Page 76 of Mafia and Protector
Gabriel looked at me. “We could have just given her the money. It’s not as if we can’t afford it. Aren’t you the one always telling me that everything isn’t about business and money?”
“I know that. But this way we can keep an eye on her, otherwise she’ll disappear and we won’t see her ever again.” Luckily, she didn’t know that people like us didn’t need insurance and what I’d said about insurance requirements was a lie.
“She’ll disappear as soon as she’s paid off her debt,” Gabriel pointed out.
“We’ve got a few months until then. And if she’s here, we can keep an eye on her.”
From the bill for the funeral, I could see the time and date of the service and burial. I knew Gabriel would be reluctant to take time off work to attend, but I asked him anyway if he wanted to go with me. “Do you want to attend the funeral with me?”
“But we’re not even related to Carmela,” Gabriel complained.
“I know, but we are related to her daughter.”
“I wouldn’t give one of our men time off to attend a funeral of someone they’re not even related to, you know,” Gabriel pointed out to me.
“I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then.” I sighed. “Fine, I’ll go by myself.”
A couple of days later, when Bella saw me at the church, her face broke into a look of surprise before swiftly changing to a scowl.
Whatever, I thought. Someone from our family had to attend today and, despite her hostility, I didn’t mind it being me.
***
Once it had been confirmed via the DNA test that Bella was our half-sister, and especially now that Bella would also be working in our club and living nearby, I knew I couldn’t put off telling Jess any longer. I had to tell her about Bella and what my father had done to Carmela. Gabriel was taking care of telling the twins.
As we lay in bed that night, I held Jess tight against my chest as if my embrace could protect her from anything else bad happening to her.
“I can’t believe he did the same thing to someone else,” Jess murmured once I had told her the whole story. “What’s Bella like?”
“Young and distrustful of us and our ways.” There wasn’t much else I could say about her since our encounters with her had been brief.
“You should invite her to dinner. We should get to know her.”
“I’m not sure she’s ready for that yet.” I knew that we weren’t ready either. “Perhaps we should let her settle into her new place and job first. Also, we’ve decided not to tell anyone yet about her being related to us.”
“Okay,” said Jess softly.
Truthfully, I wasn’t sure how much Bella would have to do with our family.
***
The next day, Jess and I went for our usual morning run. This had become a habit for us now and it was nice to spend time with Jess before I left to go to work.
For someone with such a delicate figure, she was a lot stronger than she looked. She had good stamina and she was happy to push herself hard. I found our daily runs one of the most peaceful times of my day—a way to calm my soul before the deadly tasks of the day took over.
It was a good way for her to relax too. She had been getting too caught up in wanting a baby, added to which she was worried about the escalation in violence since we had broken Nancia’s engagement contract with the Veneti family. As predicted, they had not taken it well and now all gloves were off between our two organizations.
As usual, I handed a bottle of water to Jess and she gulped it down when we stopped for a water break.
A minute later she grimaced and put her hand over her mouth. She swiftly ran a few meters away and was violently sick on the ground, heaving up the contents of her stomach. I immediately went to her and held her hair back from her face and when she was finished, I helped her up.
“Are you okay, Jess?”
“I’m sorry,” she gasped.
“Don’t apologize. Are you coming down with something?” I put my hand to her forehead and it was clammy, but I couldn’t tell if that was from her being unwell or from the exertion of the run.
“I’m not feeling so good.”