Authors Note: Thank you to everyone left comments or sent me feedback about previous chapters of this story. Thank you again to Margaret who proofread for me. ~ellie
*****
Peri 30
At eleven thirty Carlo and CJ looked up from the monitor of the screen they both searched and went into action. Leaving Carlo at the computer to continue to scan the conversation, he sent out the alert to the watchers and men of the tables, then he went back to where Carlo continued working to ensure all of the proxies were in place.
The two men worked feverishly on the programs at their disposal. They hadn’t expected the event for another two days, and they struggled with the elements of the emergency plan that hadn’t been fully developed yet. Once they were sure that everyone had checked in, at least once, they began packing up the necessary equipment to move up to the house. Connecting his Bluetooth earpiece, CJ called Jackson, the steward at the house. “Is everyone from the penthouse there,” he demanded as soon as the man answered the phone.
“All but a skeleton staff left to clean up and maintain the place,” Jackson said cautiously hearing the urgency in the other man’s voice.
“Evacuate them immediately. We’ll be up at the house in minutes. Don’t show any concern have Zara ask the nannies to bring the children inside to clean up for lunch. Once everyone is inside, secure the house,” CJ hung up and grabbed the digital notebook his fingers flying over the keys as he accessed the screens and programs Carlo worked on.
“The navy blues are in,” Carlo muttered. “Let’s go,” he stood and started toward the door. CJ closed the slim line notebook and stood to follow him.
They stepped outside the cottage that was now Carlo’s home and were not surprised to find two men in navy blue suits waiting for them in an older model skyline, that looked as if it was ready for the junkyard.
“Secure Peri first then Emily,” Carlo instructed jumping into the car and travelling the few hundred meters to the house. He had left the car before it had stopped moving and bounded up to the doorway. CJ was constantly speaking through his bluetooth earpiece and didn’t miss a beat as they pulled up at the house to be let in by Jackson and a flustered looking Rae.
Carlo turned to see Peri and the two security men assigned to her walking up behind her. He smiled and jokingly made light of the situation before following CJ and Jackson to the other side of the house confident that she was in good hands.
*****
At eleven thirty Romey and Charles Donati were walking out of the courthouse having offered a place in their rehabilitation facility to an addict who was facing serious jail time. Romey’s legal expertise was an obvious asset to how Charles ran the recruitment arm of the family business. Their phones went off in unison, and they looked at each other speculatively without saying a word. They walked without any urgency toward the side of the building that led down to where they had parked their car.
An old combi-van raced toward them through the traffic and although both men stiffened they continued their unhurried walk. The van drew alongside them, and a man in a strangely woven navy blue and white striped poncho hung out of the window calling out to them.
“Hey do you know what my problem is?” his voice sounded over the traffic making the two men look up. “I don’t have just one. I have twelve!” He chuckled loudly.
*****
At eleven thirty Angelo Donati swore loudly and punched a big finger at his phone. He looked sheepishly at Rosanna who immediately rebuked him and looked around at her children.
“I will be washing Papa’s mouth out when we land,” she told them and turned a mock grumpy face on him, but there was concern in her eyes.
“I’ll be back in a minute, I think the captain has some soap Mama can use,” he winked at his giggling children and moved toward the cockpit of the small plane.
“Somethings up, the emergency alarms are going off. How far out are we?” Angelo murmured not wanting to alarm anyone.
“About thirty minutes, if you want to divert we’ll have to do it now,” the captain replied equally softly.
“How much time have I got until we reach the point where we can’t divert?” Angelo asked considering that if there were a real emergency Josh’s place was probably one of the safer places to be heading to aside from his own home.
“We have enough fuel to make the city if you let me know before we start the descent,” the Captain spoke confidently but raised his eyebrows as the alarm when off again on Angelo’s phone.
*****
At eleven thirty Dominic had walked into Josh’s office. He’d headed there as soon as the alarm on his phone went off to find Josh gathering his keys and jacket. The phone on his desk came to life sounding the same alarm tone as the one Dominic held in his hand. Josh reached over picking it up and hitting the dismiss button.
“We’ll have to keep dismissing it until we find our watchers, let’s go.” He walked out of his office and started down the stairs. “Do we know what it is?” Josh asked Dom wondering if he had called his father, Vincenzo.
“No, I doubt Papa would answer any calls now, he’ll just be watching for the answering blips when we answer the alarms,” Dominic explained as they walked together through the front foyer. They exited the building to find two men in navy blue suits waiting for them.
“You know what your problem is?” One of the men said to his partner.
“Yeah I don’t have just one. I have twelve,” the other man answered with a chuckle identifying themselves as Watchmen. “Gentlemen,” he nodded toward the two men and walked away expecting them to follow.
Josh stopped walking as the familiar Skype melody sounded on his phone and seeing that it was Peri he answered immediately. He heard Dante in the call and breathed a sigh of relief that at least he knew they were both safe. He remained calm and listened as an obviously distressed Peri told them about an argument she had started with Emily and the ultimatum she had given her. Both men had said that they had been conscious of Emily’s strange behaviour since returning from the hospital and supported Peri’s decision.
Josh promised her that he would be home soon assuming that the house was their eventual destination. He needed to know she was safe. Ending the call with Peri he called Dante back directly and looked up to where Dom and the men in navy blue waited for him impatiently. He’d begun to walk towards the men when he was knocked off his feet and landed heavily on the pavement banging his head into the concrete sidewalk. Winded and in pain, he blinked his eyes in a daze as a navy blue suit hovered over him.
“Stay down and play dead. We’ll get you out of here,” murmured the deep voice as large hands checked him roughly making Josh wince. There seemed to be smoke and debris around him and people either ran from the area screaming or milled about dazed and confused. He closed his eyes and pictured Peri at home waiting for him unaware that she was in danger. His hand curled around his phone. Then his world went black.
*****
At eleven thirty Dante’s phone alarm went off, and he pulled the phone out of his pocket and frowned at it. Dismissing the alarm, he went out to the manager’s office and signalled them to come over.
“Look there’s been a bomb threat let’s evacuate everyone calmly and send the staff home. Get the rarest pieces into the safe the rest should be fine,” he explained quietly.
“That’s why we pay the insurance brokers, I guess,” one of the men said.
“Let’s not use the alarm let’s just spread the word and do it as calmly and quietly as possible.
“We can turn the lights off and claim an electrical fault, that should do it,” the other man said thinking quickly.
“Alright, emergency lighting only let’s get everyone out, warehouses and stock rooms as well. Do a full sweep of the whole block then let the staff go home,” Dante instructed. He knew within minutes the men in navy blue would arrive to help with the sweep, and those of his brothers who were in the city would come here too. His phone lit up with the melody of Skype and looking at it, he saw that it was Peri. His heart constricted in fear for her, and he answered it immediately walking back to his office.
Relieved to see Josh as part of the conference call he listened calmly as Peri told them about her argument with Emily and the ultimatum she had given her. “Fuck,” he thought. They’d expected something to happen on Friday if it was going to happen. He’d been in favour of taking matters into his own hands yesterday but had let Josh talk him out of it. Now he was stuck here in the city promising to return home as soon as he could when he knew it might be hours before he could get there.
Dante looked up and smiled as Dino walked into his office closely followed by Lorenzo and Manuel. He ended the call from Peri making promises to head home, he knew he couldn’t keep right there and then and greeted the men who were gathering with him noting the dark suits sweeping the business floor and helping with the evacuation. His phone buzzed to life again, and he saw it was Josh.
“What the fuck!” he clutched the phone as the screech of tyres, and a loud crashing boom sounded down the phone. “Josh! Fucking answer me you little shit! Josh!”
At that moment not only the lights went out, but all of the electrical access in the building died. Including the emergency lighting.
“Anyone got a backup plan?” Dino growled, his voice sounding angry and nervous as the men in blue suits walked toward them with torches.
*****
At eleven thirty the alarm on Vincenzo Donati’s phone rang clear, and he hurried from his office to the bowels of the ship where his men worked. Ben followed close behind him turning off the alarm on his phone. At a look from one of his senior men and a murmured short conversation, Vincenzo turned abruptly to face Ben.
“Benedicto give me your phone,” Vincenzo snapped authoritatively. He watched as without hesitation Ben handed it over. “I need you to understand we do this for your own good.”
“What?” Ben’s brow creased not understanding what was happening.
“I need you to trust me on this. You can sit there and watch but do not move from that place, or you will be locked in the bilge room,” Vincenzo said shortly and turned back to his crew issuing hurried commands as Ben watched on his confusion lifting to be replaced by abject horror.
“It couldn’t be true,” he shook his head. Horror gave way to panic as watchers reported in about assaults and small explosions. The Suebi had broken into the penthouse apartment to find the family gone. “Thank God they had already left,” Ben breathed deeply as the thought of the safety of his wife and children settled on him and he stood intent on helping field the calls and disseminate the information as it came in.
“Bene! Sit!” Vincenzo barked seeing his nephew get to his feet.
“I can help I don’t understand why I’m being excluded,” he yelled back at the old man.
“Lock him in the bilge room. I’ll deal with him once I’ve made sure everyone is accounted for,” Vincenzo barked without even looking up from the computer screen. He stared as each name lit up on map positions and the phones around him continued to call out their alarms.
