Mafia Mistress by Mila Finelli

Chapter Ten

Francesca

This was insane.It was like he was seducing me into killing him.

His voice, rough and low, filled the car and my head, luring me deeper into his web. I was mesmerized, not frightened, which worried me.

You are definitely not a good girl, Francesca.

Was that why I hadn’t fought when Ravazzani’s soldier shoved me back into the car? Or why my stomach fluttered when Ravazzani himself showed up to retrieve me from the police?

Was that why my panties were soaked right now?

No, I could not let it be true. I had to remain strong and remember I wanted a normal life. The life my mother had wanted for her daughters. I was not turned on by this man or the violence he represented.

I shoved at his shoulder, which I couldn’t help but notice was solid and strong, and handed him the gun back. “Stop fucking with my head.”

Smirking, he put some distance between us and pocketed the gun. I hated that smug look on his face. “Don’t think for one second that this proves anything. I’m not stupid enough to shoot you when I know I’ll be caught. I’d much rather wait until you let your guard down.”

“My guard is never down. You’d be wise to remember it.”

That sounded like a horrible way to live. But I didn’t feel pity for him. This man had chosen this life, even if his fate was preordained by family. We all had choices to make, and he clearly made his a long time ago. Just like my choice was to not marry a criminal.

But his comment made me wonder. “How did you know I left?”

“There are eyes and ears everywhere. It’s how I keep my family safe.”

The cameras. Of course. Giulio said I would never see them, so I had to learn where they were to avoid them next time. “Why aren’t you angry I tried to escape?”

“Because I suspected you might and I like to be proven right. Especially when it comes to you, it seems.”

The light played across his cheekbones, as well as a lush mouth that could be so cruel but also teasing. He hadn’t shaved recently, and a dark scruff covered his sharp jaw. There was something about his hard blue eyes, along with the power he exuded, that caused me to shiver.

I had to get a hold of myself. The man had put a gun in my hand and told me to shoot him. He was straight up certifiable.

“You knew I wouldn’t get away,” I said. “You knew there was no chance I could escape.”

His mouth curved into a smile so sexy it would tempt a nun into breaking her vows. “That is true.”

Frustration burned my skin, an embarrassing combination of anger and hopelessness I didn’t bother to hide. “I hate you.”

“I know. It will get easier, though, once you have accepted your fate.”

“It’s not fate. You are forcing me into this. My fate was to go to college and choose my own husband.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “If your father allowed you to believe this, he is a bigger fool than I imagined. Women in our world do not have choices such as this. He would have married you to another family’s son to strengthen his position. It’s what is to be expected. And deep down you know it.”

“No, I don’t. What I do know is that I will continue to defy you, Giulio, and anyone else who gets in my way of escaping this nightmare.”

“Nightmare? You should feel honored that I am willing to marry you to my son knowing you are not pure. You should be bowing and scraping at my feet in gratitude.”

I gaped at him. “Not pure? Are you serious? You have some nerve judging me, considering you banged your girlfriend inside the house.”

One dark brow rose. “You almost sound jealous.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, putting as much indignation as I could muster into my tone. “I don’t care if you screw her sideways against the kitchen wall, but you can’t slut shame me for having sex outside of marriage when you are doing the same.”

“Yes, I can. The rules for daughters are different, as you well know. And Katarzyna likes it when I fuck her against the wall.”

Great. Now I had that visual in my head. I shifted in my seat, suddenly very warm. “At least she tells you she likes it. She’s probably very good at faking it.”

“Oh, there’s no need to fake with me. Italian men are very attentive partners, Francesca. Making a woman come is necessary to men here, like breathing air.”

Unbidden, my gaze darted to his mouth. Did he give oral? David hadn’t been a fan and I’d always wondered what it was like. Something told me Ravazzani loved to eat a woman out. My thighs clenched, and I had to get the hell out of this car. “Are we done?”

He produced the gun again. “I don’t know. Are we?”

Was he threatening to shoot me? It didn’t matter. I had to remain strong and never show this man any fear. He would crush me if I did. “I won’t marry your son. So go ahead and do your worst, Ravazzani.”

Reaching over me, he flicked the handle and the car door opened. His smile was all teeth when he said, “Do not worry about that, piccola monella. I most definitely will.”

