Breakfast Table
Zorah walked into the dining room for breakfast two days later and was surprised to find everyone sitting at the dining table ahead of her and her footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
“What’s going on?”
“Hey sweetie,” Chester rose from his seat and pulled a chair out. “Come sit. We want to talk.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Have a seat,” Shay commented softly.
“Is Icaro okay?” she hadn’t heard from him in twenty-four hours. He hadn’t responded to a single text or call. She’d been trying not to worry but it was hard.
“Icaro is fine.”
“Sidonia.”
“She is also fine.”
“Then why do you all look like someone died.”
“Nobody important has died.” Keturah leaned back in her seat folding her arms over her chest.
“Then what is going on?”
“The Lucchesi family arrived in New York last night. They landed en masse. Fifty of their best men and another hundred of their foot soldiers were boots on ground.”
“Okay.” She was gripping the edge of the table at Orlando’s quiet words.
“They wiped out an entire family.”
She blinked as her throat closed up. “They killed everyone?”
“They left women and children and any men who pledged to loyalty to Lucchesi. The family declared war against Lucchesi. Dagoberto took prisoners.”
“Prisoners?”
Chester rubbed the back of his neck, “the head of the family Giannone hired to kidnap you. Dagoberto and Icaro took him prisoner and interrogated him.”
“What did they find out?”
Shay spoke softly, “Ippocrate Giannone did hire them to kidnap you and bring you back. He paid the boss to bring you back but,” she whispered under her breath. “I can’t.” she looked away with tears in her eyes. “How the hell am I related to him biologically?” Moving from the table she walked to the window and looked out over the yard.
“Ippocrate Giannone offered the Don your daughter.”
“I’m sorry what? I think I misheard you.” The ringing in her ears told her it was possible she hadn’t understood what Orlando bluntly stated.
“Giannone intended to get you pregnant and then to give the child to the family as payment. He would keep a son, but a daughter would go to the Don as a second wife.”
“Where would he keep a son? He would keep me and a child in the bunker?” Zorah felt her chest heaving in revulsion.
“Do you know the name Doris?”
“Icaro’s IT person?”
“Yes,” Chester squeezed her hand softly, “she is quite good at what she does. She was able to find out Giannone extorted his biological father and his wife. In return for his silence on his relationship to the politician, he made the man purchase him a property outside of Providence. Orlando sent one of our team to investigate the property.”
Orlando cleared his throat, “it’s a prison, Zorah. He has a security system installed. Cameras in every room. It is a three-bedroom house and from the outside it looks like a quaint little cottage but inside it’s meant to be your prison. He intended to move you at some point from the bunker to this house. There isn’t a neighbor for miles and miles. It runs on a generator. Not even a meter reader would have been there.”
“He was going to make me his,” she could barely get the words out.
“A sex slave, Zorah. He intended to keep you as his sex slave, make you the mother of his children and hide you away from the rest of the world. He thought he’d covered his tracks with the purchase of the house because it was bought through his father’s means.”
“When?”
“What?”
“When did he buy the house? If he has all this work done to the house, how long has he been planning it?”
“Five years ago.” Shay said from where she stood at the window. “He’s been working on the house for five years.” She cleared her throat, “tell her about the basement.”
“He has a birthing suite in the basement,” Keturah’s voice broke. “Along with what can only be described as a shrine to you.”
“A shrine?”
“There are so many photos of you, Zorah. From the time you were ten or eleven and there is even a photo from your wedding and one from when you were in Catania. It was likely taken by one of his hired thugs, but it means he’s been back to the house as recently as this week to put the photo in a frame in the room.”
“There was also evidence in the master bedroom he was um,” Dane cleared his throat, “masturbating to your photo on the nightstand.”
“He’s sick,” she wiped tears from her cheeks with shaky fingers. “How on earth does he call himself a man of God?”
“He is no man of God,” Keturah spit angrily. “He is a perverse pig. I used to hate going to church and listening to Father Tarantino talking all about sins and being a good person. I would much rather listen to Father T than your slimeball priest.”
Chester rubbed Zorah’s back lovingly. “He’ll never get to you, sweetheart. Not ever. Icaro annihilated the family who intended to kidnap you. Your uncle is not aware of the demise of the family. They hadn’t given him an update to let him know you were taken. It seems they were concerned about how he would respond and were looking for you. They’d hoped to find you and then not let him know of the hiccup. As of now, he still does not know you’re not in Catania.”
“What does this mean then?”
“It means their next step is to go to Providence.” Chester exhaled, “they do not intend to let your uncle live.”
She wrapped her arms around her belly and exhaled loudly. “Okay.”
“We know you’re not on board with the plan to execute him but given what we’ve found out, we are all in agreement he needs to be put down, Zorah. He is a risk. If he can’t have you, who is to say he won’t try with someone else.”
She nodded, “I already told Icaro I was in agreement with him not living.” Even thinking it made her heart hurt. “I hate him. I never thought I could hate someone, but I hate him.”
“There is more,” Keturah ignored the hisses from the men at the table. “Icaro wants you there before they take his life.”
Startled, she looked aghast around the table, “why?”
“He thinks you have the right to get the closure you need to move forward in your life. He wants you to be in Giannone’s face to tell him he lost, and you will never be his. Icaro thinks if you do not get to say a final piece to the man who abused you, it will weigh on your heart.” Keturah kept talking despite everyone’s urging her to shut up. Keturah slapped the table at them, “he’s right. She should be able to tell him he’ll never fuck her despite how much he’s dreamed of it.”
Zorah was staring at a spot on the table and surprised everyone when she spoke.
“Take me to Providence.”
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