La Cosa Nostra, This Thing of Ours (29 page)

"Come with us, M
omma." I feel like I am a child again, I just found her and now have the worst feeling I am going to lose her forever. 

"I wish I could
, baby boy, I wish I could. Now go, please. Get back to the states so I know you are safe." She stretches her neck up to kiss my cheek before standing aside. A herd of men start escorting us out of the compound with one last look back, I see a tear roll down her cheek. 

Chapter 35

I had not let go of Harper for even a second until we board the private jet. They are in a hurry to take off, so I buckle her in and sit next to her, pulling her to me again. 

"Mr.
Tarseta, we are cleared for takeoff. We are taxiing the runway now." We hear the pilot make his announcement over the intercom. It is not until we are safely in the air that the stewardess brings out a flat screen TV hooked up to a satellite. She turns it on to a local Italian station. 

"My condolences," s
he nods and walks back to the front of the plane. I am confused for a moment until we hear what is on the TV. 

"A shoot out at the Esposito C
ompound today has left many dead. Confirmed dead so far is Giovanni and his wife Teresa Esposito. No reports are coming in as to what caused the dispute. Leo Esposito, brother to Giovanni, is said to be next in line to head the family. La Cosa Nostra, as it has come to be known, is a very well-known syndicated crime family. We have reports that Leo is in hiding until things settle down. The children of Giovanni and Teresa, Dante their only son and daughters Gia and Milania, were out of the country unexpectedly. We will bring you more information as soon as it comes in. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming."  

The TV
flips back to some sort of soap opera. I turn to Harper, and it starts. The look in her eyes, the pity I see. The tears fall and I start bawling like a baby. My head in my hands, the sobs coming from me sound unnatural. The hurt in my heart is like an ache I've never felt. 

Harper drops to her knees in front of me
, taking my face in her hands. "I'm so sorry, baby. It's not your fault." She knows me. She knows that I am thinking I just got my mother killed. "Liam, look at me," she orders. I open the eye that is not swelled shut. "She did it for you. She has done everything for you. She knew this was going to happen, she sent your brother and sisters out of the country."

"None of this would have happened if we didn't come here." She winces, knowing full well that she i
s the reason we came to Italy. I don't mean it's her fault, but I can't help but wonder what would have happened if I had put my foot down.

"You can blame me if you want
, Liam, but you know it's no more my fault than it is yours. She had no problem contacting Chelsea. She should have known you would come when you found out the truth. Why didn't she contact you and tell you to stay away? When she said goodbye to you, Liam, she was saying goodbye forever. She put us on this jet for a reason. She knew she was not making it out of that house alive." I hold up my hand to stop her. 

"I don't blame you, Petal." I choke down my tears.  "I know she knew she was g
oing to die today, it's just–" I can't control the sobbing.

"I know
, baby, you just found her and now you've lost her." I place my hands under her arms and lift her in my arms. She curls up in my lap, kissing my face gently, whispering she loves me in-between kisses. 

That night when we landed, I called my father and told him I needed to see him. I didn't know if he had heard the news yet, but I needed to tell him what happened. I took Harper to my apartment first. With holding ice on my eye for a couple of hours in the plane, the swelling had gone down. I had one hell of a shiner and a badly bruised cheek with a cut inside my mouth from the blow, but I didn't care about that. My girl was unharmed other than the emotional trauma. 

The first thing we d
id was shower when we got home. I wanted to wash her, wash away the touches that monster gave her. We were both exhausted, but she allowed me to scrub her body.  Although only psychological, it still made me feel so much better. I didn't want to leave her, but she insisted that this was something I needed to do on my own. 

When I walk into The
Guardian, Monica runs up to me. "Oh my God, Liam, what happened?" She places her hand on my face. I grip her wrist and pull her hand away. 

"Monica, I'm an engaged man now, I
'm asking you to please stop touching me," I tell her firmly. I look over at our normal seat and see it is empty. 

"The
y're in the office," she says softly. I can tell she is not happy, but she is the least of my worries right now. 

