Ti Amo (Battaglia Mafia Series) Read online

  Mira removed her knit cap and stuck it in her jacket pocket. Her dark hair was flattened to her forehead but wavy strands framed her face. She knelt. She pulled the little girl around to unzip the puffy jumpsuit she wore to ward off the cold. The hood came down and curly brownish-blonde locks of hair sprang free. Her large blue eyes, and her mocha brown skin made her uniquely special. She wore a yellow shirt with dark green corduroy pants. Mira turned her daughter so she could face him. She kept her protectively close but Giovanni could see her face clearly. A face that looked so similar to Catalina’s when she was a small girl, he glanced to Lorenzo to see if he noticed too. Lorenzo stared at the child transfixed. He had.

  “Who is she?” he asked, his voice going hoarse.

  “She’s my daughter. I named her Eve Fabiana Battaglia.”

  “Why?” he glanced up into Mira’s eyes.

  “Because she’s your daughter too.”

  “Eve Fabiana?” he repeated. He stood. No one spoke. Giovanni walked over to the little girl and knelt to her level. They were only a few feet apart. “Siete il bambina piccolo più dolce,” he said. Eve blinked at him, and he had to smile. It felt strange smiling. It was more of a twitching of his lips than the actual act. It had been quite some time since he was surprised, pleasantly surprised like this.

  “Eve?” he extended his hand. He reached for the plug she sucked and removed it from her mouth. She had the sweetest pink rosebud lips. His little one frowned at him for the offense and immediately she grabbed the plug dangling from a bumblebee pin on a satin ribbon and stuck it back in her mouth. Eve sucked harder with a warning in her clear blue eyes for him not to try it again.

  Mira spoke. “It’s her pacifier. She doesn’t like to be without it.”

  “Oh? Pacy-flier.” Giovanni repeated. He then reached for her hand. She had little cute stubby fingers. He kissed her hand. Eve pulled away from him and turned to her mother for comfort. His daughter didn’t know him. The pain arrowed into his heart, and he could barely summon a breath. He was a stranger to his own flesh and blood. How could Mira be so cruel? Did she fear or hate him this much to keep him from his child?

  Mira smiled at him. He said Eve was the sweetest little baby in Italian. Eve sucked on her pacifier and peeked back over at Giovanni, then turned her face away to bury it into Mira’s neck.

  “What are you doing?” Kei asked, the pain in his voice made her cringe. When her gaze swiveled to Kei then Giovanni she saw the frozen heated glare he leveled on Kei.

  “Remember what we discussed,” Kei said. Giovanni’s brows lowered.

  Panicked she rose and held Eve’s hand as she stepped to Kei. “Don’t. Do. This,” she whispered.

  Giovanni stood tall. Parting the folds of his trench coat he slid his hands down into his trouser pockets. His voice was smooth, overly calm. “Do what Bella? He’s your man isn’t he? He has a right to be heard. I’d love to hear what you two discussed about me.”

  His tone made her flush with shame. But she had nothing to be ashamed about. None of this was Kei’s fault or hers. How dare he! “Giovanni I’d like to speak to you alone.”

  Unfortunately her words had little effect. He returned his gaze to Kei and kept it leveled on him. There was something cold and dark in his stare, and it worried Mira. Worse yet was the unwavering glare Kei aimed his way. Neither man seemed the least bit intimidated. It was Mira who stood in fear. Caught between them both she had to defuse the situation quickly.

  “Giovanni. Please, let me explain,” Mira began.

  “Oh you will explain after you pack yours and Eve’s things. Kei and I will remain here and have a talk.”

  “She isn’t going anywhere with you.” Kei smirked.

  Mira shook her head. “Kei you promised. You promised you would let me handle this.”

  “I’m sorry sweetheart. You aren’t handling it. I won’t allow him to hurt you again. They won’t leave this airspace with you and get away with it. You think I haven’t planned for this day?” Kei spat at Giovanni. “You have no idea how far I will go to protect her.”

  Giovanni smirked. “I think I do. You’re the man that helped fake her death; that makes you resourceful.”

