Ti Amo (5 page)

Chapter Three

Morning came quick. Mira felt as if she’d slept on a bed of rocks. She tossed and turned all night with dreams she couldn’t recall. She managed to cover herself with her robe and make it downstairs to prepare breakfast on steady legs. However, fatigue weighed her eyelids and she kept yawning uncontrollably. Her gaze lifted from the step in time to keep from colliding with Kei. He waited for her in the narrow stairwell, evidently having heard her rise.

“Morning.”

“Hi,” he said softly.

“Is Eve up?” Mira asked through a yawn. She didn’t hurry to rise because she knew Kei would be with her daughter as soon as she opened her eyes.

“She’s in her chair eating dry cereal. I want to take you two to breakfast. How fast can you get dressed?”

Today was not the day for an excursion. She really craved more sleep. Mira smiled weakly. “I can cook something for us.”

“Enough of you in the kitchen. I want to take my girls out. It’s nice today. Besides you stay cooped up in here too much as it is.”

“I’m a little tired.” She wiped her hand down her face and stretched her eyes to fight back her exhaustion.

“I see. You don’t get much sun or exercise. Relax sweetheart. Please let me help. Let’s have breakfast and let Little Rabbit run around in the snow.”

Mira nodded. “Fine, bring her to me so I can change her. We’ll be ready within the hour.”

Kei nodded but stepped forward instead of backward. “I feel like you’ve been avoiding us, since we had our talk.”

“Really. Have you been paying attention? I spend every minute of the day chasing a toddler.” She crossed her arms.

“And I’ve been chasing you.”

Despite the twinge of irritation pricking at her heart she smiled and cupped the side of his face. “Eve does love the snow. Doesn’t she?”

Kei stood on the step beneath her. Because of his height he continued to look her directly in the eye.  Giving her body to him wasn’t an option. God knows sex would only complicate things further between them. But she’d have to be inhuman to ignore how handsome he was. He had the silent calmness in and out of his personal life that commanded respect. Mira decided she wouldn’t fight his offer of support. And she was ready to try. “How did I get so lucky?”

“I’m the lucky one,” he said turning his face to kiss the inside of her palm. Mira leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss. It ended. They continued to look into each other's eyes. He finally cleared his voice and spoke. “I love you.”

“I adore you. Thank you, Kei. For everything.”

She turned and went up the stairs. When she reached the top she glanced back at him. He stared up at her with a satisfied smirk. He winked and bounded back to the kitchen. Mira chuckled. Today would be a good day for them all. She could feel it.

****

They arrived. From the back of his chauffeured car Giovanni slipped deeper into thoughts of her. Two days had boiled his anger down to a smoldering calm. He loved her just as much today as the last time he’d laid eyes on her. The thought of rejection left him nervous and doubtful of his decision to confront her. She could slam the door in his face. What right did he have to force it open? She made no attempt to contact him. Did she know he’d attended her fake funeral? Did she know he made everyone with the name Calderone pay, and pay even more for Fabiana’s death?

“How do you want to run this?” Dominic asked.

“I have no plan,” he muttered.

“However you decide to handle seeing her we support you one hundred percent,” Dominic said.

Giovanni nodded clenching and unclenching his gloved fist. He rode the rest of the way in silence. He half listened to Dominic and Lorenzo discuss directions from the map they followed. The drive progressed slowly through hills and snow covered valleys. Giovanni reclined his head and closed his eyes. He slipped in to the drowsy warmth of his memories, good sweet memories of her.

Mira caught her reflection in the restaurant window that faced the street. She couldn’t believe how much she’d changed. Her hair was longer and thicker, her skin paler. She wore jeans tucked in to a dark pair of riding boots, and a thick eggshell white crewneck sweater over a matching turtleneck. Her makeup was light, a brush of lip-gloss and some compressed powder to smooth out the dark circles from under her eyes. The past two days she’d been on edge. At first she attributed it to the talk she’d had with Kei. It did drag up all those old feelings for the man whose name was never spoken between them. Now she had to wonder if she was coming down with something.

