Affliction (9 page)

The
painting belonged to the magistrate’s relative that was stolen during the Nazi occupation. Such a recovery had Sophie kept her side of the bargain would have resulted in not only Yosef’s freedom but a host of newfound political friends. However, upon release from prison he found threats by enemies.

On the evening celebration with Sophie, he recalled
fuzziness after having drunk the wine she poured. He awakened the next morning to find Sophie and the painting missing. He exited Naples, but was then detained when he reached America to request an extension from the judge. He was too late. He had missed the deadline and forgiveness is not granted after several hours of delays.

Sophie, the slick woman had no intention of honoring the bargain,
she admitted it didn’t she?

The cunning woman
.

But, Sophie was unaware her life was dependent upon him. He would wait to tell her after he was satiated.
That slip of a girl he married miscarried not long after his release, but he did not care, she had served her purpose. The parole board ruled in his favor and his freedom was secured, for now. A turn of events facilitated he seek divorce and until the decree was final he purchased a villa on the outskirts of Catania where he settled in obscurity. His temporary wife was housed in a quaint farmhouse in Cefalú until he shipped her away with money to end the farce.

Once his debt was paid to another he could continue to
expand his Mafiya Empire. The Mediterranean Sea and the proximity to Africa was an ideal location for business operations that consisted of drugs, arms and jewels.

Who needed a useless girl when stimulating conversations
and love-making with a sexy baleboste are the alternative?

T
he idea of distributing his goods across the globe was seductive, just like the succulent texture of Sophie’s mouth and her influence.

Sophie met his ardor with fire. He cursed in Hebrew as he fumbled with his belt buckle until it loose
ned. The shapely curves of a woman, full buxom and naughty kisses are what Sophie possessed and he wanted to consume.

Yosef
freed himself from his lower garment. The penetration he longed for came along with a surprisingly bold taunt. “Take your payment Yosef…but I recall the opportunity was missed because you were unable to hold liquor and fell asleep.”

He slammed inward
and the settee legs scratched the polished floor during the motion. He liked the claws raking his arms, the teeth on his skin. He closed his eyes for a moment to savor the feel of Sophie again.

His eyes opened. What a pair they would make. He thrilled to discover how it would feel to wake each day to her warm body. Harder he went,
shaking a vase down from a mantle.

Yosef h
oist her ankles into the air and this time she moaned. “Better…um…maybe you can stay for one notte.” She grinned naughtily, nibbling his lower lip, toying with the lion unleashed from a cage, making him growl from the stickiness clinging to the piston of skin stroking hard and fast.

Yosef’s face contorted in
pleasure. Spasm after spasm he suffered attached to the lioness as she marked him below with muscle clenches a novice girl-wife could not do.

“You like, sí?” she asked with the accent which seduced him long ago
.

“You know I do!”
He countered, raising her hem to her neck to suck her melon breasts until bruised. But, she did not cry like the foolish girl he bedded, in fact she gave orders. “There, sí, oh yes bello, I like when you do that. Do it again!”

He pant
and the branches of his penis pulsed uncontrollably. “Our discussion regarding your debt may take years to settle,” he remarked in a gravel of a voice.

Impaled and enjoying the throbbing of his member, she
breathed on his neck while rubbing his firm skin. “I think we can reach an amicable resolution before morning, bello.”

He smirked. She was as ignorant as he the day he drank from her glass of wine and found he was fucked.

C
HAPTER SIX

Ari handed Nico the box of children’s clothing to give to Sophie. Selange arrived in town and the Energizer Bunny hit the ground running. Her latest endeavor was to aid single mothers by donating children’s clothing. This suggestion came up at their meeting a few nights ago. Sophie had agreed and volunteered her home to warehouse the items until they were distributed to the churches.

Nico looked at the large box. Semira had begun wobbly steps and soon she  would be walking with confidence. He hated time raced by. He loathed the thought of Semira dating.

He lifted the box. “That’s it?”

“That’s all for now,” Ari said while tying the sash of her robe. She awakened early to make tea and to share a quiet morning without interruption from the children. They had established a ritual after the death of his mother which consisted of morning talks
at dawn over breakfast, late night walks on the property or utilization of the yacht to enjoy the view of the sea and uninterrupted sex. Nico had changed. Subtle but a change nonetheless. Their conversations about his art brought a glow to his face that she loved to see. He appeared relaxed and happy. She realized that she hadn’t fully known Nico the artist and what she learned, she loved even more.

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She had to stand on the balls of her feet to do
so. “Stay safe and don’t forget Semira. I’ll be home late. You have to check on the boys.”

Ari was close-mouthed about th
e cash she received under the table from Selange. In the event Nico was busted, the authorities would never find her goddamn money.

She was taking the aero to Switzerland to open a new account
and add a proxy to an existing account for Selange. The trick to avoiding detection when laundering money is never deposit large amounts of cash. Diversify in small fictitious companies and individual savings accounts. Like Nico, account numbers were stored in her head, but recently she had to acknowledge with a hectic life, she might one day forget. A record had to be made. In the bronze baby shoes of Semira is where the accounts and locations were secreted. In her will, she bequeathed prized possessions to the children. In talks with the boys she specified, they are to inspect each gift after her passing and proceed accordingly.

She hadn’t told Nico where she was going and there wasn’t any way around the new electronic gadgets he put everywhere.
With Shanda’s untimely passing, her techie husband gave her a present, a pulse sensor bracelet to wear. It was useless to anyone but the owner. The electronic sensor identified her heart rate and then used her unique DNA code as an algorithm to access certain places, it was also a locator.

