Twisted Bonds (The Camorra Chronicles 4)

They’d sent us a text that they hadn’t found Adamo and would return soon. I dialed Fabiano’s number. He picked up after the second ring. “What’s wrong, Kiara?”

“Can you come over? Serafina and I need to talk to you. Please don’t tell Remo and Nino.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

He stayed true to his promise and stalked into the living room exactly five minutes later, eyes tense with apprehension, one hand on his gun as if he expected an ambush.

Alessio was asleep in my lap by now. Nevio and Greta still sat on their blanket on the floor and played with multi-colored wooden blocks.

“What’s the matter? Did something happen?” Fabiano asked urgently.

Serafina and I exchanged a look and Fabiano grimaced. “That look doesn’t bode well. What’s wrong?”

Serafina stepped up to him and touched his arm. They’d been friends as kids and in the last few months the tension between them after the kidnapping had finally lessened. “You have to swear that you won’t tell Nino or Remo what we’re going to tell you. Not unless we tell you to.”

Fabiano stepped back so Serafina had to drop her hand, his expression hardening. “I betrayed Remo once and I won’t ever do it again.”

“It’s not betrayal if you’re helping them.”

“I owe my Capo the truth. I owe him loyalty.”

“Do you think Kiara or I’d ever do anything to betray our husbands?” Serafina hissed, stepping close to Fabiano. Looking like an angel, she still managed to appear fierce. “You are the only one who can help us save them.”

“From what?” Fabiano asked, becoming intent and tense, ready to go into war to protect his brothers-by-choice.

“From themselves,” I whispered. “Please Fabiano. We need your help.”

“Then tell me what’s the matter.”

“First you’ve got to swear that you’re not going to tell them,” Serafina insisted.

“That’s not going to happen, Serafina.”

Serafina glared then turned and stalked over to Greta and Nevio, who’d stopped playing at Fabiano’s arrival.

Fabiano caught my gaze, his expression questioning. “Kiara.”

I sighed and put Alessio down into his crib before I faced Fabiano. What choice did we have? We needed his help. Serafina gave a small nod, her lips pinched with worry.

“Their mother has escaped from the hospital.”

Fabiano’s eyes went wide then he shook his head. “Impossible. Remo gave the staff clear instructions. They’d never dare to go against him.”

“He gave them instructions to allow only a Falcone brother to release her.”

Fabiano frowned, then realization set in. “Fuck!” he snarled, causing Greta to drop her wooden block and began crying. He snapped his mouth shut and muttered under his breath. “What the fuck is wrong with the kid? First the fucking drugs, now this.”

Serafina cradled her daughter in her arms and as usual Greta calmed quickly. Fabiano sighed then glanced back toward me. “You realize Remo and Nino won’t rest until they’ve caught her.”

I bent over Alessio who was deep asleep, such a quiet baby when he wasn’t hungry. It hurt my heart to think he’d become that way because in his first weeks his cries had been ignored or been punished with pain. “Not if you catch her before them.”

Fabiano froze. “You want me to hunt her?”

“Hunt her and kill her,” Serafina said as she set Greta back down to Nevio who had begun clanking the blocks together.

Kill her? We hadn’t spoken about that. Serafina gave me a pained look.

“Kiara, don’t look at me like that. You know as well as I do that she’ll always haunt them for as long as she lives. Even now when they’re finally happy, she manages to ruin everything again. I want her gone from their lives once and for all. I want the past to end so we can focus on the future, on our family. I want her dead.”

Serafina was Remo’s wife through and through. She loved fiercely and brutally, and protected her children and Remo relentlessly. I gave a small nod, even as my stomach turned thinking I was deciding about someone’s life. But there was no limit to the length I would go to make sure Alessio and Nino were safe. I hadn’t intervened when Remo had killed Alessio’s birthmother, had I?

“You want me to kill her?” Fabiano asked slowly then laughed darkly. “Remo would never forgive me. Not in one million years if I took that kill from him and Nino. His fucking half-brother killed their father before Remo could. I won’t do that to Remo. If anyone ends that woman, it’ll be the Falcone brothers, not me.”

I closed my eyes. Fabiano wouldn’t budge on the subject.

Serafina stalked toward him. “It’s not just about them anymore. They have children. They have us. They have to be fathers and husbands.”

“Trust me, if they don’t handle her himself, they won’t be men you’ll want to live with.”