  “Damn right.”

  “Kei! Stop!”

  “Quiet, Bella. This is between Kei and I.”

  “No. I have Eve here. Look at her, the both of you! I don’t want this in front of her. So stop.”

  Her words seemed to have a cooling affect. She felt the tension shift in the room. However, her heart hammered so hard and fast in her chest she was panting and breathing hard through her nose.

  “You have Eve to think about.” Kei touched her shoulder. “You were standing here about to hand over your daughter to this… this man.”

  Mira lowered Eve, who walked away bored with the scene. She turned to Kei and stepped in his face. “You’ve been a good friend to me. I love you for wanting to protect me, but you have to trust me to do what’s best for my daughter. I need to talk to Giovanni.”

  “Why don’t the three of us have a fucking chat?” Giovanni interjected. “Since you two have had plenty of conversations without me.”

  “Watch your mouth in front of my daughter.” Mira said.

  “Watch your mouth in front of me.” Giovanni warned.

  Mira seethed. “This is between you and me, leave Kei out of it.”

  “Why? Why! You brought him into this!”

  “I brought him into this? What about you? What about—.” Mira bit down on her lip. He would kill Kei if she didn’t appeal to his heart, and quick. Did she think he was a murderer? If you had asked her two years ago after he showed her his heart she would have said no. But now with the blood of her best friend between them she had no illusions over who he truly was. And there was something else. He felt different to her. Cold and indifferent. The act of communicating with Eve seemed to exhaust him. As if he hadn’t worked his heart muscle for love and compassion in quite some time. “I will go with you. Eve and I will leave right now if you let Kei go.”

  “Mira no!” Kei grabbed her arm. “You don’t have to bargain for my life. I can handle him. He can’t force you to go.”

  Giovanni smirked. “She’s coming with me regardless.”

  Dominic and Lorenzo chuckled with their boss. The cold reality was certain. Not even the presence of their daughter would prevent him from having his way. And that scared her too. She had to protect Eve. Mira pulled her arm free of Kei’s hold. She approached Giovanni.

  “You’re angry with me, Kei has done nothing to you. Please. Just let him go. Promise me,” she said.

  Giovanni tossed another look in the direction of Kei and processed her request. Compassion wasn’t something he dealt in, personally or business wise. No one ever had any compassion for him, including her since she fled and allowed another man to enter his daughter’s heart.

  “Uccidalo,” he said, with a smile in his voice.

  Mira stepped in front of Kei. Giovanni froze as did his men. Did she understand his order? How could she? She didn’t speak Italian. He had ordered Dominic to kill the man who stood between him and his Bella.

  “Take it back! Take it back, Giovanni, right now. I won’t let you hurt him!”

  Eve reappeared and went straight for Kei. The toddler pushed past Dominic’s legs to give her stepfather the toy. “Poppy!” she said.

  Giovanni narrowed his eyes on the man as he lifted his daughter in his arms. She called him father? Mira allowed this? And he was to be compassionate? Dominic looked over to Giovanni not sure how to proceed. He could sense the same astonishment from Lorenzo. What she had done. Taking his child was one of the most unforgivable sins. In a blink he could have his way. Now he was too mentally wounded to act. His hesitance showed his men a sign of weakness Flavio had predicted. His father had waged a mafia war and sacrificed his honor and family for the love of a woman. Here he stood two years into doing exactly the same.

  “Do you hear me? I said no.” Mira shoved him
square in the chest. He barely moved but she had shoved him hard. He felt her conviction, and it furthered his pain. Had she shed one single tear for him? Missed him? Had she felt anything for him at all?

  “No!” she shouted in his face. As if his silence was due to this fucker, and not her blatant lack of loyalty.

  He grabbed her wrist and yanked her forward. His mouth curled into a snarl. “Nessun movimento!” He ordered his men not to move and pulled her toward the first room he could locate. He heard Kei call her name and knew his men wouldn’t let him get any further. Giovanni tossed Mira into the room and slammed the door. She whirled around angrily.

  “Don’t you ever put your hands on me in anger again!” she hissed.

