Twenty-eight:Niccolo Capaldi The summer before I graduated was the summer that I had to swear allegiance to the Cosa nostra. There were different factions in different cities all with different families running it. It was an intense system, built on loyalty, secrets, and bloodshed. At the end of August, on my eighteenth birthday, I would take what was called an omerta. A vow of silence swearing my allegiance to it. And then I would have to kill someone for them to prove my worth. All summer long, even as I lost myself in Daniela, I kept on waking up in sweat, breathing hard, having nightmares about it. I still remembered finding Audrina’s dad in the hotel, half-dead from a bullet wound and he barely survived. At night, Daniela would slip into my room, and sleep with me. When I woke up, the only thing I could do to get my mind off of the nightmares I had was to lose myself in her. I started by kissing her neck, which always woke her up.Daniela rol
Twenty-nine:Daniela Berni Except for a few instances, I usually felt safe having the Capaldi’s in my life. I had heard of a lot of awful things happening to others who were around similar types of people. But aside from my mother and the incident with Audrina, most of the time I hadn’t had any trouble. There was, however, one other instance that stood out in my memory when I remembered the kind of lifestyle that I was caught up in. The last week of August, right before our senior year, Niccolo’s birthday was going to take place in Rome. Giuseppe took all of us up to the city from the villa, packing all of our stuff with us.On our last day, Niccolo took me into the fashion district in Rome. Rick was our driver that day. “I’ve got something important I have to do today,” he told me, “So Rick’s going to take you shopping. The stores all have accounts with my father. Just tell them it’s the Capaldi account. Get whatever you like. Lingerie, dresses. Your clothes for the school year. I d
Thirty:Niccolo Capaldi There was a field outside of Milan where, when we got there, the private jet had arrived for us. My pilot was waiting outside of it along with the flight crew. “Mr. Capaldi,” he said, “what the hell happened? Why are you covered in blood? Where’s the old man?” “Giuseppe’s dead. My brothers been kidnapped. And Audrina Bianchi is a traitor I just don’t know to who or how.” “Fuck.” The pilot ran a hand through his hair. “Well, that’s quite the way to start a Monday morning. Where to?” “New York. Make sure it’s a private airport, if you know what I mean.” I had hold of Daniela’s hand as I led her onto the plane. She’d been quiet for the whole drive. So had I. It wasn’t easy to be able to drive when you were constantly looking over your shoulder every five seconds to see if someone was following us. But it seemed that Audrina and her people were long gone. The blood from my father had dried on
Thirty-one:Daniela Berni It was the longest plane ride of my life. I showered, changed, and then I fell into bed with Niccolo. Not the way that I wanted. When we got to New York, we ended up at the Capaldi family loft that was owned by Niccolo’s uncle. Once we got there, Domitus Capaldi otherwise known as Dom was waiting for us. He was tall, with “Cousin!” Dom exclaimed, hugging Niccolo to him tightly, patting him on the back. “I’m sorry to hear about Uncle Giuseppe’s passing. I’m glad to see that you’re alive.” Niccolo pulled away from him. “Thank you, cousin. Me too. Oh, you’ve met Daniela. My girlfriend.” I smiled at him.Dom grinned, and kissed my hand. “Nice to see you again, Daniela. I’m happy to see that Niccolo finally quite being an idiot and told you how he felt. It’s about time that the two of you got together.”“Thank you. Thank you for letting us stay with you too. What about you? Any luck with that girl you told me about
Thirty-two:Daniela Berni The first time I slept with Niccolo, someone tried to kill us. Now I was back together with him, and someone was trying to kill us again. It seemed that no matter what I could do I was never going to stay safe. The best thing I could do was to train how to do it myself as much as possible. We had twenty-four hours to turn me into someone lethal enough that could take out Alessandro. And Niccolo was being a big, giant baby about it. “Explain to me why there’s a weapons room in a New York Loft,” I said, “what is this? Is it The Mortal Instruments?” Niccolo frowned. “I don’t know what that is.”His cousin Dom, who was also in the room, smiled. “Well, you never know when you might need a grenade to throw at someone.” I raised an eyebrow. “You have grenade’s in here?” Niccolo coughed. “He was joking.” He glared at Dom. “There’s nothing that dangerous in here.” “Really?” I said, “So what about
Thirty-threeNiccolo Capaldi I hated this. I hated teaching soft, sweet, Daniela who always cared about everyone and everything how to fight. Because that meant there were going to be situations where I couldn’t protect her. Where she might have to defend herself. That was the truth of our world. Darkness was around every corner. It didn’t matter where you went. But teaching her how to fight was better than what happened the last time that we were together. In Rome, when we’d finally had sex, and the men from a rival gang shot at the car with her in it. What should have been a happy night for the two of us turned into the most miserable night of my life. Rick sped through the streets of Rome as fast he could to get back to the hotel. When he opened the door for me, I helped get Daniela out of the car then carried her over my shoulder up to the suite. “What are you doing?” Daniela demanded. “Niccolo, put me down!” I didn’t an
Thirty-fourDaniela Berni I felt like I was going to throw up. I was going to meet my father to try and get Luca back. And Audrina, if she hadn’t turned out to be a complete and total traitor. Except everything pointed to that. I’d been told to dress nice in my father’s text. I had no idea what that meant. So, I was wearing a dress loaned to me by Dom’s sister. We were meeting Alessandro at his family home, in upstate New York. The drive there took seemingly forever. There was an old mansion done in the Greek Revival style of the 1800s. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Niccolo asked me. A pained expression crossed my face. “I don’t have a choice in the matter, Nic. This is how we’re going to save them.” “Okay. But just so you know, the house we’re at right now isn’t a Ramono house.” I looked from the house back to him. “It’s not?” He shook his head. “It’s a Barretta home.” I frowned. “Isn’t that we
Thirty-fiveNiccolo Capaldi Kevlar vests were a god send, I decided, the moment that Audrina hit me with a bullet. I had a “friend” in the police station that had managed to get me some. I crumpled from the pain of the bullet Daniela’s sister shot at me. But mostly for dramatic effect more than anything. Once Daniela was inside, I waited a few moments and got up. “Fuck, that hurt.” Even though I wouldn’t bleed, it was mostly the force of impact that got me. Now, I just had to figure out how to get inside the house without being noticed. Old houses like these typically had basements. Usually with a back entrance to them. If there was shady shit going on inside, that was where I would find my brother. As long as he wasn’t unconscious. I made my way to the back of the house. I saw two guards standing in the back on the patio. Both of them were smoking. I had taken a couple of the syringes that I used to knock out Daniela with. I walked up to where the