The Twelve Vitali Ch. 02

Authors note: Hello everyone. I hope you are enjoying this series despite its differences to the original story. Thank you once again to Paul who continues to be my second set of eyes. ~ellie.

*****

Chapter 2 – Ricco

Cat sat in the front of the car beside Peter Donati, the doctor who genuinely seemed to understand what she wanted and needed in order to recover some sense of sanity in her world. David and his lawyer sat in the back, murmuring. If she had known how many people were at Frank's house she wasn't sure she would have emerged from the room in which she had slept.

The house was a big sprawling building that looked like it could be in a better homes and gardens magazine, and she had marvelled that a regular guy who coached junior football could afford such a place until she found out that he, too, was a Vitali. She was surrounded by them and was beginning to feel suffocated. Still, Frankie had always been very good to her brother, and her by extension, and she needed to be grateful for that and his help last night. She would have hated to be stuck in a hospital being poked and prodded by doctors and their interns.

The little house she shared with David and Mick, however, looked like a bomb had gone off. While it was mainly her room and the garage that had taken the brunt of Ned's fury, he'd been pretty indiscriminate about the damage he had caused as he walked through. They would have to leave and pay for the damages to the property. There was no way their landlords would allow them to stay after this.

Mick had found them a fully furnished apartment that they could get on a short-term lease only a few blocks away. The rent for the apartment was higher, but he assured Cat that he and David could afford it until she was back on her feet and they found a more permanent place to live.

"I don't think I can face shopping this afternoon," she said quietly. "Can we just go to the apartment Mick found, please?"

"Sure," Pete said with understanding. "That injury will be making you feel a bit under the weather for a while. It's best to get as much rest as you can before going back to work."

"I have to find a job first," she gave a resigned sigh.

"I thought you were working for Vanessa?" Ricco interjected from the rear of the car.

"The contract ended, and they were coming to look at some of the pieces I had at home, but, as you just saw, all that was left was kindling," she explained.

"Didn't you tell her?" Ricco asked David.

"Mick asked me not to, he was worried she'd get mad, and then she refused to talk to anyone except me, and that was the last thing on my mind. So, no, I guess no one told her," he admitted.

"Told me what?" Cat winced as she tried to turn her head to look at the men in the back seat.

"Here," Ricco passed her his tablet. "Your friend was making this as a surprise for you. He says he has other photos he hasn't uploaded yet."

"Mick did this for me?" she asked incredulously, swiping through a website dedicated to her art. "This must have taken days, weeks, forever." She was truly amazed and grateful.

"I expect that when you are well enough Vanessa will be expecting you back at work," Ricco said.

"I highly doubt that after everything that happened. I'm hardly the type of girl she wants working for that classy place," she smiled sadly. "It had been a lovely dream, but reality has a way of kicking you in the butt and bringing you back down to earth. I'll talk to my old boss at the bistro and see if I can get my old job back once my face looks normal again."

"Why would you think any of this matters to Vanessa?" Ricco asked. "She wants an artist, not a public relations person. You're good at what you do. A crazy ex-boyfriend doesn't make you less of an artist, does it? He didn't break your fingers or anything, did he?"

"No, but..." Cat began to speak, but the argument about bringing trouble to work, which had always been the cause of her being fired in the past, stuck in her throat. "It doesn't matter." She said and closed her mouth again. This guy didn't need to know how many jobs Ned had cost her. Vanessa had been good to her and paid her well. She wasn't about to bring that trouble to her business.

Ricco considered the woman who was a walking contradiction. Outwardly she appeared strong and confident, but she obviously had a chip on her shoulder, and a ready acceptance that life would serve her lemons without enough sugar to make lemonade. His mind worked over the charges they were filing against Ned. The police hadn't picked him up yet, so it was fortunate that Mick had been happy to take the apartment that belonged to his family without telling David and Cat how he had secured it so fast. They could ensure some sort of security around the siblings for Frankie and Maryanne's peace of mind at least.