“You plan to eat?” Kei asked, sipping his coffee.

The fresh smell of her baked croissant stuffed with crème cheese made her mouth water. However, she hadn’t touched her breakfast. Mira picked up her fork and sliced off a flaky section of the croissant and stuffed her mouth, chewing, swallowing. “Yes. It’s delicious.”

Eve swiped a slice of melon from her plate, and Mira smiled. Eve blinked her large eyes up at her mother as she licked the melon and began to nibble on the juicy center. Her daughter needed to work on her table manners. Mira had chosen a window seat in the restaurant so the snowfall and the people strolling by could distract Eve.  Otherwise her little angel would demand release from her highchair to terrorize the other patrons.

To retrieve the melon, which was too large for her to eat, she passed Eve her striped yellow, blue, and green cup with a childproof lid. Her little girl turned up the juice, eyeing the melon placed back on Mira’s plate.

“I was thinking that maybe we’d take Eve skiing? She’s old enough.”

“She’s not even two yet!” Mira laughed.

“We just stand her up on skis and let her go.”

“You are not sending my baby down a hill of ice. No way.” Mira chuckled. When she glanced to the window her smile froze. Two full body, four door Mercedes sedans passed by. The windows were darkly tinted. The vehicles appeared a bit flashy for the small modest town. Nervous energy fluttered like trapped butterflies in her tummy.

“Something wrong?” Kei asked.

Mira’s gaze swiveled to Kei. “Huh?”

“You look grey. Are you feeling okay?” he asked.

Trying to swallow the lump that lingered in her throat Mira smiled. She nodded. The cars disappeared from view. Eve slammed her cup on the table and grunted, pointing at the piece of toast Kei had on his plate. “Let Poppy cut you a slice of melon instead,” Kei winked.

Eve grinned. Mira’s eyes shifted to the window once more. Suddenly all the pleasure of their breakfast outing left her. The cars had the hairs on the back of her nape standing on end.

The Mercedes sedans came to a stop in front of a two story stone white cottage with a red triangular roof shaped like an upside down cone. Opening the door Giovanni eased out of the car. His Italian loafers crunched ice and snow under his feet. He wasn’t chilled in the least. His anxiety and curiosity kept him warm. The other men all exited the cars. Giovanni took a few steps forward then stopped. A curious neighbor stepped out of her home to gawk at the men. Admittedly they looked a sight, with all of them in dark coats and black suits. He glared directly at the woman, and she went back into her cottage.

Lorenzo approached. “Do you want me to see if someone’s home?”

“No.” He continued onward. Dominic told Carlo and Carmine to hang back as he followed Giovanni. Lorenzo ignored his wishes and stepped ahead reaching the door first. He knocked. The men waited. He knocked again. Giovanni’s gaze swept the windows. The place appeared to be empty.

Without provocation Lorenzo kicked the door in. The first to enter was Giovanni. It was her scent that greeted him, followed by her sense of style. The place had a cozy feminine warmth to it that reminded him of his sweet Mirabella.

“Find them,” he said.

Dominic and Lorenzo went in opposite directions to search out the house. Giovanni walked toward the brick hearth staring at the charred wood. Something soft squeaked beneath his foot. He stepped back and looked down. It was a kid’s toy. It looked like a little miniature doll. Giovanni stared at it for a long moment trying to process its existence among Mira’s things. He picked up the little doll whose eyes rolled shut and blinked back open. Squeezing its belly the doll giggled again. He walked into the kitchen and noticed a yellow and white kid’s chair with long legs and a tray to the front of it, pushed up to the kitchen table. There was a baby cup on the tray. Giovanni hadn’t realized it, but he was squeezing the doll so tightly in his clenched fist that the little voice box cracked inside of it.

“Gio, you need to see this,” Dominic said coming around the corner.

Giovanni didn’t move. She had a baby? She left him for this man and had his baby?

Lorenzo entered the kitchen.

