Mobster's Baby: Bad Boy Mafia Romance (20 page)

Axel

One Hour Earlier

Before I went looking for Portia, I knew I had to act fast. If these fucks got anywhere even close to me or any of the other members of the family, they’d be in deep shit.

So I took the liberty of arranging a little meeting.

Rico, Jackson’s henchman, hadn’t been working with the family for very long. He was from a blue-collar family down the shore, and he’d come up for the summer to work at one of the family-owned restaurants. Jackson had taken a liking to him, and while I hadn’t understood at the time, it had paved the way for Rico to become more involved with the family.

Everyone had been confused at first. Even though Jackson was a sniveling, conniving little shit, everyone had always been afraid to criticize him. Jackson was Leo’s favorite, and everyone knew it. Criticizing him was like criticizing the boss, and no one would even dare it if there was a chance it would get back to Leo. But now, Jackson had some brawn to match his brains. Jackson hadn’t ever been very tough, but Rico was practically made of muscle. I was sure Jackson picked him with some end goal like this in mind.
What a fucking snake
.

I couldn’t imagine everyone would be shocked to find out what Jackson and Rico had done. So I went ahead and made a few calls.

Leo had a brother, Guido, who’d had a couple of sons. Technically, they were my cousins, but I’d never seen them like that. They were both older than me, and seemingly wiser. Tony and Ciro were wily. Tony had shown me how to pick a lock when I was a kid—he was in his thirties at the time, and he thought it was fucking hysterical when I picked the lock to Leo’s bedroom door and caught him fucking one of his girlfriends. Leo had beaten me so badly that I hadn’t been able to sit down for a week, but it had been worth it.

Ciro was even tougher than his brother. They’d both served time, but Ciro had served for manslaughter. Technically, it had been first degree murder, but the family had a couple of great lawyers on call at all times, and they made sure Ciro only served minimum time. He was tough, with a thick muscular neck and tattoos up and down his arms.

Tony and Ciro were the muscle of the family business. Leo often sent them out on “errands”—basically scaring the piss out of someone—and they liked it. Ciro, especially, enjoyed torturing someone and beating the crap out of him.

He was the man to call.

“Eh, Axel,” Ciro said when he answered the phone. “It’s been a long time, fucker. How ya been?”

Well, my dad was murdered, my wife was kidnapped, and I think I’m going to have blood on my hands before the night is up.

“I’m great, Ciro,” I said sarcastically. “Jackson fucking played me. He stabbed Leo and his girlfriend, then kidnapped my wife. My wife is pregnant, Ciro. She’s got my fucking baby in her belly, and he means to do her in.”

Ciro laughed. He actually laughed. I found myself clenching my hands into fists at my sides. “I’ll be damned,” he said. “Jackson stood up to the boss’s son.”

I rolled my eyes. “Everyone knows Leo loved him more than me,” I said sourly, kicking at the pavement with the toe of my boot. “Everyone fuckin’ knows it.”

“He’s a pussy,” Ciro said dismissively. “Don’t fuckin’ pay him no mind, Axel.”

“You remember Rico?”

“That fat, stupid fuck?” Ciro laughed again. “What did he get up to?”

“Jackson’s using him for muscle. They kidnapped Portia, and they took her somewhere.”

“So you want us to take him out?”

For a moment, for a brief second, I
almost
said yes. Then I realized how badly I wanted to finish the job off myself.

“No,” I said. “I want them alive. Just bring them to me
alive
.”

Ciro laughed again. “You’re a boy after Leo’s heart,” he said approvingly. A surge of adrenaline lashed through my body. Was I really capable of torturing Jackson and Rico to death?

I knew that I was.

“Bring them alive,” I repeated. “I don’t want no dead bodies. These assholes made my wife suffer, and Jackson’s been fucking me on a coke deal for weeks now. He’s the fuckin’ reason Leo didn’t hand over the business to me. He couldn’t get a handle on his Russian contacts, and now it’s
my
fault.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Ciro said in a soothing voice. “We’ll get him, boss. Don’t you worry about a thing.”

With that, we hung up. But I didn’t feel much better. I didn’t know where Ciro and Tony were going to find Jackson and Rico, and I didn’t care. All I cared about was seeing them trussed up in front of me like a couple of prize-winning hogs at the county fair.

***

After I ran out of my car, I darted into the woods, yelling Portia’s name. The night was cold, dark, and damp. I was shivering and I could see my breath coming in a white fog in front of my body. There was no way she could survive this for long—I was in a heavy jacket and I could already feel my toes and fingers going numb. Cold sweat ran down my sides as I ran through the woods, yelling for my wife, praying that she was okay.

