Mariko again came to her rescue. “It is true, Nicoletta. I have had a difficult time disassociating when the crime is too close to me.”
Emmanuelle uncrossed her legs. “Unfortunately, I think all of us do. It’s a human trait. We try, but when something is so close and we feel responsible, or someone hurts someone we love, we can’t help wanting revenge.”
Vittorio put his arm around his sister. “I chased a man, Grace’s foster brother, a serial killer who had made her life a nightmare. He shot her, intending to shoot me, after selling her to the Saldis to pay a gambling debt. I wanted to hurt him before I delivered justice to him. It wasn’t going to be justice, either. I wanted to kill him for the things he’d done to her. It took a great deal of self-control before I was able to fall back on my training and deliver justice for justice’s sake. Disassociation is the hardest lesson and the most important there is, whether you are the victim or the one sent to deliver justice.”
Nicoletta had gotten her breathing and racing heart under control, thanks to Mariko, Emmanuelle and Vittorio. She sent each of them a small smile of thanks.
“I understand what you’re saying, Stefano, although, as everyone says, it is difficult, and I know if they get their hands on Lucia or Amo, I don’t know how I would react.” She could hear the raw honesty in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. She loved her foster parents, and if Benito threatened them, she’d do anything at all to get them back. “I’d do whatever it took, including give myself up to him.”
Taviano dropped his hand to her thigh and her heart nearly stopped. Her entire body reacted to his touch, in spite of the enormity of the conversation. Her core throbbed and burned. His declaration earlier, the promise of stripping her naked and devouring her, reverberated through her mind. She couldn’t believe she could be distracted just by his hand on her thigh. His palm was burning a brand through her skirt to her thigh. His hand was high up, so close to where her heart beat right through her pulsing clit.
Taviano leaned down to press his lips close to her ear, but when he spoke even in that low tone, it was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. “You wouldn’t, amore mio. You would trust your marito, and your famiglia, to get them back. You will do what you are told and remain safe. We know how to handle these situations, and you have to have faith that we would get Lucia and Amo back unharmed.”
She wanted to say she would do that. She really did, but she wasn’t going to lie to Taviano. She’d promised herself—and him—that there would not be lies between them. “I swear I would try, Taviano, but they’ re … sacred.” She couldn’t come up with any other word. “I would try.” That was all she could give him.
Stefano nodded his head. “I understand, cara. If someone took Francesca, I would feel the same. Trust us. Fight the inclination to give in, should that happen. The likelihood is slim, unless Lucia or Amo leave the safety of where we placed them. Valdez can’t get to them where they are.”
She was not going to go visit them, not until this was over, when she had intended to do just that. Now she knew Stefano had placed her foster parents somewhere very safe, and she wasn’t about to jeopardize them by leaving a trail to them for selfish reasons. “What are you going to do? You said that some of the Demons were heading this way from Detroit.”
Stefano nodded. “We intend to intercept this evening. The moment word gets to us that they stopped to eat, we’ll visit them. We don’t want them to get to our territory. I believe Valdez has several such branches of his army heading our way from various directions. We’ve got eyes on them. He’s directing them. He’d like them to get here before his arrival.”
She had heard that Benito used that tactic often, whenever he was going to take over a new territory. He would send out several branches of his army. They would pick off their rivals and then surround the territory before going in and wiping them out. It was always a bloody massacre. The idea that Benito Valdez was deploying his armies on Ferraro territory and the civilians who were just going about their lives was terrifying to her.
“He takes over that way,” she informed them.
Taviano must have felt the quake in her mind, because it wasn’t in her voice. She was proud of that. He used his thumb to stroke the inside of her thigh, once again distracting her beyond all reason. She was certain he meant to soothe her, but her body was already on fire. She felt torn apart, mind and body going in two different directions.