This is the first time in many years that I’ll be attending an Ultimo Morte function. My last experience was less than pleasant, and I can’t say I’m looking forward to a repeat of what previously occurred. However, Ivo needs me by his side, and I won’t let him down.
I wish I’d never agreed to a red dress. It makes me stand out like a beacon in the night. The figure-hugging, long silk gown is chaste from the front, but dips down to the curve of my lower back. The only jewelry is a thick white-gold bangle on my wrist, adorned with vibrant red rubies. My makeup is dramatic, perfect for the occasion, and my hair is knotted and twisted in a messy braid and pinned up off my neck.
Even in my three-inch heels, Ivo still towers over me in his immaculate tuxedo. He looks stunning and even more dangerous with his brooding expression as he sees me for the first time this evening.
I glance down at my dress to see if something is out of place. “Is something wrong?” He doesn’t respond. I say, “I thought you liked this dress.”
“I love the dress. I love you in the dress. I’m not going to love the men ogling you all night,” he grits out.
I give him my best sexy smile and tease him by saying, “You haven’t seen the back.” Then I spin around slowly so he can take in the entire gown. I look over my shoulder. “Well?”
“If you’re trying to make us late by seducing me, Raffaele will have my balls cut off,” he replies. “Tell me you have a jacket to put over that.”
“It’s chilly tonight. I have a wrap. Will you help me with it?” I hold out my hand for him to take it from me, and he slides it over my shoulders, then presses his lips to the curve of my neck.
“Later, I’m going to enjoy ripping this dress off and burying my cock in your tight pussy,” he says, making my body tingle with excitement.
Before I have a chance to respond with a witty retort, he’s leading me by the hand to the car and helping me into the passenger seat. Driving in their own car is Massimo and another one of Ivo’s men, following us. Throughout the drive, Ivo finds ways to touch me, with a hand on my leg or holding my hand. It’s a sweet, romantic gesture. He’s done this often in the last few months, and every time he does, I feel a little more for him.
When Ivo first proposed the idea of marriage, he said he couldn’t love me, but we would have mutual respect for one another. I accepted because it was the most I could hope for, but now I find myself falling in love with my husband.
I see him with Adriana and know that Ivo is more than a killer. He’s an amazing father who adores his little girl. He’s the man Raffaele considers a brother, and no one else could ever dare come close to saying that. I’m well aware that my husband has blood on his hands, and I know he has a reputation for enjoying the kill, but he’s been gentle with me.
Several times, I’ve come close to telling him how I feel, but I stop myself because I know he won’t say those words back. He had one love, and she’s gone. It will gut me if he becomes cold and distant, so I’ll keep my love a secret, and perhaps one day, I’ll have the courage to tell him.
Ivo stops the car in front of the casino and comes around to open the door, handing the keys to the valet and then escorting me inside. The place is already bustling with activity, but as soon as we arrive, the room grows quiet, and all eyes are upon us. I find it very unsettling. I’ve never enjoyed being the center of attention, but Ivo warned me this is part of being married to the consigliere of Ultimo Morte. So I take a deep breath, hold my head high, and walk alongside my husband as he circulates through the room.
The guests are even more in awe when Raffaele arrives with Evangeline. With them come Evangeline’s brother, Aris, and his wife, Nina. La Famiglia has been part of this project, and this casino has been a joint effort for both families. All the underbosses seek a moment of Raffaele’s and Ivo’s time, leaving Evangeline and me to play hostess to the wives of these men. The fake compliments and smiles are enough to make me nauseous. When they think I’m not looking, I can see their turned-up noses as they eye me up and down, passing judgment. The older women look at me with condemnation. I know what they’re thinking. My dress is too sexy or they’ll invent some other trite reason to tear me down. I’ve heard it before, and it shouldn’t bother me, but it does. No one likes to be the subject of gossip.