Please, God, let Portia be safe and alive
, I thought desperately.
Please
.
I don’t even care that much about Rico and Jackson, I just need to find her. You know how much I need her; you know I can’t raise a kid by myself. A kid’s got to have a mother, and Portia’s the only mother I want for my own flesh and blood
.

I stumbled over a fallen limb, falling down and blocking my fall with the heels of my hands. The ground was cold and wet. When I looked up at the sky, everything was under the thick cover of clouds. I knew in my bones that it was going to rain soon, and then I’d really be fucked. If Portia got wet, she’d probably get hypothermia and then she’d be done for. It didn’t matter if I found her after that, her body would start to shut down, and she wouldn’t even be able to tell me her last name.

“Portia!” I screamed as I plowed through the woods, looking from side to side and calling loudly. I did everything I could to make noise: I whistled, I screamed, I clapped my hands loudly together in front of me. 

There was no reply. “Portia!” I yelled again as loudly as I could. I yelled her name until my voice cracked, until my throat was dry and hurting. “
Portia!
”

Just when I was about to cry out of desperation, I thought I heard something in the distance. Sprinting forward, I was surprised to land on a dirt road. My heart soared.
Bingo! They must have driven in from a back way!
Running blindly through the trees, I held my hands out in front of me and pushed my way through the branches.

Finally, in a bit of a clearing, I saw a blonde, slight figure clinging to a tree. When I got closer, I realized that Portia was bound around the waist and midsection with thick rope. Her eyes were closed and her head was hanging forward. Panic flared through my body and I rushed towards her, crooning her name and digging in my pockets for a knife.

When I cut the ropes, Portia sagged against me. Her body was weak and I could feel how cold her skin was—it felt like chilled porcelain. She was delirious and rolling her head around on her neck, mumbling things like “I’m sorry” and “my baby.” She couldn’t even stand on her own two feet, and even when I wrapped her in my coat I could tell that she was shivering violently. Her teeth were chattering so hard that I thought they were going to break out of her head.

“Come on,” I said in the most soothing voice I could muster. “Come on, baby, let’s get you inside.” Portia wasn’t moving her feet, and I had to wrap my arms around her waist and heft her up in my arms. When she collapsed against me, I felt desperately for her heartbeat.

“Come on, stay with me. Come on, Portia, don’t give up. This is going to be okay, everything is going to be okay,” I said firmly.

Portia shivered and shuddered in my grip as I eased her into the passenger seat of my car. Her lips were blue and she was trembling. I had to buckle her seat belt. As soon as I could, I blasted the heat in my car and turned on her seat warmer. But as I drove away, back towards Morris, Portia didn’t show any signs of recovering. Her hands were shaking in her lap and the jacket I’d draped around her body kept slipping down.

“Baby, come on,” I pleaded. “You have to be okay, you have to be okay!”

Portia couldn’t even look at me. I pressed the pedal to the floor and sped towards the county hospital as fast as I could. When I pulled into the bay of the emergency room, Portia was still shaking. A nurse rushed over to the car and yanked the door open.

“She’s been exposed in the woods!” I yelled loudly. “She’s been exposed and she might have frostbite. Or hypothermia! Please help us.”

The nurse gave me a tired, withering look as she helped Portia out of the car. “We’ll do everything we can, sir,” she said in a curt tone that made it clear she was used to dealing with hysterical jackasses. “Just remain calm. Please remain as calm as you can.”

“Her name is Portia Riccardi,” I said in a choked voice. “She’s my wife, and she’s pregnant.”

When I said the last word, the nurse’s eyes bulged. I could tell that I’d caught her off guard. She lifted a walkie-talkie to her dry lips and barked a command. In a matter of seconds, men swarmed the car with a stretcher and various pieces of medical equipment that looked like something from a sci-fi movie. I watched as the nurses hefted Portia from the car, discarding my coat and laying her body out on the stretcher. She looked so lifeless, so grey and wan that I wanted to start crying.

“Portia, you can pull through this, baby,” I whispered. “I promise you’ve got this. And I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

With that, I drove away into the dark night. I knew that Tony and Ciro had to have Jackson and Rico by now, and it was my goal to make sure they didn’t live through the rest of the night.

