The Mafia’s Queen: Entangled With A Psycho - Chapter 153

With his legs tangled up with hers in a lazy sprawl, Leo soothed Becca with his hand, occasionally taking a lock of her hair and twirling it around his finger. He did it with a smile and Becca smiled too, feeling compelled. They laid there, bare and in each other’s company, basking in the solace they provided one another— in the irenic silence that fueled the intense passion lingering within.

Becca stirred, trying to get more comfortable as she laid on top of him.

” So we will be meeting your family, huh? She lifted her head from his shoulders to stare at him. ” Is there anything I mean to know about them?”

She asked, holding her breath as she prayed silently for him not to tense up again, praying that his subconscious doesn’t misconstrue her question as an intrusion but perceive it as her way of slowly getting him to open up— her way of bonding with him.

Luckily, contrary to their prior conversations when she tried to pry, Leo didn’t tense up. His body stayed calm. Relaxed. This was good. It meant he was making progress.

Becca let out a sigh of relief.

” You will be meeting more people from my father’s side,” Leo said, trying his best not to stiffen— trying not to ruin the placid atmosphere they now relished. The mere mention of his family seared his soul with an abysmal rage that brought only hate and destruction. But for Becca, he choked down the lurid memories of his past whenever he thought about his family, to shut down the impulsive defensive state he always enters, the callous barrier it erected around his mind. To mute his thought; his family never gave him anything good.

” Oh… So are your cousins going to be there?” She paused when Leo shot her a skeptical look. ” I’m assuming you have cousins.”

” I do. ” He cast a brief glance to his side. ” Too many if you ask me.”

Becca couldn’t help giggling at his words.” Tell me about them.”

She nudged his scruffy chin with the top of her head, her smile prodding the answer right out of him.

” There is honestly nothing to tell. I don’t like any of them and you will know exactly why when you meet them.” Every one of them vile wolves on the hunt, power-hungry bastards. Crooked, manipulative, and a bit twisted— a bit damaged, just like he was.

Becca’s brow slung up in incredulity. ” I find it hard to believe that you dislike all your cousins.”

But he did. He disliked every single one of them. Hated them even. But then again, hate was such a strong word.

Though his relationship with his cousins frequently, if not usually, dangled on a thin thread a tug away from snapping in half, he almost hardly confronted them.

” There is one I’m actually on good terms with. Two really. Celine and Thiago. They are the youngest.”

Celine was a person loved by all. There was this sort of bubbly energy she exuded that made her lively and fun to be around. There was also something about her pristine attitude that always drew Leo’s thoughts back to his little sister.

On the other hand, Thiago was a man so optimistic, his enthusiasm to do things was virulent, unlike his two cynical older brothers.

” Well, if you like them and they happen to like you too, then I guess it’s going to be almost impossible for them to dislike me,” Becca said, and it took Leo a while to finally decipher the meaning behind her words and the teasing smile smudged on her lips.

A frown contorted his face. ” Are you saying that I’m unlikeable?”

Becca bit the inside of her cheek, fighting the grin plodding onto her lips.

” I never said that.” She denied with a questionable smile still gaping her lips.

Leo’s eyes narrowed harder.

” But that’s what you were implying, wasn’t it?”

” No, it wasn’t.” She answered, still smiling. ” Not at all.”

” Really now?” Leo cocked a brow.

” Of course.” She giggled and Leo unleashed his tickles of doom, making her twitch and jerk as she laughed.

” please.” She wheezed. ” Stop, please.”

She rolled off him, her body slumping on the soft sheets as she continued giggling frantically but Leo didn’t relent to her pleas. His face hovered over hers, his demonic fingers tickling her until she couldn’t bear it a moment longer.

” Fine. Fine.” She squirmed. ” You were right. Leo, stop.”

He finally did. He stopped. And Becca took seconds to catch her breath.

Limply, she raised a hand and landed an almost painless smack on his shoulder.

” You are such a bully.” She panted as she let him pull her back into his embrace.

” Am I?” The grin on his lips was as bright as ever, teasing Becca with its shimmer.

