Chapter 22: Bound By Duty: Chapter 21

When I left the house before breakfast the next morning, Dante wasn’t there. I hadn’t expected him to, he hadn’t lain beside me when I’d woken either. Yesterday I’d forced him to let me closer than he was comfortable with and now he would be pulling away until we were barely civil again. I waved Taft over and he approached me at once. “I need you to drive me to Bibiana,” I said as we walked into the garage. He grabbed the keys, slid into the car and then we were already off. Time was important. “Hurry,” I added when we pulled away from the house. Taft didn’t ask why.

The moment we parked in front of Bibiana’s house, I got out of the car and hurried toward the entrance door. I rang the bell. I knew Tommaso was still home because there wasn’t a guard sitting in a car in the street. I’d hoped for that.

I could hear Tommaso shouting angrily and then there were quick steps and Bibiana opened the door, still in her bathrobe. Her eyes widened with confusion when she saw me. “Val? Tommaso told me what happened yesterday. Are you okay?” There was a hand-shaped bruise on her cheek and it made my decision easier.

I pulled her against me in a hug and pushed the vial with poison into her palm. “Nobody knows I have this. It’s poison, Bibi. If you really want to be free, then slip it into his breakfast today. Tomorrow it’ll be too late. Today we can still blame it on the traitors. Nobody will ask questions.” I straightened with a smile, my face the mask I’d learned from Dante. Bibi smiled back but there was surprise and incredulity and gratefulness in her eyes.

“Bibiana, what’s taking you so long?” Tommaso bellowed as he trudged down the staircase. He paused when he spotted me. Bibiana quickly hid the poison vial in her bathrobe.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you,” I said. “I only wanted to make sure Bibiana knew I’m alright. I don’t have much time though. I need to get back home.”

“Dante called for a meeting of the entire Outfit. Just got the email. I suppose you can’t give me details about what went down?”

I shook my head. “I should really go.” I gave Bibiana a smile, then I turned on my heel and walked back to the car. The last thing I heard was Bibi telling Tommaso she would make him a quick breakfast before he left.

This was the second man I’d condemned to death. This time, however, there was no guilt.

***

“Valentina, I’d like to talk to you,” Dante said before disappearing back in his office. I hesitated. This was the first time that Dante had actually asked me into his office for a conversation. All the times before, I had to seek him out.

Worry gnawed at my insides as I stepped into his office and closed the door behind me. Dante was facing the window but turned to me. For a long time his blue eyes searched my face. “Tommaso didn’t show up at the meeting I’d called.”

I forced my face to stay expressionless. “So?”

“The men I sent over to get him found him dead in his living room. Poisoned.”

“What about Bibiana?” I asked, trying to sound worried and shocked. She hadn’t sent me a text or tried to call me. It would have been too risky anyway.

“She’s with her parents now, but I’ll have to drive over there now to question her.”

I froze. “Why?”

“Because as Capo I need to investigate when one of my men gets killed.” Dante slowly advanced on me. “Of course, I’m fairly sure I know what happened.”

I raised my chin as he stopped in front of me. “You do?” I held his gaze, anything else would have looked guilty, even if it was probably too late for that anyway.

“You are best friends with Bibiana and you wanted to help her.” I didn’t say anything but he didn’t seem to expect me to. He continued in the same quiet, smooth voice. “Antonio gave you poison when he asked you to kill me, didn’t he?”

I considered lying to him, but I needed him on my side and he wouldn’t take being lied to kindly. “Yes,” I said softly.

“You didn’t tell me about it because you knew it was your chance to help Bibiana, so you took it to her and told her to blame it on Raffaele.”

“Did she say that?”

“She mentioned Raffaele visited them yesterday when my men took her to her parents, but she was too hysterical to say much.”

Was Bibi regretting what she’d done? Or had her breakdown been for show? “So why don’t you believe it was Raffaele?”

Dante’s eyes narrowed. “Because he would have mentioned it when I interrogated him.”

I nodded. “So what now?”

Dante shook his head. “Goddamnit, Valentina. You should have come to me.”

“I came to you. I asked you if there was something you could do against Tommaso, but you said there wasn’t.”

