Airiana nodded. "I can't wait to get a real cup of tea. I'll see you all tomorrow morning. I'm home and safe. Thank you, Thomas and Levi, for coming to get us and for getting the children for us."
"No problem." Levi sent Maxim a look, one that said they'd be meeting when the women were in bed. He was back to sneaking off in the night.
Airiana's house was larger than he expected. From the outside, it didn't seem as if it would be so spacious. It was two stories, with her bedroom and bathroom on the upper story. That was fine when one was single or married with no children, but putting Benito downstairs without supervision was just asking for trouble.
The boy had an eye for security. There was no doubt about that. He'd insisted his sisters take the two back bedrooms and he'd taken the front one. Maxim knew the boy's mind. They looked at one another and Maxim nodded his head in silent approval. The kid was looking out for what remained of his family. Maxim would have been doing the same thing.
"We'll work on the house security," Maxim said aloud, acting as if he was talking to no one in particular, but he was reassuring Benito. Benito was terrified of losing the ones he loved, and Maxim knew that feeling all too well.
Airiana went through the rooms to make certain the children had what they needed. Blythe and Judith had supplied them with the essentials. "I'll have to take you shopping, to get clothes and comforters and blinds you want in your room."
Nicia and Siena shared a room and Lucia had her own. Clearly both little girls had been sleeping in Lucia's room with her. Maxim suspected that Benito had lain across the doorway in the hall after they went to bed at night. It was something he would have done at that age.
His heart went out to the boy. Already, little Nicia and Benito had a hold on him so strong he didn't think he could easily break it. He hadn't considered that he might love the children as well as Airiana. He thought he was only capable of loving one person. His woman. Now, he had an entire family, and they were going to take his life over. One didn't ever walk out on kids who had suffered such trauma.
They settled in the large sitting room while Airiana put on the teakettle. Nicia and Siena took the chair next to him, while Lucia and Benito sat across from him.
"How is it you can speak English so well?" Maxim asked Lucia.
"Our grandmother on our mother's side was from the United States, so Mama wanted us to know both Italian and English. We grew up speaking both languages," she answered.
"Papa sent us to a private school," Benito added. "We were required to know Italian, of course, but also English, French and German."
Airiana had come back into the room silently and taken a chair on the other side of Siena and Nicia.
Their parents had to be wealthy. They're too well educated. Look at them, Airiana. Aloud he had to ask. "Do you have family alive? Aunts? Uncles? Your grandparents?"
Lucia shook her head. "Not anymore. There were no aunts or uncles on either side, and we never knew my papa's parents. They died a couple of years after I was born. Mama's mother passed away last year. I never knew my grandfather."
Maxim wasn't surprised. The children would have wanted to go to a relative once they'd been rescued. They'd made it clear on the ship that they had nowhere to go, but he had to be certain.
"You do know that if we change your identity in order to keep you in this country with us, you probably won't be able to claim the inheritance from your parents. If we take you back, the chances of us getting you are slim to none," Maxim said. "That's a reality, and one I can't get around. I can look into it if you want me to, but we'll be running a risk that we'll be found out. Right now, everyone thinks you died aboard that ship."
"Like Sofia," Nicia said, and began to cry. She ran across the room to fling herself into Lucia's lap.
Siena began to cry as well, but Lucia's lap was already occupied. Airiana picked her up and cuddled the little girl. She rocked her back and forth gently.
"I'm sorry about Sofia," Maxim said. "I know it's hard, Nicia. She's where no one can hurt her now."
"I want to be with her," Nicia said.
Maxim's heart beat overtime. What the hell does that mean? What am I supposed to say? Surely she isn't talking about suicide.
She's a little girl who lost her parents and her twin sister, Maxim. It's natural for her to want them back, to want to be with them.
At least he could breathe again. He wasn't going to be great at parenting. He'd rather shoot someone when he heard Nicia cry than try to figure out the right words of comfort. Shooting was easy. Talking, not so much.
"Of course you do," Airiana said. "I miss my mother every day. I want to be with her too. But we're going to be a family, and we'll love and support one another. Maybe we can help each other not miss the ones we've lost so very much."
"We don't want the money," Benito said, glaring at his sisters as if they might contradict him. "We're going to stay here where it's safe."
"Will you really let us stay here?" Lucia asked. She looked as if she was bracing herself for bad news as she rocked her sister soothingly. She looked to Airiana for the answer, not Maxim, which he found telling. She knew Airiana belonged on the farm, that this was her house and the others on the farm were her sisters. Airiana had the power to make them all leave.