Nico
also upgraded their security. He programmed everything from the villa to the gates, cars and even the shed with new technology. To gain entry to any of these things required a swipe of the owner’s hand or wrist near a designated entry point, such as a door for example. Nico ensured his area was off-limits. The weapons and special equipment used for work weren’t for community usage. With a curious child in the home he was overly diligent that rules were in effect. The only person to use a gun was Nico, unless there was a life-threatening emergency in the home.

He
updated the other families with the new systems.

Nico
hadn’t told Ari he’d gone to do an installation at Bianca’s only to learn she moved. Well, Ari had firsthand knowledge because the heffa phoned a few days before she departed town. Bianca had the audacity to apologize…that’s right…the woman said she was sorry if she had caused trouble.

Thank goodness the skank wasn’t in her face when she did it because she may have found herself on the ground!

Nico waved a hand in front of his wife’s face. “Houston, are you there?”

“Oh shut up and go,” she said
while shoving him out the door.

He
smiled. “Sweetheart, I’ve assigned a bodyguard to travel with you and my princess. Ti amo.”

Ari wagged her finger. “Nico,
come on…listen to reason,” she sought to debate, but he had the final say.

“Not a subject of discussion. Besides he’s right over there by the gate.”

Nico waved and the man in the distance waved back.

“Damn, he isn’t kidding,” Ari said in exasperation
when Nico placed the box in the backseat of his car, ducked inside and then skid away with music blaring like a darn teenager.

***

“Buongiorno,” the day watchman exclaimed as he allowed Nico’s car on to Sophie’s property.

Nico gave a slight
nod before he proceeded on. The sun hadn’t fully emerged. A weak yellowish glow covered by cottony grey clouds dulled the luminosity. The weather forecasters predicted a cool and sunny day.

Nico was accustomed to odd
hours; Sophie was also an early riser. Her morning ritual was to sit on the patio reading current events while eating breakfast.

During a sleepover he asked one morning why she preferred to eat outdoors in the chill and she replied,
“After a night’s rest, I enjoy this part of morning best where I can sit in peace with nature, absorb knowledge and ingest nutrients that hopefully will keep me young during old age.”

Upon reflection, he grinned at the image of a greedy boy
who awakened at the aroma of food while others remained in their beds. Sophie allowed him to stuff his face with creamy cannolo’s and juicy sausages. She would talk politics to a boy and then pause to ask his position on different subjects. Sophie made him think, but she always listened. She was not like the other adults, she was special. Sometimes he wished she had been his mother.

He turned off the engine and retrieved the box from the seat. At the
front door of Sophie’s villa, he waved his wrist near the handle and a click sounded. The moment he entered, the smell of breakfast cooking was his welcome. The wonderful memories transformed the smile of a man to that of a child. Sophie’s love unknowingly had become his safe haven.

He dropped
the carton in the foyer and then strode through the familiar rooms. The dining table had a large floral display. Roses and orchids in a Japanese vase gave the unlit space color. He strolled to the kitchen expecting to find Sophie; instead he stared at the rear of a shirtless man. This was neither Giuseppe nor an apparitional Carlo. The stranger had prepared a breakfast tray. He was in midst of pouring brew in mugs set for two, something a home invader would not do. This man was Sophie’s guest otherwise he would be dead, plain and simple.

The
re was a Star of David across his back to signify his Jewish heritage. He was near Nico’s height, toned and broad with dark hair mixed with fine strands of grey which at first glance appeared blonde.

“Where is Sophie?” Nico asked
the stranger.

The man stopped and turned around.
“Shalom.” His eyes narrowed in recognition. There wasn’t a hint of fear in the dark eyes, in fact he seemed amused. “Nicolo Serano or are you Vincenzo?”

Nico stepped forward. “I asked a question. Where is Sophie?”

“Asleep.” The man answered. “She had a very hard night.”

Nico’s face remained impassive. His memory began to
form a bridge to the past. “Yosef Glavovitz, sí?”

“I am surprised you remember, since we have only met once. You and your brother were
very young men. How is that other
twin resting?
”

Nico
found the goading tasteless. Sophie’s relationship was none of his business but her choice in companionship was baffling. Yosef Glavovitz had a reputation for brutality in the bedroom and in business. This romantic gesture appeared antithetical to the pre-prison image. Nico wondered what led to this unlikely match.

“Why don’t I send you to Hades to find out?”
Nico answered.

Yosef gave a sly grin. “I
have been told that I am rather unorthodox. Hades, Hell, ah, there is always theological debate on the subject why the Torah does not mention such places. In Judaism our only equivalent is Gehenna. The consensus among rabbis is the Torah’s focus on the here and now is intentional. The majority believe the reason ties directly to the Israelites exodus from Egypt after their release from bondage.”

Nico snickered. “I am familiar with your religion
. Let me speed you along cazzo. According to Jewish tradition God gave the Torah to the Israelites after their journey through the desert not long after they fled slavery. Egyptian society was extremely obsessed with life after death that their holiest text was called, ‘The Book of the Dead,’ and the Torah doesn’t talk about the after-life in order to distinguish itself from the Egyptians, is that it in a nutshell bastardo?”

“
Very good, your summation is excellent, although not the point I sought to make. The ancient rabbis discussed Gehenna, not Hell. They said bad people after they die are believed to go to Gehenna where they are punished for leading an immoral life. However, the time a person's soul spends in Gehenna is limited to a year and the rabbis maintain that even at the very gates of Gehenna a person can repent and avoid further suffering. After being punished in Gehenna a soul is considered pure enough to enter Gan Eden. Thus my visit with Vincenzo will be brief. Fortunately, my religion allows repentance, which I am then forgiven all of my wickedness. I emerge with a purified soul. Eternal damnation I will not suffer.” The smug twist of the lip irritated Nico. “Does your Christian Hell give Vincenzo such an option?”