“You asked me to kill him and I told you I couldn’t because he wasn’t a traitor.”

I scoffed. “As if that matters. You are a killer, Dante. You can kill whoever you want. Don’t tell me you’ve never killed for other reasons than protecting the Outfit.”

Dante gripped my shoulders, bringing us even closer. “Of course, I have. But I told you ‘no’ and you should have listened to me.”

“Because your word is law,” I said mockingly.

“Yes,” Dante said in a low voice. “Even for you.”

“I would do it again. I don’t regret freeing Bibi of that cruel bastard. I only regret that I had to go behind your back but you left me no choice.”

Dante’s eyes flashed. “I left you no choice? You can’t go around killing my men!”

“He deserved it. You should have seen what he did to Bibi. You should have wanted to kill him for how he treated an innocent woman, wife or not.”

“If I killed every man in the Outfit who treated women badly, I’d be left with half of my soldiers. This is a life of brutality and cruelty, and many soldiers don’t understand that as Made Men we should protect our family from it, and not unleash our anger on them. They know I don’t approve of their actions. That’s all I can do.”

“But I was handed the chance to do something and I did.”

“You helped a wife murder her husband. Some men in my position would find it unsettling to be with a woman who doesn’t hesitate to use poison.”

My eyes grew wide. “I gave Bibi a chance, a choice. That doesn’t mean I would kill you. I would fight you if you ever treated me like Tommaso did with Bibi. Tommaso preyed on Bibi’s weakness. She was given to that old bastard when she was only eighteen and she never knew how to defend herself against him. He’s had four years to be a better man, to treat her decently. He failed. Our marriage has nothing to do with theirs. You don’t need to beat and rape me to feel like a man, and I wouldn’t let you. And anyway, I’m not vengeful, or I wouldn’t have swallowed how you treated me in the last few months, how you accused me of cheating. And Bibi never loved Tommaso, so…” I trailed off, clamping my lips shut. The last part wasn’t supposed to slip out.

Dante’s fingers on my shoulders loosened. I looked away from his penetrating gaze, unable to stand it.

“I’m not worried that you’d poison me. As I said before, I trust you,” he said after a while, dropping his hands from my shoulders. “But I’ll have to investigate Tommaso’s death.”

“You won’t punish Bibi, will you?” I asked, terrified. “Please, Dante, if you care about me at all, you’ll rule that Tommaso’s murder was related to the traitors and that Bibi is innocent. She’s gone through too much already.”

“There might be people out there who won’t believe Bibiana wasn’t involved in Tommaso’s death exactly for the reasons you stated before. She had reason to hate him. She had reason to kill him.”

“Then blame it on me. I could have done it behind Bibi’s back to help her.”

“And then what?” Dante asked quietly.

“Then you punish me and not her.”

“And what if punishment for such a crime would be death in turn? Eye for an eye, Valentina.”

I stared, tears brimming in my eyes. “Don’t hurt, Bibi. Just don’t. Without me, she would have never found a way to kill him. It was as much my fault as it was hers. I will share whatever punishment you inflict on her.”

“I fear you’re saying that because you know I won’t punish you,” Dante said, a dark smile on his lips.

“You won’t?”

Dante kissed me hard, then pulled back and lightly brushed my abdomen. Was it because of our baby? Or was I reading too much into the gesture? Or maybe he’d touched my stomach by accident. “As long as I rule the Outfit, you won’t be harmed.”

He stepped back. “I need to go talk to Bibiana now.”

“Let me go with you,” I said hastily.

“Your father and my Consigliere will be there as well, so don’t interrupt. I don’t want them to suspect you. Your father would overlook it, but I would hate to have to force Rocco into silence over this.”

***

It had been a while since I’d been at Bibiana’s childhood home. I never liked her parents much. That hadn’t changed when they’d forced Bibi into a marriage with an old man. My father and Rocco Scuderi were waiting in front of the door for us. When we walked up to them, Papà pulled me into a hug, kissed my temple and pressed his palm against my abdomen. “So how are you?”

