The Twelve Zenati Pt. 16

"It's no wonder she doesn't like Genesis being all caveman with Olivia, then," Armando nodded. "What's the deal with Noah?"

"He's being a mother-fucking prick," Gideon raged before he could stop himself. "Sorry," he mumbled, remembering who he was speaking to. "Do you want to tell me where we are going? I am assuming that I am heading in the right direction."

"Yeah, head to Madrina's. They'll be there by the time we arrive," Armando confirmed. He stayed silent for a long time thinking, and when they pulled into the driveway before the brightly coloured house and strange garden with its teapot tree he turned to Gideon and asked, "So you believe she is his curse breaker?"

"Not a doubt in my mind. If Noah doesn't pull his head out of his ass, however, he's going to be one lonely bitter old man," Gideon said sadly, and got out of the car to greet his Madrina, who hung out of the upstairs window, calling down to him with her usual caustic greeting.

"Ah, you finally remember I am alive, do you, cheeky boy?" she cackled.

"At the end of the world, there will be cockroaches and you. You will outlive us all, old woman!" Gideon responded jovially, despite his mood. He loved this woman like a second mother. One who had never let him down.

"Armando, you hear how your boy speaks to me?" she sang out with a smile and cackled all the more as Armando lightly swatted Gideon across the back of the head.

"Respect your elders, even if they are as old as dirt," he chuckled.

*****

"You're home!" Olivia gasped and ran through the living area to greet Genesis. "I didn't expect you back so early!" She jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck as he caught her and carried her through to the living room, kissing her briefly before placing her back on her feet and stepping away. He had read the report, and it had disturbed him, not only because of what it said about Marcella's abuse, but because of what it implied about the childhood of the woman he loved.

"Yes, I'm home," he smiled gently. "Come and sit down. We need to talk about something."

"What's wrong?" she asked uncertainly, not liking the small distance he had put between them.

"Maybe nothing, maybe something you can help me with. I'm not sure yet," Genesis frowned, trying to work out how to start this conversation. "How young were you when Marcella started telling you the stories about the frogs and the king and queen?" he asked.

"Very little. She always told them when Mama and Papa were arguing, mostly," she shrugged.

"Did your father hurt your mother when they are argued?" he pressed.

"Sometimes," she frowned. "I don't remember. Can't we talk about something else?" She moved closer to him on the couch, but Genesis put up his hand to stop her from touching him, knowing that she was seeking to distract him by his insatiable desire for her.

"No, I need to know this, now. How old were you when your father started hurting you, little one?" Genesis asked.

"He never hurt me. Marcella... she... hid me from him, told me the stories so that I would stay quiet." Olivia looked away, covering the partial truth she told. She didn't like these questions and she just wanted to retreat, like she used to, so she moved to put that small distance between them again.

"She hid you?" Genesis asked.

"Me and Jessa," Olivia nodded.

"She didn't hide from him?" Genesis asked, carefully.

"Someone had to take the punishment, and it was her own fault for getting between him and Mama. I was too little, and Jessa was too scared to stop him," Olivia whispered, not meeting his eyes. "Once he punished her, he wouldn't be mad anymore, and we didn't have to hide. He never touched me, I promise. I wouldn't lie about that, not to you. I won't lie to you, ever. You have my word."

"I know, little one, and I will never lie to you either. I need to know if some of the things I have been told are true, and I need you to tell me how you were mean to Marcella. What did you do, exactly, that made you not want to face her when she came here to help you?" Genesis rubbed at his temples, wanting her to tell him that it wasn't true, or that it had been exaggerated out of proportion.

"I was just trying to stop her from leaving us there," she whispered. "If she had run away after the first time, when Papa beat her so badly that she had to stay overnight at Zio's clinic, who would have looked after us? I... I... blamed her for something bad that I did, and he hurt her so that she couldn't go anywhere, but then the Zio kept her longer and longer at the clinic, because it took her longer to get better, and Papa got mad at him then. It was better than him being mad at us. The last time, when I accidentally broke a vase that Nana had given him and blamed her, he sent her away, and we were on our own anyway." Olivia's voice was little more than a breath now as tears glistened in her eyes.

