Deacon's POV
As we pulled into driveway my attention was drawn to several cars parked out front, immediately my heart started to race. I knew who those cars belonged to, I wasn't ready for this, I wasn't read for anyone else to come here and start asking questions about why we had done what we had done when signing our Omerta. I grabbed Mia's hand tightly as I brought the car to a stop. "Mia, I need you to listen to me very carefully, okay?
When we walk through the doors no matter what happens I need you to stay calm. You know that steel face we always tell you, you have? Well, it needs to come out to play right now."
"Is everything okay Deacon?"
"There's not enough time for me to explain Mia. I just need you to be aware of where everyone is, and who is around you at all times. The people who are here right now, the ones those cars belong to, even though they will seem like they are like us don't let that fool you. They may indeed hold to the same code of conduct as us, but, Mia, they are nothing like us.
Dimitri, Nicco and myself will be at your side constantly. Just stay close to me, okay?"
Mia nodded I agreement as we walked quietly up the steps. I wrapped an arm tightly around her waist as we walked through the door, taking a large breath as we did.
"Deacon, how wonderful for you to make an appearance. We came to congratulate you on finally taking your rightful place. Oh and what do we have here?" A voice asked before I could focus on who the voice belonged to, I felt Mia ripped from my arm.
"Get your hands off me!!" Mia shouted, as she turned, pulling her gun and aiming straight for the man's head in front of her. "Touch me again and the next time I'll fire."
"I like her, she's a feisty little bitch, isn't she?" He questioned. "What corner did you pick her up on so I can check it out myself?"
I heard the safety release and the gun cock as she kept the gun aimed at him. Although it was definitely the wrong time, I couldn't help but smile at her.
"You may want to put your toy away; you wouldn't like the consequences that comes along with it."
Mia stared at him with cold eyes. "I know the consequences too well." Slowly she ejected the bullet, clicked the safety back on and started to the lower the gun. "You aren't the first one the threaten something that you have no way to back up and I'm certain that you won't be the last either."
Before anyone could make a move, I heard the thundering crack of flesh against flesh. Mia stumbled backwards, clutching her cheek as she stared in shock at him. I started forward, but was taken off guard as a second strike landed, causing Mia to collapse to the ground gasping for air.
He laughed loudly as he stared down at her, but was cut short as Mia defiantly stood back to her feet. "You're a tough little whore, aren't you?"
"I am no one's whore." She spat. "My name is Mia..."
"Do you think that I care what your name is bitch?!" He shouted as he pulled his gun from behind his back pointing it directly at Mia. "I could end you right here, right now and no one would mourn you. No one would remember you in the morning. What is your name again?"
I heard a gun cocking from behind my right shoulder, another from my left side and from the entry of the foyer where we all stood. Slowly I reached my hand forward taking Mia's into mine. "Mia, step back towards me."
We all watched as five more men around his age flocked to his sides, watching every one of us that stood in front of them. All of them having their hands on their guns ready to pull them if needed.
"You'll never get the guns pulled before you hit the ground." Alex snapped from beside me, still aiming.
"She must really be something special if even you are willing to protect her. I think that being a guest and all I should get to put that to a test."
It was all in slow motion as Mia, closed the distance between them again. "My name is Mia Nicolette Lombardi, I don't know who you think you are, but in this house, you are nothing."
I rushed forward as I saw her hand go to her back. I was fractions of a second too late.
She clicked the safety off and cocked the gun before it had become visible at her side. No one had time to react before Mia had brought the gun around, one by one each of the five other men hit the floor, all of them never seeing the barrel aim at them. Luckily for them she had only meant to make them duck and cover not actually hit them.
"Mia, I need you to step back to me now." I said calmly. "I really need you to, please."
He watched from in front of us, as I tried to reason with Mia. "Lombardi, get your bitch before I end her."
"Anthony, shut the fuck up! You have no idea what she's is capable of, or what she's been through." I snapped. "You got your point across baby, come on." But she never moved from her stance.
"Lombardi, I'm warning you!"
"Anthony!! Shut up!!"
"Fuck you Lombardi, you won't reign her in fine, but I'm done playing." Anthony snapped, quickly ducking to his left as he grabbed Mia's wrist. "You wanna play you little bitch fine, but you're playing with the wrong asshole."
It was all a flash before me, he pulled Mia out of my reach, turning her back towards himself. Anthony moved his arm to lock her into a headlock, but he was never able to lock it in, before Mia had managed to scramble from his grasp, locking him into hold of her own.
I heard the scuffle, the crashing of the glass, a thud and the blast of a gun being fired. As I refocused, I was stunned to see the sight in front of me. Anthony lay flat on his back, looking up at Mia, with a bullet hole in the floor only millimeters from his head. His hands were raised in front of his chest, as he gasped for air.
All five of the other men were now standing again silently watching the scene just as we were.
"Tua moglie?" He asked.
(Your wife?)
"Yes." I answered calmly. "I tried to warn you."
"Se hai domande chiedimelo, visto che sono io quello che hai attaccato." Mia snapped.
(If you have questions ask me, since I'm the one you attacked.)
He looked Mia in awe. Slowly he made his way to a knee in front of Mia. "Ti prego, perdonami."
(Please forgive me.)
He looked at the men that had accompanied him. His eyes held fire as he looked at them, as if they had done something wrong. "In ginocchio, idioti. Inchinati davanti alla Belladonna Lombardi."
(To your knees you idiots. Bow before the Belladonna Lombardi.)
My heart froze at his words. "Belladonna?" I whispered, looking at Mia, as everyone stood looking at me. "Mia, can you please come here?"
