The Twelve Vitali Ch. 33

"I hate to be the doom and gloom guy here, but does it bother anyone else that all six of the family leaders are all heading towards a madman who had already kidnapped members of our family and holds a pretty big grudge?" Kalum asked angrily. As the warrior of his table, Matteo's safety was his priority. For a warrior to lose his leader was almost unheard of; and he had no intention of being the first. "You should let me go, if nothing else I can be a reliable link between what's going on there and our table."

"Once everyone is on the ground communication will become easier. The Papillo have sworn to assist in any way necessary. Rick has been close friends with Matt since they were kids, he will ensure his safety. For the moment all we can do it wait and ensure everyone here remains safe. With the leaders gone, the attack we thought would come with the naming of the new table may still happen, it would be the perfect time for the Suebi to move on us," Cobi spoke up, making the table fall silent.

"Then why the hell did we let everyone go home?" Zachary said, thinking of his wife, Kari.

"Because today was Giovanni, not the Suebi," Cosimo explained patiently. "The fake watchmen were those of the Martino family. Nothing about this reeks of Suebi, I believe they have lost their tenuous control over Giovanni, if not Mario. The Suebi would have to know we are all on alert now and our families would have added security. Our loved ones are as safe as they can be for the moment, regardless of where our fearless leaders are. Don't forget, we also have leaders here, and, I have to admit, both Zion and Lucca stepped up today better than many of us would have believed, given their age and experience."

"Here, here," the other older members murmured in agreeance with the sentiment.

"You all stepped up today and over the last few weeks admirably. We can all feel much better about making our retirement plans. Matteo and Ricco are in safe hands," Frankie added. "But we need to stay alert. The moment we relax the extra security we will become vulnerable again. If you wish to go home and ensure your wives and babies are safe and content, go, Zach, and take Cobi with you. You have families, and when you were little I can guarantee your fathers would have been at your side long before now. The family is everything; you should never sacrifice that for sitting here to play the waiting game. No one would expect that of you."

"Just keep your phone handy," Zion said with a smile to Cobi. "And if you could come back later, once you have checked on Maryanne and the baby, I would really appreciate having you around tonight," he said, admitting how much he needed his big brother's guidance and advice.

"Sure," Jacobi nodded. "Give me an hour or two and I'll be back."

"Let's all take a break and order up some dinner from the restaurant downstairs. It's been a long afternoon. Those who need to check on loved ones, or even get out of here for a while, you're welcome to do so, just be alert and take all the necessary precautions," Zion said, thinking that he needed to check on Aria. "Lucca, you and Thomas and Cosimo stay, please. If Matt or Ricco are going to call anyone it will be one of us," he said.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same, I'll grab some menus," Lucca agreed and waved Thomas toward him.

*****

Cat listened to the whole story of Giovanni and Maria's childhood, Maria's love affair with Stefano and her subsequent marriage to Roberto. She listened to Matteo's version of his childhood leading up to Alessandro's death and how Matteo got the scar on his chest. She listened to the more recent events that occurred this year and realised a lot of what he was saying was an assumption of Vanessa's motives and Giovanni's reactions, as well as how Mario seemed to fit into the picture.

Through it all she remained calm, asking only relevant questions. The only time she reacted with anything but calm acceptance was when Matteo told her that David and Mick had been taken, possibly because both were seen together, and Giovanni and his men may not have known which one her brother was and which was a close friend. She had quickly recovered her calm demeanour, however, and concentrated on the situation they were flying into.

"Kitten," Matteo said softly. He had been watching Cat carefully. Given her emotional outburst recently, he became worried by how calmly she was reacting to the news that David was being held hostage by a madman. "Talk to me," he encouraged. "None of this is easy or good. It's okay to be worried, angry, scared," he said gently.

"I understand," she said softly. "I assume, that by the time we land, your family, and even your friends will have a plan in place around what happens, and I trust you to make sure David will be okay. Thank you for being honest with me about it. I know it can't have been easy to tell me David was in trouble," she sighed. "I think you should go out there and talk to everyone about what is happening on the ground and what really will be waiting for us."

