giggle that
made my balls tingle. Hmm … she was a prime candidate to meet my prince, although
I knew once I saw Honey again, I would forget about Andriena Donatelli in a
second. I had been looking forward to tonight. Just the thought of being in the
same bed as Honey made my cock harden, although Andriena was doing her best to
distract me from thinking about the blonde beauty.

She got out of the
car and put an arm around my waist, her touch making
my cock twitch in anticipation, which wasn’t difficult,
because, fuck, I was horny all the time. She smiled up at me as though I was
her hero, the person who had saved her from my
famiglia’s
soldiers. Still,
she would’ve liked me anyway—most women did.

“Andrea,” Ghita
snapped, for some reason calling her sister the male version of her name.
“Don’t touch him; you’ll catch a disease from the manwhore.”

“Don’t listen to
her,” Andriena said, giving my waist a squeeze. “She’s just jealous.”

“I’m not jealous!
I had Ricardo until Alessandro took me away from him.”

“I thought you
didn’t like his brother.”

“I only pretended
because I couldn’t have him.
Papa
would never have allowed us to get
married, but now things are different,” she said, looking sad, no doubt over
the death of her father, “I can finally marry him.”

“Then why did you
come with us?”

“So I could speak
with Camila about making the rest of the
famiglia
accept our engagement.
After all, the Santini are still our enemy.”

“Not this one,”
Andriena said, leaning into me. “He’s my hero.”

“He’s not a hero,
Ricardo is. He’s the one who saved you from his rapist
famiglia
.”

Anger flashed
through me. “My
famiglia
are not rapists!”

“They raped
Andriena.”

“They did no such
thing; it was the hired help,” I said, knowing the female had been forced. Only
Ghita had been spared, since everyone knew my brother was in love with her. Ricardo
would’ve killed anyone who had touched her, and gruesomely, my oldest brother’s
violence well known.

Andriena’s lip
trembled. I ran a hand down her thick black hair and whispered into her ear,
feeling bad for thinking sexual thoughts about her. “You’re safe now; I won’t
allow any harm to come to you.”

She looked up at
me. Her blue eyes were glistening with unshed tears, the woman holding them in,
but she still smiled, probably to put me at ease.

“Let’s go inside,”
I said.

We walked towards
the house. Andriena’s gaze moved to the Landi soldier standing guard at the
front door. There were also other men at the entrance of the driveway, while
laborers worked on the new fence Frano was having built.

The Landi soldier
opened the door for us. I moved my hand to Andriena’s back, directing her
inside.

“Wow!” she said, stopping
in the entrance, her gaze moving from the polished marble floors to the chandelier
over our heads. I gave her a gentle push forward, steering her into the lounge.
She ran her fingers over an antique cabinet, declaring it was beautiful.

“It’s alright,”
Ghita muttered, behind her, the woman’s tone dismissive.

Andriena rolled
her eyes at me, mouthing, “
Troia
.”

I smirked.

“And where is
everyone?” Ghita asked in that snooty tone of hers, which told me she wanted a
welcome fit for a queen. “Why aren’t they here to greet us?”

“I have no idea.”
I turned to the Landi soldier who had followed us inside. “Where is the Don?”

“Upstairs with
Jagger.”

My focus shifted
back to the women. “You two stay here with the guard, while I go get the Don
for you.”

“I want to go with
you,” Andriena said, giving the soldier worried glances.

I placed my hands
on her shoulders. “He is here to protect, not to hurt you.”

She screwed up her
face, still looking scared. “He’s still a soldier.”

“A Landi. They are
not the same as the ones who hurt you, and I am truly sorry for what you went
through. You are a lovely
signorina
who only deserves to be treated with
the utmost respect, which this guard will do.”

She nodded,
although I could tell she wasn’t convinced, the past couple of days a nightmare
for her.

“Take a seat on
the couch,” I said. “I will be back with you as soon as possible.”

She moved to the
couch, along with her sister, who was giving the soldier suspicious glares. The
man didn’t respond, just took up guard by the door. The Landi soldiers were nothing
like the hired thugs who protected my
famiglia
. They were real soldiers
who had seen action in war zones, their skills far exceeding the average
mafioso
soldier.

I headed up the
staircase, hearing a raised voice coming from a room further down the passage.
It sounded like Jagger was arguing with someone. I went to his room and poked
my head inside the doorway, finding Frano and Jagger in deep discussion as well
as a woman asleep on the bed. Jagger was waving his hands about, telling Frano
some woman was his.

“She has chosen
me,” Frano said. “You can’t do anything about it.”

“Like hell,”
Jagger snapped. “Where is she?”

“In my room.”

Jagger turned to
the door, stopping when he saw me. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m after the Don,”
I answered. “The Donatelli sisters have arrived.”

Jagger’s head
snapped to Frano. “More Donatelli!”

“They are just Camila’s
two sisters,” Frano replied.

“I don’t fucking
care. Next thing I know, they’ll be bringing in their brothers, then their
fucking rapist uncle.”