"You purposely made your father angry with Marcella?" Genesis whispered, keeping his voice low to match hers, automatically.

"You don't understand. She would have left us there, all alone with him. When he sent her away there were no more stories, there was no buffer to hide behind. Jessa and I hid in our rooms, mostly, and only came out at mealtimes," she admitted. "When Marcella came back, Papa went away for a little while and it was good. Mama let me have friends and go shopping on my own. Marcella started visiting our Aunt and talking about going to college after school. Papa would never let her do that, so I knew she was planning on leaving us again, and what if he came back?" Olivia looked up, and tears tracked down her cheeks now.

"He did come back, and she stayed, despite her plans?" Genesis continued to push her to face it all and confirm what the report had said.

"When he came back, he was different, calmer. He started to teach me how to sail, and buy me presents. He ignored Marcella and Jessa, for the most part, and I thought that maybe it would be better if she left, because she just seemed to annoy him. He was constantly checking on everything she did. He was always watching her when he thought no one else was watching. She didn't like me spending so much time with him, or sailing with him, and I thought she was jealous. I told him she was running away and..." her voice choked off. "Because I was the one who was jealous. He just pretended with me, to show the watchers that he was a doting father, but he constantly sought out Marcella. He checked on everything she did."

"You think he sent her away again because of what you said," he surmised, and she nodded. That much wasn't true, according to the report, but it can't have helped Marcella's situation.

"When she came back, Apollo came with her and helped her move in with our Aunt, once Papa agreed to the arrangement. Jessa got married just after that, and then it was just me there with Mama and Papa. I didn't want to be there alone, and Marcella tried to get me to go to Jessa in Adelaide. I said that if she gave me some money then I would go. I would sail there, so Papa couldn't get me back, because he wouldn't know where I was. I said Kevin would sail with me so that I would be safe, and that I loved him and trusted him," she snuffled. "But I lied. I didn't want to go to Adelaide. Kevin wanted to sail up to Broome, and I thought that I loved him and that he loved me so... you know the rest."

There was so much wrong with this story that Genesis couldn't even take it all in. The details she had left out that he had read in the report, but everything she said confirmed those things and more. He watched as she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them, forming a small Olivia-sized ball on the couch beside him, surrounded by the guilt she had been avoiding for so long. Leaning over, he picked her up and drew her onto his lap.

"We all do what we need to do to survive," he said, quietly. "You were just a little girl, and you couldn't have known what was really going on when she was at the clinic, or sent away." He soothed her by rubbing her back, understanding that her reticence to embrace Marcella was bound up in so many childhood memories. He held her and rubbed her back more, ensuring that she knew he loved her, no matter what she had done in her past.

"Why?" she hiccupped. "Why did you have to know, now?"

"Marcella is gone. She left the hospital in the middle of the night, and no one can find her," Genesis said carefully. He watched her expression for any sort of recognition that this might have been expected.

"She probably went to find Apollo, to find out what really happened yesterday, and why people think he pushed her," Olivia said.

"Apollo and the delegation from the Battaglia left early this morning. They are already back in Canberra," he explained, and briefly wondered if anyone had checked whether Marcella had left with them.

"No! Apollo is from Sydney," Olivia argued. "Marcella would never go back to Canberra," she said, with certainty.

"We would never have let them take her back with them, if she didn't want to go," he reassured her.

"That never stopped anyone before," Olivia said in a soft voice. "She wouldn't have stayed if she thought she was in trouble and being sent there again. You've all been pretty mad at her lately, especially Noah," she said, as if that made perfect sense. "That's probably why she ran away. She won't ever let anyone send her there again."

"Fuck!" Genesis swore. "She had to know we would never do that. We wouldn't send anyone away just because they did something, or even a few things, we didn't like. Besides, she found your boat, even though we didn't like the way she went about it." He was about to ask why she would think that he, or anyone in his family, would do that, and he remembered Gideon's words. It was no wonder she didn't trust them. The people who were supposed to love and protect her hadn't, why the hell would she believe they would? The penny finally dropped, and he felt bad about the way he had spoken to Gideon and had let Noah put up his walls to protect himself from the chaos that followed her everywhere.