I hurried from the car and didn’t look back.

* * *

When Giulio askedif I’d like to take the boat out two days later, I eagerly agreed. Being off the estate meant the possibility of escape, and I would grab every opportunity presented.

I expected one of those deep sea fishing boats. Or maybe a sleek speedboat. I did not expect a gigantic 30-meter mega-yacht with split-level decks and a pool.

Dark tinted windows ran along the side, hiding the interior from curious eyes. Perfect for mafia business, I supposed. The name on the back read, Il Destino.

Great. Even here I couldn’t escape the Ravazzani concept of fate.

“This is your boat?” I asked as he helped me aboard.

“It’s my father’s. Don’t you like it?”

“What’s not to like? This is a floating five-star hotel.”

Giulio chuckled. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”

He briefly spoke with one of the crew members and then we set off. Each deck was more impressive than the last. Large living spaces, lounges, lush cabins, and a beach club pool area in the rear. In the front was a master suite complete with jacuzzi and helipad, plus a glass bottom window to the ocean below. I tried not to drool as we walked around, but it was a struggle.

“I would never leave if this yacht was mine,” I said, dragging a finger across the soft leather chair. We were already headed into the blue waters of the Ionian Sea, the salty breeze in our faces.

“Then you should prepare to stay because this will be yours someday. Ours, actually.”

That significantly dampened my enthusiasm. I didn’t want to think about our pending marriage or Fausto Ravazzani. I’d managed to avoid him by working outside in the vineyard and with the animals. The castle staff was kind and patient with me, especially considering the language barrier. Giulio had bought me a book on how to learn Italian, though, so I was slowly getting better.

Do not ever try to tell me you weren’t made for this life, that you weren’t born to rule as a queen.

I closed my eyes, unwilling to consider it. That couldn’t be true. It couldn’t. I had a life in Toronto, a family that I missed. I wanted to go to school and choose my own husband. Marrying into my father’s world—Fausto’s world—was out of the question. I would never have any independence if I did.

“Are you feeling ill?” Giulio touched my arm. “We have medicine for that.”

“No, I’m fine. I won’t get seasick.”

He smirked down at me. “Just like you won’t get sick from drinking?”

I couldn’t help but smile. “You are the one who let me drink so much grappa.”

“As if I could have stopped you. Now let’s go have some lunch and get some sun.”

We went to the beach club area on the bottom deck. Lobster salad, fresh bread and crisp white wine had been laid out on the table near the pool. Giulio whipped off his shirt, leaving him in just a pair of tiny swim shorts and sunglasses. He was all bronze skin and lean muscles, with several tattoos on a torso with very little body fat. God, he was gorgeous.

Good genes obviously ran in his family, and I wondered what the elder Ravazzani looked like under his clothing. Probably just as ripped, but with more body hair and bulkier. Stronger. Thicker....

“You have the strangest look on your face right now.” Giulio frowned at me. “Do you not like lobster?”

I mentally shook myself and removed my cover up. A tiny bikini had been waiting in my new closet, and it was a relief to feel the sun on my whole body. “I love it. This is perfect.”

His eyes swept down my body. “You are bellissima, Frankie.”

“Grazie. You are quite bellissimo yourself.”

“Thank you.” He smirked. “I am thinking whoever purchased that bikini for you should be arrested. It is criminal how good you look.”

I glanced around to make sure we were alone. “You are gay, right?” I asked in a whisper.

“That does not mean I cannot appreciate beauty when I see it.”

“Is that how you’re planning on creating the next generation of Ravazzanis?”

Giulio grimaced, his teasing forgotten. “I am hoping to delay that as long as possible. No offense.”

“None taken. I am also hoping to delay that.” Like never. “But you’ll have to make babies some day, right?”

“Of course, yes.”

“Will we be overheard while onboard?”

“Not here. It’s already been swept for bugs and my father doesn’t have cameras installed. I think it’s because he uses the boat with Katarzyna.” His phone suddenly pinged several times from where it rested on the table.

“Should you get that?”

“Would you mind?”

“This isn’t a date, Giulio.”

He grinned and lifted his phone. “I like you, Frankie. You make this easy.” Whatever he read on the screen caused him to frown.