” Yes,” Becca answered with little to no thought, rolling her eyes as Leo’s grin flourished. ” So who else is going to be there?”

” My aunt’s family. The Bellomos.”

” Wait, Bellomo? As in the family that owns Bellomo Groups?” Becca asked. Bellomo Groups was one of the most successful shipping companies in America, owned by Italians.

” That’s the one. My aunt is married to the family’s first son.”

” No way. My aunt married the second son.”

Taken aback, Leo stared at her in disbelief. He knew the aunt she was talking about, but how he was able to let that piece of information slip from his mind was simply appalling.

He shrugged. ” Weird, I guess.”

Becca, who obviously disagreed with his choice of words, clamped her hands on his shoulders, shaking some sense into him.

” Leo, can’t you see. This is fate.”

Just like in the fairy tales, they were meant to be. This was a sign.

” O…kay.” He gave a tentative laugh. ” Let’s talk about something else, shall we?”

” Sure.” Becca examined his face for any signs of apprehension or distaste. The fact that she found none, gave her the courage boost she badly needed. ” So… will your uncle be there? I mean, he technically still is part of the family.”

For five excruciatingly long seconds, the air around them taut to the point of suffocation. She knew she shouldn’t have gone there, talking to Leo about anything relating to his uncle was plainly crossing whatever lines drawn in their relationship, it would only rekindle the burning anger and hate he felt towards him— it would revive the heart-wrenching fear she once saw in his eyes— but she had to do this. To try her best to help Leo heal from the trauma he faced in his childhood even if it meant momentarily opening old wounds. All to help him since he obviously wasn’t doing anything to help himself.

” No. ” He finally answered after what felt like an eternity, his voice now low. ” He isn’t going to be there.”

Becca stared straight into his eyes that were now clouded with shadows of lurking secrets. Aside from that night he told her about his scars, Becca had a hunch that there was still something Leo hadn’t told her about his uncle. Something way darker.

” Leo.” She caressed his cheek ever so lightly. ” What aren’t you telling me about him?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t move. He just kept staring into her green eyes as he strived to impede the fiendish memories from surfacing, so it wouldn’t materialize in his head once more. So he wouldn’t be forced to relive them. To see himself being broken once more by the one person he trusted with his life after his father’s death.

Dominic.

Leo’s eyes fell shut. ” He told me stories.”

” Stories?” Becca’s brows crinkled in confusion, her hand still soothing the skin of his face. He sighed.

” Every night after he was done engraving things on me.” Leo started and Becca felt him flinch. ” Dominic would come into the room I was kept in and tell stories. stories where he wasn’t portrayed as a monster but a victim. In his stories, my father and grandfather were the monsters and not him. He would speak of how they wronged him and robbed him of everything he labored hard for, even my own mother. ”

” Your Mother?” Becca’s confusion soared.

” He loved her and she loved him back but my father took her too, just like everything else.”

Greed being the sole impetus, Claudia’s father, in an attempt to strengthen his ties with the Kanes, practically sold his own daughter off to Lorenzo as his wife. Her father chose Lorenzo because he was the first son and deemed to inherit a larger share of the wealth and that fact only boiled the blood in Dominic’s veins. Jealousy turned to greed and greed quickly turned to hate. It all went downhill from there.

” You don’t believe what he said, do you?” Becca asked and Leo slowly opened his eyes.

” At first, I didn’t but after some time, when I began understanding how things actually worked, his stories slowly started making sense. They became more real, especially the part about my mother. The part about me.” Leo said, letting out another sigh.

” What part about you?” Becca prodded even more, taking full advantage of the situation and how Leo was indulging her questions.

Leo gave Becca a long look before turning away. ” Just because someone is good to you, doesn’t make him or her a good person. My father wasn’t a good person. His father was even worse.”

” What does that even mean?”

Leo turned to Becca once more, his eyes a tumult of anger and sadness.

” My mother hated my father with everything she had inside her but my father couldn’t care less about how she felt, all he needed from her was an heir.” Leo paused, taking a deep breath. ” He raped my mother.”

Over and over again.