The tone of my voice must have caught her attention, because she looked at me, her eyes softening. I held my hand out to her. "Please."
Slowly Mia reached for my hand, stepping towards me. "Deacon?"
"It's okay." I stammered quietly. "I just really want you right here with me."
As soon as her hand touched mine, I pulled her into me tightly. "We're going upstairs, under no circumstances are we to be disturbed, is that clear?"
As soon as the door to our room closed, I wrapped Mia tightly in my arms. I could feel the tears falling as I held her against me. "You beautiful, stupid, amazing, stubborn, wonderful, defiant and talented wife of mine. Why would you do something like what you did down there?"
"Okay, a little confused. Deacon, what are you talking about? What did he say that made you freak out down there anyway?"
"You've heard us talk about the seven heads before, right?"
"Yeah."
"Those were six of them."
"Six? Where was the seventh?"
All I could do was stare at her, as I allowed myself to fall on my knees in front of her, holding her by the waist. "You hold the seventh's heart in your hands, as he now kneels before begging for your forgiveness for not telling you sooner."
"You're the seventh?"
"Yes." I sobbed as I still held her waist in my arms. "I should have told you before this. I knew that they would come here eventually, we should have just left and now we can't. Now we'll never be able to, now I'll never be able to give you the life I wanted us to have."
"Deacon, what did he say?"
"He called you the Belladonna."
"What does that mean?"
"It's what we call our queen."
She just stared at me. "What?"
"We call our wives queens because there's a possibility, she'll be it.
There has only ever been one before, not in my father's time and I never thought I'd see it in mine either.
Mia I can't, it can't be you. I won't let them; they can't take you away from me. I'm nothing without you beside me."
"Deacon, no one is going to take me from you." Mia slowly sunk to her knees with me, running her fingers through my hair, as she just stared at me with tears in her eyes. "You think that they're going to snap their fingers and I'm what? Just going to walk out the door with them.
You always tell me that you're nothing without me, but what do you think I am without you?
Without you, I'd be just another body somewhere."
Flashback
Mia's POV
I sat quietly in the corner of the room with my knees curled tightly up to my chest, as I sobbed in humiliation, looking at the money that had been strewn across my room. I had to get out of here, I couldn't stay here and pretend it was safe anymore. The entire incident played through my mind again.
"Mia, I'm so glad you're home. I believe you and I need to have a conversation." The house manager Brady said seriously, as he sat a jar of money on the table.
"That's mine." I said, raising my voice. "You went through my things you pervert?"
Brady shot to his feet, grabbing the jar. He stalked angrily towards me, as a froze shaking against the door. "Lets go. We'll settle this in private." His hand latched onto my upper arm tightly, I knew there would be a bruise there tomorrow.
He basically drug me along behind him until we stood inside what was at least for now my room. Slamming the door shut, he turned, holding the jar of money up. "Where did this come from? You take up pick pocketing and stealing as a hobby now?"
"NO!" I cried. "Brady, you know I've been waiting tables at the diner. I've just been buying what I absolutely need, and saving the rest. That's all, I swear."
"So, you want me to believe that in the three months you've been working at that shit hole excuse for a diner, you've miraculously saved up almost eight hundred dollars? Bullshit. How'd you get the money Mia?"
"I swear Brady I'm not lying to you." I sobbed, as I reached into my nightstand drawer pulling out a white envelope. "Here, here's every one of my paystubs since I started working. It shows all my tips for the week too. I pulled a small notebook out of the drawer as well, holding them out to him. I used the notebook like a balance sheet for a bank account. Please, please, please, look at them. It'll be the same amount as is in the jar."
He stepped forward, stalking towards me with an angry look in his eyes.
"It'll match exactly how much is in the jar. I swear on my life I didn't steal a dime from anyone."
He grabbed me again, but before I could even stand up straight, he launched me forward into the corner of the wall. I slid down the wall sitting in the same place I am now, as he loomed over me menacingly. "One more chance Mia, where'd you get the money?"
"Brady, I swear I'm telling you the truth. I didn't steal any of it." I sobbed loudly. "I was saving the money, so I could buy a car and get a better job."
Leaning down, he tangled his hand in my hair, pulling up to my knees in front of him. "A car is definitely a lot more comfortable than blowing your customers out back in the alley huh?"
"What?!" I ripped my head backwards, trying to pull away from him. "No, no, no, no!"
"Come om Mia, don't I deserve the same privileges as your customers? After all, I'm the one keeping you off the streets, you wouldn't be so popular if you weren't able to keep yourself up." He leaned in closer to me. "How about you give me a special price, so I get to have a taste before you're all used up by eighteen?"
"NO!" Screaming and pushing at him, trying desperately to get free so I could run. I kicked him as hard as I could muster in the moment.
"You fucking little bitch!" He hissed, his hand releasing my hair, before he backhanded me, causing me to collapse onto the floor. "You're worthless! You're never going to be wanted, just used and tossed aside for the next person."
I heard the crash and the vibration as the jar hit the wall barely missing my head. "There the whore has her money!" He reached into his pocket, pulling out the change he was carrying. "And here's what you're going to be worth in a couple years."
end Flashback
"Mia? Where'd you go?"
"Just a memory." She said sadly. "A reminder of what I would have ended up being if it wasn't for you."
"From the moment I saw you Mia, you were it for me."
"Deacon, I'm no else's, only yours. I was told so many times I'd end up used and used up by the time I turned 18. Because of you they were wrong, you gave me a life I could have never imagined." Her hands grasped mine into hers tightly. "Look at me please."