“Trouble at work?”

“My father. He didn’t know I was bringing you out today.”

“Why would he care?”

“I stopped trying to understand him years ago.” He put his phone back on the table. “He is acting strangely. I can’t explain it, but he’s very interested in your whereabouts at all times.”

“No doubt worried I’m going to escape.” Which I would. My first attempt had failed, but it was only a matter of time before I succeeded.

“No, it’s more than that.” Cradling his wine glass, he leaned back in his chair. “I caught him looking at footage of you and Vincenzo in the winery.”

I straightened. “What?”

“It was so strange. He closed the window quickly, like he didn’t want me to know.”

Ravazzani was watching me? Why? If I was on the estate then I hadn’t escaped. “He’s probably worried I will seduce Vincenzo and ruin his plans to marry us off.”

Giulio laughed. “Vincenzo is at least sixty years old. You’d give him a heart attack if you tried to seduce him.”

I would never. Vincenzo was like the grandfather I never had. In a very short time I’d come to really like him.

Unfortunately, there was a lot I liked about Italy and the estate. I was learning tons about grapes and plants, wine and oil. They even had bergamot trees, a citrus species native to Calabria that I hadn’t seen before, and the fruit tasted sour and bitter and delicious.

And I couldn’t handle the baby lambs and their cuteness. I’d already given them all names, and I looked forward to feeding them every day.

We finished lunch and a crew member cleared our plates, while we took our bottle of wine to the deck chairs by the pool. The yacht had stopped in an inlet, a tiny cove with crystal clear water and no one else around. “We can swim here, if you’d like,” Giulio said. “Pool or sea?”

“The sea, definitely.”

We swam for a long time, jumping off the back of the boat into the water, splashing and floating, while music blared from the speakers. Giulio was a lot of fun and it turned out we had similar taste in music, preferring old school hip hop to anything new.

Finally we flopped onto the deck chairs and asked the staff to make us fancy tropical drinks. I rubbed suntan lotion all over while Giulio checked messages on his phone. It seemed like he had a lot of them, but I didn’t pry.

When we were sipping mai tais, Giulio asked, “Did my father ever return your things?”

“Yes.” My satchel had been waiting on my bed when I returned from the dungeon fiasco. “Though he still won’t let me have a phone.”

Giulio chuckled. “I am not surprised. He’s probably worried you will call the Guardia and report us.”

I frowned, disappointed I hadn’t considered it. I only thought about calling my sisters. For someone so eager to escape the clutches of the Ravazzani men, I wasn’t trying too hard. Instead I was lying on a megayacht, sipping cocktails on the Mediterranean.

Real rebellious, Frankie.

“I just want to talk to my sisters,” I told Giulio. “I’m not used to being out of touch with them for this long.” Has it only been a week? It seemed like forever. But I was used to talking to my sisters every day.

Giulio reached over, grabbed his phone, and handed it out to me. “There. Make any call you like.”

I stared in amazement. “Are you serious?”

“Of course.”

I snatched the phone quickly, before he could change his mind. My eagerness only caused him to laugh. Then he surprised me again by standing up. “I’ll give you some privacy. I have to speak to the crew about our return anyway.”

“You are leaving me alone with your phone?”

“Why not? You already know all my worst secrets, Frankie. And my father pays the Guardia enough to ignore any hysterical phone calls from Canadian tourists.” He winked, then strolled away and left me with his phone.

Oh, my God.

I started dialing Emma before I could blink. I called her because Gia often misplaced her phone and didn’t answer. My sister answered after the first ring. “Hello?”

“Emma, it’s me.”

“Oh, my God. Frankie! Tell me you’re okay.”

My entire body sagged in relief, so happy that tears sprang to my eyes. “I’m okay. I’m in Italy.”

“Daddy told us what happened. We’ve been worried sick. Are you really marrying that man’s son?”

“No. It’s complicated.” I didn’t want to say anything more than that, just to be on the safe side. “How are you? How’s Gia?”

“We’re fine. I’m trying to get ahead in my advanced chemistry class this summer, so I’ve been a mess.”

I smiled. Emma took school very seriously. She was the smartest person I knew. “That’s good, but don’t forget to enjoy your break, too.”