Portia

There was a field covered in snow, and I was running through it with my arms held loosely at my sides. Even though the world around me was covered in cold, stark white, I wasn’t cold. Rather, I felt warm. My whole body felt good, light, free. When I looked down, I saw that my feet weren’t even touching the ground. My toes were barely skimming the surface of the snow, and I wasn’t leaving any footprints.

“This is amazing,” I said aloud. My voice sounded like bells and music. “How is this happening?”

“Mommy!” A little girl with blonde curls launched herself at me and wrapped her arms around my legs. “Mommy, you’re here!”

“Hi, baby,” I said, knowing instinctively that this small child was mine. “How are you? I missed you so much!” I didn’t know that the words were true until I said them, but suddenly they were truer than anything had ever been in my life. This little girl was mine, she was my flesh and blood. I watched as her face took on a variety of expressions, from exasperated to happy.

“Mommy, I’ve been waiting for you,” she cried loudly. “And now you’re here! Forever!”

“That’s right, my darling,” I told her in a soothing voice as I stroked her silky blonde hair. “That’s right. Mommy’s here forever.”

“Mommy, I didn’t think you’d come,” she said in a soft voice. Then she took my hand, lacing my fingers through her small ones. When she looked up at me, I saw that her skin was perfect, free of blemish. She had my blonde hair but Axel’s dark eyes, and her complexion was creamy but much more tan than mine had ever been, even as a little kid. There was laughter and love and light in her eyes.

“Darling, where are we?”

The little girl shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said, grinning at me. “But it’s wonderful, isn’t it?”

I relaxed, taking a deep breath. I felt better than I ever had in my life. My body didn’t even feel real, like it wasn’t even connected to my head. My mind was free of worries, and everything that I used to obsess over didn’t seem like nearly as big of a deal. Nothing mattered, only being with my little girl.

“This is amazing,” I said. “I’m so sorry it took me a long time to get here.”

The little girl smiled at me and gave me a hug. Her hair smelled sweet, like strawberries. “Mommy, those bad men can’t hurt us anymore,” she said. “I promise we’re together now.”

“Is this whole place just a big field?”

The girl gave me a mysterious smile. “It’s whatever you want it to be, Mommy,” she said.

I closed my eyes, thinking of a log cabin that I’d seen in pictures. It was where my mother and father spent their honeymoon, and it was a place I’d always wanted to visit.

When I opened my eyes, the cabin was right in front of me. “Oh my god,” I breathed. “That’s incredible.”

The little girl giggled. “Mommy! You made a house!” She grabbed my hand and ran forward in the snow. I was aware of my feet and ankles sinking into the white fluff, but it wasn’t cold. It felt soothing and relaxing, almost like getting a pedicure. As I followed my daughter into the cabin, I was astounded at the interior. It was covered in photos—photos of my parents, photos of Axel, photos of me and my little girl.

I gasped as my daughter led me into the kitchen. It was fully stocked with copper cookware and every type of food I could imagine. There was a pot on the stove with something inside that smelled absolutely delicious, and a little familiar. I closed my eyes, racking my brain and trying to think of where I’d smelled that scent before. It was rich, tangy, a little spicy. I opened my eyes and leaned over the pot to see a rich, meaty gravy with chunks of vegetables and oil skimming the surface.

“I can’t believe this,” I murmured, reaching for a spoon and dipping it into the pot. Even though I knew that it was too hot to eat, I eagerly took a bite of food. It was marvelously warm and salty, just like the stew my mother had made me when I was a little girl.

“Mommy, may I have some?” My daughter looked up at me, her eyes pleading. “I want to try some of Grandmother’s soup!”

“This is a special Italian recipe,” I told her. “This is something that my mother used to make for holidays, and for funerals. She said it was the most comforting food on the planet, and I always had to agree with her. It’s really incredible. Taste all of the vegetables.”

I carefully handed my daughter a spoon. I knew that I’d just talked to her in a way that was more sophisticated than she could really understand, but somehow she’d seemed to grasp everything I’d just told her. She smiled at me before taking a delicate sip of the broth.

“This is delicious, Mommy,” my daughter said. She smiled up at me and handed me the spoon, carefully making sure not to spill a drop.

“This is a miracle. I can’t believe it. Where are we?” I looked around the cabin, feeling more alive than I ever had in my entire life. This wasn’t even life; it was beyond life. It was like being in a lucid dream that I had no desire of ever waking from.

The little girl smiled up at me. “Heaven,” she said softly.

Suddenly, there was a dull ache in my chest. It was unexpected, and I cried out as I felt it spread to my limbs. My daughter was watching me with a placid expression on her adorable face.