“Do as I say!” Vincenzo roared startling everyone in the room.
“Why should I?” Ben raged back at him. “It’s my family that’s in trouble!”
“Because Emily is trying to have your brothers killed, and I don’t have the time to fight with you about it,” Vincenzo hated the look of disbelief that came over Ben’s face and the air go out of his lungs as he slumped, as if punched in the guts. “Sit down and shut up or get the fuck out,” he said in a slightly lower tone before turning back to the screen where all of the information came to him from the other terminals where his men worked on the individual Donati men’s whereabouts.
Ben staggered backwards. Emily wouldn’t. Emily couldn’t. She may not be the smartest woman in the world, but she loved him and his family. She had always pushed him to do more and be more involved in their lives in preparation for taking over the chair. She had almost killed herself producing the second son for him despite his forbidding it. She lived for this family and their places within it. Why would she want to harm his brothers? His thoughts rolled around in his head as he tried to make sense of what was happening. He sat down and watched hoping beyond hope that this was all a huge mistake. It couldn’t be true.
“CJ and Carlo are at the house and have contained the situation there,” one of the watchers reported.
“Get me CJ, Now!” Vincenzo snapped and held his hand out for the phone.
Everything froze at that moment, computer screens, phones and anything linked to the Donati network ceased to work. It was as if someone had pulled the plug on the main server at the Donati Farm.
*****
Andreas groaned as he felt the weight that held him down lifted and he looked up into the face of one of the groundsmen that worked on the large property. He allowed himself to be dragged from the rubble backwards until someone could catch up his legs and lift them from the ground. Once on a make-shift stretcher he was taken a safe distance away and left to rest while the men returned to their digging. Pain clouded his mind, and he groaned again before slipping back into unconsciousness.
When next he opened his eyes he was being taken aboard the rescue helicopter. He could see the shrouded bodies that remained on the ground. “Joseph? Marisol and Antonia?” he asked in a coarse, dusty voice. No one answered as he was placed into the helicopter and two men climbed in beside him.
“Can you tell me your name?” he paramedic asked.
“Andreas Donati. My wife, Marisol, where is she?” he answered and looked around for Joseph or Antonia. He could see one of the women who had been serving them refreshments and was confused.
The paramedic ignored Andreas’s questions and kept asking his own. “Do you know where you are?”
“My brother’s farm, Donati farm. Young man let me save you the trouble. The year is two thousand and sixteen, the Prime Minster is Malcolm Turnbull, you have five fingers on each hand, and if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to know where my wife, brother and sister-in-law are,” his voice held all of his pain and frustration.
“I’m sorry Sir,” the paramedic said. “You are the only person who was in that part of the house who survived. We’re airlifting you to the hospital. The others will follow.” Andreas closed his eyes his pain intensifying as he gave in to the knowledge that he had probably lost the people most important to him in the world.
They’d heard a helicopter coming in low over the property. He’d got up to go to the window and seen the first explosive crate dropped in the distance and heard the rumbling explosion. He’d turned to the table and yelled for them to all get out but it had been too late. He’d started down the stairs with Marisol but had gone back for his phone which he’d left on the table.
He held onto the slim hope that the women had made it downstairs and out of the building before the explosives had dropped on the Athenaeum and they just hadn’t been found yet.
*****
CJ had worked miracles and managed to get everything transferred from the back-up server temporarily onto the server that was still being built out at Joshua’s house. His first call had been to Vincenzo while Carlo checked in with Dante and the brother’s they knew were in town.
“We evacuated the buildings and left,” Dante’s disembodied voice answered the hands-free in his car. We’re all heading out to safe houses. Glad to see the phones are up again anyone heard from Josh?” His anxiety regarding the crash he had heard carried in his voice. “I heard an explosion and the phones went down.”
“Louisa’s there,” Carlo groaned. “Find her and get her out! I’ll call her and let her know you’re on your way. She’ll know why Josh isn’t answering. Try Dom as well; he would have been with Josh.”
Carlo couldn’t get hold of Louisa, and he knew he had to trust the watchers and his brothers who were out there to look after those near them. It was his job now to look after the future of the family who were all here in this house. The idea that the woman who had caused this was here with them was oddly comforting. She would never have endangered herself or her children. It was why they had assumed the imminent attack would happen Friday when she and Ben had taken Angelina to school. He wondered what had pushed her to issue the signal prematurely.
His thoughts turned dark as he walked toward the small cluster of men and women who stood in the central hub of the house. The steward, housekeeper, and cook had proven to be cool heads in a crisis and had managed to get everyone down into the cellar where Josh had built a cinema and epic games room. He just needed to face Peri now and get her down to where it was safest as well.
*****
Peri felt the house shake with a muffled boom and tried to still the panic that welled up inside her as the two other women looked at her before following her gaze to the door. She looked up and saw Phillipe move into the room and close the door standing with his back to it like an immovable pillar.
“Mrs. Donati, I don’t know what that was. It is my job to keep you and the angels safe. Gerrard will find out what he can and report back. He’s maintaining the outer rooms. This room is the safest for you all,” Phillipe forestalled her questions by holding up his hand and speaking calming.
“Urgh!” Peri let out a frustrated cry and turned around slowly noting that the only windows in the room were up high for natural light not letting anyone view the occupants inside unlike the bedroom with its wide expansive windows and sliding doors that led out to the courtyard. “Have you got any idea why my phone’s not working?”
“The server that links this house with the Donati network might be down. I expect they are working on it,” Phillipe said in a tightly clipped voice hating to be out of contact with the world outside this room.
“Open up it’s Carlo,” the familiar deep voice said as he knocked on the door. Phillipe stepped aside and opened the door.
“Carlo,” Peri breathed and stepped forward to hug him. “What’s going on?”
“There’s a family emergency, and the security guys are picking up everyone and delivering them to safe locations. Everyone has checked in, and it will all be fine in just a little while,” he soothed walking forward to wrap his arms around her.
“Where is everyone else? What about Emily and the children? I promised Carmen I would look after them like my own,” she began to panic about all of the people in the house.
“They’re all safe they’re in the cellar watching a movie on that gigantic screen Josh installed down there,” he chuckled trying to keep his voice light. “This room as safe but we can move you down there to check on them all yourself if you want,” he said easily. “Ang. and Rosie landed a few minutes ago and are being brought down from the top of the hill.”
“Oh God I forgot they were coming this afternoon,” Peri placed a hand over her mouth horrified as she remembered the loud boom. “They crashed?”
“There was trouble with the landing, but everyone is safe and well, they’re on their way down. You can see them for yourself. Come on, I’ll take you down to the cellar you will be happier where you can fuss over everyone. I can see that now,” he shook his head. “What do we need?” he walked further into the room stacking three rockers and handing them to Phillipe. “Pack what you need for a few hours at least,” he instructed Heather and Melanie.
He waited with Phillipe trying to hide his anxiousness as the women hurriedly packed as much as they could into three carry-all bags. Then Gerrard and CJ joined them to help carry the bags and rockers downstairs to the cinema room.
*****
Ben sat watching Vincenzo. Jules was overseas with Constantine and would be safe from all this he knew. Angelo, Carlo, and CJ were at the house with Peri, Emily and all of the children. Dante, Romey and a few of the others were both at the House of Lorraine that left only Josh and Dom. He struggled to overhear conversations from where he sat feeling impotent and humiliated.
As soon as the alarm had sounded the ship had pulled away from the dock and headed out to open waters. With Ben on board, Vincenzo had no concerns over his crew’s safety they were attempting connection with the watchers through old radio’s and the progress was slow and mired down by the lack of technology. As if someone flicked a switch everything came back to life in the data room, and Vincenzo’s phone came to life, startling him making him drop it and scramble to pick it up. Within seconds phones and tapping of keyboards filled the room with noise.
“Shut down anything but the essentials,” Vincenzo barked out at his crew. “We’re on a temporary server that’s being held together with chewing gum and prayers. Someone find out what the fuck happened to the server at the farm.”
“On it,” came a voice from the men working feverishly on the consoles fielding calls and uploading data.
“Great, we’re up again,” Vincenzo’s youngest son Ricci came back into the room holding a red folder. He turned to Ben passing him the folder, “Fucking secrets and lies, man. Sorry but it was necessary. You couldn’t have handled the truth. I’m still not sure you’re ready for it.”
Ben opened the file ready to dismiss most of what was inside as assumption or happenstance. What he found was a relationship that had built between Emily and Nik from the time he had married Emily and brought her home to the family. Once the secret email addresses had been uncovered it hadn’t taken long to realise that Emily had been using devices, not on the Donati network. Once those devices had been found the full extent of her betrayal had been uncovered.
Emily had been groomed and pushed her whole life to become the wife of the second Donati son. The Pellegrini family help one of the largest government-sanctioned farms that grew poppies for the opiates used in modern medications. In a summary written by Joseph, it has long been suspected that the family had a business and dubious family connections to the Suebi and aided in thier illegal drug empire. It had not come as a shock to find Emily’s sister had married into that organisation with the blessing of her parents.
