“Yes, I’m very much aware that Leora had the good sense to marry an Archambault. I’m certain they directed her toward a cousin because she wasn’t a rider, but still, it was probably a good match. But when he died, she chose to marry far beneath her. That nasty family from New York. The Gomez family. They were all gangbangers.”
Color swept into Nicoletta’s face and her knuckles turned white where she gripped the edge of the table.
“Nicoletta was adopted by Desi Gomez and taken out of New York, far from his brothers and the gang he was born into. He stayed away from all of his relatives. He worked hard and built a good life for himself and his family. He was a good man, Eloisa. Everything said about him was good. Even the cops had good things to say about the man. It wasn’t his fault that he was killed in a car accident.”
“It was their fault that they didn’t have anything prepared for their daughter just in case they died, so she wasn’t sent to his brothers, now, wasn’t it?” Eloisa demanded, her voice snide.
Nicoletta stood up. “I suppose so, just as it was your fault that you sent your ten-year-old son to two horrible men against the warnings of the family he was with because you were too lazy to take care of him on your own, and then you were so selfish you didn’t get any help for him because you didn’t want your precious life disturbed in any way.”
She ignored Taviano, not even looking at him as she slipped past and opened the kitchen door, controlled violence in her movements as she closed it.
“This isn’t going to work, Taviano. She’s going to say something in front of Stefano. You know she will.” Eloisa cradled her injured arm to her and shook her head. “What a mess. I knew she would be impossible to deal with.”
“You think you can cow everyone by being ugly to them, Eloisa. You push everyone away and then wonder why you don’t see your grandson or have Emme around anymore. Nicoletta is my choice. She was my choice from the moment I saw her. I knew she was mine. You don’t have to like it any more than you have to like any of your other daughters-in-law, but you won’t talk about her parents like that in her home and upset her, not if you want to come here. You’re banned from Stefano’s and that’s a tragedy, when Francesca would always welcome you. You’re banned from Vittorio’s because you’re nasty to Grace.”
Eloisa rolled her eyes. “Grace. She’s a doormat for Vittorio and he spoils her rotten.”
“She’s not a doormat. If he spoils her, how can she be a doormat? That doesn’t even make sense. She loves him, and it’s their relationship. She likes pleasing him. He likes pleasing her. They work together. That’s how it’s done, Eloisa. People find other people that fit with them, the way Nicoletta fits with me.” He glanced down at the text message. “Henry is here with the car. I’ll be happy to walk you out.”
“I don’t think she fits quite as well as you think she does,” Eloisa said, standing. She gave him a little smirk. “She wasn’t in the least bit happy you and the family investigated her. She doesn’t understand money, and she never will. Don’t bother. I found my way in. I can find my way out.”CHAPTER NINETaviano wound his way along the narrow path through the thick trees and brush into the deeper interior. The woods had been planted years earlier and had a good heavy growth. The vines creeping up the trunks gave off a perfumed lilac scent. Birds called to one another and he could hear the wings fluttering as they moved from branch to branch overhead. Instead of the lightness he normally felt when he took this trail, there was a heaviness that weighed on him.
He took in several deep breaths not only to calm himself but to calm Nicoletta, knowing that the heaviness was coming from her. It was embedded into the path itself and he felt it with every step he took. He moved slowly, not wanting her to feel as if she were being chased. Nicoletta could be lethal. She was a runner. And she was hurt by the things his mother had said about her adopted father. Desi Gomez had raised her from the age of two until she was fifteen, and from everything Taviano had read in the reports, he’d been a good man and an even better father. Nicoletta loved him just as she loved her mother.
He reached for her, for the connection between them. It was strong whether she liked it or not. That connection was forged in something very powerful. The shadows were tangled and knotted and merged because of what they shared, the ultimate ugliness that had created two strong warriors.