"That's it?" he asked, confused by how calm she seemed, as if things like this happened to her every day.

"I love you," she smiled and leaned forward to kiss him. "Never, ever, doubt that. I know none of this was your doing, and we are all flying blind here, so to speak, until we know for sure what Giovanni wants. I love you. I trust you. Everything else will be as it needs to be," she smiled sadly. "Let's go and find out what's been happening while you've been in here looking after me as if I am a fragile china doll that might break at any moment."

"You are no fragile china doll, that much I know," he chuckled. "Everyone underestimates you, even me at times, but I love you and trust you to tell me what you need. If you say you are fine, I believe you. But know that you don't have to be strong when it's just you and me. You can be upset and angry that David is in danger because of my family's past. It's okay to blame me for not keeping him safe like I said I would. I am so sorry, Kitten."

"I don't blame you!" Cat exclaimed, shocked at his words. "None of this was your fault; you weren't even alive for most of that sordid story. His father, and then his brother, failed to get Giovanni, and I expect Mario, the help they needed when they needed it. Even if they had gotten the help, I doubt Giovanni would have taken it."

"That's probably true, but I feel so guilty that we didn't have a man watching David," he sighed.

"He would have hated that. And who could have known this would be what Giovanni did?" she asked with a shrug.

"Come on," she said softly. "It's time for you to lead your family instead of worrying about me when I am okay. I promise I am perfectly fine. The baby has stopped making my tummy roll, thank goodness, or maybe he just knows his Daddy is close by and is behaving," she gave a small laugh that didn't meet her eyes.

"I thought we decided she was a girl?" he chuckled, but stood and began to straighten his clothes and pull her to her feet to fix her own attire. Then they walked out into the cabin, and Matteo was immediately gathered into serious conversations about what was happening back in Melbourne and what would be waiting for them on the ground in the Kimberley.

Cat moved to the front and took a seat, placing a hand on her belly as she contemplated what she knew. She knew Matteo would do his best to protect her from any perceived danger, and she was grateful he hadn't left her behind in Melbourne and tried to mount a rescue attempt on his own. He seemed to forget that she had been surviving madmen and threats to both herself and David for almost her whole life. She knew what she had to do to protect the people she loved. It wasn't her that Matteo had to worry about right now, it was Theresa. Vanessa as well, because she must be so messed up by seeing her mother in January to be doing this and helping Giovanni, either that or they were forcing her somehow.

"Mrs. Vitali," Bradbury said, coming to take a seat close to hers.

"Yes?" she looked up at him.

"Ricco and Stefano have checked in and are safe," he said without emotion. "I know you were concerned when they couldn't be contacted."

"Thank you," she said quietly "I appreciate you telling me. Are they back in Melbourne now?" Cat knew Ricco would worry about her once he found out where she and Matteo were headed, and knew she would have to call him and show that she was handling everything that was happening.

"No," he said carefully. "I believe he has already landed at the Papillo stronghold ahead of us."

"What? Why?" she gasped. She had thought Ricco and the rest of the family would be out of danger now. "Why would he have flown all the way here? Was he threatened by Giovanni as well?"

"I do not believe so, but you will need to talk to him about that once we land," Bradbury said in the same careful unemotional tone.

"Okay," she said, and leaned back in her seat again, closing her eyes. She heard him get up and start to move away. "Thank you for not letting me go with Vanessa today. I'm not sure how calm Matteo would be right now if I had," she blurted, opening her eyes again.

"That's my job," he said softly, looking uncomfortable under her stare.

"You know it's creepy, right? The way you look at me like that. The way you always watch me so closely," she said with a sigh.

"Occupational hazard," he shrugged and gave a rare smile, which was more just a quirk of his lips on one side. "I let you and Matteo down once, it won't happen again," he assured her.

"I know," she said quietly. "No one blames you; they had a look-alike for Hugh. You couldn't have known until you got into the car yourself and spoke to him."

"It won't happen again," he nodded and moved away from her then, and Cat smiled, having heard just a fraction of emotion enter his voice. Maybe he was human, after all, he'd almost smiled and had spoken to her like a regular person rather than some aristocratic employer to be protected and not interacted with.

