Page 107 of Nico

There was sadness and anguish in her voice, just like with Nico. She must have loved his sister too.

“Nico told me a little bit,” I whispered. I took my mom’s hand in mine, holding it tightly, scared of any possibilities of losing her.

Gia’s eyes watched my mother, but I knew she was seeing someone else in her place. Nico’s sister.

“An evil man, a colleague of Nico’s father, got his hands on her,” she croaked. “Had her beaten and r-” She couldn’t finish the word, but I knew what she meant.Jesus Christ!“Nico couldn’t get past it. Blamed his father for it, even his mother. But most of all, he blames himself. He wanted Nicoletta living with him, under his protection. But she loved her mother. Insisted on staying with her.”

Kind of like I blame myself for my mother’s suffering.

Silence lingered with the last of the sun rays coming through the window. I kept looking through the door, hoping the girls would come. Same with Nico.

I wanted to get my girls in bed, see them fall asleep. Assure myself we were all safe.

“I can stay with her,” Gia must have sensed my struggle. “Go to your girls. They’ll be in the kitchen right now.” I looked at my mother’s sleeping form. “She won’t wake up till tomorrow. I won’t leave her.”

“Okay,” I caved in to my need to see the twins. “I’ll get them tucked in, and then I’ll be back.”

“You come back and check,” she agreed. “But I’ll stay with her all night. You need sleep.”

“So do you,” I protested.

“I get plenty of sleep,” she retorted dryly. “Besides, I can only sleep two-three hours a night. Then nightmares from long ago come back.”

So many broken people. Yet, after so long, ever since I lost my grandma and dad, it started to feel like I had a family.

ChapterThirty-Three

NICO

Ipulled up in the back of one of my deserted industrial warehouses; Alexei right behind me in his Maserati. I drove my Land Rover, the car seats in the back reminding me I had so much more to lose now.

After my sister died, it was the same to me whether I lived or died. The only incentive was my revenge. But now, I have so much more. I wouldn’t let history repeat itself. I’d protect those girls, Bianca, her mother, and my mother. It took Bianca coming into my mother’s life for her to finally wake up.

She didn’t go back to my father. She checked into a rehab center. Once she was cleaned up, I planned on having her live on my property. Eventually, I’d talk to Bianca about it. Right now, she had her own worries that she had to focus on.

Alexei had found her mother in bad shape. He got to her before my text went out, so I couldn’t understand what prompted the outburst.

“You good?” Alexei asked. It is rare to see any emotion cross this man’s face. He had a fucked up childhood, more so than most. Some things were impossible to come back from.

Like Nicoletta’s death.

Like Bianca’s mother crossing paths with Benito King.

For Alexei, it was his first twenty years of life.

The scars remain for life, some raw no matter how much time goes by. It was the reason I intended to keep Bianca sheltered from it all. I didn’t want to see the shine in her eyes shatter at learning so many filthy truths.

This crapshoot called life was a bitch. But with Bianca, I found myself breathing again. Living again. Yes, Cassio was right. I was obsessed with his sister.

“Yes,” I answered his question. “Just want all this shit done with. Kill the bad guys, have kids, see them grow up safe and happy, die old with a woman by my side. Without the Benitos of the world fucking it up.”

Alexei’s eyes darted to the docks of the warehouse. “That would be nice. Though, aren’t we the bad guys too?”

Well, he had a point there. But I’d like to live, thank you very much. I needed my wife, burying myself inside of her was heaven. If there was a heaven, I had found it.

“Stop raining on my parade, Nikolaev.”

Leonardo waited for us, our happy visitor already bawling his eyes out. Leo was right. He was singing in Russian. Carrying a note too.