“No, it’s fine, Tonio. You don’t owe me any explanation. Let’s go and see.”
She walked out into the main sitting room, and she saw Jake sitting with Charlene, bouncing the little girl up and down on his knee. Paige was snuggled up against Donnie, and Luiz was taking a picture. Staring at them right now, she couldn’t put the whole mafia persona on any of them.
They looked just like any kind of guys at nineteen or twenty. She was nineteen, while some of the guys would be twenty.
Tonio cleared his throat, and the moment was lost. “Are you ready to do this?”
“Are you staying with us, Zara?” Paige asked.
“No, I’ve got to go with them.”
Paige glared, turning toward Donnie. “Are you going to hurt her?”
“No, we’re not. She’s going to be there with her mother for when we ask questions. God, have some faith I’m not a total bastard. I’m not going to hurt her.” Donnie silenced Paige’s protest with a kiss. “Be good.”
Paige released a growl, and Tonio moved her toward the door. “Come on, let’s get out before something bad happens.”
They left the room, and Donnie chuckled. “I love winding her up. Sex tonight will be off the charts.”
“How does that even work?” Jake asked.
“The same as usual,” Donnie said.
“What makes you think it would be difficult to fuck a pregnant chick?” Luiz asked.
Zara folded her arms, wishing she wasn’t privy to this conversation.
Jake did a big circle against his abdomen. “They’re big you know. Wouldn’t they crush you?”
Closing her eyes, she shook her head. Seriously? Girls were curious about what men talked about?
“If they don’t crush you, you’re at risk of hurting them.”
“Do you refuse to think?” Tonio asked.
“What? Surely I’m not the only one who has thought about this?” Jake asked.
“No, I’ve never thought about pregnancy sex,” Zara said. “It’s not on my list of things to worry about.” She forced a smile to her lips, wishing this trip didn’t happen. They were only a few feet from her mother’s room.
“I tell you what, Jake, you’ll find a way. It’s either find a way or use your hand. Believe me, when you’re with the woman you love, you’ll give her everything,” Donnie said, knocking on the door. “Don’t talk to Paige about this. She’s already upset that she’s ‘the size of a tank’. I don’t think that either. Her words, not mine.”
“I was thinking a cow,” Luiz said, chuckling.
Donnie slammed his fist against Luiz’s arm.
“Sorry, man, joke, joke.”
“Don’t let Paige hear you say that,” Donnie said. “She won’t let me see her naked anymore, and I can’t wait until she gives birth so she’ll stop moaning about her weight. She’s sexy as fuck.”
“Does Paige know you talk about her like this?” Zara asked.
All four men turned to her.
“Keep quiet about it. I love Paige with my whole heart, and I will not see her sad,” Donnie said. “The pregnancy is already zapping her energy.”
“Does she know everything that is going on?” Jake asked.
“No. I want her to believe we’ve not got a problem. She doesn’t need to be stressed right now. I’ve spoken to the doctor, and he advised that I keep her happy, relaxed. No stress.”
Zara found the sudden transformation rather sweet.
He clearly cared about Paige.
In that moment, she really wished there was a guy like him out there for her. The whole idea was stupid. Her future wasn’t looking great with what happened last night with Lucien. For now, she just wanted to stay alive. She’d worry about being alone later.
Chapter Five
Zara’s mother looked so fucking old and frail. She looked worse than when they had left her last night. Standing in the corner, Tonio watched as she sat drinking tea. Her hands were shaking so hard that the cups were rattling.
“I don’t know why you’re all here,” she said.
“Mom, Tonio and his friends have some questions.”
“You can answer them. You know I’m not good with that business stuff.” Her mother fanned her hand out as if it wasn’t something of interest for her.
He didn’t like that. She was hiding something.
Zara had been stressing like fuck about what her father had done, and this woman was treating it as if it wasn’t that fucking bad. His anger was starting to get the better of him.
“Actually, what I want to know goes before Zara took over from your husband.” Donnie dragged a chair from the table toward the middle of the room. He spun the chair and straddled it, staring at the mother.
“Donnie?” Zara said, and his friend held his hand up, silencing her.
