Plans
Zorah laughed, “I only kept Keturah’s secret because she begged.”
“She’s going to get Dad’s foot up her ass for not checking in. We tried to track her phone, and it hasn’t been turned on in quite some time.”
“Can we get back on track?” Orlando gave a frustrated sigh. “This is why I didn’t want you here until much later. You’re distracting us from the mission.”
“Mission.” Icaro scoffed. “It’s not tactical warfare. We’re going to have him sign off a suicide note and then the fucker is going to disappear.”
“People will know Zorah is in town and will automatically assume you did this, especially once she goes to the police with his abuse.”
“He’s going to disappear. Nobody knows of his shitty little cottage except the man who bought it. Funny story,” Icaro laughed a wicked sound, “the man who bought his property for him died this morning. Something about a dirty old politician funding his son’s sex dungeon didn’t sit well with my father and one of ours took care of it this morning. Doris then went through all the channels. Nobody is ever going to know about Giannone’s little cottage of horrors. He’s going to die there, and we can take all the time we want.”
Orlando eyed Icaro, “I understand you want to torture him but if the police go looking for his body post-suicide, given how close he is with the bishop, it could come back on you. What if the bishop heard his confession and knows where the cottage is? Have you considered this? If the body has more than a bullet hole, then they will know his death was not self-inflicted.”
“You were really a SEAL?” Icaro was mocking Orlando now. “Shouldn’t someone with your expertise and experience have more of an imagination or do you simply follow orders up the chain of command with no initiative?”
Orlando lifted a single digit in Icaro’s direction and Zorah gasped.
“Orlando!”
“Your husband is a rude motherfucker.”
Zorah groaned as the two men eyed each other irritably and Chester lifted his hand up.
“Enough. Icaro what are you thinking?”
“Once Zorah has been given the opportunity to face her abuser, because my father feels strongly, she deserves the right to lay his guilt at his feet before we function as jury and executioner, we’re going to burn her intended prison to the ground.”
“Burning won’t get rid of all the evidence,” Orlando shot back.
“Don’t SEALs have a lot of demolition experience?” Icaro was grinning. “If not, we have a few men in our family who served with the Italian equivalent of the American Navy SEAL team,” he adjusted Zorah’s legs, so they hung over his lap and he cuddled her closer, “and one of them made very good friends with this fellow who works for British Intelligence and is an explosives expert. My cousins have used him a time or two. It’s funny how a teeny tiny little gas leak in a house poorly wired for electricity and hasn’t ben upgraded since the fifties, is going to make an explosion which will hit all the airways. When the local police force and fire departments go to investigate, they won’t find anything more than fragments.”
“I feel this is far more information than I wanted to know,” Zorah grimaced as she shifted uncomfortably on Icaro’s lap. “Perhaps I should look for Keturah.”
“I will not keep secrets from you, amoré,” Icaro tapped her nose. “This concerns you. If you don’t want to know, then we can stop right now. You can go file your police report without ever facing him and we will manage the rest from here. You can walk away right now, and I will not think any less of you. There is no reason for you to be in the same space with him ever again.”
“Icaro, he has been building a house with the intent to keep me his prisoner and to have his children. He was going to make me have his child and then rip it from me and give it to his friend as a second wife. He is a sick man. A sick perverted man and I cannot help but need to question him as to why he focused on me in such a way. Why? I need to know.”
Chester leaned forward his fingers steepled between his knees as he regarded her seriously, “sweetie, we can ask him the questions and bring you back the answers. You don’t have to be near him. We can do it all remotely if you want.”
“And then every day for the rest of my life I am left wondering what if.” She gave a sad sigh, “I want to move on, but I know if I don’t say what I want to say then he’ll always have space in my head. I need to confront him. I just wish I wasn’t so scared.”
“What are you frightened of my love?” Icaro asked seriously playing with her hair on her shoulder. “Talk to me. What scares you of him? You must know we won’t let him hurt you. We’ll control the conversation and the narrative. If he speaks out of turn, he’ll get his, I promise.”
“He was able to really make Zipporah believe she was confused,” Chester said earnestly. “Orlando can play it back for you if you haven’t heard it already, but Father Giannone has been grooming these two women to be his doormats his entire life.” As Zorah bristled, Chester sighed, “I’m sorry Zorah but it’s the truth. He made you into someone he could control and influence with his behavior and as a result, you’re immediately worried about displeasing him. He’ll use this power to try to influence you to make you feel bad about your choices and who you are. Do not be surprised if he gives you a hard time about being with Icaro and calling you names the way he did Zipporah today.”
“If you really want to fuck with him,” Orlando commented crudely, “tell him you and Icaro already consummated your marriage. We know the men who reported back to him let him know you didn’t. The entire country is talking about how Icaro Lucchesi is serving thirty days of penance for being a man whore before his wife. Tell Giannone it was all rumor. If you really want to make the fat bastard squirm with rage, give him very explicit details on your wedding night and how the sheets were stained with your virginal blood.” Orlando snorted, “he’ll probably have an aneurysm from the thought alone.”
“Orlando, you’re gross.” Zorah scolded him.
“He’s also right.” Icaro shrugged. “I hate to admit it but if you want to make Ippocrate Giannone expose himself and his bullshit, tell him we made love, Zorah. Tell him it was more beautiful than the rising sun over the sea in Catania. I bet he loses that cool and smugness he likes to flaunt.”
Zorah wondered if all the men in her life were losing their marbles.
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