Emily had manipulated everyone in the family under the guise of being the sweet, not too bright, motherly woman she portrayed to everyone including her husband. She had seen the disgruntled young Veronica Donati as her prime ally in bringing down this family and had befriended her rapidly, encouraging her views on the misogynistic rule of the Donati men.
She and Nik had each made plans together, as well as separately, for the day that Joseph and Antonia would retire. Nik because she felt that as a woman in this family she would never get the money and status she deserved. Emily because she had married the second son, who she would rule beside and eventually bring the House of Lorraine down from the inside and allow her family, the Pellegrini’s to move up within the tables to a position of power.
While the twelve tables were essentially seen as equal, the power wielded by the Donati’s by virtue of the respect they commanded from being known as fair and trustworthy amongst their brethren was assailable. Emily had allowed Nik to believe that once she and Ben came to power, she could live her life as she wished without any recriminations and come into an inheritance equal to that of her twin brother. Emily’s love of her husband and children had always been held as the reasons she had resisted having any staff to help her, in the house or with the children. The reality was that she wanted no witnesses to any of the plans she had been putting in place over the last decade.
The folder detailed seemingly innocuous coffee dates with women known to have Suebi links, the introduction of Nik to the same acquaintances. It was Emily who had suggested a fashion boutique as a front for her party drug sales, knowing that as Nik got drawn further and further into that world, Josh would get dragged into it with her. She would expose them eventually, and that would eliminate one of Ben’s brothers from the race to the chair, which she worried about due to her lack of male heirs.
As she gave birth to her first son encountering so many complications Ben had sided with the doctors and forbidden her from having any more children, Emily knew she had to start pushing her plans to undermine each of Ben’s brothers. Emily hadn’t counted on how protective Nik was of Joshua, and she had hidden her alternative life and line of work from him, as well as the rest of her family. Jules and Bianca enjoyed the good life and were no threat to Emily’s plans, Carmen and Romey, on the other hand, could well prove formidable opponents, and she set to work making Carmen her best friend, by seeming weak and placing Carmen in a position of protector and caregiver for her.
It had been easy to manipulate a woman so lacking in self-confidence, that any praise was met with the exuberant joy of a puppy getting a treat, she had said of Carmen in one of her emails. Emilio was gay, and Dante was mentally unbalanced after his very public breakup with his social climbing girlfriend. Angelo and Carlo, she viewed as country bumpkins not worth her time or energy to worry about. Her only real threats, she considered were Romey and Josh.
Peri had come along at the right time for Emily. It had been easy to convince Nik that the woman meant to take Josh and his support away from her, especially as he spent more and more time with Peri and less time worrying about her. She had sown the seeds of mistrust so subtly, and when things had begun to unravel, with Nik being taken to the Battaglia, Emily had called on the person she had confided everything to help her. Her mother who had gone to the Battaglia and visited the facility on the pretext of wanting to refine their trials but had spent some time with Nik in a private discussion.
Ben sighed the betrayal of his love, and his family was almost impossible to bear, but the knowledge that she had done all of this with the blessing of her mother, so as to further her brother’s futures appalled him. The mother of the Pellegrini family had pimped her daughters out. One to the family she hated and another she had forced into the arms of the Suebi.
Emily had played her part perfectly. She had been the loving and dutiful wife and mother. She had befriended his troubled sister. She had done it all to be at his side when he took the chair. The fact that his father didn’t give him the chair was the one thing she couldn’t have predicted.
Her actions of the last two weeks were well documented. They had cloned her devices, left tracers and bugs everywhere including her hospital room where she had spoken with many of the people involved in her subterfuge including the inpatient doctor they had met on her final day there. Leaving hospital to stay with Peri and Josh had been a masterstroke, and he could see how the plans were set in place for Friday, and he knew that his family would have moved to protect themselves. The attack had come early, though, and he looked up at the controlled chaos of the men as they gathered and disseminated information with well-practiced expertise.
“How could he ever become the keeper of the Watchmen if he hadn’t even seen what was happening in his own home?” He asked himself. He poured over the information from the last few weeks and realised Emily had discredited Carmen and Romeo enough that she no longer saw them as a threat. The people standing in her way were Josh, Dante, and Peri. He felt an ice cold, calm wash over him. He needed to know that the new triumvirate of their family was safe.
He stood and walked purposefully toward his uncle. “I don’t doubt its authenticity. I didn’t’ know, and I feel like a schmuck but I need to know Josh and D. are safe,” he said in a calm but steely voice. Then he took the seat beside Vincenzo and began reading all of the incoming reports.
Vincenzo grunted but said nothing. He had bigger problems to deal with.
*****
“Emergency vehicles blocked the roads leading into the small business district where the publishing house was situated and leaving his car in the middle of the street, Dante got out and started to jog toward the absolute chaos that was the Publishing house. A burly police officer stepped into his path.
“I’ll have to ask you to stand back,” he placed a meaty hand on Dante’s chest.
“I’m Dante Donati that’s my family business,” he said brushing the police officer’s hand away and stepping past the makeshift barricade.
“Who’s in charge here,” Dino asked from behind Dante with a voice full of authority.
“Senior Sargent Beckmann,” the constable answered uncertainty creeping into his voice as Dante continued into the rubble. “Find him. Tell him the Donatis are here and want answers immediately if not sooner,” Dino followed Dante as he walked toward the building.
“Dante?” A young woman approached the two men from where she had sat on the back edge of an ambulance stretcher.
“Louisa, where’s Josh?” Dante asked urgently. He saw her face fall and her head shake as if unable to speak the words. “They took the bodies in the first ambulance,” she sobbed.
“No. Josh called me. He’s okay we just have to find him,” Dante said unable to accept that he had lost another brother.
“You weren’t here,” Louisa looked up at Dino as Dante walked toward several obviously high-ranking police officers. “The truck was out of control it just kept coming it was so loud, and the tyres screeched as it missed the turn and rolled. Josh and Dom and the others, they were in its path. He was lying there, so still. They covered him with a sheet and put him in the ambulance.” She began to cry her whole body shaking now not just her head. She’d been one of the first downstairs after the accident and seen the carnage.
“Louisa,” Dino said abruptly snapping her out of her tears. “You have to call Carlo he is worried about you. Do not tell him what you think happened. Just let him know we are here, and we are looking for Josh and Dom. Do you understand? This is important. If you are even half the woman Josh and Carlo have told me you are you will keep it together for everyone’s sakes,” he said in a stern voice. “Do not tell them your suspicions, only that we are looking for them, understand?”
“Yes,” she said. “I can’t get hold of him though. I have been trying to call him.”
“The lines are back up now, he sent us to find you and get you out of here,” Dino explained. “Call him but don’t alarm him. He is at the house with Peri, and I don’t think she could take hearing something like that, especially as we don’t know for sure what has happened to Josh and Dom.” He gripped her shoulders and looked at her, “I need to look after D. now and trust you to keep it together. Stay with the police, trust no one who isn’t family, understand.”
“Yes,” she said her voice as serious as his as she finally understood what he was saying to her. Carlo had hinted at the family being targeted by underworld figures and had made her promise to be overly cautious in her daily routine. The idea that someone had purposely tried to run over Josh and Dom before losing control of the truck made her feel sick. She could be the woman they needed her to be, and she stood straighter dashing the tears from her face. She could be strong and trustworthy and loyal if they needed her to be. She looked around at the debris surrounding her and took a deep breath before making the call.
*****
“I’m the fucking warrior,” Dino raged into the phone. “It’s my job to protect this family when it’s under siege, so I’m calling the shots right now. Get everyone to the Canungra Combined Services Base. They have hospital facilities. Get the watchers to pull rank, call in favours whatever it takes,” he barked into the phone. “While everyone is scattered this way we can’t focus on what needs to be done. Even in defence, we need a better plan than this.”
“Canungra,” Vincenzo’s voice was sceptical. “Isn’t that the Military Intelligence School?”
“Safest place I know of and the base commander is a friend of the family,” Dino said. “D.s losing his mind trying to find Josh, send out the word, and I will get D. there.”
“What about CJ, Ang. and Carlo, they’re with Emily and Peri,” the older man asked still reeling from the attack on the Donati farm and the knowledge they had lost Joseph and Antonia.
“They can skype in from there but it doesn’t make sense to gather us all in an unprotected place,” Dino compromised his initial demand. “It’s relatively safe there they won’t attack their best asset. The watchmen can all head there once the rest of us are at the base.”
“All right do it, I’ll get the word out and come with Benedicto. He needs to see his brothers are safe for himself,” Vincenzo said not hiding his voice from his nephew who sat at his side.
Ben nodded solemnly. The news that his parents were presumed deceased at this point and that Josh was still missing had almost broken him, but he determinedly remained unemotional concentrating on the reports as they came in, of attacks on homes and business that belonged to the men of the tables.
Further damning Emily, was the fact that his home remained untouched as did his business. He felt confident that his children would remain safe, as long as she was with them and had been heartened by the fact that CJ and Carlo had not confronted her directly but rather informed her the family was under attack and had confined her with the children and staff in the cellars. They had made sure she had not had a moment alone to make another call or contact the men attacking the family in anyway, by giving her a personal bodyguard.