“I went over all the papers that Zara gave me, from the house, to the pizza shop. I also went through all of your expenditures. No wonder Zara was scrambling her brain at the figures. They don’t fucking match up. The money your good husband paid on refurbishment cost five measly little grand, but it states he owed over fifty. Tell me, Mrs. Summers, what the fuck is going on?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Donnie laughed. “Mrs. Summers, I’m not a fucking idiot. Your daughter may be loyal to you, but I killed my own father for crossing me. I don’t have any such loyalty. I suggest you start talking.”
She put the cup down and shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mr. Martinez.”
Even Zara pulled away from her mother, looking confused.
“What is it?” her mother asked.
“I never said their names, or who they were, Mom. How did you know that?” Zara asked.
“No, you said their names.”
“I said Donnie, Luiz, Tonio, and Jake. Nothing else. How did you know his last name?”
Tonio was suspicious and knew without a doubt the woman was hiding something.
“He’s famous.”
“Not close to you, Mrs. Summers,” Donnie said. “I suggest you start talking, as otherwise this is not going to go well for you.”
Tonio stepped close, putting his hand on Zara’s shoulder, offering her support.
She placed her hand over his.
Tonio didn’t get it. He didn’t understand it.
His feelings for her confused him.
Whenever he was near her, he had this urge to protect her, to make sure no one ever hurt her. Not only did he feel the need to protect, he didn’t want there to be any secrets between them.
What the fuck was that all about?
There were so many secrets from his past that he didn’t want known, but they were.
“I know who you are.”
“How did your husband die?” Donnie asked.
“It was a heart attack.”
“Was it?”
“My husband handled everything with Mr. West. I just, I cook pizza, and I stayed out of it.”
“Mom?”
Mrs. Summers turned to her daughter. “I’m sorry, Zara. We failed you.”
“Why don’t we take this from the top, without lies and without the bullshit?”
“Over five years ago, my husband and I, we were struggling. Pizza wasn’t selling, and the mortgage on our house needed to be paid. One night, he went next door to the local massage parlor, and that is where he met your father, Mr. Martinez, Anthony, and Lucien West.”
“I can’t believe this,” Zara said. “You lied.”
“Your father made an agreement to clean money, and in return, we got to keep our shop, free of charge.”
Zara pulled away, pacing up and down. “All this time, the debts, what the fuck was that about?”
She looked ready to kill her own mother. It was rather strange to see the look of murder on someone else.
“Wait? If there wasn’t supposed to be debts, than what the fuck have I been doing?” Zara asked. She ran her fingers through her hair, and Tonio couldn’t look away. She looked so sexy in a disheveled kind of way.
“Something went wrong, didn’t it?” Donnie asked.
Mrs. Summers nodded. “Yes. Something went wrong, really wrong.”
Tonio watched her shudder.
“What happened?” Zara asked.
“One night, my husband was serving pizza, and Anthony comes with Lucien. They carry through the shop three people.”
“They were alive?” Luiz asked.
“They were alive, and, erm, they were covered in blood. They made us close up shop.”
“Where was I?”
“On a field trip with the school. You weren’t there. Thank God.”
“What happened?” Jake asked.
“We closed up the shop, and there were two guys and a girl, a whore, they said. I don’t know why they were at the shop, or what they had done. Betrayal, theft, or something, I don’t know. All I know was that the pizza shop had to be completely cleaned by a professional team. The murders affected my husband so that it drove him mad. He wanted out of cleaning money, of being a goon as he called it. One visit from Lucien West, a doctor, and my husband was in the hospital from a heart attack. I was told to keep my mouth shut otherwise they would kill me, and then come for my daughter. Only Zara wouldn’t be killed. One day, Lucien came into the shop not long after my husband passed, and told me I owed him money. He gave me the paperwork that you have seen, and said I was to start making weekly installments. I tried to argue with him that we didn’t owe him anything. He threatened to kill the both of us. That’s how the debt began. He just took, and took, and there was nothing I could do. He called in the old debt that my husband had taken out. We hadn’t been paying on it while we were cleaning money, but we apparently weren’t clear of it. And I needed more money since I couldn’t do all the work by myself, so I had no choice but to keep on borrowing.”