I could feel Dante’s eyes on us. Scuderi, too, was watching with hawk-eyes. I wasn’t sure if he knew about my pregnancy. It wasn’t public knowledge yet, but soon it would be hard to hide. A closer look was already enough to raise suspicions. “I’m good,” I said in a whisper. Papà nodded, then stepped back. “Are you here to support Bibiana?”

I gave him a nod, but was distracted when the door opened and Bibiana’s parents welcomed us into their house. Bibiana was in the living room, wrapped into a blanket. I rushed over to her and pulled her into a tight hug. “I did it. I really did it,” she whispered into my ear.

“Shhh,” I murmured, patting her back. When I pulled away, Dante, my father and Rocco Scuderi stood beside us. Bibi stiffened, eyes fearful as they darted between us. Her parents hovered in the doorway. If Bibi had been my child, I wouldn’t have left her side in a moment like this.

“They’re here to question you because of Tommaso’s death. It’s standard procedure. Everything will be fine,” I told her.

Dante approached us. “It would be best if we could have a word alone with Bibiana,” he said to me. Bibiana’s parents left without a word of protest. I stood but didn’t move. Dante’s imploring gaze made me back away a few steps. Bibiana rose, then looked at Dante fearfully as he stood before her. She was practically cowering and it brought out my protective side, but Dante shot me a warning glare. He wanted me to trust him, to let him handle this, and I knew I had no choice. After an encouraging smile at Bibi, I left the living room, but I didn’t go far. I pressed my ear against the door, trying to listen in on their conversation. They spoke too quietly, which would have been a good sign under normal circumstances. No raised voices should be a positive thing but Dante was his most dangerous when he was quiet.

Fifteen minutes later, I heard steps approaching the door and quickly backed away. Papà opened the door and beckoned me in. “Everything okay,” he said when he saw my worried expression. I walked in. Bibi sat on the sofa, her cheeks wet with tears, while Dante and Scuderi stood near the window, talking in quiet voices. I hurried over to her and sat. She gripped my hand immediately and I squeezed. Her parents came in when Dante turned to us. “The men most likely responsible for Tommaso’s death are dead. There’s no punishment to dole out, so I rule the case closed.” I almost sagged with relief.

“Does that mean we are allowed to look for a new husband for our daughter? Recently the habit of waiting a year has been loosened,” Bibiana’s father said and was of course referring to me. That bastard. Bibiana had barely been freed from one husband they had chosen for her and they were already eager to find someone new.

Dante’s answering glower made the other man lower his head. “Bibiana is pregnant with Tommaso’s child.”

My eyes flew to Bibi who gave me a small happy smile. “I suspected a while, but I got confirmation this morning,” she whispered.

Her parents looked like they’d been punched. They could hardly marry off a pregnant widow. That would be in bad taste. Bibi met their disappointed glares head on. “I’m not going to move back in with you.”

“I give you my word that your daughter will be safe in the house she shared with Tommaso,” Dante said.

I had to hide a smile. Bibi’s parents couldn’t argue with that. After that, Dante and I drove Bibi back to her house. Although we didn’t talk about what had really happened, Bibi’s relieved expression left hardly any doubt. She tried to look solemn whenever she remembered herself, but most of the time her relief spoke too loud.

I was glad Dante knew the truth. He would have figured it out anyway. When Bibi had gotten out of the car and we were on our way home, I put my hand on his leg.

Dante’s eyes registered surprise. I usually honored his reluctance of public displays of affection. “Thank you for helping Bibi.”

“I did it for you,” he said simply. That was probably as close to a declaration of what – love? Affection? I’d ever get from him.

“Thank you.” I pulled my hand away again and rested it in my lap but Dante took me by surprise when he reached for my hand, brought it up to his face and pressed a kiss against my knuckles. My breath caught in my throat and immediately tears gathered in my eyes. Such a small gesture shouldn’t have meant so much but it did, and pregnancy hormones didn’t help. Dante didn’t let go of my hand and sent me a questioning look. “Valentina? Are you alright?”

“It’s the hormones. I’m sorry. Just ignore me.”

Dante rested our linked hands on his thigh and drove with one hand. He didn’t comment as I wiped my eyes and pressed my free hand against the small bump of my stomach.