  “What type of woman lets the man she claimed she loved think she is dead and steals his child from him? We have a name for you, your kind. Shall I say it?”

  “Don’t you dare, if you do I won’t let you take it back!”

  Giovanni paced before her, his chest tight with grief, but mostly jealousy. She was his and that gave him comfort over the years. Looking at her now he had to wonder if it was all a lie. All of it.

  “You coward!” she said.

  “Che cazzo dici?” Giovanni advanced on her. “Coward? Is that what you think I am?”

  “Yes. Coward. It takes a coward to order a man’s death. That’s what you said out there. Kill him is what you said.”

  Giovanni stood perfectly still. Mira glared at him while her bold words continued to filet his soul. “All you can think about is you! You said you would protect me. You said you were harmless. Loving you cost me my best friend. Loving you cost me my sanity! I didn’t have to steal anything from you. You walked away and left me alone to fend for myself!” she raised her voice. “That man out there kept me from suffering the same fate that Fabiana did and I won’t let you hurt him, because of your fucking ego!”

  The accusation wounded him deeply. He would have cut out his heart to save her one minute's pain. When he opened his mouth to say so nothing escaped him.

  Mira trembled before him on the verge of tears, and he could barely look at her. He didn’t want to hurt her, but part of him needed to discipline her. She was his woman, even if she didn’t think so. If she shed one tear for him, it would make up for the thousands of tears he’d shed in his dark lonely world without her.

  “Flavio acted outside of my orders. He was not supposed to put you on that plane. I had no idea he would send you back to America.”

  Mira waved her hands angrily in his face to stop him from speaking. “I can’t rehash all of this, I don’t want to.”

  “Too late. I will be heard, forgiven. Accuse me of anything but not abandoning you!”

  She looked up at him with stretched weepy eyes. “Fabiana is dead, Giovanni! Dead. I begged you not to leave me. I have never cried as many tears in my life the night I lost you both. You waited until I was asleep and left me with… him. Angelique, my assistant, died. She died because of me. So much death surrounds you, what the hell do you think I was supposed to do? Come to you pregnant with mafia men hunting me? Are you kidding? Flavio didn’t cause all of this havoc in my life. You did! You lied to me about closing my store. You manipulated me to move my things into your home. You didn’t trust me enough with your feelings to warn me that we were in danger. What happened is your fault. What you are is what scared me into running.”

  He took a step toward her. “What I am is the father of your child, the man that loved you. And you will respect me Bella or so help me God I’ll end him in front of you!” he said his face flushed with embarrassment and anger.

  “You’re my nightmare,” she said shaking her head sadly.

  “At least I’m still in your dreams.” He reached for her.

  Mira moved away from his touch. “Let him live, Giovanni. He helped me when no one did. You and I owe him our daughter’s life. Do you understand that?”

  He reached for her again and she allowed his touch. Refusing him wasn’t really an option. He touched her face and she turned her head, closing her eyes. His lips brushed her tears and his hand went to her hip. “I want to talk about us. I left messages in America, I tried to reach you,” he said softly. “Why didn’t you call me? I would have come for you.”

  “I didn’t know you tried to reach me.”

  “How could you not know?”

  Mira hesitated. Kei handled all incoming calls for her. Did he know? Did he keep it from her? She shook off the distraction. “Kei was there when I needed him. I don’t know how I would have made it without him.”

  “Why the fuck do you keep speaking his fucking name to me? Che palle! Are you in love with him? Are you fucking him?” he shouted in her face.

  Hurt she blinked and stepped back. “Let’s not talk about us, because anything I say you twist it!” She tried to walk around him.

  Giovanni grabbed her arms. “You had the power to do this differently. I had none. No matter what you believed, in your heart you had to know I would never toss you out into the streets like trash. I thought you loved me, yet you betray me!”

  “I had no choice. You gave me no choice!” She broke free of his hold.

  “I’ll give you a choice today. Say goodbye to your lover. Pack my daughter’s things and leave with me or send me out the door and I can’t promise you anything.”

  “So you’re threatening him?”