The room is crowded, and many high-profile officials have arrived. Ivo sees me from across the room, gives me a smile, and motions for me to join him. As I make my way over to him, a waitress bumps into me, knocking my glass out of my hand. Liquid splatters all over the front of my dress. I couldn’t care less about that, but then the three women standing nearby begin to snicker, and one says, “Serves her right. She probably killed Guido herself to be rid of him.” And another comments, “How else could she seduce the second-in-command with a husband around?”
The poor waitress is trying to help, and I’m useless, and on the verge of tears. Evangeline steps forward. She’s furious. I’ve never seen her this way before.
“How dare you!” she exclaims. “I have a good mind to have Raffaele eject you from this party. It’s women like you that give all women a bad reputation. What is it about Elisa, huh? Is she too beautiful? Too sweet? Too intelligent? You’re horribly offensive, and I want nothing to do with you.”
Evangeline came to my rescue, but, unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who heard her go off. Raffaele strides across the room, his face filled with fury, and with him is Ivo. Raffaele wraps his arm around Evangeline’s waist. His first concern is for her safety, and, being the overprotective husband, he wants his wife out of harm’s way.
Ivo’s voice is lethal, and his tone makes me tremble when he tells the three women, “Leave! Get the fuck out of here before I throw you out.” I look around us. We’re attracting a crowd.
I step forward, placing my hand on his arm. “It’s all right. Please don’t—”
Ivo stares into my tear-filled eyes. “No one speaks to my wife that way. It’s disrespectful and unwarranted.”
“You don’t even know what was said.” He was on the other side of the room. How could he possibly know?
“I know that if Evangeline reacted as she did, it was inappropriate. I’ll know what was said,” he says menacingly, glancing back at the women. “I won’t put my hands on you, but you have husbands and sons who will pay for your words,” he warns. By this time, the husbands of these women have learned what’s happened and have joined us.
“A car will drive you home, Inelda,” one man says.
“All three will go,” says another.
The last man shakes his head, then states, “I’ll deal with you when I get home.”
I grip Ivo’s arm more tightly. Please, I mouth, but to no avail. He moves me off to the side, letting the husbands deal with their wives. “They already hate me. This will only make it worse.”
“Fuck that!” he bellows. “How long has this been going on?”
“It’s been years. I just refused to come to any other social functions after the last incident a few years ago,” I tell him. Ivo looks over his shoulder to see the women being practically dragged out of the room.
“They get what they deserve,” he says softly, then turns back to me. “Go to the ladies’ room, wipe your tears, and I’ll wait for you here.”
I nod and make my way down the hall to the bathroom.
It’s been over fifteen minutes, and half a dozen women have been in and out of the bathroom since Elisa first went in. I was called away for a few minutes to speak with Raffaele. He saw Evangeline’s outburst and is fuming. He’s calling a meeting to have all the underbosses in attendance to, in his words, “lay down the law.”
I’m getting concerned and ask Ada, an older woman, whose husband worked for us until his death last year, if she could go into the bathroom and check on Elisa.
“There’s no one in there, Mr. Avante,” she replies, looking at me strangely.
I slide past Ada and push open the door to the ladies’ room to find it empty. Scattered around the floor are some beads that were part of Elisa’s purse. I run out into the ballroom to look for her, then race through the room and out to the patio doors. There are a few couples out there, but no sign of Elisa.
I dial her cell phone, but it goes directly to voicemail. Something’s wrong. Someone got to Elisa. No matter how upset she would have been, she never would have left without telling me. Raffaele catches me as I’m running through the hallway, with Evangeline by his side.
“What’s going on?” he asks.
“Elisa’s missing. I can’t find her anywhere. There are beads from her purse all over the bathroom floor,” I explain, and immediately, I feel panic rising inside me.
“Fuck!” Raffaele roars, and silence drops over the room. Aris and Nina are the first to come over. All our men then rally around us, Francesco leading the pack. Raffaele starts issuing commands: “Francesco, take Evangeline and Nina home. Grab Adriana and her nanny and get them to the safe room. You all stay put until we come back with Elisa. Massimo and Aris, you’re with Ivo and me. We’re splitting up the rest of you into teams. No one rests until we get Elisa back.”
