Page 27

Valencia

Dressed and ready, I wondered what today would be like. Another day with Tito so I suppose it would be great. Shutting my door, I turned. Seeing someone close, I backed up and took a look at the guy.

“Hey,” he greeted me.

I chuckled a bit nervously and asked, “Do I know you?”

“No, not officially. My name is—”

“Amadeo?” I took a guess.

“Yes, and here I was about to explain why I was here in the hallway, outside your door.”

“Well, you live here, right?” I smiled at him.

“Yes and my room is next to yours.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

“I’ve been gone for a while.”

I reached my hand over and said, “I’m—”

“Valencia.” He took my hand and shook it.

“Yes, how did you know?” I asked as I dropped his hand.

“Has to be. I mean Julianna has a twin. And I just saw her downstairs. So either I am seeing double or you are her twin sister.”

I laughed. “We look alike.”

“Yes, I can tell.” He nodded. “Hope I didn’t scare you.”

“No, I just didn’t expect it.”

“I’m not home a lot.” He backed up then said, “I bet you are on your way to breakfast. I can escort you to the dining room?”

“Sure,” I replied.

He turned and motioned to the hall. “I am heading there too. Zia saw me earlier so she will be expecting me.”

“Yes and you better not be late,” I teased.

We both laughed.

“Hell, even Papa is scared of doing that.”

I nodded. “Yes, and I can’t imagine that man being scared of anything.”

“Me neither.”

Again, we laughed.

We went down the hallway and then down the stairs. The place was so huge that three people could come down or go up the stairs side by side.

“There you are,” Tito greeted me.

I took the last step down and motioned to Amadeo. “We met in the hall.”

“Thanks for escorting her,” Tito told him.

Amadeo looked at him then at me.

“Yes, she is my girl,” Tito explained.

“Dude!” Amadeo exclaimed. “Congrats, man. Your mom must be over the moon.”

“Heck yeah, said she waited for this.” He shook his head. “She kept thanking Valen. Like she did her a huge favor or something.”

“Charity dating?” Amadeo joked.

“Must be,” Tito replied as he shrugged. “She probably feels sorry for me.” He raised my hand and kissed my knuckles.

I looked back and forth at them. “Best thing that ever happened to me.” I raised his hand up and kissed his knuckles.

“Wow!” Amadeo exclaimed. “Man, I cannot fathom this.” He raised his hands at me. “I don’t mean you and him. It’s just that the whole household has turned into couples. Dante is married, Legend is engaged, Romeo is engaged to your twin.”

“There’s just Luca and you left, cuz.” Tito nodded at him.

“And we all know, no one would be brave enough to marry Luca,” Amadeo said as he laughed. “The dude is too serious about work to date anyone steady.”

“Hey, I was too, remember?” Turning, Tito kept a grasp on my hand to maneuver me down the wide hallway.

“Not like him, man,” Amadeo said as he walked beside us. “I work with him every day, remember? He’s a workaholic and only thinks of the bottom line. He could be worse than dad.”

“Couldn’t be.” Tito scoffed.

“It would take a fierce lady to reel him in.” Amadeo laughed.

“It could happen.” Tito shrugged.

“Yeah,” Amadeo replied. “If she were Italian, wore a gun and was able to make him shut the hell up.”

They both laughed.

“And what about you?”

We all turned to see a tall man who stared at Amadeo.

“Hey, bro.” Amadeo smirked at him.

“So, you are Luca?” I asked the tall guy.

“Yes, how did you know?” He stared at me.

“Not so hard.” I shrugged. “You are the only one I have never met.”

“You have to be Valencia.” He smiled at me. “I only know that because Julianna is over there.” He motioned to the long dining table. “And Pops already told me about her twin.”

I nodded. “She’s the brainy one.”

“That’s BS,” Tito said as he shook his head. “You are just as smart.”

“Hey, I would never pass the bar and I admit it,” I told him. “That girl is super smart.”

“Ok, I could never pass it either,” Tito argued. “But most people couldn’t.”

“You can leave me out of it too,” Amadeo agreed. “I actually had to talk my way out of heavy college. I wasn’t interested in it.”

“Business school,” Luca said as he raised his hand. “But just a two year degree. Just think of Legend with eight years to be a doctor?”

“Hella no,” Tito grumbled. “I did two and that was just to satisfy Mama.”

“Tito.”

We turned to see Rocky walking up.

“Hey.” Tito nodded at him. “I was looking for you to show.”

“Here I am.” Rocky gave him a nod then looked over at Luca. “You never called for the limo?”

Luca nodded at him. “Deo landed his bird out back.”

I glanced over at Amadeo. “Bird?”