They had also explained that phones and internet were banned from his point, due to the temporary nature of the servers they had up and running. Emily wouldn’t have been able to use her other devices without them being aware she was on another network. Not that the bodyguard gave her any privacy even accompanying her to the bathroom and standing beside the partially open door.
It was Carlo and CJ’s early warning that had gotten everyone out of harm’s way. His parents had gone to the Athenaeum. It was a given, and the predictability of it had been fuelled by the attackthat had cost them their lives. The attack there had brought down the servers and had scattered his brothers and uncles making them leave the safety of the House of Lorraine and head out of the city. Dino was right. They needed a place where no one would look for them, or expect them to be. He hated leaving the children at Josh’s house, but they were safe there for now. Of that he was sure. Whether she was a pawn or a ringleader, Emily wouldn’t jeopardise her children’s lives.
*****
“Andreas is in surgery,” Vincenzo reported as he and Ben entered the conference room where the rest of the Donati men had gathered. CJ had set up a web conference link to the house which showed the three men at the house on a monitor.
“Fuck,” Manuel swore, and he walked over to embrace his brother and nephew.
“Josh?” Ben looked at Dante.
“He’ll live, Pete’s got him at the base hospital for a few more tests, concussion, few broken ribs, the rest is minor,” Dante’s voice was deep and carried the anxiety they all felt. Ben seemed to let out the breath he was holding.
“The truck was aiming straight for him before it swerved and rolled. It still clipped him before hitting the building, but it could have been much worse,” Dom explained nursing his own injuries. He told them that Josh’s watchers had commandeered the ambulance when it arrived and borrowed the paramedic’s phone to call Pete, telling him to stay at his surgery until they got there. After picking him up, they had driven again to another surgery situated beside a medical centre, that housed pathology and x-ray as well as other services. They’d maintained radio silence until he was conscious again and was given a full examination by Pete.
“I’m gonna be the hard ass here, so feel free to hate me,” Dino stood up and paced glancing at the gathered men, including those on the screen. “The steward at the Donati farm has identified the bodies of Joseph, Antonia, and Marisol. There will be time enough to grieve for them later, for now though let’s make sure we don’t lose anyone else.”
“I hate you,” Dante said in such a casual way it made them all look at him in shock. “What he said to feel free to hate him, I was just letting him know I do right now. Don’t even pretend you don’t,” he said to Manuel and Vincenzo.
“Let him talk, he’s the only one here making any sense at the moment,” Charles said gruffly.
“The information we have is that it was homemade bombs dropped from a helicopter that destroyed the Athenaeum, Ang’s house and the airstrip at the farm. A similar crate was left on the runway above Josh’s house and the pilot did well to avoid it and land safely there.”
“I owe that guy big time,” Angelo said sincerely.
“The fact that they were close enough to do some damage but left Josh’s house alone tells us she is valuable to them, and they won’t risk her life, which means the house is safe for now. Anyone there should stay because no doubt they’ve been watching and know your there. No one leaves. There is a small army of watchers around the property and combing the surrounding properties,” Dino continued. “We need CJ there to keep the servers running and considering the state of the main frame, build it up as fast as possible. Tell us who and what you need and we’ll make it happen.”
“I guessed as much and already have it on the way here,” CJ nodded. “Let your watchers know a couple of Geek Squad vans should be rolling up here soon.”
“Great one problem solved, moving on,” Dino continued gathering momentum. “The continued attacks on homes and businesses tell us that they didn’t see us all leave the House of Lorraine. Judging by Louisa’s version of events the navy blues advice for Josh and Dom to play dead seems to have paid off, and the ambulance’s return to the hospital with replacements playing the part of the corpses and Pete should make them all happy. Well done guys,” he nodded in Dom’s direction.
“The early warning that went out probably got most of you out of the way before they could track your movements,” Vincenzo shrugged. “The sudden change in plans probably caught some of them napping as much as it surprised us. They can’t have known we were onto her, or they wouldn’t have continued with the calls and emails, so there was no reason for them to believe we would all have that alarm or move when we did.”
“Yeah you guys saved the day,” Dante nodded at the screen.
“Your undying gratitude and first born children are all the thanks I need,” Carlo said leaning back in his chair and placing his hands behind his head in an exaggerated way.
“None of the women and staff have any idea the network is back; we told them we have a temporary solution for upstairs but have banned any phones or devices. The watchers have all of the children’s tech. Emily, Rosie, and Peri have been told to keep theirs turned off or risk another shutdown. I doubt they have much reception down there without the hubs working anyway,” Dino looked at CJ for confirmation of what he said.
“Yeah, all of that, plus I didn’t want anyone getting news that would freak the others or the children out,” CJ agreed. “As far as they all know we’re working on it.”
“I propose we send a few of us there at a time as the meeting place. Starting with the ones they will have had the least eyes on. We keep at least half here and let the rumours spread about Josh and Dom’s deaths, as well as those on the farm,” Dino said. “Add a few more for good measure. They’ve destroyed enough to have hit a target or two, even if they aren’t the ones they wanted.”
“Me,” Ben said. “She may have wanted to weaken the family, but the plan all along was to rule it. She would have let me have the chair and clean up all this mess, but she would have taken subtle control in the end. That was always her plan.” He looked around the room as his family looked at him. “I loved her. I never saw any of it until it was put in front of me in black and white. I can add to that folio, people she’s talked about and how to find them. She believed she was untouchable because I never questioned anything and she hid it well. My whole adult life’s been a lie, and I think the only way to knock her off centre now, is to tell her I died in one of the attacks. They would have been watching Josh too carefully, but it’s not unheard of that I would visit Papa or any of you guys unexpectedly.”
“Casualties occurred at the apartment, you could have gone back for something,” Dino mused. “They set it and several of the warehouses alight.”
“Not me,” Dante said. “I’m not doing that to Peri, if you want Emily to believe she won I know it should be me but I can’t.”
“What if we send Pete back, we can separate Peri ostensibly to tell her the bad news, give her the good news and then confine her to her room and say she’s been sedated,” Carlo suggested. “I can tell her the truth, and as long as she is separated from the group downstairs, Emily won’t know it’s a ruse. If she is up here, you can talk to her and prove you are alive and well.”
“Yeah, alright,” Dante gave in, “But I doubt Pete will leave Josh willingly right now.”
“We could just have you on the missing list. Say I sent you to the archives for some information,” that would put you in the path of the fires,” Vincenzo suggested to Ben seeing his need to be involved but not ready to return to the house and confront his wife yet. “The police have already started picking up the Suebi we knew about. Ben needs to sit with them and try to identify the ones we didn’t know by the code names.”
“Tell her that the only one of us who died was Ben, and I bet she’ll furnish us with a list herself in revenge. Without Ben, she has nothing and no one to get her what she wants. She and Peri had a battle of wills this morning. Peri asked her to leave, to go home with her husband or go to the farm,” Dante finally told everyone what the catalyst for the attack had been. The men all went silent for a moment acknowledging that what Dante had said made sense. “Like many people, Emily underestimated our little mama. She’s lost the grip she thought she held on Peri, and if she loses Ben who is her anchor in this family, I imagine she will be crazy enough to start sling mud around at everyone.”
“Someone will have to tell the Farnese family what has happened to Joseph and Antonia before that happens and the other chairs find out, and we better get Bruno and Marco up to speed on the Pellegrini involvement here. We have enough proof as it is, if she rolls on them all, then all the better,” Romey said his analytical mind always working on the family laws. Accusing another table of something of this magnitude was not going to be easy.
“Josh has to do it. He’s the chair now. D. should step in if he’s not capable,” Charles said seriously.
“I’m capable,” Josh said from the doorway. “I mightn’t be ready to run a marathon yet but I can make the calls, dead men can talk in this instance.”
“Hey kid,” Ben said softly turn an apologetic face on Josh.
“Don’t even start, this wasn’t you, and no one here blames you,” Josh cut off any guilt Ben may have expressed with an exaggerated sigh. “So what’s the plan? We kill off Ben, and the rest of us do a victory dance around the black widow?”
“That’s the best suggestion, I’ve heard since I got here,” Manuel grumbled and went over to clap Josh on the shoulder making him wince. “Good to see ya, boy.”
*****
“Peri,” Angelo said gruffly. “We need to see you upstairs,” he glanced at Roseanna and shook his head imperceptibly making her gasp and turn away hiding her dismay. He hated lying to his wife, but it was necessary at this point. She had sided with Emily when the table had been announced and with the shocking revelations of the past weeks, no one was above suspicion, even his wife. Only the table itself would know the full extent of the fallout for now.
“No, just Peri,” Angelo stared at Emily who had got to her feet as if to follow Peri upstairs. “I doubt after your argument this morning that she will want your support right now,” he murmured as Peri passed the baby she had been holding to a nanny and spoke briefly with the woman. Surprise registered on Emily’s face. She had thought that Peri wouldn’t have had enough time to tell anyone what had occurred and by now it would have been forgotten.
“That was just a little tiff, a difference of opinion,” Emily tried to brush it off. “I’ll come with you just in case there’s anything I can help with.”
“Emily, is there a problem?” Peri said trying to keep an air of authority in her voice despite the queasy feeling in her stomach from the look on Angelo’s face. “He didn’t ask for Mrs. Donati this time so there can’t be any confusion unless you have decided to take my whole name now?” she said caustically.