“Maybe she just went home,” one man says. The same man whose wife caused the ruckus. It would be a normal thought that any other woman would be embarrassed and leave without being noticed, but not my Elisa. She wouldn’t do that to me.
“No!” I state vehemently. “I know my wife, and she wouldn’t walk out without telling me.”
Raffaele has a team searching the grounds and the entire casino, and another team is making calls to our contacts at the police station to get eyes on the streets. Elisa’s father hasn’t moved a muscle to help, but I can’t concentrate on him. Elisa comes first. I go back to the bathroom for clues, and that’s when I notice drops of blood on the floor. There’s a back door, which her kidnapper must have used, and we find our man who was left guarding it knocked out cold. There’s no way he would have been able to come through the main room without being seen.
“I’m going out to look for her,” I tell Raffaele.
“We’re coming with you,” he responds.
“Where do we start?” Massimo asks as we walk out the back door and toward the parking lot.
I have no idea, but I can’t sit here and wait. There’s a burning in my chest, and I’m barely hanging on to my sanity. “I can’t lose her,” I say, my throat clogging. I can’t even imagine who has her and what they’re doing to her. With every minute that passes, she’s closer to being lost to me forever.
“We’ll find her,” Aris states.
My phone begins to ring. It comes across as “unknown” on the screen. “This isn’t a good time—” I start.
“Ruggero’s got Elisa,” he blurts out, and I can hear him running. “I’m calling from a burner. Elisa must have dialed my number, and I can hear them.”
“Where?” I shout.
“I don’t know, but Elisa’s smart and must have hit the Call button on her phone. I must have been her last call. I can hear him, and he’s threatening her. He’s hurting her, Ivo. I’ve got to find her,” Leno says, clearly just as frantic as I am.
Leno is so loud that the others can hear him as well. “We can track her,” Raffaele says and takes my phone. “Leno, call my phone.” He hands my phone back. “Track her phone.”
“Shit! I should have thought of that.” Fuck! I’m not thinking straight. I open the app, and immediately, Elisa’s phone blinks on the screen. As part of Elisa’s protection, I added the app on her phone, hoping I’d never have to use it. It’s routine to find every method possible to keep our families safe. We have plenty of enemies, and although Ruggero is mixed up in something nasty, I never thought he’d go after Elisa this way. We recognize the address: the home she shared with Guido. The place was going on the market at the end of the week. Elisa’s been in a good place, and I didn’t want to bring up selling the house again. It was Elisa who came to me and told me it was time to sell it. “A new family will move in, and they’ll make it their own. They’ll fill the rooms with laughter,” she said. She wasn’t sad about it, in fact, the opposite. She was happy that a new couple could find happiness there.
“Meet us at Guido’s place,” I vaguely hear behind me as I race to my car. The others are at my heels. I drive like a demon through the streets, and I vaguely hear Raffaele making phone calls to have soldiers meet us at the house. I’m not thinking straight, but Raffaele’s right about anticipating problems. We have no idea who Ruggero’s in bed with and what else could be waiting for us once we get there. “Kill the lights,” Raffaele orders as we approach the edge of the property.
Through the darkness, we see Leno’s car, barely visible outside the gate. He must have just arrived. I see him scaling the high iron gate to get over to the other side. We never kept the security team on the house and find it strange that there’s a padlock on the gate.
By this time, Leno is up and over and trying to open the gate for us. “Back away,” I say, aiming my gun at the lock to shoot it off.
“He’ll hear,” Aris says, pushing my gun aside. He quickly takes a run at the fence and makes it to the other side. We follow his lead, me being the next one over. I hit the ground with a thud.
We’re in!
Ruggero’s gone mad. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw him standing behind me through the mirror of the ladies’ room. I didn’t even have time to scream. He pounced so quickly and suddenly, I had a knife to my throat before I could react. He told me that if I didn’t do as he said, he would have his men kill Adriana. Ruggero is wild-eyed and dangerous. He could be lying, but I couldn’t take that chance.