“Helicopter,” Tito replied. “He’s a pilot.”

“Oh, wow.” I gave him a nod. “How cool is that?”

“Super cool.” Amadeo nodded. “That is one of the only things I went to school for. That and how to fly planes.”

“I’m telling you if he could sprout wings…” Luca laughed.

“Boys,” Zia called. “Time to eat.

They all raised their heads then hurried away.

I laughed. “Grown men, all muscle bound and tough. Then they act afraid of a sweet, little Italian lady.”

Tito nodded. “Right?”

“You got scared too?” I asked him.

“Yep,” he admitted as he pulled a chair out for me. “I was shakin’ in my boots.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I laughed as I sat down.

Breakfast went by quickly as conversations flowed along the table.

I wondered how Rocky would react to the news about his dad. I watched him across the table as he had coffee. He didn’t seem to be eating like everyone else.

Tito patted my hand. “You okay?”

I looked over at him. “I was thinking about how Rocky…like… how he might react.”

“Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. But he has more common sense than I do. So, he will probably act calm about it.”

“You didn’t act out of control about it, Tito.”

“I was shaking inside,” he admitted.

“You looked mad, yeah.” I shrugged. “Then you calmed down.”

“As a kid, I spent a long time accepting my father’s death, but I never did accept it fully. Thinking how unfair it was for him to die in an accident. Then I am told it wasn’t an accident?”

I placed my hand over his. “When Deacon told me that the Walkers murdered my mother?” I took a deep breath at the admission I was about to make and went on, “It changed me. I wanted revenge and that took over. I was a slave to it. I felt nothing but hate. It’s what made me the kind of person to actually put Della into a crypt.

I allowed Deacon’s men to beat Jared when they captured him.

So, don’t hate me for saying this, but I’m glad you never knew.

You probably wouldn’t be here with me right now. ”

Tito stared at me as he grasped my hand to raise it to his lips. Turning it, he kissed my palm. “It takes a lot of guts to look at yourself like that. And knowing the angry anti-social teen I was, you are probably right. Just like I feel like fate brought you here to me.”

“Saints,” I corrected him. “Saints brought me.”

Tito laughed. “Same thing.” He rolled his eyes at me. “Saints took you from a church and brought you right to me. That makes you my angel.”

“Oh, so now you’re elaborating on it.” I laughed.

“It’s my story,” he defended as he gave me a firm nod. “And I’m sticking to it.”

“You ready?”

We looked up to see Rocky above us.

Tito looked at him then down at me.

I nodded. “I’m coming with you, ok?”

“Of course you are.” He stood, pulled my chair out and took my hand.

Rocky headed toward the kitchen.

“Um, Rock?” Tito called to him.

Turning, he asked, “Yeah?”

“This has to be like helluva private, man.”

Rocky cocked his head at him to ask, “Really?”

Nodding, Tito stated firmly, “Really, really.”

“Ok.” Rocky shrugged. “The garage it is.” He turned back around and went past us.

We followed him hand in hand. When we passed Julianna and Romeo, I connected gazes with her.

She looked curious as she motioned her head at the brothers.

I gave her a nod, so she would know that we were about to tell Rocky the truth about their dad. Then following Rocky, I let out a nervous breath. I didn’t know how this would go at all.

We went through the hallway, past the study. Everyone was still at breakfast, so the area was empty of any family.

We finally came to what looked like a service door.

Rocky opened it and went down a few steps.

Tito and I followed.

“Watch it,” Tito warned me. “The lights aren’t…”

Suddenly, the whole place lit up. Rocky had turned the lights on.

Looking around, I spotted two limos, and an SUV. Then I gasped when I saw a sport’s car. “Is that a Mazzerati?” I asked.

With a laugh, Tito nodded. “Belongs to Luca. He loves fast cars.”

“Wow, Deacon has the same one. I mean that’s how I knew it was a Mazzerati. He also likes fast cars. Only his is blue, not red.”

“Man, I cannot wait to tell Luca that,” Rocky said as she chuckled.

“Maybe not, he already hates the guy,” Tito advised.

Rocky stopped and turned around. He then looked at me. “So, he is your brother?”

I nodded at him. “And Julianna’s.”

“Really?” Rocky exclaimed. “I bet that did not go over well with her,” he surmised.

“No, it did not,” I replied. “It might take a while for her to accept it. We talked to…” I paused. “…our parents. Seems Mr. Regatta is our real dad.”

“What they said was that he, the dad, had been with Olivia Walker like in a relationship for a while,” Tito explained to Rocky.

“Then one day, Olivia just up and left. No reason, no note. Then a few years later, she showed up at their house and wanted them to take the girls, who were like two at the time. Olivia claimed Tommaso was their father. They had it all legalized. Then when the girls were 5, Olivia killed their nanny, took her place and stole Valen.”

