Mafia Kings: Valentino: Chapter 34
As it got close to sunset, Isabella said she was tired, so she went back to the house with Ludavica and all the women.
Three of the foot soldiers went with them, but the fourth stayed with me.
As a guide?
A bodyguard?
A jailer?
Who knew. Maybe all three.
He was dour, that was for sure. He had a particularly bad male version of Resting Bitch Face – ‘Resting Bastard Face,’ I guess, with a grimace like he’d just bit into a lemon.
He looked like he was in his late 30s, but when I asked him, he said he was only 27.
Life was hard in Sicily, apparently.
But the weather was great. It had been around 85 degrees Fahrenheit in Palermo, but up here in the mountains, it was in the mid-70s.
Since there was nothing better to do – no phone, no internet, no TV, no nothin’ – I decided to go exploring on my own.
Well… with Resting Bastard Face along for the ride, anyway.
The ‘gardens’ I’d walked through with Isabella (and 3000 of her female in-laws) had mostly been a bunch of different plants the kitchen used for spice and herbs, along with fruit trees and some ornamental bushes with red berries. Everything had the scraggly look of plants that could thrive in an arid environment, which Sicily definitely was.
I left the gardens and headed out into the rolling hills.
You could literally see for miles. Lots of craggy grey boulders poking up out of patches of green; the rest was dry brown fields.
“Do they grow something here?” I asked RBF (short for Resting Bastard Face).
“Grain,” he said dourly.
Talkative guy.
From far away, I heard the clanking of cowbells. A half-mile away, maybe more, a bunch of them dotted one of the hillsides, grazing amongst the boulders.
In the far distance – quite a few miles away – there were a couple of small villages: one to the east, and one to the south. I doubted more than 500 people lived in either one. I could only tell they were east and south because the sun was setting in the west, a ball of golden light disappearing behind the clouds on the horizon.
Between the villages and Don Vicari’s, there was the occasional crumbling stone building with a collapsed roof and walls falling in.
But there was one stone building pretty close to the property, maybe half a mile away, that was in excellent shape. It was old, yes, but it still had shutters over the windows, the wooden door was closed, and the roof was obviously well-maintained.
Thinking it was a horse stable or something, I turned to RBF. “What’s that over there?”
He just shook his head somberly.
“What?” I asked.
“It is not for you,” he said in his thick Sicilian accent.
Now I really was curious. “What’s in there?”
“Ask Don Vicari,” he said coldly, then gestured with his hand back to the main house like, THIS way.
I thought about ignoring him and walking over to see for myself –
But decided I would get my answers later.
I could just imagine Niccolo laying out another rule:
Never argue with a Sicilian with a shotgun.
Especially when you’re unarmed, and he doesn’t particularly like you.
We returned to the house, where a servant escorted me to my bedroom.
It was just as rustic as the rest of the place: exposed wooden beams and white plaster walls.
There was a stone fireplace, a wardrobe, a dresser, and a rickety brass bed.
Back in my family’s house in Tuscany, our walls were decorated with art from the last four centuries.
Here in Sicily, I had a framed print of the Virgin Mary with her heart in flames.
Fuckin’ great.
waiting for me, but I didn’t
like giving in… like
me still believed something might happen and I could get out of this
clothes was
went to the bathroom to
tank several feet above the commode, a claw-foot tub (no
splashed water on my face. At least
a knock at
yelled as I toweled off, then walked
opened the door, there stood Ludavica
What the fuck?
there to
on her face didn’t seem to be pointing in that
I hadn’t been obsessing over Cat, banging your future mafia wife’s servant was an excellent
help you?” I
protective of Isabella,”
than I would have thought, and kind of raspy. I liked it. A smoker’s voice, though I didn’t picture
not sure where this
her… ever… either now or anytime during your marriage… if you hit her, or abuse her emotionally, or demean her in any way… Don Vicari won’t
WHOA.
would’ve been pissed off at a guy for talking to me like that
it was kind of funny coming from a 5’1” girl
of myself. “Is that how Sicilian servants
a joke,” Ludavica seethed. “Do not even think of
up my hands like she was mugging me, though I couldn’t stop grinning. “I’ll never harm a hair on her
distrustfully… then nodded once, like she was satisfied with
to go
could I ask you a
looked at me
you grab me one of the books Isabella
“Rupi Kaur.”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
read poetry by Rupi
so I thought it might be a good start if I read something she liked. You know…
I’d been wearing,
I can
“Thanks.”
one last time, like I’d pulled off a
but she didn’t show. Guess she had issues
was dark outside, but it was still
in my room except for
floors were hardwood. They’d been waxed recently, but the wood was scarred and pitted like it had seen a lot of wear over
plaster, with exposed wooden beams in all the ceilings. The only pictures on the walls were religious icons and hunting stuff – like a shadowy painting
was a mixture of patterned
tick tick tick of a grandfather clock the loudest
there were no televisions in the house. Or any
living in the fucking Stone
garlic and onion sautéing in butter – and I opened the door to
their 50s, looked up at me without
closed the door, a fresh jolt
the kitchen back home so many times, I’d half-expected to see Cat
when she wasn’t,
I walked through the house, I kept thinking of San Vittore, the
but it had
earth. The stench… the screams… the
was nothing like it. It smelled clean, like floor wax. It was quiet. And despite being plain and old-fashioned,
But despite the differences…
They were both prisons.
I would be here for
SHIT…
say ‘yes’
are,” a deep
in surprise and
in
I was an idiot he found vaguely amusing. “You don’t have to be scared of anything around here. None of
startled me,”
a smirk, like he didn’t believe me. “Tomorrow you’ll go meet Rocco in Pozzallo.
agreed, seeing as there wasn’t much else I
“Better get to bed.”
one eyebrow. “It’s
Update Chapter 34 of Mafia Kings: Valentino: Dark Mafia Romance Series #6 by Olivia Thorn
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