The three-bedroom resort style apartment sat in a northern suburb not far from the city but close enough to where the house they had lived in was for them to be near friends. Jacobi had gone with Mick this morning to sign the lease and gather anything of value from the house. When they pulled up at the front, movers were unloading the last of the boxes from a small van and Mick walked over to greet them.

"I saved as much of your stuff as I could, but," he shook his head. "There wasn't much he hadn't got to or that they would let me take. It's all evidence. That woman who sent you home early..." he paused as if trying to remember her name.

"Maryanne," Ricco supplied.

"Yeah, that's the name, she said she felt just awful about causing your injuries and wanted to do something nice for you, so she supplied a few clothes. She said she would never send anyone home early ever again," he chuckled. "I figured if it made her feel better you wouldn't mind, considering you have nothing to wear anymore."

"You are amazing," Cat impulsively wrapped her arms around the big man who had talked to her just as he normally did instead of treating her like a broken china doll. "Thank you, Mick, for everything, including the website. I love it." She stepped back. "Wanna show me the new place?" she asked with a smile that made her swollen face ache.

"Sure," he said, startled by her public display of affection. He'd loved her for forever, but he knew she only ever saw him as a brother, just like David. It didn't stop him wanting more, however. "Your boss was here too, she said to take the rest of this week and next week off, then come in and talk to her about the next project she'd like you to work on," he smiled. "I might have let them see the website before I got to tell you about it," he said looking guilty.

"I'm glad you did, you big dork," she gave a soft laugh. "You are rapidly becoming my favourite brother," she turned and poked her tongue at David, who laughed. "This is what I needed. Not the house. I needed these two idiots because they are home to me," she spoke to Pete but placed a hand on both David and Mick's chests.

"I can see that," Pete said with a grin of his own. It had been the same for Peri when her mother had arrived at her hospital bedside. He'd nursed enough victims through enough trauma in the last two years to fill a lifetime, but it never ceased to amaze him that love could, indeed, heal all wounds.

*****

Having seen the house and taken in the amount of damage that Ned had done, Cat had pulled herself together. David was right; she had to press charges this time, because Ned had not only hurt her but the two people she loved most in the world. If, as Ricco and Mick had both suggested, Vanessa was willing to give her another shot, even out of pity, why shouldn't she take it? She needed the money, and the job, and eventually bigger and better things might happen if she continued to paint in her spare time and preferred style at home.

"We will need to find a place with a studio," Cat argued again.

"We," David indicated Mick and himself, "Like it here, no lawn to mow, no garden to look after. The added security the building offers."

"What if we rented one of those storage lockers and made it into a studio space for you?" Mick suggested, having seen something similar on a reality television show.

"I imagine that would be fairly hellish in summer, but you might be onto something. I might see if there is some office space close by that I could use," she checked her watch, "Good grief, I'm late again, we'll talk more about this," She said as she picked up her bag and hurried out of the door.

'More like argue about it more.' she thought, as the elevator descended to the car park. She had her head down and was searching in her bag for her keys when she ran into the hard chest of a tall man and froze momentarily. She looked up and saw the laughing eyes of her lawyer, Ricco, and sighed before stepping back.

"How did I know you would be running late?" he chuckled and steered her toward his waiting car. "Meeting you here will save us a little extra time," he explained as he helped her into the car.

Ned had been found and arrested in Sydney. It seemed he had become quite well connected and was mounting a reasonable defence against the impending extradition back to Victoria to face the charges brought against him for his attack on Cat. With no other witnesses, it was a case of her word against his for the damage done that night. It was going to become a long drawn out battle, and, while she might have considered dropping it in the past, she couldn't live with herself if it had have been her brother who had come home early that day. Not that David couldn't look after himself, but Ned had been crazy.

"I'm sorry, I know you told me your father was a stickler for punctuality," she shook her head. "Things just..."

"I know, that's why I am here rather than there," Ricco grinned and pulled out of the car park. He genuinely liked the young woman beside him, and understood why his uncle had taken such an interest in her and her brother's lives when they were younger. He knew now that his uncle had organised a job for David in Matt's construction empire and work as a corporate artist with Vanessa's company for Cat. Despite all of the wrongs that had been done to the siblings they were still good people, unlike Ned Kelso, who needed to pay for his crimes. He planned to bring the full weight of his family to bear on this case and had no qualms about doing it.