"Thank you," Genesis said, dropping a kiss on the top of Olivia's head. "You've helped me understand her better, and that will help us find her before she gets in any real trouble, okay?"

"You're leaving again?" Olivia asked, turning her teary eyes up to him.

"The sooner we find her and make sure she is safe, the sooner I'll be home. Do you want me to call Vivienne to come and talk to you about everything you just told me?" he asked, sympathetically. "Or we can talk more about it tonight, when I get home. Nothing you have said has made me love you any less. If anything, I just love you all the more for finally being honest with me about Marcella," he smiled softly and kissed her. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. We need to find her before Noah loses his mind again. He cares about her more than he admits, you know. He'd be out looking for you if you disappeared and I was losing my mind," he said, knowing that his brother would leave no stone unturned for him.

*****

Noah fumed silently. Every single nerve cell in his body told him to go after Marcella. The fact was, however, that he was scared of what he might do to her when he found her this time. He'd practised restraint with her for so long. He had convinced himself that the attraction between them was just a fleeting chemical thing, that his one destined woman was just around the corner. He had told himself that she was a complication that he didn't need in his life, so he had always kept that barrier between them, fed by anger and disdain for her reckless and badly thought out plans. He had cared when she did such stupid things, of course he did, but he would care if his sister or any of the women he knew well acted with the same disregard for the risks they were talking.

The fact that he now knew that she was his, his one, the woman who could, if she so chose, make his life complete made the darker side of his nature want to take her and lock her in a room and make her submit to him in every way. An image of her asleep last night in the room across the hall, looking small and fragile in the big bed, came to mind. Had she only been pretending to sleep? Had she heard what he said to her? If she had, how could she leave? He'd all but declared himself to her. He'd also berated her for her reckless behaviour. He sighed audibly. His thoughts chased each other around in his mind as he sat beside Dominic, pretending not to care where she was or what she was doing. The truth was that he was scared of what he might do to her when he found her this time, and he kept that carefully hidden behind that disregard. There was only so much of her risky and reckless behaviour that he could take before he broke and did something they both regretted.

"Sounds like she's never had anyone care about what she did or whether she got hurt before," Dominic said softly along the bond they shared. "You should read the report Gideon sent you. It explains why she might believe that."

"You read it?" Noah asked.

"No, that's what Gideon told you, remember? He was pretty vocal about his disgust for your present behaviour," Dominic chuckled. "You can pretend all you like with your brothers and the others, but I'm in your head. Maybe you shouldn't be scared of what you might do. Maybe you should just do it, because it might be what she needs to finally realise that someone cares, really cares, that she is safe."

"You honestly think locking that girl in a room and beating some sense into her is what she needs?" Noah shook his head. "By the sounds of it, that's all anyone has ever done to her. I don't want to be yet another sadistic man in a long line of them."

"Not quite," Dominic said calmly in the face of Noah's cacophony of confused emotions. "Painful pleasures, blended with tenderness and true caring actions and emotions, are quite a different thing to beatings doled out as punishments, even if they do include forced erotic highs. It's the tenderness of a loving relationship that makes the difference between sex as a tool to get what you want and sex as an emotional bond."

"I can't trust myself with her right now. I am beyond angry that she has done this again. If they found her right now then it is better that I am not there to do, or say, anything the family, or I, might regret," he said sadly. "Better they think I'm the asshole. Besides, you're supposed to be practising using your words and voice to talk to that woman who has sat here all day, holding your hand." Dominic groaned and turned to face a worried-looking Emma.

"He's not the asshole," Dominic said softly to Emma.

"I know that," she laughed and turned to face him. "We all know that, Noah. Of all of us, I am more likely to be named the biggest asshole in this family before you. Gideon was just trying to shock you into action, and it didn't work. He'll be back with another trick because that how he is. He gets things done by swings and roundabouts. He pushes and goads people in the direction he wants them to go, usually with humour, rather than anger. Anger and harsh words are usually Genesis' go-to. He's harsh with the truth, because he expects the same perfectionism from others that he has. You fall between them both. You're all smoke and mirrors; the same expectations are there but..."