“No, of course not. I assumed you would need some support. If the family is under attack Josh will be the one they will kill first,” Emily said with a sickly sweet smile. “He is the chair after all.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you Emily. Did you have a knock to the head or something?” Angelo said in a deathly quiet hiss. “That was fucked up and if I didn’t know any better, you sound as if you’re happy about that fact that the family is under attack.” he signalled Rosanna over to him and spoke loudly enough for his voice to carry to the other adults in the room and most of the children. “You’re in charge while Peri is meeting with Pete upstairs, I think the medication Emily has been on since her time in hospital has had some adverse effects.”
The truth was he wanted to rage at the woman and her smug attitude, but he held it together as he knew they must until the timing was right. Let her sweat it out down here unable to contact anyone for information, until she exposed herself or they were ready to give her the news of Ben’s murder. CJ and a small band of super Geeks were working on all of the surveillance and tracking programs needed. First, though, Peri needed to be told what was happening and confined to the upstairs area of the house.
“Come on Emily you can sit with Arianna and Angelina who are planning her orientation day at Fairmont,” Rosanna led her away looking at her husband over her shoulder. She could see that something was very wrong, and as she looked at Peri, she felt sick at the thought that Josh had been hurt or worse.
Emily began to sob softly, appealing to Rosanna’s kind heart and the bond she had developed with the woman over the years. She knew that Rosanna didn’t blame her for anything that had occurred over the holidays, as she had Carmen do all of the talking and interfering at the time. It was a shame she didn’t have Carmen here now to say all the harsh things that needed to be said to these women. Instead, she appealed to their emotional states of uncertainty and became a weak and fragile woman who needed to be cossetted and spoilt, to be able to get through this ordeal. She knew the part by heart; it was how she had managed to be able to do all of the things she had accomplished over the last decade, of subtly undermining the foundations of the great Donati family.
*****
Peri walked into the office area with Angelo at her side. She could see the pain and tension showing on Carlo and CJ’s faces as she looked around for anyone else who might have come. Angelo pointed at the monitor that sat at the end of the large table where Peri could see the torso’s of several men as they walked around the room on the other end of the screen.
“OI! She’s here,” Carlo tapped the mic already feeling uncomfortable by what needed to be said.
“Hey beautiful,” Dante said coming into focus on the screen.
“Dante,” she breathed with a soft smile. “I have never been so happy to see you, where’s Josh?”
“He got hit by a truck,” Dante said seriously. “He’s alive, but it’s hard to tell if his head injury has caused any brain damage, he never had much of a brain, to begin with, and Pete’s been having trouble finding it.”
“Is he there with you?” Peri giggled with relief. She knew that Dante wouldn’t be joking about it if it was a serious injury.
“Yeah but he looks like he’s been hit by a truck,” Dante said shifting over so Pete could wheel the chair Josh sat in beside him.
“Oh Josh,” Peri exclaimed reaching a hand toward the monitor.
“I’m alright, it looks worse than it feels,” he smiled lopsidedly. “Look, I have a lot to do here, things haven’t gone well for any of us today. I need you to listen to Ang and Carlo. They’ll tell you everything. Papa and Mama,” he paused and took a steadying breath. “They weren’t lucky enough to get out in time like the rest of us. The family is our responsibility now. I need you to listen to the whole story from Carlo. We won’t be home for some time yet but we are safe, and I trust the guys there to look after you and the babies. Stick with Phillipe and Gerrard, they’d die before letting anything happen to you or our babies.”
“I understand,” Peri said realising how serious the situation was despite Dante’s earlier joking to put her at ease about how Josh looked.
“I have to go, just remember no matter what anyone says now, you’ve seen us, you know we’re fine. We are all here together except the Ang, Carlo, and CJ,” Josh said.
“I love you stay safe please,” Peri said as she saw Pete come back into the screen shot to wheel him away. “Pete look after him for me,” she said sadly realising his injuries were sufficient that he wasn’t able to walk.
“What about me?” Dante said plaintively.
“You’re the family hero I didn’t think I had to ask your brothers to babysit you,” she laughed looking into his handsome eyes and seeing sadness come into them. “Dante if anyone can hold things together today you can. You are the most amazing man, and I love you too,” she said.
“Stay safe and listen to Ang. and Carlo okay? Don’t take any risks not even if it sounds like a good idea at the time. We still don’t know what we’re dealing with exactly. You’re safe where you are, so stay there.” He stood and moved away from the screen and Peri turned to Carlo and Ang. who stood directly behind her.
“I’m ready to hear whatever you have to say,” Peri said moving to the corner where a small sitting area had been set. She listened carefully to the whole story starting back on the night Dante had been shot. Carlo who worked closely with CJ on decrypting the coded messages filled her in on all of the backgrounds they had discovered leading up to that fateful night where the grand decades-long scheme had finally begun to unravel for Emily and the Pellegrini’s. The news that Joseph and Antonia were in fact not just injured but dead, hit her like a ton of bricks, and she began to cry. So much devastation all because she had forced Emily’s hand by asking her to leave the house in the argument this morning.
It was true the attack still would have occurred, as both Carlo and Angelo hastened to reassure her but it was more likely to have happened on Friday, when everyone was better prepared. As it was CJ’s early warning system and the Watchmen that worked with Vincenzo had saved lives regardless of the time. Everyone was safe except the Mother and Father of the Donati Family.
“Carlo,” reached out and touched his arm. “Call Louisa and have her come over. If you plan to make her part of the family she may as well see us in the worst of times and honestly I could use a friend right now.” He looked at her stunned. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but this wasn’t it. “Whoever is attacking us won’t jeopardise Emily’s safety, she’s been calling the shots for a long time now, and they need her. This is the safest place, and I am concerned that Louisa might be in shock,” she was clear headed and could see what needed to be done. “Wait,” she looked at them. “Call Pete and get a doctor that he trusts, one of his partners to pick her up and bring her. I know you have said you are all fine Angelo but that landing must have been traumatic, and I think it’s best we check the kids and Rosanna over. Shock can be a strange thing that keeps you going even when you shouldn’t be able to. Trust me, it’s something I know about.”
“Yeah,” Angelo nodded. “I’d feel better with a doctor on hand here at the house.
“No arguments from me,” Carlo agreed easily feeling better about being able to see Louisa. Her brief phone call to him had made him uneasy.
“If this is the safest place, tell Vinnie to get my family here too. She won’t question that, I’ve been here all day, and it’s no secret the family is under attack,” CJ said from nearby where he had listened to the conversation and added to it as he worked.
“Oh CJ of course, I’m sorry. Do you think we should get Finola and Margarite as well?” She turned suddenly to Angelo. “Has anyone told Lucia about Mama and Papa?”
“All right, I’ll call Zio and see what they want to do,” Angelo said calmly reaching for his phone.
“Fucking idiots,” CJ grumbled. “Yo, Papa!” he yelled into the mic, and Charles appeared on the screen. “We need to talk to Vinnie and Pete as well,” he snapped and made an arm gesture at the screen as the rest of them moved sheepishly toward it.
“It’s your show,” Angelo said stepping back and allowing Peri to sit and talk to the men gathered on the other side of the screen. He was quietly impressed with how Peri had handled the overload of information and the tragedy that was unfolding within the family.
Once Peri had stated her case to the other members of the family and Pete and made them realise the men they had with them would be more at ease knowing their wife and children were safe, plans had been made. Once the wives arrived they would tell Emily that they knew their husbands were safe. She would start feeling some doubt and begin asking questions about Ben. Angelo and Carlo would say he was still missing and that he had been gone to meet Josh for lunch. Peri didn’t have to fake her tears or distress when talking about Josh, he looked like he had not only been hit by a truck but dragged beneath it for some distance and she tried to remain positive knowing that he was with people who loved and would look after him. Dante was there.
Louisa thought Josh was dead, but she didn’t know for sure. He had disappeared into an ambulance and they could each claim that no one was able to confirm where he was now and that hospitals were being checked. The fact that Antonia and Joseph had died would be given out once Lucia had been told and they would keep up the ruse that both Josh and Ben were missing.
Devastated beyond belief at the loss of Joseph, Antonia and Marisol and the grave nature of Andreas’s injuries, Peri concentrated on the tasks at hand and prepared for the people who would be arriving to add to the people downstairs. She reasoned that there was no real reason to keep the women and children downstairs except to contain Emily. She worked over that problem in her mind. There had to be a way to allow the children to go to their rooms, particularly the nannies and little ones without allowing Emily too much freedom.
Of all the men and women that formed the security teams that were with them inside the house, she trusted Phillipe and Gerrard without question and reasoning that containing Emily would keep her safe, she pulled them into her team and plans. After Phillipe had heard the whole story that Carlo and Angelo had told her and relayed it to Gerrard, it had been surprisingly easy to convince them to follow her plans for a change.
*****
Dino had called his brother Marcus and told him the abridged version of all that had occurred knowing that Marcus was as up to date as he could be about their findings. If there was going to be an accusation against another family and not just Emily, they knew they needed the Battaglia on their side.