Dad and
Matty are sitting on the couch in the office. Two firsts happened today. One was my father was crying, the other was when he saw me he stood up and gave me a hug, a real father/son hug. Something I never remember happening, ever. 

"You know?" I ask when he has pulled away. 

"Teresa called me, Son. She told me what was going to happen. She called to say goodbye." Tears roll down his cheeks. This broken man in front of me was not the tough-as-nails father I knew. The love of his life was dead and he was never going to see her again.

"I don't understand what happened
, Dad. She said she had everyone on her side, that she used the money from Chelsea to pay the influential." I'm confused and my father smiles. 

"She always wa
s a very smart woman. It was brilliant what she did using Chelsea.  Unfortunately, she had only enough money to pay such men to look the other way for a day. It was all a ruse, at first her plan was to take him out, but then you and Harper showed up. So she had to use the money to get you guys out of there safely." I sit in the chair next to the couch stunned at what I am hearing. 

"So it was my fault. S
he died because we were there." I feel like I'm starting to hyperventilate, his words confirming what I had already suspected.

"No
, Son, she knew as soon as she pulled that trigger, no matter what, she would not leave that compound alive. Giovanni had loyal men your mother knew she could never persuade." He sits on the couch close to me, leaning forward to catch my line of sight. "It's not your fault. None of this was ever your fault, Son. She died doing the one thing she has been devoted to doing, and that was protecting her children."

"I still don't understand how them being dead has changed anyt
hing." They're still a crime ring, how are things going to change.

"Because Leo is
next in line and after Leo is Dante. That's how La Cosa Nostra works, Son."

"Why would she want that for her son
, though?" A life of crime doing those things.

"It's
what he knows. Unfortunately, he was born into it, it is his fate. She taught him to be kind though, so he'll be respectful. He will not treat women like his father did, he will not torture like his father did. She tried to shelter her children as much as she could, but there was only so much she could do with the first born son," he explains to me. 

That day was the last we spoke of La Cosa Nostra.  Although we would hear stuff in the news now and again, my father, Matty, Harper, and I never spoke of it again.

Epilogue

One year later

Harper got through her first year of
grad school. She was on her way to becoming a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. She loved every minute of her hands-on work. We had set the wedding date for summer after her first year. 

We got married i
n Iowa, and let me tell you, Iowans know how to do a wedding. The ceremony was held outside in the grassy knoll I found Harper at that day we were reunited. Only the immediate family was present for that. She was breathtaking in her wedding dress. I couldn't believe I was marrying this angel.

Our reception was held in a barn, hay bales lined the
walls and the barn was packed. Harper's wedding gift to me was my sisters. She had contacted them and they knew of me already.  Our mother had told the girls about me. They came to the wedding and were introduced as cousins.  

They were beautiful, sweet
, and kind. The best part was that Kade and Easton were drooling over them. I loved that Gia and Milania were immune to their charms. Even though the boys bitched about it, they still cleaned up nice in their tuxes. They did not give up on my sisters, either. Eventually they had them on the dance floor. Everyone danced the night away. My father and Matty were like fish out of water at first, but soon warmed up and joined in the fun. 

My father had started dating a woman
his own age a few months back. She was a sweet lady and I could see he was falling in love with her. My mother's death had given him the closure he needed to move on. They were cute together, as Harper would say, and I had to agree. She brought out a side of my father that was fun and light-hearted. 

"I love you
, Mrs. Tarseta," I whisper in her ear as we slow dance. I'm holding her tight to my body, the way I always hold her. I breathe better when she is close to me, like she is a part of me. Without her I am not whole.

"I lov
e you, too." She beams up at me. She is absolutely glowing. Even a year later, I love her more than ever, I think I love her more every day.  I could hardly wait to start having babies with her.  I agreed that we would wait until she was done with school. Our plan was to move to the country outside of Chicago where she could have horses.  Her dream was to eventually open her own large animal vet clinic, raise thoroughbreds, and have a little ranch.

"Do you know the things I'm going to do
to you tonight, Mrs. Tarseta?" I gently nibble on her earlobe before moving to kiss her neck.

"I do, Mr.
Tarseta, and I am looking forward to it."

The End.