"We want you to stay with us," Airiana said. "I was kidnapped and taken aboard that ship too. I think we're all in this together. If Maxim hadn't rescued me, I'd be in as much trouble as all of you. My sisters might not have told you, but we're not sisters by blood. We weren't born into the same family, but we chose one another. We choose to be sisters. We call ourselves sisters of the heart."
"I'm not saying that girly stuff," Benito declared. "I'm not being a brother of the heart or anything like that."
"Benito." Maxim just said the kid's name. He used his low tone, the one that said he wasn't messing around. "Don't be disrespectful to Airiana. I wouldn't like it and neither should you. She's ours. Just as your sisters are. We take care of our own, and we respect our women."
Airiana stirred as though she might say something but stopped when he sent her a quick reprimanding glance. He's too much like me, honey. This is necessary. He needs to respect you from the beginning because I do. He has to learn what he values. We're already close to losing him.
She didn't question him and he was grateful. He continued to pin Benito with his gaze, leaning forward to make certain the boy understood. "I'll be teaching you things that can kill, Benito. I have to know you'll have the right values and discipline to know when and where to use the knowledge I give you. You have to make up your mind either to be a good man or a bad one. No one else can do that for you. Your family is sacred. The women have the right to your respect. They are not less than you and they will never be. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you, because this is your first very important lesson when it comes to living your life. Not only was Airiana telling all of you something important, she was also sharing a particular painful experience."
Benito nodded his head slowly. "I'm sorry, Airiana. I didn't mean to be disrespectful." He held his chin up and looked her in the eye. "Please tell us what you were about to say."
Airiana bit her lip and took a breath. He's wonderful. Truly wonderful after all he's been through. He's trying to be a man, and clearly he trusts you when he doesn't trust anyone else.
Benito had suffered horribly in that cabin, all the while knowing Galati would kill him after all that had been done to him. He also knew his sisters would be sharing the same fate. Maxim had come along like a hero in a movie and rescued him. It didn't surprise him that Benito looked to him when his world had crashed down. Nicia, the same thing, but he was surprised by Lucia and Siena's reaction to him. He would have thought they'd be more suspicious. He figured Benito had talked him up.
"As I was saying, everyone on this farm has a connection. Each of us has had a family member or members violently murdered. Some have had experiences similar to yours and can understand what you're
going through. We help each other when the nightmares come and the memories are too close. We've formed our own family, every bit as tight as one that has a blood connection," Airiana explained.
The teakettle whistled shrilly and she stood. "Lucia, we'll form our family and learn to be rely on and trust one another. We'll hit a few snags, but we'll work it out. My sisters and I bought this place together, and we learned to talk things over right away. We don't let things fester. We have regular family meetings. Some things, like martial arts and learning to shoot a gun, will be mandatory."
She made a face at them over her shoulder as she made her way into the kitchen. "Not everyone embraces the lessons, but we all agreed we needed to learn to protect ourselves. You will too. In matters of safety, we defer to the experts. That will be Maxim, Levi and Thomas or Lissa. Lucia, you're in your teens, that won't always be easy to do, because at some point you'll have school friends and want to do normal teen things and they'll squash some of your activities, but you have to understand that safety for everyone is important."
I know that was difficult for you to say. He couldn't help the laughter in his voice. Now that they had children, Airiana was much more conscious of their security.
Ha, ha, ha. I was talking about them. I'm trying to get Benito and Lucia to really think about things before they make a rash decision to stay in the United States with strangers when maybe there is someone in Italy they would be more comfortable with. I don't want them to go because I think they need us, but it really has to be their decision.
She was giving the children a choice. He was all about choices. He believed in choices, but damn it all, they were kids. What did they know? They could screw up their entire lives with the wrong choice. Don't drive them off by being so negative. It won't be that bad. It's not like I'm going to lock them up.
"We're staying," Benito reiterated in his firmest voice. "Right, Lucia?"
Lucia ducked her head, but Maxim caught the glitter of tears. When had he become such a wuss? The child was killing him, just like Airiana. She'd been so brave and tried to take care of her brother and sisters. She had to be scared to death. He remembered that feeling all too well when he'd been taken from his parents and brothers by force.
"Lucia," he said softly, and waited for her to look at him. When she raised her large, dark eyes to his, he nodded his head solemnly. "I give you my word, I won't go anywhere. Airiana and I will give all four of you a home and a family. We'll make this farm safe and fun and a place where you can grow up. We can't change what happened to you and your brother and sisters. We can't bring back your parents or little Sofia, but in time, we'll be a real family and we'll love one another."
Airiana came into the doorway, nodding her head, leaning her hip against the doorjamb. "You can always depend on us. I give you my word as well. I know you have no reason to trust us, but that's the best we can do to reassure you. You either feel the truth or you don't."