“I will, but this is more important. I want to get into a good—” She bit off the word but it hung there between us, unsaid.

I swallowed hard. Once I had also wanted to get into a good school. “You will, Em. You will. Is Gia around?”

“Yes.” I could hear her moving, probably walking to Gia’s room. “But before I let you go, tell me. Are you hurt? Are they mistreating you? Because I will tell Papà and he will come and get you.”

I pressed the tips of my fingers to my mouth, trying hard not to cry. Papà couldn’t fix this. He couldn’t stand up to Ravazzani, not even with all the Toronto muscle behind him. Ravazzani was too powerful.

Despite my misery, I couldn’t worry Emma. “I’m fine. No one is hurting me. In fact, I’m on a yacht in the middle of the Ionian Sea right now and drinking a mai tai.”

“No way!”

“I know, right? I’ll send you a selfie when we get off the phone.”

“Please do. I miss seeing your face. Okay, here’s Gia. I love you!”

“I love you, too, Em.”

“Holy shit, sis,” Gia exclaimed. “What the fuck happened to you?”

Direct and to the point. Exactly like Gia. “Hey, Gigi. How are you?”

“Tell me what happened. Papà said that man caught you escaping and took you to Italy. Did he hurt you?”

I thought about Fausto’s hand gently brushing the hair off my face, the way he’d gripped me carefully in the kitchen. He hadn’t hurt me, at least not after drugging me. Still, I wouldn’t give my sisters anything to worry about. “No one has hurt me. I’m fine.”

I heard Em in the background as she told Gia about the yacht. “You’re on a fucking yacht right now?” Gia asked into the phone. “I told you they were loaded. Is the castle amazing?”

My face felt like it was going to split apart from my wide smile. “Yes, it is amazing. They have olive trees and a vineyard. There are pigs and cattle and the most adorable little lambs.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to see it. Papà said we are coming to your wedding in a few weeks.”

The smile instantly fell from my face. “We’ll see.” I didn’t want to say more, not on Giulio’s phone.

“Is this your new number?”

“No, this is Giulio’s phone. He let me borrow it.”

“Giulio is your fiancé?”

“No. Yes. Well, sort of. For now.”

“Oh, shit. I know that voice. You are planning something.”

Was I? Yes, I was planning to escape, but the planning part hadn’t really started. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll figure it out.”

“You always do,” Gia said. “Hey, did you hear what happened to David?”

A weird knot settled in my stomach. With the kidnapping and Ravazzani’s general hotness causing my brain to malfunction, I hadn’t thought of David much. Something told me I wasn’t going to like what came next. “No. What?”

“That Ravazzani guy beat the shit out of him. I guess they saw David crawl out of your window that morning.”

I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes. Fausto had hurt David? That asshole! He had no right to do that. David didn’t deserve to be beaten just for being with me. “Is he all right?”

“He’s fine, Frankie.” She snickered. “Though I hear he pissed himself in fear.”

“That’s not funny,” I snapped. “Please tell him I’m sorry if you see him.”

“I will, I will. Jeez. Calm your tits.”

Giulio emerged from the depths of the salon and I knew my time with my sisters was over. “Love you, Gia. I’ll speak to you and Em later, okay?”

“Love you, too. I hope those bastards let you have a phone soon.”

“Me, too. Talk soon. Bye.”

I hung up, then snapped a quick selfie of me, the boat, and my drink then sent it to Emma. Once it went through, I handed the phone to Giulio. “Thanks. That meant a lot.”

He stretched out on the deck chair. “You’re welcome. Your sisters are well?”

“Did you know that your father beat up my boyfriend?”

Giulio rolled his head to the side and pulled down his sunglasses to look at me. “He caught your boyfriend sneaking out of your bedroom. So I assumed so, yes.”

Mafia thugs. I crossed my arms and stared out at the beautiful water. No matter the tempting trappings of a vineyard and a yacht, I had to keep reminding myself these people were dangerous. Ruthless killers. I couldn’t be blinded by broad shoulders and a chiseled jaw. Underneath Ravazzani’s ruggedly handsome package was a monster.

Wasn’t I supposed to be afraid of monsters?