“Mommy, you have to go back now,” she said softly. “You have to go back, you can’t stay here.”

“I want to stay,” I pleaded. “Please, please let me stay!”

My daughter shook her head. “I’ll see you, soon, Mommy,” she said. It sounded like she was speaking through a wind tunnel, even though she was right in front of me, I could barely understand what she was saying.

“Help!” I said as a feeling of panic came over me. “Help!”

“You’re okay, you’re okay, I’m right here,” said an unfamiliar, stern voice.

Everything in my body hurt, more than I ever thought possible. I couldn’t ever remember being in this much pain. I tried to lift my hand to my face and was shocked at how heavy it was. I could barely move; when I tried to, my body exploded with pain.

“Portia? Can you hear me? I need you to open your eyes,” the voice instructed. “I need you to open your eyes and count to ten, okay?”

With Herculean effort, I managed to open my eyelids. There was a figure in white leaning over me. But she wasn’t the perfect figure from my vision a few seconds ago; her skin was sallow and pockmarked, and her white uniform crudely pinched her body into some approximation of a figure. Her grey, straggly hair was held back with a white cap, and there was a stethoscope around her neck.

“There we are,” she said with a smile, mistaking my disgust for pain. “I know it hurts, but everything will get better.”

Slowly, I moved my head to the side and looked around. I was lying in a hospital bed, wearing a puce-colored cotton gown. There was a sheet pulled over my legs and my skin looked odd, kind of mottled, like I’d been out in the cold.

Suddenly, everything came rushing back to me. I saw Axel rush into the room, his face shining with relief.

“Can I talk to her?” Axel turned towards the nurse. “Please? She’s awake,” he added, as if that was going to change anything.

The nurse gave me a sharp look. “Okay,” she said in a warning tone. “But keep it short. Your wife is still very weak. She was in a coma, and she’s going to need a lot of TLC over the next couple of weeks.”

Axel rushed to my side. At first, I was so relieved to see him that I didn’t notice how exhausted and horrible he looked. There were big dark circles under his eyes and his skin looked transparent, almost like paper.

“Portia,” Axel said in a ragged voice. He reached for my hands and wrapped them with his. His touch felt rough, but it was warm. “Portia, I thought you were a fuckin’ goner,” he said in a low tone, pushing his head close to mine. “I was so fuckin’ scared.”

I swallowed hard. “Water,” I managed to croak. It hit me that I was suddenly, desperately thirsty, thirstier than I’d ever been in my whole life. My throat felt like a dry tube of cardboard.

Axel handed me a paper cup and guided it to my mouth. I could feel water spilling and dribbling down my chin but I didn’t care—it was the sweetest thing I’d ever tasted.

“How are you feeling?”

I moaned softly. “I feel horrible,” I admitted. “But you look worse.”

Axel actually grinned at me. “I can imagine,” he said roughly. “But seriously, Portia, you’re a trooper,” he said, this time in a softer tone. He reached out and stroked my hair. “They say you and the baby are gonna be just fine.”

Oh my god, the baby!
“I can’t believe that,” I said softly. “I mean, I can. I had a crazy dream. I was in this field, with our daughter.”

Axel looked at me and shook his head. “You are definitely not having a daughter,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “My first child is gonna be a son. I can tell.” He smiled proudly.

I shook my head. “No, it was a little girl,” I said. “She was blonde, like me, but she had your eyes. She was beautiful.” A tear came to my eye as I remembered the feeling of absolute, inescapable bliss that had come over me when I was frolicking with my daughter in a snowy field. “She was perfect.”

“I bet she was,” Axel said. He reached for my hand again and squeezed.

There was a horrible moment of silence between us. “If you’re here, what happened? What happened to Jackson and Rico?”

Axel let out a long sigh, then stretched. He scratched the back of his neck, then returned his hand to my lap. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask, to be honest,” he said with a guilty grin. “But I took care of them.”

I blinked at him. “What do you mean, you
took care
of them?”

Axel looked at me. “Do you really wanna hear this?”

I nodded. “Well, not really,” I admitted, twisting my face into a grimace. It hurt, everything still hurt. My whole body ached, but I realized that at least I was starting to feel better. There was feeling in my fingers and toes again, and my skin was looking better by the minute. “But I have to,” I said firmly. “I have to know what happened. I want those guys gone,” I added in a soft voice. “They hurt me, and they tried to kill our daughter.”

Axel smiled again. “You mean our son,” he said gruffly. “But I get it.”

He lowered himself into a chair at my bedside, and began to tell me the whole story.