"He hides his true agenda and self to some degree, until it has to be revealed," Dominic added in a stilted voice.

"Exactly," Emma nodded, and Noah had the feeling that this was not the first time the couple had had this conversation.

"Well, if you two are going to talk about me, instead of to me, I think I'll take a walk." Noah rolled his eyes, not denying what they said. He wasn't even sure his brothers really knew him well anymore. "I'll go and let X know you miss his ass." Noah winked at them both. He was done brooding. It was time to deal with the fallout of Apollo's banishment from Darwin and the other subsequent fallout. Even if they couldn't locate Marcella, they still had to deal with the incident between the Tables men.

Noah shoved his hands into his pockets, walked to the end of the corridor and veered off to the room his family had taken over as a base of operations yesterday. He paused and stepped into a small waiting room in the corridor and brought up the report Gideon had sent him. His eyes scanned over the document, and he felt physically ill. They had all misjudged and misunderstood her attitude to some of the expectations they had of her and her sister. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists. More than ever, he just wanted to take her and put her somewhere safe, until he could make her trust him enough to do what he asked and not put herself in harm's way.

When he walked into what they had dubbed the war room, it was Zanto that he saw huddled over the computer before the monitor, while Xavier spoke in hushed tones on the phone to someone. Curious, Noah moved around the desk to see what held all of Zanto's attention, before looking up at Xavier and raising an eyebrow.

"Dante Donati," Xavier mouthed the name in explanation, before moving away to continue the conversation.

"Bingo!" Zanto exclaimed. "That's an awesome program CJ. Thanks for sharing, man!"

"You got her?" CJ asked through the weblink.

"We know where she is staying, so it will only be a matter of time. Let me get someone over there," Zanto said, his fingers flying over the keys. "If you're right about the alias, it will only be a few minutes."

"Don't pick her up straight away," Noah interrupted. "Put watchers on her from a distance. The fact that she is still in the city, when she would know we would all be searching for her, means that she has something important to do. Let's see what it is," he said, furrowing his brows.

"What are you talking about?" Zanto shook his head.

"Marcella? You found her?" Noah asked, suddenly unsure if what he assumed and what was happening were the same thing.

"CJ Donati does a daily scan for names associated with Nikita Mariskov and derivations of that," Zanto said, distractedly, as he scanned the various views the camera afforded him. "That was the alias Veronica Donati used after she murdered the guard and fled the Battaglia complex.

"Marcella was associated with Nik?" Noah asked in confusion. He knew that she had been at the compound in Canberra at the same time but not that they were associated in any way.

"Not unless she is using an alias. When they hacked into all of Veronica's accounts and personal devices, there were four names she had in her contacts under her assumed name. No one had ever been able to locate the women on that contact list. There were only a few emails in a network of sorts, but it all disappeared once Veronica Donati died. Until today, when one popped up in Darwin. Hence the Donati presence now, in our war room," Zanto explained distractedly.

"It could be Marcella. She was in Canberra at the same time as Nik," he admitted. It was too much of a coincidence that Marcella ran away from them on the day this woman pops up on the radar, for the first time ever. Noah watched the monitor as Zanto hacked into the surveillance cameras within the StarCity Casino complex.

"It's no good sending anyone in at the moment, because we don't even know what she looks like," Zanto said frustratedly, not even sure what he was looking for as he flicked through the surveillance cameras.

"It's too much of a coincidence. Get someone to show the concierge Marcella's photo, and use the alias. See if they recognise her or know where she is," Noah suggested.

Zanto looked at Xavier, who nodded in confirmation, and his fingers sped across the keyboard again, giving new orders to those who were closing in on her location.

"Just send in the one guy. We don't want to spook her. If it is Marcella using an alias, the Donati family have nothing to worry about. Besides, this is probably our best chance to find out who is helping her and from whom she is getting her information about the Suebi. I still don't fully believe the story that she gave us about finding the boat, even if the evidence says otherwise," Noah explained.