  “Oh Bella, you missed understood cara. I’m threatening you both,” Giovanni said.

  Mira couldn’t believe it. “Who the hell are you now?”

  “Your nightmare. Isn’t that what you called me? You wanted a choice, I gave you one. Make it.”

  “Will you let Kei go?”

  “I’ll let your lover live.” He turned and headed for the door. “That’s more important to you obviously.”

  “I won’t put Eve in danger. That’s not a choice. A choice is you let me raise her out of this thing that you do. To keep her safe.”

  Giovanni chuckled over the absurdity of her request.

  “Why? Why can’t you do this for me? After everything that’s happened, you know I’m trying to put our daughter first. Why? Especially since you hate me so much.”

  “Because you belong to me,” he said through clenched teeth. “The day she was born you became my donna. Look at me.” She closed her eyes trying to calm her self, to think of a way to reason with him, but nothing came. “Look at me dammit!” he shouted at her. Mira opened her eyes. She glanced up at him. He glared to the point of his eyes narrowing to blue slits. “I’d never walk away from my child, and there isn’t a damn thing your lover out there can do about it.”

  “Love! What about love Giovanni?”

  “The word means nothing to you. So don’t throw it in my face now.”

  Mira turned away from him and the door closed. She put her hands to her temples and the tears she’d suppressed in the last ten minutes broke through. Kei was right. She was in over her head.

  Giovanni waited a breath outside of the door. He felt sick to his stomach. He closed his eyes and tried to swallow a bit more of his pride. The weaker man in him wanted to go back in and plead his case, beg for her to try to love him. She despised him, and the realization of what he lost with her made him insanely jealous and desperate. They created a baby together and she’d rather run from him than let him share in the single good thing he’s done in this world. He could be a good father. He could try. Giovanni wiped his hand down his face and cleared it of sweat. His anger and hurt made him feverish and jumpy. Maybe she was right. He wasn’t worthy of her. But dammit he wouldn’t let her go. Hate him if she must. She was his donna and he’d teach her what that meant.

  He found Dominic and Lorenzo hovering dangerously close to Kei who held Eve but faced off with them boldly. Something was off with this one. He didn’t cower and that made him dangerous. After all he had the resources to make Mira Ellison disappear. Their eyes met. Giovanni knew a formidable foe when he saw one. Kei was not a man to be dis
counted. Strange. Dominic said he was a wealthy banker. What gave him his balls? There was another factor at play, and he was determined to uncover the source of the Asian’s bravery.

  He approached.

  Dominic and Lorenzo stepped aside.

  “Eve, I’m Papa Gio,” he said. The baby stared at him curiously. She spit out her pacifier. “Ti Amo Eve, I’m Papa.”

  “Pa-pa?” she repeated.

  Giovanni smiled, he looked to the men he considered brothers and they smiled in encouragement. “Sí, Papa, now come to me bambina. I want to hold you,” he said reaching for her.

  The little girl blinked at him a bit wary. She stuck the plug back in her mouth and looked to the Asian for permission. Giovanni struggled to remain humble, but like a ticking bomb the seconds wound down and his impatience quickly surfaced. Kei sized Giovanni up. He released her. A wise move. He passed him his daughter, and she went to him without complaint. Silently he vowed to spend the rest of his days being the father she’d reach for. Eve threw her arms around Giovanni’s neck. He kissed her chubby cheek. The little plug in her mouth remained, but she managed to grin while holding it in place with her teeth. Most remarkable were her eyes. She had his mother’s eyes. They were mirrors of his own.

  “What did you do to Mira?” The Asian man asked.

  “She’s no longer your concern.” He bounced Eve in his arms. Kei made to reach for Giovanni’s new love to end their bonding but Dominic smoothly stepped between them. “She asked that you be allowed to live,” Giovanni continued, he rubbed his nose against Eve’s and she touched his beard with a curious furrow of her brow. “I will honor that request. But it does have an expiration date. I suggest you forget all about Mira and my little Evie. Return to America of wherever the fuck you came from immediately.”

  “You dictate nothing to me,” Kei replied in a cold almost amused tone.