Josh had spent more time than he had wanted to break the news to the leaders of the Farnese family. His Zia Rosie had not taken the news of her twin’s death well, while Thomaso had raged at the attack on his sister and her family. Josh explained the suspicions they had and the proof they had gathered. While the proof incriminated Emily and her family, they were sure that the Pellegrini’s had not shown their full hand as yet. Josh assured them that despite their personal grief at the loss of their parents, he and his brothers were determined to get irrefutable proof that the betrayal and the cold-blooded murder of Joseph and Antonia had been sanctioned by the chair of the Pellegrini family.
Thomaso reluctantly agreed to wait twenty-four hours before calling a gathering of the Twelve and making any accusations The two families were linked by blood and love, and he had taken the news as if his family and table were the ones under attack. When Josh finally hung up the phone, he put his hands over his face and took a deep shuddering breath. How was he ever supposed to follow a man like Joseph as the Donati chair? He wasn’t ready.
“You handled that better than I could’ve,” Ben said softly pulling up a chair beside him. “Better than any of us could. Papa knew what he was doing when he gave you the chair. Trust in that, because we do.” Ben placed a hand on his shoulder and gripped it tightly. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I need to say it, I’m sorry Josh. So fucking unbelievably sorry.”
“It’s fucked up Ben. The most fucked up thing about all of this is that I know she loves you, and you love her. You can’t fake that sort of love. She wanted the power and money and was willing to sacrifice us not you, never you. She was counting on your love for her and the children to pull you through all the tragedy and loss,” Josh said honestly running his fingers through his hair. “We can’t help who we fall in love with, or how blind that love makes us. You are dealing with far more than the rest of us, and you can apologise as much as you want. if that will help you get through this. I need you Ben, more than I ever have, so whatever you have to do to get through his is fine with me. I trust you, you know. I know you didn’t see any of this coming. None of us did, she fooled everyone, even the watchers.”
“I hate you if that helps,” Dante grumbled sitting opposite them.
“Yeah, you hate everyone right now,” Ben gave him a steady look.
“True enough,” Dante shrugged. “Just didn’t want ya to feel left out.”
“Thanks,” Ben said dryly. He was grateful for Dante’s dark humour. It saved him from having to respond to what Josh said. He had no words for his kid brother that didn’t come in the form of an apology, but he wouldn’t leave his side while he needed him and, he admitted to himself, he was grateful that Josh still wanted him there at all.
“Everything’s ready, the boys in blue are on point with emergency services, we just need to start the wheels in motion,” Dante said.
“Dead man walking,” Ben said getting to his feet
*****
Peri had allowed everyone out of the cellar after being stuff there most of the day, allowing the nannies to deal with tired and irritable kids, and organise early dinner’s and bath times. She had gathered all of the women into her library office after arranging it to accommodate them all in a large circle of couches.
With Louisa help, she had put together a list of information about the damage to homes and businesses. The attacks had stopped, as the police swooped to pick up people seen either in the act or close to the attacks. It seemed it was over for now, and the Donati had been left to lick their wounds and survey the wreckage of their lives.
“Baptism by fire for us newbies,” Tina had said quietly. “Is this the type of thing you had to grow up being on alert for?” she asked Lucia who sat in subdued grief after learning of the loss of her parents.
“We grew up being told to be careful and cautious but we never dreamed of anything like this,” she shook her head and dashed another tear away.
“Rosanna I’m afraid the damage to your house is pretty extensive. You’ll have to stay with us for a while, or at least you and Ang decide what to do,” Peri said gently. “Most of the farmhouse survived, but it will need some patching before you could move into it.”
“They can’t move into the farm house,” Emily spluttered making them all look at her.
“Why can’t they?” Peri frowned at her. “They’ve lost everything, and you would deny them a home so close to their wreck of their own?”
“That house is where the chair lives,” Emily stated firmly not backing down.
“Emily we don’t have an ancestral home handed down from chair to chair,” Lucia said gently. “Papa built that house, just like Josh built this one for Peri. I’m sure no one would begrudge Angelo the right to live in it, especially not Josh and Peri.”
“Josh is . . . ” Emily caught herself before declaring he was dead, “Missing. What if the new chair wants it?”
Rosanna stared at her sister in law for a moment and remembering the look on her husband’s face when he had spoken to Emily earlier in the day, her hand lashed out and slapped the woman fully across the face knocking her sideways.
“You have been rude, insensitive and a downright bitch all day. You don’t think we’ve all been through enough without you saying awful things like that! They are going to find Josh just like they are going to find Ben. You don’t hear any of us talking about Ben in the past tense do you!” Rosanna raged at Emily. “Less than a week ago you were in a hospital after having a breakdown, do you think any of us are going to listen to you now!” Rosanna burst into tears and turned to Peri. “I’m sorry,” she cried. “I just can’t take any more of her passive-aggressive taunting.”
“How dare you!” Emily screeched regaining her senses as Rosanna apologised to Peri. “It’s alright for you. Your husband is here and safe. You have no idea how Peri and I feel.”
“If you know how she feels why would you say that to her?” It was Margarite that spoke. “I’m glad someone slapped you, because that was fucked up, even for a bitch like you.”
Gerrard and Phillipe had already stepped in between the women by the time Angelo entered the room closely followed by Lorenzo and Manuel who had just arrived.
“Larry!” Margarite flew from the sofa into his arms. “Oh my God, it’s really you,” she smothered his face with kisses as he picked her up and held her tightly.
“Everything alright in here?” Angelo asked in a deep voice seeing his wife in tears.
“It’s fine,” Rosanna held up her hand as if to stop any further questions.
“No. It. Is. Not. Fine.” Emily turned to look at Angelo holding her face as if to emphasise the red hand print decorating it.
“I know I am the newest here, and the youngest and I don’t know all the rules yet, but she deserved that,” Margarite said in Rosanna’s defence.
“Is that right?” Angelo turned to look at Margarite who seemed to be the only one willing to talk at that moment.
“Emily more or less said that Josh was dead, and there would be a new chair,” Margarite said quietly. “not in those words, but it’s what she meant, and Rosanna slapped her.”
“That’s fucked up,” Lorenzo said from behind Margarite making her turn and grin at him.
“That’s exactly what I said!” she hugged her husband again.
Peri didn’t have to fake the tears in her eyes as she looked up at Angelo. “It’s been an emotional day,” she said her voice cracking slightly. “We’ll be fine in here; you go find your brothers. I need you to find them, Angelo, please,” she said as a sob caught in her throat.
“We’ll find Josh little mama and the people who did this,” Manuel said gruffly. “Dino’s out looking, and that boy is like an angry bloodhound at the moment. Dante’s with him, I pity anyone who tries to stand in their way.”
“You’re not looking for Ben?” Emily dropped the hand from her cheek taking in Manuel’s words and becoming angry that Ben wasn’t seen as important as Josh or the others.
“Vinnie found him,” Manuel said his tone changing slightly as he looked at Emily.
“Oh thank God. Is he on his way?” she asked her relief visible in her face and body.
“Why don’t you come and talk to us about it in the office?” Angelo gave his Uncle a sharp carefully rehearsed look.
“Why? If you found him then he’ll be here soon, and he can tell me himself,” she said uncertainly.
“He’s not coming, Emily,” Manuel said allowing a small amount of sadness to creep into his voice. “He went back to the penthouse this morning for a folio he had left behind. He was there when they attacked. He didn’t make it,” he said gently.
“No!” Emily said. “They wouldn’t have hurt Ben. They were told not to hurt Ben!” Emily collapsed back onto the couch as everyone stared at her. “I don’t believe you!”
“Who was told not to hurt Ben?” Rosanna immediately pounced on her words.
“Em, come with us, the doctor is in the office he can help you,” Angelo said Emily let him help her from the couch. She glared at Rosanna not answering the question as she was led away.
“Fuck I need a drink,” Lucia stood up wiping the tears from her face. “Where do you keep the good stuff?”
“I think we can all use a drink,” Lorenzo said disentangling himself from Margarite’s arms. “I’ll go find a few bottles and some glasses, shall I?”
“Larry, I love you,” Lucia sighed.
“I know,” he said and left the room.
“Peri, are you okay?” Louisa asked softly.
“Yes, how are you doing? It’s been a horrible day for you,” Peri said just as softly.
“It was pretty shitty there for a while, that’s for sure,” she said quietly. “I’m not sure I understand all this or why is happening, but I’m happy to be here and know you are safe.”
“I am supposed to believe that smile you’ve been trying to hide has nothing to do with a certain brother-in-law of mine?” Peri teased trying to take her mind from the tragedy that was unfolding around her.
“I’m sorry, Peri. You are all grieving, and I’m sitting in my own little world here because he loves me,” she smiled shyly.
“There’s a lot involved in becoming part of this family, so I have to ask, is he the one? You are positive because it will be hard to un-see and unhear some of the things that will happen over the next twenty-four hours if you stay,” Peri said. “Think of it as your get out of jail free card.”
“I love him,” she said simply. “He’s a rough and ready cowboy, but his heart is so soft and beautiful. I just feel so lucky that he loves me back.”
Peri had always planned to talk to Louisa about the trial for Carlo, and she knew it would have to be sooner now than later, but as Vincenzo entered the library and took a seat, she knew now was not the time and the small moment of distraction she’d allowed herself was over. She went through her notes on the devastation that had befallen the family, as Vincenzo told the women a very simplified version of events and reassured them that Ben was indeed alive, as was Josh, though he had been badly injured.