“You’re being
unreasonable now. I would never allow that to happen.”

Jagger’s jaw
tightened. “You allowed it once, so I might as well take off before I find
myself chained to a Donatelli wall again.” He went to his wardrobe, pulling out
a suitcase from it.

Frano followed
him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“New York,” Jagger
said, laying the suitcase down.

“There’s no need
to go there; we don’t need any more slaves. The cells are full.”

“That won’t be a
problem,” Jagger sneered, “since you’ll make room for them in your bed.”

“I never intended
on taking Sophia from you.”

“Then why did you?!”

“I fell for her.”

“She was
my
girlfriend.”

“She isn’t the
same girl you fell in love with. Like her new name, she’s different now. She’s
done things that you won’t be able to handle.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t wish to
discuss it.”

“I have a right to
know.”

Frano glanced at
me, then back at Jagger. “I’ve done many bad things, so I can’t judge her, but
you will, and I won’t allow it.”

Jagger shook his
head. “I don’t have a right to judge her after all the shit I’ve done. Though,
I am concerned about her lying to me. She told me she was Sophia’s sister, and
that the Black Russian has Sophia, which means, if she’s lied to me, she will
have lied to you too. You can’t trust anything she says, even who she is.”

“She
is
Sophia; she remembers things that only Sophia would know.”

Concern crossed
Jagger’s face. “It can’t be her.”

“Why?”

“Because I…” he
paused. “Because everyone knows she drowned.”

“Her body was
never found, obviously because she didn’t die.”

“Does she remember
the attack?”

“She only
remembers seeing the
Padre
, but I think she’s confusing him with
Christo.”

Jagger’s frown
lessened. “Regardless, I will fight you for her.”

“That’s pointless,
she wants me and has agreed to…” he paused.

“Agreed to what?”

“I can’t tell you
yet.”

“It doesn’t
matter, I will change her mind.”

Frano scowled.
“You won’t, and I’m truly sorry for everything that has happened, but you might
as well face reality: she wanted me from the first day you introduced us and
that won’t change.”

Jagger waved his
hand in the air. “You are full of shit! Just get out of my room!”

Frano exhaled
loudly, then turned and indicated for me to follow. I exited the room with him,
closing the door behind us.

“I’m sorry you had
to witness that,” Frano said. “Jagger’s been through a lot.”

“There’s no need
to apologize.”

Frano patted my
arm. “
Grazie
. Now, how’s your
famiglia
?”

“All good, though
my
madre
was sad you couldn’t come: she has a soft spot for you.”

“It’s because I
like her cooking.” Frano smiled. “So, were there any problems with your brother
giving up Ghita?”

I rolled my eyes.
“Hell yeah, lots of problems. Ricardo went into a rage, trying to override
everyone to keep her, though God only knows why, because she’s a complete
troia
.
Luckily, he finally calmed down, probably because Ghita accepted his marriage
proposal.”

“I thought Ghita
hated Ricardo,” Frano said, appearing surprised.

“It was all a
pretense, because her father wouldn’t have allowed them to be together. But now
he’s dead, Ghita wants Camila to smooth things over with the rest of her
famiglia
so she can marry him
.
”

“Your brother has
extremely poor taste in women. The Donatelli women are bitches—including
Camila.”

I smiled,
wondering why he was marrying her then, but it wasn’t my business to ask. “There’s
one exception,” I said. “Andriena’s nice.”

“
S
ì
, she is and
probably
the only one out of that bunch of banshees.”

“That’s what I
thought too. Anyhow, they’re downstairs and would like to see you and Camila.
By the way, where is your
lovely
fiancée?”

He laughed. “Your
sarcasm isn’t missed. She’s—”

Squeals came from
downstairs, answering my question before Frano could, the
troia
and her
sisters making lots of noise, obviously ecstatic to see each other.

“I guess I better
go greet them,” Frano said, looking like a man about to walk to his doom.

A door opened further
down the passage, pulling my attention away from him. Honey stepped out of a
room, wearing a lovely yellow sundress. She stopped when she saw me, then
quickly spun around and went back into the room, closing the door behind her.

“I’ll leave you
with them,” I said. “I want to go see Honey.”

Frano nodded, and
headed for the staircase.

I kicked into
gear, aiming for Honey’s room. A guard pushed up from his chair as I approached
it.

“I want to see
Honey,” I said.

Without a word, he
opened the door for me to enter. I stepped inside, my gaze instantly going to
Honey, who was lying on the bed, crying. Her eyes were red and her face puffy.

“What happened?” I
asked, walking over to her.

Shaking her head,
she sat up and covered her face with her hands.

I sat down on the
bed and placed an arm around her shoulders. “Has someone hurt you?” I asked, concerned.

She dropped her
hands; her expression agonized. “Jagger doesn’t love me,” she said.

“Did he say that?”

She nodded.

“Then, he’s
obviously not the right person for you.”

“But I love him,”
she sobbed. “Even after all the cruel things he said, my heart still only beats
for him.”