Cat sat back, she had known things were going too well. Good things never happened to her, and even with all of the hiccups and sacrifices she had to make she still felt like the luckiest woman in the world to have the love of two men like Matteo and Ricco. She had known it couldn't last, and now she was sure of it. She had been dealing with madmen and crises of one description or another her whole life, she knew it would one day catch her in a situation she couldn't bluff her way out of.

She had dealt with her grandmother's death because her mother couldn't. She had dealt with the awful men and pimps that her mother brought home in her constant state of drunkenness or drug-induced stupors. She had dealt with her mother's death and the authorities who had tried to pull her and David apart, and she had dealt with the demands of Ned in return for giving her a place to stay where she could keep David close. She dealt with David ending up on the wrong side of the law far too often, and all of the thugs and pimps who hounded her until Frankie became involved with David.

Cat smiled as she thought of Frankie. She really should have made more time for him and his wife. She owed him so much. She sighed and thought of the latest madman to come into her life and threaten the people she loved. She knew what she had to do, and she had only one regret. Once again she placed her hand on her belly protectively. She was never meant to live happily ever after, and now that she finally accepted that, instead of constantly worrying that the men she loved would realise they had made a mistake in returning her love, she felt at peace. She would do what she needed to do to keep them all safe. She was stronger and more determined than they realised. She would protect David as well as this family that had accepted her and shown her so much love, despite the fact that she didn't belong in their world. She hoped Matteo and Ricco would forgive her one day.

*****

Ricco was beginning to lose all patience with the men and women of the Tater. Whenever he questioned what they were doing on a remote ranch he was asked to trust them, but as he struggled to find a signal on his phone his trust in them was wearing thin. He struggled to maintain his normal easy-going friendly persona as the darker feelings began to rise with his anger. They were stranded and at the mercy of their hosts when people he cared about were in danger. Where he had thought that it was Vanessa and Theresa in danger, he knew now with certainty that Cat and Matteo were being drawn toward that danger. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but he would stake his life on it being true, which only made being at the mercy of the Tater even more maddening.

"Are you ready yet?" Fawn asked from behind him.

"Me? Ready?" he snarled at her. "I have been ready since we landed!"

"No, you haven't, but perhaps you are now," she said, ignoring his tone. "We can wait longer if you need more time."

"Fuck!" Ricco yelled at her. "Are you fucking insane? The woman I love is flying to her doom, and you are holding me hostage here! I can't pretend to be okay with this anymore! Get me a friggin car and let me go!"

"Where will you go?" Fawn asked calmly.

"The ghost town! Giovanni wants Maria and will sacrifice Cat and Theresa both if he doesn't get her! It's not fucking rocket science to see what is happening here!" Ricco was beyond angry now, his voice loud and full of rage as he spoke.

"When did you come to that conclusion?" she asked, seemingly unconcerned by his rage which he focused on her. "No one has been able to contact you to tell you what has occurred to your brother and his wife. Why would they be coming here to the Papillo family?"

"I know it, I know they are here, or..." he hesitated. "Fuck, they are on their way here, or at least to the stronghold! I don't have time to fucking explain or argue with you!" he fumed, and he moved threatening toward her. "You get me the hell out of here or I will lose it! If anything happens to the people I love, you, and your whole family will regret it, I promise you!"

"How do you know it?" Fawn asked, then smiled, standing her ground as he loomed over her threateningly. She placed one hand on his chest and brought the other to his head. "Where do you feel this?" She asked in the same calm voice that was driving him insane.

"I feel it here!" he lowered the hand on his chest down to his gut, and considered lowering it down to his balls just to wipe that smug smile off her face. He wanted to punish her for tormenting him like this. He needed to move, he needed to do something other than standing here and wait for god knows what before they would go to the Papillo stronghold and then to the ghost town. As if reading his mind, she lowered the hand from his head down to his balls and gripped with a snug hold, not tight enough to hurt him too much.

