Liss
I can’t hear Matteo walking to the sofa over the sound of Romeo’s video game, so when he touches my shoulder I startle and immediately turn around. My body is still high on adrenaline from the events of the day, my mind is alert, and even though I’m back in Matteo’s house-the safest place in my life right now-I still can’t shake off the tension in my muscles.
“They’ll be here any minute now.” Matteo squeezes my shoulder, looking at me with a careful frown. “Are you sure you’re ready to do it now?”
I nod, frowning in determination. “Yes. I don’t want to wait until my memories get blurry. If I can be of any help, I want to give you all the information I have.”
“Alright. Just let me know if you need time.” He pats my shoulder before turning to Romeo who is snuggled between me and Dolce with a gaming console in his hands. “Romeo, when Uncle Riccardo arrives, you stop your game and go up to your room, understand?”
“But, Papa!” Romeo immediately pouts and, putting the game on pause, raises his head to look at Matteo over the back of the sofa. “I don’t want to go there. It’s my time to play!”
Matteo doesn’t give in, of course, and only puts his hands on the sofa with a stern look. “I’m not asking you, Romeo. We have serious things to discuss. You can always play later.”
“Does that mean Miss Liss will come with me?” Romeo’s face immediately lights up with a smile, but Matteo shakes his head.
“No, we need her here as well.” “But, Papa!”
I can’t help but smile, watching them bicker as if the last week didn’t happen at all, and finally I decide to help Matteo. I reach out to put my hand on Romeo’s shoulder, and as soon as he turns to me I offer him a friendly smile.
“I’ll go up to your room as soon as I’m done, alright?” I squeeze his shoulder, watching the frustration in his eyes shift into a grumpy frown. “In the meantime, you can prepare the stage for a battle.”
After a moment of hesitance, Romeo looks up at me. “Ship battle?” “Of course! If that’s what you want.”
I smile wider as Romeo’s expression finally softens, and he looks at me with more curiosity. “Can I use all the toys from the box?”
I chuckle. “Sure.”
“Yes! I’ll show you the one I won at school. It’s small but so cool!” “Oh, you won it? Interesting.” I ruffle his hair with my heart warm
and soft from affection when my eyes catch a flash of light behind his back.
There are three cars turning into our driveway. The heads of the Messina Clan are here.
I swallow, feeling my heart tighten with an uncomfortable feeling. I’m not sure what to expect from them-after all, I was the one to betray them and create this whole mess. No matter what Matteo says about them being his brothers and understanding my motives, I doubt they’re as willing to forgive me as he is. And I can’t blame them. If things went a little bit differently during the bust-that I helped the Mexicans with-some of them could be injured or even killed.
Shit. Is it actually a good idea for us to talk? But I take a deep breath and straighten my shoulders, pulling myself together. Instead of ruminating about my own mistakes, I better focus on making things right.
“Romeo, what did I tell you?” Matteo reminds him on the way to open the door. I sit up straight, unsure if I should stay with Romeo or go with Matteo to meet the guests. “Put your game on pause and go to your room.”
“Alright, alright,” Romeo grumbles under his breath and pauses the game before jumping off the couch. “Can I say hi at least?”
Dolce follows him, getting off the couch, and I have no choice but to stand up and walk to the door where Matteo is already greeting his brothers. I know only Louis from the couple of times I saw him picking up Misha after school, but the two others are unfamiliar to me.
“Hey, buddy, how are you doing?” “I thought Elena would be here.”
“She’s tired after struggling to feed Mia all day.”
“Oh, Luna has her third tooth now.”
The conversation flows naturally, so I don’t even feel the need to join and only watch them from a few feet away. The similarity between all of them is striking, and something in the way they talk to each other,
exchanging chuckles and shaking hands, makes it obvious just how close they are. They’re a family, and I understand now what Matteo was talking about when he said he was never alone in his struggles.
Only two people in the crowd are clearly not a part of the Messina family, but it seems they all feel comfortable around each other. One of them is Sasha and the other is a man I don’t recognize. He looks more like Sasha with his light brown hair and bright eyes, so I assume that he is Russian as well.
It seems that the Messinas are so close with the Pushkov family that they’re even willing to bring their members into the official meeting. Well, they know what they’re doing, I guess. I’m not the one to judge their decisions.
“You must be Liss.”
Suddenly, a male voice pulls me out of my thoughts, and I blink and automatically look in the man’s direction. One of the Messina men steps closer to me, and even though I’ve never seen him in person, it takes me one glance to recognize Riccardo, the don of the Messina Clan. He has an air of power and confidence around him, and when I meet his gaze for a moment, I feel my guts tighten with nervousness and instinctively look
away.
“Yes,” I say, absentmindedly noticing how everyone else goes quiet. Everyone except for Romeo who bounces on his feet and runs back to me to wrap his hands around my wrist and look up at Riccardo with a grin.
“Miss Liss is my nanny.”
“That much I know,” Riccardo says with a hint of a smile, and I hear Louis chuckle behind him. “Well, let’s see what your nanny has to tell us.”
Matteo finally sends Romeo to his room, not without a pouty face from the latter, and all seven of us gather together in the living room with Louis and the Russian guy-Sergei, if I heard correctly-not shying away from taking seats on the carpet. Even in the small talk that they exchange, I can feel the weight of their attention on me, and finally, when the
conversation goes quiet, Matteo clears his throat and puts his hand on my forearm.
“You can tell them everything from the start.”
“From the start?” I look at Matteo, unsure if I’m understanding him correctly. For me, everything started with Hank’s murder and my oath to get back at the Messinas, the very people that now sit in front of me. Does he really think they want to know all that?
“Yes.” He turns to the rest of them, squeezing my arm ever so slightly. “I want you to know the whole story.”
Louis and Paolo exchange a glance with a hint of a smile on their lips while Riccardo eyes me for a second and nods. “Alright. Just keep it straight.”
And so I do. I tell them about my brother, receiving a nod of understanding from Paolo, and his murder that turned my life upside down and left me on my own with my grief and desire for revenge. I tell them about my ex-boyfriend who introduced me to the world of the Mafia, the encounters with the Mexicans, and how they were the first ones to bring some clarity to Hank’s death with their promise to help me find justice. This part doesn’t seem to impress them, and only Sergei chuckles and shakes his head, murmuring something in Russian.
Finally, I tell them about Giovanni and how he helped me get into Matteo’s house, how I used it to spy on the Messinas, and how I was
supposed to kill Matteo. Thankfully, they don’t ask why I didn’t do it, but I guess my fingers entwined with his speak for themselves. Then I move on to tell them about the events of today, how I met with Giovanni and almost killed him, how Matteo got me out of there, and in the end I show the latest messages from Giovanni.
“These rats are getting bolder day by day,” Louis says with an unimpressed huff, handing the phone to Sasha, but Riccardo doesn’t seem as nonchalant as his cousin. He says nothing for a moment, staring into the distance and thinking over my story, before looking up at me.
“This Giovanni. Can you describe him?”
“Sure. He, um, he has very dark hair, almost black, and it’s usually tied in a bun, so it must be quite long. He has tan skin, dark eyes, and he’s quite tall and broad, but I guess that’s common in your profession.” I
chuckle, looking between them, but none of them bats an eye, so I clear my throat and look away again. “Uh, what else? He has this nose that’s kind of bent down a little, but I don’t know…I guess that’s it.”