“Julianna was at the doctors the day she took me,” I added.

“Oh wow, so all of this was a real shocker,” Rocky said.

“That wasn’t the only shocker.” Tito stared at him.

“What else?” Rocky asked.

Tito shrugged. “Let’s get into the limo.”

“Wow, it’s that kind of secret?” Rocky asked as he chuckled.

“It’s a have a shot of whiskey kind of secret,” Tito replied.

Rocky stared at him. Then he walked over to the wall where key fobs hung, took one off a hook and pressed it.

The limo beeped and the doors unlocked.

Tito walked over and opened the door, then he motioned for me to get it with a sweep of his large arm.

I stepped over and scooted in on the seat.

Rocky got in on the other side and slid in, shutting the door.

Tito got in and shut his door too.

Rocky pressed some buttons and air came in.

Feeling the cool air, I sighed and said, “Thanks.”

Rocky nodded. Then he turned to look at Tito. “Tell me.”

“Well, Valen’s father is Tommy.”

“Tommy?” Tito looked perplexed then he gasped. “You mean he’s Tommaso? Really?”

“Yes, really.” Tito nodded.

“So their dad was our dad’s best friend?”

Nodding, Tito said, “Yes.”

“A fucking small world,” Rocky mused with a smile as he shook his head then he paused as his smile slipped away. “Oh, fuck.”

Tito stared at him. “What do you mean by that?”

I got a bad feeling while staring at Rocky’s expression. No, no…

“You knew?” Tito’s voice rose with the question as he stared at his brother. “About the killing?”

Rocky let out a long breath and replied simply, “Yes.”

“How long have you known?” Tito demanded in a strained tone.

Crap, I knew this would be rough but it was not going well at all. I clasped my hands together in my lap.

“A week after it happened,” Rocky told him.

“You were at the lake and had been ever since the funeral. Uncle Stephano took me with him to Italy. We had a very skimpy trail to follow as someone had murdered the hitman who took Papa out. We were there for two weeks and discovered that it was because of our grandmother’s will. ”

“What?” Tito looked surprised as he sat up higher in the seat.

“I don’t know if you even paid attention at the time,” Rocky reminded him. “You were grieving hard, brother. But our grandmother left everything to our dad.”

“Who did it?” Rocky growled as he clenched his fists.

I almost held my breath. The anger on his face was something I’d only glimpsed a little of at that Zoom meeting.

“Our Uncle Marco. He was married to dad’s sister, Stella, remember?”

Tito nodded.

“I went with Uncle Stephano and we took him out. Buried him in the grape cellar. That fucker begged for his life, said it wasn’t fair as they had stayed in Italy and took care of Grandma Francine then she leaves her estate to Angelo.

But Uncle Stephano had no mercy for him.

He gave him the same as he gave our dad.

A bullet to the back of the head. It was the first time that I…

” Rocky let out a heavy breath. “…ever saw a killing or was in on one.”

I finally spoke up to ask, “H-how old were you?”

“I just turned 18.”

“Then you came back,” Tito speculated. “And never told me?”

Rocky shook his head. “You were a mess when I came to get you at the lake. I knew if I told you…” He shrugged. “I’m not sure what it would have done to your mindset at the time. Your attitude was really bad. Mom was sick and Uncle Stephano…” Rocky shook his head.

“What about him?” Tito asked.

“He told me to never…ever talk about it.” He shrugged. “You were my brother so I definitely was going to tell you. Then I saw you and you were like…pazzo…crazy?”

Tito lowered his head and admitted it, “Yeah, I was.” Then he looked back up at his brother. “Still, there’s been a lot of years since then.”

“Yes, but Mama doesn’t know.”

Tito stared at him.

“So, we do not speak of it. In fact, I never have until today,” Rocky admitted.

“Yeah, it wouldn’t be good for her to know,” Tito agreed.

“There was something we could never figure out though,” Rocky mentioned.

“Yeah? What?” Tito asked.

“Someone killed the hitter, but we never knew who he was or how he did it.”

“What do you mean how?” Tito asked.

“Marco kept babbling about this tall, pale looking devil. He said this devil reduced the hitman to ashes. Marco claimed he saw it happen and he took off before the devil could see him. Stephano asked him where and when. I wondered why he was even giving Marco the chance to say anything, but later on I figured out why. Uncle Stephano had me drive him to the very place where the hitter had been murdered. Oddly enough, we did find a pile of ashes under a tree, just like Marco told us.” Rocky shrugged.

“But how could someone be killed like that?”

I almost held my breath as I looked over at Tito.