“Gio, you need to come with me.” Dominic said more firmly.

He turned and followed Dominic. They went through a back hall. There was a single room with a broken padlock. Dominic had forced it open. “I thought something important would be in this room because of the lock.”

Giovanni walked in slowly, his heart hammering in his chest. He was overwhelmed by what was before him. Some of his angry disappointment evaporated and was replaced by confusion. His Bella had sketched their history in vivid detail. Everywhere were images of their time together. The vineyard, his mother’s cottage, even the bedroom they shared. She sketched Filipo, the errand boy who came to his mother’s cottage to deliver a message to him and a phone. She sketched them on his motorcycle traveling along the coast of the Amalfi. She sketched an intimate portrait of him holding her in his arms.

Lorenzo stepped inside. “What is this?”

Giovanni glanced over. The images of Fabiana were breathtakingly accurate. Lorenzo snatched down a drawing taped to the wall and stood there visibly shaken. “Why the hell did she do this?” he said, his voice choking on emotion.

Why? If she wanted nothing to do with him and had taken up with another man why paint these? “You said the door was locked?”

“Yes.” Dominic answered.

Disappointed that this was all there was to find he tossed the broken squeeze toy to a drawing table and walked out.

Mira glanced back over her shoulder. Eve blinked and sucked her pacifier. “How long do kids keep pacifiers?” she asked Kei.

“I don’t know. You think little rabbit is too old?”

“Not sure, but she’s growing like a weed and she’s stuck to that thing. I lost it once, and I swear she gave me the blues. Now I pin it to her shirts. You know, to keep the peace.”

Kei chuckled. “Interesting that you have to barter peace with a one year old.”

“She’s almost two, and don’t pretend you aren’t a negotiator as well. Where do you think she got her obsession with cookies?”

He glanced over at her and winked.

“I hope you aren’t upset about the hills. I really wanted to drive up into them to make a snowman. I think it’s a bit too cold for Eve.” Mira said.

Kei smiled. He reached over to squeeze her thigh. “I’d rather be inside warmed by the fire with you.”

Mira chuckled. “Good, then you can make a fresh one as soon as we return.”

The car coasted out of the city to the residential farmlands. Her cottage was located on a shared land of three farm families. As they turned up the single lane road Kei eased on the gas and the car slowed to a stop. Mira glanced up. The cars she’d seen earlier, both of them, were parked in front of their cottage. She narrowed her eyes on the vehicles.

“We got visitors. You expecting someone?” Kei asked.

“No.”

The driver door opened on one of the parked cars, the passenger door opened next. Two men exited the vehicles. One of the men was as tall as Giovanni and the other was slender and of medium height. He appeared to be younger. It was their style of dress and the hard stare they gave them from the distance that sent a chill through her.
Giovanni.
She knew it as sure as she knew her own name. How did he do it, and why now? They’d been so careful.

“Hold on!” Kei said ready to throw the car in reverse and speed away.

Mira grabbed his arm. “Don’t!” she shouted. Her raised voice stopped him.

“I know where to take you. We can get there before they catch us.”

“No. Not with Eve in the car.”

“Are you crazy? Those men want to kill you.” he said trying to shift the car into reverse.

“No! It’s not Angelo’s men. Look. It’s him. Giovanni.”

Kei’s gaze switched back to the men who now stepped into the street glaring at them.

“We can’t run from him now that he knows I’m alive. I won’t get in a car chase with Eve in the backseat. Just pull into the drive.”

Kei stared at her for a long moment. “Mira?”

“Please, Kei. Trust me. We talked about this. If he was to ever find out I’m alive you’d let me handle him.”

Kei sucked in a breath. They sat in silence for what felt like an eternity until Eve started to whine for attention. He glanced back at the baby and shook his head. “We can’t take this risk with Eve. You go in there and it gets bad, what then? I don’t even have my gun. Shit. Shit. Shit!” he pounded his fist on the steering wheel. “I let my guard down. This is my fault sweetheart.”