"Well, there's one good thing about your family that I have found," she said easily. "I don't have to remember any names. They are all just Mr., Mrs. or Miss Vitali."

"You don't ever plan on using my first name?" Ricco smirked.

"I thought Mister was your first name?" she giggled. "You're always so straight-laced and uptight. You need to relax now and then and maybe let yourself run one minute late just to shake things up."

"I'm afraid that judges and courtrooms don't see that sort of tardiness as a positive thing," he glanced at her, amused by her judgement of him.

"Well, not when you call it tardiness they wouldn't," she giggled again. "It makes you sound like you're back in school and facing the headmaster."

"Sometimes it feels a bit like that," he admitted. The truth was, facing his fathers tonight was more like being sent to the headmaster's office than she realised. As always, he would introduce them as his father and the person in question; in this case, Cat would just assume the one to hold out his hand second was an uncle. There was no need to explain their unusual relationship outside of the family, but it became awkward at times when someone twigged that something was amiss. They were both strict, demanding men who expected a lot from their sons in different ways, but he had no doubt that he was loved and that Roberto would take his case, which was rapidly becoming bigger than Ben Hur, and bigger than anything he had prosecuted before. Most of his practice was in corporate law.

Ricco knew that he and Jacobi, as the second sons, were in line to inherit the leadership of the family from their fathers. He and Jacobi had talked long and hard about it before he had married Maryanne. She would know and understand what it would mean for her in the long term, and Ricco had been cultivating an affectionate, if not intimate relationship with her ever since. The leader and all-seeing oracle of this family stood as one alongside the mother, and Jacobi had chosen a wife who had the knowledge and pedigree to fit that bill perfectly. It was even more fortunate that he was madly in love with her. Ricco didn't feel the same way, unfortunately, but he was trying to maintain the sisterly affection.

If he had his choice, however, he would have a relationship with someone like the woman beside him... Tough, straight talking, but able to be a perfect lady when called for in social situations. She was a walking contradiction. Tough and streetwise, she was also capable of wearing a cocktail dress and acting every inch a lady. Free-spirited and seemingly uncaring for timetables and the nine to five grind of a regular job, she could patiently create a painting with the most minute details and stick to a deadline if she had to. He found this woman fascinating, from her deprived childhood to her unbreakable bond with her brother and the way everyone she met seemed to like her and care about her opinions.

She certainly wasn't the type of woman who usually attracted him, and that just served to fascinate him even more. He would study her when she wasn't looking, trying to work out precisely what it was that he found so attractive about her.

"So your father is a QC, you said?" she spoke into the silence of the car as the nerves began to fill her.

"Yes, but don't worry, he's not as gruff as he seems," Ricco reassured her. "Just relax, it's only a meeting, and, as promised, I will take you out for pizza afterwards for making you have to endure an evening meeting." He'd wanted to take her out somewhere nice for dinner, but she had insisted on pizza and beer, he smiled. He had agreed, but it wouldn't be the type of pizza and beer she had envisaged, he was sure.

*****

"Wow!" Cat breathed. "This is like something from one of those period movies, you know, the vast Victorian library where men went to smoke cigars after dinner while the ladies went to a sewing room to do needlework or some such," she laughed.

"I suppose it is, in a way," an older man said, coming to his feet from a comfortable chair near a fireplace. "Except these days my wife doesn't let me have cigars in the house," he lamented. "I'm Roberto Vitali, and you must be Catriona Leone." He held out his hand to her.

"That would be me," she said, hiding her nervousness behind bravado and took the hand he offered to shake it firmly.

"I am Stefano," a second older man approached her and held out his hand in greeting. "Enrico, why don't you go see Leonardo and Rafael, they're back from school early. I believe there is something they aren't telling us about," Stefano rolled his eyes. "We won't scare your friend too much, I just want to talk to her without you hovering for a little while. Then we'll all get up to speed together."