In the scuffle, my beautiful beaded purse was ripped out of my hand. He rummaged through it to find my phone. It was already in my hand, and when I saw what he was looking for, I hid it behind my back. I was relieved that he assumed I didn’t bring it with me and was careful to keep it concealed through the dark ride in the car. I hit whichever button I could, hoping to connect with anyone I had on speed dial, praying they would be able to find me. I spoke loudly to Ruggero to mask the response of whoever might try to talk to me on the other side.
“What do you want with me? Why are you doing this?” I shouted. That earned me a backhanded slap that made my teeth rattle and the side of my face sting. I could taste a trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth.
“Quiet!” Ruggero yelled like a madman. “Or I’ll kill you right here.”
I knew he wouldn’t, but I wasn’t looking for another slap in the mouth. He wouldn’t have taken me this far if he only wanted to kill me. He’s after something.
When we pull up at my old house, it dawns on me that this is about Guido. Ruggero was adamant about going through all of Guido’s belongings personally. If it weren’t for Ivo being there that day Ruggero came to call, I’m sure he would have pushed his way past me and into Guido’s room.
“Leave this car, and I swear you’ll regret it,” Ruggero warns. I have no doubt he means it, but I look around anyway, wondering if I can get as far as the treeline in these heels or even barefoot. My best chance is to get in the house and see if I can bolt into the basement and lock myself in. The cell phone has terrible reception in the basement, but it might be worth a try. With any luck, help will arrive before Ruggero can get through the steel door. Ruggero returns and drives the rest of the way to the front of the house and proceeds to drag me to Guido’s office.
He tosses me toward the sofa. It jars the phone loose from my sleeve. I shove it between the cushions before he notices, praying that it’s still on. Ruggero paces the room like a caged animal. He knows there’s no turning back, and when an animal is cornered, it can turn vicious. Ivo will hunt him down and kill him for betraying Ultimo Morte if he’s found, and he’ll be on the run from now on, should he manage to escape this mess.
“I didn’t want to have to do it this way,” he babbles. “I need those USB keys. Guido found out and managed to get a hold of the information. I still can’t figure out how he did that. He’s been holding them over my head. He threatened to expose me to Raffaele after finding out I was taking money. But I needed it. I didn’t have a choice. You knew him better than anyone. Where did he put them?” Ruggero stalks toward me to point his gun at my temple.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What USB keys?” I ask. My heart is pounding so fast, I’m sure it’s going to explode. I’m going to die, right here in this very room. I’ll never get to hold Adriana again. I’ll never be able to tell Ivo how much I love him. I should have told him. It wouldn’t matter if he returned my feelings for him; my loving him was enough.
“Don’t fuck with me, Elisa. You’re the only one Guido trusted, and he has the information I need to keep Raffaele from finding out. This is Guido’s fault too. I begged him for money, and he refused me. I had no choice. Don’t make me hurt you.”
Whether I tell him the USB keys have already been found or not, I’ll end up dead. There’s no way I’m going to betray Ivo.
“I wish I knew, but I don’t.” Ruggero pulls back his arm and smacks me across the temple with his gun. I cry out in pain as my head whips to the side and hits the arm of the sofa. The ringing in my ears makes it hard to concentrate on what Ruggero is shouting. I try to push myself up, but before I do, his huge hands grab my arms and pull me up from the sofa. He tosses me across the room onto the floor. Then all I feel is the crunch of his boot stepping on my hand and several quick kicks to my ribs.
When he finally stops, he bends to grab me by my hair, forcing me to look at him, although I’m so rattled, I can’t focus. Everything is blurry.
“Not so pretty now, are you?” he sneers.
I hurt so much. The pain is so deep. I can’t let him win. I may not have much fight left in me, but I won’t let him win. I do the only thing I can think of and sink my teeth into his arm, and, with as much might as I can muster, I punch him in the groin.
He lets go, and I see my chance, my only chance. I scramble to my feet and hobble to the door of the basement, where I rip it open. The gun goes off, and a searing pain rips through my leg. I keep going, manage to slide the lock closed, then crumple to the floor into a sweet, painless abyss.