*****
Emily had raged and cried in equal measure when she had been taken from the library and shown the images from the morgue of a grey and lifeless Ben. There was no sign of the weak and docile woman who had fallen into a stupor, rather than face the guilt, of harming the family. She demanded her phone and some privacy to call her mother. She had lost her adoptive parents and husband in one day, and she needed to talk to someone who loved her, she claimed.
She had been given her phone by Carlo as the most non-threatening of the men there, and he had walked her to her room and agreed to give her some privacy while she made the call. True to her word she called her mother on the phone she had taken from CJ. The call had been brief with her mother comforting her and offering to fly up and look after her for a while. Once she had hung up, she had taken her hidden devices out and called her mother again. The conversation, this time, was full of accusations and recriminations. She wanted heads on platters, and she didn’t care whose. She would find every last one of the men who raided the Penthouse and killed her husband.
“You promised Mama! You promised Ben would be spared,” Emily had sobbed. “I did everything you asked, everything!”
“Emily stop being so melodramatic. There is always collateral damage, how could we have known Ben would be so stupid,” her mother used the same arrogant tone that Emily used on people she thought beneath her, only this time, she heard it for what it was. “This is not about us, everything we have done is to further the family for your brothers.”
“There it is. Sacrifice yourself for your brothers, Emily,” Emily said bitterly. “Tell me mama what have they ever done for me except kill the one man who made my life here bearable. The jokes on you though because I don’t care anymore. Find someone else to do your bidding.”
She hung up the phone and lay on her bed crying. It was all over now. All of the plans, all of the scheming, everything was gone. Without Ben, she couldn’t take over the family where Antonia left off. Without Ben, she couldn’t even find out what was going on. She would have to live off the kindness and charity of her brothers-in-law. “I’d rather die than have that common slut Peri treat me like a charity case,” she thought bitterly.
“Two phones Emily?” CJ opened the door to her bedroom giving her a fright. “It must have been hard acting the part all these years. Keeping so many secrets.”
“Acting the part?” Emily asked. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m pretty good at what I do,” he said modestly. “The emails you told us about pointed toward multiple devices. Devices not on the family network.” He spoke casually without accusation. “The thing I don’t get is that you seemed so in love with Ben, it’s hard to believe it was just an act.”
“I do love him, I always have. That was never a lie,” Emily rushed to defend how she felt for Ben.
“How could you and plan to destroy his family? He lives for his brother’s he wouldn’t have survived their deaths, not on the scale that almost happened today,” CJ asked her. “If you knew him at all you would know he wouldn’t have accepted the chair in these circumstances. Pete or Dom would have had to step up.” Emily looked at him as if he was insane. He let the silence drag on for some time before speaking again.
“We want everything Emily. We want a signed affidavit detailing everyone involved in the plans to kill the Donati family,” CJ still spoke in an even casual tone. “We have enough to go to the tables, but we would like you to do this for Ben, to protect the people he loved the most, his children. Whoever got you to engineer this failed this time. The next generation may not be so lucky if we don’t end this feud now.”
“Even if I had done what you are accusing me of, I’d never put my children at risk!” she exclaimed clutching her chest.
“Collateral damage just like your husband,” CJ shrugged. “Your parents want to destroy the Donatis and by name and blood, your children are Donatis. You owe it to them to do as we ask now. Bruno Battaglia will be here to pick you up this evening, and a sitting will be called to accuse your Father of knowingly supporting what happened today. Your Mother has been very careful to keep your father and brothers out of any correspondence that we have discovered. I expect if they remain in power, and giving the Suebi what they need, none of us will be safe after the sitting especially your children without you here to protect them.” He let the silence grow again as she cried silently. “Of course if you insist you and your mother acted alone then we must believe you.”
She knew that her mother was more than willing to sacrifice her life and that of her sister. They had been groomed to marry, to further their mother’s plans for their brother’s. The thought that her children could be sacrificed so easily for her ungrateful brothers was startling to her. They’d talked about BJ and Timo ruling the Donati table. Or what was left of it, she thought bitterly, now seeing how she had been blinded by the purpose she had been brought up to fulfil, that it was she that had put her children in this position. With no parents to protect them and further their fortunes and careers what would become of them, she wondered. She thought of Bruno Donati’s children. They had lost their father early and had never figured in the future of the table.
“What do you need from me?” she asked finally resigned to the fact that there was no way out for her or her children. Not once in her entire life had she ever considered a future where she and Ben did not rule the table side by side. Without him, everything she had ever wanted and planned for was gone. The stark reality of what that meant to her and the children was overwhelming.
“Names, contact details, notes, emails we may not have found and a signed affidavit detailing who planned the attack on the family and who carried it out,” CJ said without pulling any punches. “Most of all we want to know if your father and brothers were involved or if they had your mother do all of the dirty work so that you would pay the penalty and they would retain their position and power.”
Her phone vibrated silently on the bed beside her making them both look at it. “Answer it,” CJ said as if he didn’t care one way or the other.
“Mama, I can’t talk to you right now,” Emily said into the phone and was stunned to hear her father’s voice in reply.
“Ben’s not dead, Emily. I don’t know what game they are playing there, but he’s not dead. Our men never made it into the Penthouse. Stick to the plan and don’t ever threaten your mother or me again,” Giovanni Pelligrini shouted into the phone loud enough for CJ to hear.
“Papa,” Emily started to speak, but the phone line had gone dead.
“Seems your mother wasn’t the one with the plan after all,” CJ said getting to his feet. “You can call them back and warn them that we know if you want, but then that makes you and everyone in this house expendable including the children. Even if he kills you now, we still have enough proof to go to the tables and cut off that festering branch of the family tree.”
“Ben’s alive?” Emily asked.
*****
Peri had remained in the library making lists and talking with her team as well as the other women who gathered at the house. The emergency seemed to have passed with no new attacks since mid-afternoon. She had the entire future of the Donati family under her roof tonight, and she planned to make the following day a celebration of life and love for their family. Although she knew the men would have to work throughout the day, she hoped that they could all work from here and enjoy parts of the day with their families. There would be time enough to right the wrongs that had been done.
They had already planned so much for the children that adding a few more to the activities wasn’t going to inconvenience anyone. She’d asked Carlo and Angelo to organise a pre-breakfast meeting with the men of the table to outline her plans. She smiled to herself as she thought of those men and how much love they had for each other and this family. They had all been in to check on her at various times during the night. Surprisingly she wasn’t tired and as each of the other women said good night and went to bed Peri relished the quiet that descended on the house.
She was methodical in her thinking now as she went through the information detailing which homes and business came under attack. The majority of damage seemed to be centred on Josh and Dante’s businesses as well as the farm. The full extent of those losses wouldn’t be known until people could get in tomorrow and survey the sites. All in all, it didn’t look so bad, and Rosanna had been optimistic about being able to move and redecorate, “Change is as good as a holiday for clearing out the cobwebs,” she had said. “Ang is a bit of a hoarder, so this saves some of the arguments about clearing out his junk.”
“Why aren’t you in bed?” Dante sighed walking into the library.
“Dante!” Peri left from the couch she had been lying on and ran into his arms. In an imitation of the bubbly Margarite, she smothered his face with kisses. “You’re finally home,” she breathed the words.
“It’s been a long day, huh?” He held her tightly.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that telling her she wasn’t welcome here anymore would set off such a big chain reaction,” she felt the tears that she had held at bay fill her eyes, and she leaned into his strong chest willing them away. She had to be strong now for everyone.
“This had nothing to do with you,” Dante comforted her. “I brought you home a surprise because you’ve been so wonderful today looking after everyone here, do you want to see?”
“You brought me home a surprise,” she asked cautiously.
He chuckled and took her hand leading her back through the house to their bedroom.
“Mine,” Josh said in a soft groggy voice and Peri ran to where he lay on the bed with Pete hovering protectively over him.
“Mine,” Peri whispered holding his face between her hands and kissing him. “Always and forever.”
“He needs rest, Peri. We all do but him more than anyone. Get him to sleep for a few hours and I’ll get him through tomorrow,” Pete sighed wearily.
“I’ve never been able to get him to do anything he didn’t want to do,” she said smoothing his hair back from his forehead. “I’ll stay with him and try and keep him in bed, though,” she offered.
“I’ll rest now,” he murmured giving into the cocktail of painkillers and sedatives Pete had given him.
“I have a nurse stationed in with the nannies. She will come and take his vitals every hour. It’s a severe concussion and not something to be messed around with,” Pete lectured.
“We get it,” Dante nodded, feeling the weight of the day weigh down on him. “Tell the nurse she can stay in here with him and go get some rest yourself,” he said walking over and picking up one of the armchairs and bringing it beside the bed. “We’ll all sleep better knowing he has someone watching him the whole time.”
“I’ll feel better with the nurse in here,” Peri said having watched Josh’s face relax as sleep finally took him. She tilted her head and looked at the two exhausted men in front of her. “Have either of you eaten today? Don’t answer that just come with me,” she commanded and walked down the corridor to the Nannie’s room. “Nurse?” she asked.