"Are you okay with that?" Ricco asked Cat. "I haven't seen my younger brothers for a while, and you know how much trouble younger brothers can get into," he said lightly. He knew his father's request was not negotiable, but he didn't want her to think she had no choice at all.

"You do tend to hover, Enrico," she teased him using his full name and grinning. "Maybe it's better they hear the full story from me without anyone else's spin on it. I'll be fine, you run along and play with your brother's." Then, turning her back to the older men in the room, she pulled a funny face at him to show she was fine, making him chuckle.

"All right, just call when you need me," he stifled his mirth for only a minute before smiling widely and chuckling to himself. Ricco turned and left the room. He knew exactly where he would find his brothers, and wasn't disappointed as he neared the games room and heard their voices. He stood in the doorway for a minute, waiting for them to notice him.

"Aww, man, they called in Cobi!" Rafael groaned loudly. "Better than Matt, I guess." He threw his controller down and sighed as he prepared for the interrogation. Leonardo turned his head and looked at him but said nothing.

Ricco was stunned. His family never mixed him up with his twin. People who knew them well had no trouble telling the carbon copy twins apart, though they were often confused by the people outside of the close family circle. Neither felt it was such a bad thing that they needed to change their style in any way, and as he walked into the room, amused by the situation, he waited for Leonardo to correct his brother.

"You'd rather Ricco showed up?" he asked finally.

"At least he gives us a chance to tell our side of the story," Rafael grumbled.

"Okay, so what did you do this time?" he asked, wondering how long it would take them to figure out who he really was.

"Nothing," both boys said in unison.

"So why are you home early?" Ricco prodded, making Leonardo look at him strangely again.

"You wouldn't believe us anyway," Rafael spoke with a resigned voice. "Just give us the standard lecture. We'll promise never to do whatever you think we've done again and we can get back to our game."

"Try me," Ricco said, pulling up a seat. This was quite an enlightening conversation for him.

"You're..." Leonardo started to say, but at a slight shake of Ricco's head he closed his mouth on telling his brother that he had realised that this was Ricco.

"We graduated early and didn't feel like sticking around. It's not like anyone cares. Everyone's so busy with everything else at this time of year," Rafael shrugged.

"It's only July," Ricco mused. "You finished everything six months early?"

"We wanted a proper break to bum around and do nothing before Uni next year," Leonardo explained. Knowing that someone would come and talk to them eventually, he pulled a crumpled letter from his pocket and passed it to Ricco.

"So you got accepted into University early too? And, what, you deferred it for six months?" Ricco was stunned. He knew his youngest brothers were borderline geniuses who got bored at school and caused more trouble than any of their siblings ever had, but this was unexpected. "How come Papa doesn't seem to know any of this?"

"We're eighteen now, we don't have to tell him or you squat!" Rafael said bravely.

"You do if you want your allowances. Or are you planning on working during this gap half year of yours?" Ricco laughed, genuinely amused.

"Can I come work with you, Ric..." Leonardo swallowed the word, realising too late that Ricco hadn't wanted him to tell Rafael just yet.

"You're not Ricco, so don't even try," Rafael said with certainty.

"If you say so, but this is great! I think a gap half year is a great idea, and if you want to come and work in the office with us, no drama. Just let me know when." he said easily.

"I don't want to work in the office," Leonardo complained. "I want to go out to the horse stud you and Matteo have."

"Well, there's always room for another shit shoveler out there, but you know that's Matt's baby, not mine. So you're going to have to ask him," Ricco was enjoying this conversation and the look of utter confusion on Rafael's face. "Call him, you know you want to," Ricco grinned. "Better yet, call me."

"What's wrong with you?" Rafael asked. "You're different, but not different."

"I'm the same as I have always been," Ricco said easily.

"You're happier than usual. I think your face relaxes when you're happy or something, more like Cobi's regular face, but not quite," Leonardo shrugged.

"That's probably it. Your eyes are brighter or something, I dunno, I'd have to have Cobi here to compare," Rafael finally accepted that Ricco was standing in front of him.