Page 18 of Sins of the Orchid

Ending the call, I went to Amore’s stall. “You can open it now.”

I heard her shuffle with the lock and then the door opened. The sight of her stark pale face and her green eyes full of terror shattered my heart. She was trembling, shaken up over the incident. Not that I could blame her. Her family and guards kept her sheltered, keeping the ruthlessness of our world at bay around her.

My arm snaked around her waist, pulling her into a hug.

“It’s okay, kiddo,” I murmured into her hair. Her small body trembled in my arms. She just buried her head deeper into my chest, and I felt more than heard her inhale and exhale, keeping her panic attack at bay. I witnessed only one of those when she first moved to New York, but speaking to Adriano and her father, I knew she hadn’t had one in a while. “I got you. Just keep breathing and keep it together.”

Her arms wrapped around me, her shuddering breaths hitting me right in the chest. Her father refused to say what happened to Amore before he found out he had a daughter. All anyone knew was that her mother was killed and Amore witnessed it. Something like that was traumatic enough to scar anyone, never mind a child.

I recalled her last panic attack. It happened right after Elena’s funeral. That bitch deserved to die, hurting a fucking kid and burning her with cigarettes. I was fairly certain that fear triggered Amore’s panic attacks. That one full blown panic attack I witnessed was hard to forget.

Amore’s face was pale, her big moss color eyes full of fear dominating her face as she stared at her grandmother and her father arguing. They fought tooth and nail over who should be her legal guardian. Their hate for each other ran deep.

Her grandmother moved towards Amore to pull her closer, and the sound of guns being drawn echoed in the room.

“P-please.” Amore’s voice shook as much as her body. “P-please. D-don’t.”

“Go ahead and shoot, Bennetti.” Her grandmother was stupid to challenge her father. “Scar your daughter even more. Because seeing her mother die and your wife torturing her wasn’t enough.”

Gasps sounded all around the room, and Amore paled even more. That girl would pass out any moment, her breathing erratic. Those two idiots should stop bickering for her sake.

“I’ll protect her,” he gritted out.

“Amore, come with me,” her grandmother instructed. “You don’t belong here.”

She took a tentative step towards her grandmother, the woman she had known since birth. It didn’t take a genius to realize the kid was scared out of her mind. The underworld scared her.

Amore’s eyes ping-ponged between her father and grandmother, both with guards at their back and guns pointed at the other. DeAngelo was the only one that took position next to Amore, his only concern for her.

Everyone watched the thirteen-year-old whose clammy skin paled with each passing second.

“Amore,” I spoke softly. “Breathe, kiddo.”

Her pupils were dilated, the color of her eyes almost extinguished as she frantically watched her family with guns pointed at each other. It was a first for a funeral, even in the Cosa Nostra.

“Let’s go, sweetie.” Her grandmother pulled her. “You are too good for these people.”

Her father stepped forward, ignoring the guns pointed at his chest.

“She is my daughter. She stays with me. You kept her away from me for thirteen years. Hid her from me. Now she is mine, and you’ll have to kill me to get her.”

“That can be arranged,” her grandmother told him frigidly.

Amore swallowed, her breathing shallow, her hands trembling. I felt sorry for her. She was thrown to the wolves, losing her mother and a man she believed to be her father, only to be pushed and pulled between the Bennetti and Regalè family.

Bennetti stood his ground, ready to start a war against the Regalè empire to keep his daughter.

“I’ll stay.” Amore’s small voice sliced through the tense silence. Everyone held their breaths, unwilling to miss a single moment. Like some damn soap opera.

“Amore, these people are criminals. You are—” Regina didn’t get to finish her statement.

“I-I’ll stay,” Amore repeated, her eyes on her father. She feared him, only knowing him for several weeks, and yet, still she’d stay. Regina would have a fierce, strong heiress in her granddaughter one day.

A gun went off. One of Regina’s buffoons accidently fired and suddenly the whole foyer burst with shouting voices and screaming.I pulled Amore from the middle and out of the crossfire before she got killed.DeAngelo had the same idea and protected her with his body.

“Take her somewhere safe,” I ordered him and my brother.

Adriano tugged on her, but if I thought she was pale before, it was nothing compared to now. She was deathly white now, perspiration glistening on her skin as she gasped for breath.