“Susan,” the woman came to her feet and reached out a hand in greeting.
“I’d like you to stay with my husband tonight please,” Peri said softly. “There is a comfortable chair beside the bed and enough light to read by there, can I bring you a coffee or something?”
“I’ll move my things, a small jug of water and glass would be lovely thank you, Mrs. Donati,” Susan said already gathering her small bag.
“Thank you, Susan,” Peri continued through the house expecting Pete and Dante to follow her.
An hour later after Peri had made the two men eat a bowl of pasta and some cake, she let Pete go to bed, promising to wake him if anything happened to Josh. Zara had magically appeared in the kitchen yet again as Peri had reheated the pasta and helped with the meal and clean-up. Peri was grateful and sat close to Dante enjoying the warmth of just being with him. When Pete went to bed, they left the kitchen also.
“I need a shower,” Dante said softly as they entered the bedroom. “Come do my back for me.”
The nurse didn’t bat an eyelid as she looked up at the couple and indicated that Josh was fine and turned back to her crossword puzzle. Peri followed Dante into the bathroom and closed the door as he started the shower and stripped off his clothes silently. She followed suit and stepped into the large shower with him, not sure what to make of his silence.
“Dante?” she reached up and stroked his cheek. His eyes were closed and he stood under the full forces of the hot water. “Talk to me,” she said softly.
His eyes blinked open slowly. He didn’t want to talk. He didn’t want to think about losing his parents or how it had felt to believe he had lost Josh. He just wanted to lose himself in her at that moment. He caught her up in his arms, holding her tightly against his body and kissing her with a ferocity that took her by surprise. His hands went to her breasts, and he kneaded them roughly, and she could feel his hard cock pressing against her belly. She moaned softly as she felt his need override the dark thoughts from today, and she melded into that need with him.
He pushed her back against the wall devouring her mouth hungrily, as everything, but the feel of her left his mind. He felt her leg wrap around his hip, and he bent his legs positioning himself awkwardly and thrust up into her savouring her cry of pleasure and groaning deeply. He pinned her hands to the wall beside her head, and he fucked her then. There was nothing gentle about his fucking, he lost himself in her completely.
The whole time he had searched for Josh, because that was what he had to do, for her and for the family, he had prayed that the people looking after her would keep her safe. He knew he couldn’t return to her or even call before he had found Josh and the total despair that had seized him after hearing the crash from Josh’s phone had consumed him for hours.
She was his world and his life and the thought of finding her buried under a pile of rubble as his parents had been too hard to bear. He felt her body tremble under his onslaught, and he revelled in the pleasure she gave him. She may allow him to dominate her sexually but in every other way, he was hers to command. There wasn’t anything she could ask of him that he wouldn’t do for her.
“Fuck,” he roared as he felt her cunt clench and spasm around his cock as he came. Thrusting into her hard and deep he came with her and collapsed to the shower floor dragging her down with him. “I love you,” he growled kissing her as he held her shaking body to him.
“I love you too,” Peri whispered. “We can survive anything after today, as long as we have each other.” Dante looked down into her eyes and felt all of the despair and sadness of the day rise to mix with the joy and pleasure of having her here with him, mix to overwhelm him and he began to cry. Peri said nothing but held him close, her arms sliding around his torso as he held her tightly and sobbed into her hair, letting go of all of the pent up emotions he held so tightly under control.
She cried too, softly without the heart-wrenching sadness that gripped the man she loved. She cried for Joseph and Antonia, for Marisol and Andreas who had died during surgery. She cried in relief that both Josh and Dante were safe, and she cried for Ben and his heartbreak. He was the one who needed looking after now, and she would ask Romey tomorrow to bring Carmen home if she wasn’t already on the way. Her wisdom and experience were needed now more than ever, particularly with Ben’s children. Poor Carmen she must be beside herself if she has heard what happened, Peri thought, and a fresh wave of tears came to her eyes. They sat there wrapped in each other’s arms for a long time before Dante finally moved to stand and help her to her feet.
“We best get some rest,” Dante said quietly as they towelled off.
“I have too much to organise, but I’ll stay with you if you don’t mind a small light on,” Peri murmured.
“I have a lot to do as well,” he said not arguing with her about the need for rest. “Well, I guess we should leave sleeping beauty alone to rest properly then.” He went to a drawer and pulled out a small tube with a wide cap and smiled. “Doc Pete’s energy bombs,” he shook the container. “Let’s go you can tell me about your plans for the day, and I’ll tell what I know about what our plans are.”
After checking on Josh, they went back to the kitchen warmed by the smell of freshly baked bread. Peri saw her team sitting there. Not only Zara, Rae and Jackson but also Phillipe and Gerrard turned almost as one to look at her.
“These people saved my sanity today, all of them. They are the most amazing people I could ever hope to have on my team,” Peri smiled widely at them as she spoke to Dante. “You all deserve a huge bonus, anything you want just ask and I will do my best to make it happen.”
“You’re already building me my kitchen garden,” Zara pointed at the window. “Well the children and gardeners will tomorrow, but you already organised it for me.”
“I’ve got my epic tree-fort underway and a heap of little helpers who will be out there building with me tomorrow, even some extra’s you brought in,” Jackson chuckled, “So I’m good.”
“Epic tree fort?” Phillipe raised an eyebrow. “If you could stay out of trouble for a day I wouldn’t mind giving Jack a hand with that, Mrs. Donati,” he mused.
“I’m in, we can tag team throughout the day,” Gerrard said to Phillipe with a grin, “Have you got the plans handy?” he asked Jackson.
“Rae?” she asked.
“Are you kidding? Today’s going to be so much fun with all of the extra people to look after. What more could I possibly want?” She laughed. “Let the holiday adventures begin! The children deserve it after being so good about being locked in the cellar yesterday.”
“Well that was easy,” Dante shrugged, “And my pockets don’t feel any lighter at all,” he chuckled. “I want to hear more about this epic tree fort, though, go get the plans Jackson and let’s see just how epic it is.”
“We built a tree fort for Josh when he was little,” Ben said walking into the kitchen.
“Ben you’re here,” Peri went to embrace him.
“Josh said he needs me, where else would I be?” Ben said sadly.
“We all need you,” Peri said sincerely.
“Obviously, if your planning on building a tree fort,” Ben gave a soft chuckle. Peri could tell it was a front but didn’t push him on it.
“Not just any tree fort,” Jackson said coming back with the plans. “The most epic tree fort ever.” He spread the plans out of the table and the men gathered around them talking animatedly.
“They never truly grow up do they,” Zara smiled and went back to her baking.
“So I guess if you’re happy I couldn’t tempt you with maybe a sturdy line strung up somewhere and a heavy duty rug beater for when they all leave next week?” Peri laughed remembering what Rae had said about moving to the country house.
“Jackson’s already organised it,” she grinned. “He is honestly in heaven with the family back here and so many children around. I think he’s been a little bored without anyone here to look after. I can see why Josh made him a steward.”
Dawn lightened the sky and as each of the men came down to the kitchen looking for coffee they were drawn into the tree fort project. With a unanimous decision to wait until Josh was awake and ready to talk about the fallout from yesterday, the men and the oldest of the children walked out to start the day’s work on the tree fort in the old orchard. The younger children were left with their mothers and the gardeners to begin building the new kitchen garden. Which Peri thought, had been designed to look more like a fairy garden or something found in a Beatrix Potter book than a vegetable patch.
*****
Dante had stayed with Josh answering calls and talking to the other chairs and their families as condolences came in. The twelve and the remaining predecessors all met for a long lunch meeting. The funeral for all four of the deceased would be held in ten days’ time. The Families would arrive over the weekend, and the official service would be held on the Monday. That would give Josh time to heal and appear strong and ready to lead the family as well as for the sitting of the Twelve next week to punish the killers.
The evidence was being gathered by the Battaglia and assembled for presentation at the sitting. Only the Farnese and Battaglia knew the extent of the betrayal by the Pellegrini family. It would fall to Jules and Constantine to present the evidence to the ultimate head of their family in Italy and then for a sitting to be called there to decide the fate of Giovanni Pellegrini and his sons.
The homes and business of the Donati men were being assessed and reports were coming in during the day. It seemed that the only real damage had happened at The Farm, Josh’s printing firm and the house of Lorraine and its warehouses. The damage to the penthouse had been minimal, and there had been no casualties. To have made their story of Ben’s death believable they would have had to have him situated on the farm. It was the only place to have sustained a loss of lives. Many of the staff had died in the explosions and resulting fires as well as the owners of the house and land.
There was little any of them could do now but wait; wait for the insurance assessors and all clear to return to their homes; wait for the sitting of the Chairs and the outcome there; Wait for the decisions from Italy; Wait to bury their loved ones. They all had tasks to complete, and work to be done but on that first day, they celebrated their family by playing and laughing together in the summer sun.
*****
Authors Note: This is the end of this series. While I understand that not every thread was wrapped up into a neat little bow for you all. I feel that I have left enough answers for you all to make educated guesses about eh future of the Donati Family. As always with me his doesn’t mean I won’t revisit this story in the future and add another series about the Donati Brothers or the Donati Women. I hope you have enjoyed reading this series and will continue to read my other stories. ~ellie
*****