"You live your life as half a man. You hide your darker baser feelings behind a mask of an agreeable non-threatening persona. You wouldn't drop my hand this far, even though you know where your knowledge comes from and why you should trust it. Even the people you truly love have never seen all of you. Right now you feel love and hate in equal measure, despair and hope, lightness and your darkness, and you know what you know and feel to be true in a way you haven't before. Why? Because at this moment you are a whole man!" Fawn emphasised the word man by squeezing his balls before releasing them.

Ricco had barely held back from cursing and pushing her roughly away from him. Sending a woman out to confront him and his anger had been a wise move on the Tater's behalf, because he would never put a hand on a woman without her permission, and never in such a rage as he currently felt. Instead, he stared at her with his hands clenched into fists at his sides as she manhandled him. He breathed heavily as he struggled to control his emotions enough to speak again, her words running through him with a ring of truth to them. He was saved from speaking again by several SUV's pulling out of a large garage, the lead car pulling up beside them.

"Ready to go?" Sava asked.

"Yes!" Ricco growled and reached for the handle to let himself into the car. "Where's my father?" he seethed.

"He, too, is again seeing with his inner eyes and travels with us," Sava said unconcernedly by Ricco's rage. Were he in the same position he would not be as contained as either Vitali man was, but then he had never held back his emotions the way these men did. "He suffers greatly having to confront the woman he has always loved."

Those words shocked Ricco. Had Stefano not gone to Maria when they had discovered her fate back in January? Roberto had taken him and Cobi, as well as Matteo. He hadn't considered that Stefano had refused to see her or where he had taken Theresa at the time. He now knew that Theresa had been taken to see Nik Donati, not his mother, and it had shaken her severely. Still, he could see the pain in his father's features at the time, and the misery on his face at the end of the plane ride, though he had mistaken it for concern for Roberto and Matteo. He hadn't understood it until Sava named it then. He thought of Cat and his anger at Matteo for bringing her into the great danger he could sense. He wondered if there was any crime that could erase his love for Cat. She may have married Matteo, but, if he was honest, his only real romantic love had been for her.

"They fly still," Ricco said as a statement rather than a question. He looked at his phone, wishing for a better signal as they drove along the dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

"They do," Sava answered, even though it wasn't necessary.

As if by the power of his thoughts alone, the phone came to life in his hand, several messages all filtering through the weak signal slowly. Most from the watchmen, he assumed; many from Cobi and Lucca, and several from Matteo and Cat. It seemed that the notifications went on for the longest time. He'd been out of range, and any information he had been given had come from these people, and he was eager to check those facts and what he knew in his gut with the real information that he could gain from Lucca and Zion.

"Would you question yourself now that you have finally found that true inner sight?" Sava asked, glancing at the phone in Ricco's hands. "Would you slip back into being the good twin and hide half of yourself behind your brothers? You will not help your mother or the woman you love by doing that," he warned.

Ricco did not look up from his phone, but as if with a new-found clarity he could see the truth of Sava's words. His whole life he had been the voice of reason, even with Cat and Matteo. He had put his desires aside growing up in favour of Cobi's desires and visions. He had played good cop to Cobi's bad cop in the efforts to take control of their siblings and hold a tacit leadership over them, all except Matteo, who had always been so self-assured and well-balanced. Even when Matteo withdrew largely from social life after losing Nik, he remained strong and confident with his dealings both in family and business. Cobi could never have found a way to command or demand anything from him. Ricco realised that now.

There had to be a reason Matteo would bring Cat here. He couldn't imagine Matteo would want her any closer to danger than he did. He concentrated on the thought and dug within himself. 'What would have brought Cat here?' he wondered. 'What did Giovanni have that could possibly make the risk to Cat and the baby worth it?'

"David!" he hissed aloud. "Fuck! Giovanni has David!" He felt a cold hand clutch his heart as he realised Cat had and would continue to sacrifice herself for her brother. The only family she felt she had, despite giving lip service to himself and Matteo about being a Vitali. If Giovanni had David, she would not have meekly let Matteo leave her behind, nor, he realised, would Mateo have made her.