The Twelve Zenati

Marcella sat on the comfortable lounge and watched the screen showing a large sprawling suburban house on the large block of land. It was no wonder Olivia wasn't able to describe it accurately; it looked like many others in the same high-end suburb. Marcella sighed she knew it would be hours before the people they searched for would arrive at the house and then an hour more until the raid. Still, she couldn't drag her eyes from the screen for more than a cursory glance around the room she had been left in since arriving onboard the massive yacht.

As soon as they'd boarded, she had been shown to a large stateroom and left alone. She didn't think she'd been locked in, but she hadn't tried the door. She had nowhere to go, and she didn't feel like a prisoner but rather a business contact or something like that. As soon as the deed was done, they would go back to the mainland, and she would tell them where the original document was how they could retrieve it.

The sun slipped beneath the horizon for at least an hour or two although Marcella couldn't be sure as they had taken everything from her that could be used to track her whereabouts and time. She laughed when she thought of her watch. It was just a simple no-frills time face with a leather band. She hadn't even considered it as suspect when she had given up her phone to her hosts after making her one call to Gideon. It wasn't like her apple watch where she could have had access to the outside world. The door opened, and she looked up as Bea entered the room, followed by two of her men. She looked concerned and frowned at Marcella before taking a seat nearby.

"It is perhaps time for a game of trust," Bea said seriously. "It would seem your lover, Noah, and one of his cousins was at the Mindil Markets for our rendezvous even though your deviation to our plans had effectively cancelled it."

"He could have been looking for me despite knowing I was already with you," Marcella shrugged. "You weren't there, so no harm was done. The raid will go ahead as planned I am certain."

"We would have been as unconcerned as you appear to be had he not been shot while trying to make the rendezvous, with me," Bea said without any emotion.

"No!" Marcella gasped. It wasn't possible. Noah couldn't have been shot not when she had left him to keep him away from danger and the people she was dealing with by herself. She stared at Bea in horror, unable to voice any of the emotions that rolled through her. The feelings settled in her chest and gut like jagged rocks as Bea watched her quietly before breaking the silence.

"It wasn't my people who targeted him or the cousin who was with him," she said in the same dispassionate voice. "We need you to relay that information to your people and assure them that the threat did not come from the Suebi who will still meet at Hermione's tonight or us."

"I need my phone," Marcella squeaked out despite feeling like part of her was dying inside at the thought of Noah being dead or dying while she sat here in comfort. She looked at the screen of her phone when Bea placed it on the low table in front of the lounge she sat on. She doubted that Vivienne would still be with Gideon, all the women would have been squirrelled away somewhere for their protection if there had been a shooting. She looked at the other names she had to choose from and decided to call Gideon directly. If anything had happened to Noah, he would know, but would he blame her? Would he even answer her call? She dithered before pressing his name and lifting the phone to her ear.

"Speaker," Bea snapped as it started to ring on the other end.

"Hello," Gideon's voice was wary, and he seemed to be walking while holding his phone.

"Gideon, it's..." she cut off when he interrupted.

"Fuck! Marcie! Thank God, where are you?" Gideon asked.

"Out at sea," she admitted to the furious look from Bea. "Gideon... Noah? Was he? Is he?" she couldn't bring herself to complete the questions. "Gideon?" she asked again when he didn't answer.

"I'm with him now, at the hospital," Gideon said, "Just give me a minute, there is shit you don't know, yet."

"Gideon, I..." Marcella tried again, but there were only muffled sounds through the phone.

"Marcella? Tell me you're okay?" Barked the strained voice of Noah after she had listened to another minute of hurrying feet and the rustle of fabric.

"Noah? Are you okay? You weren't shot?" Marcella asked incredulously and looked at Bea, who narrowed her eyes at Marcella and the phone.

"Aww Kitten, it's okay. It was just a graze, but it's nice to know you care. Zan's not in good shape though," Noah told her. "You need to come back now. There are things you don't know. Your Unc...," he stopped as she cut him off.

"I can't. I, well Bea, needs you to know that it wasn't the Suebi who shot at you," she said, taking the stare of Bea and giving it back. "I think they are worried your family will call off the raid because of the attack today."

"We know it wasn't the Suebi. The raid will go ahead with the local police and a small contingent of AFP from Queensland rather than here. We are going to deal with the man who hired the men who took shots at us, ourselves. There may be honour amongst thieves, but there is nothing like that amongst addicts," he said seriously. "We have the two gunmen, their dealer and the man we believe paid them to shoot us this afternoon in custody but we don't know that there aren't more people out there searching for you, Kitten. You need to come back. Tell them where you put the original document and come back, the raid will happen regardless now."

"She will be free to return, if that is what she wants, once we both have what we need," Bea snapped and ended the call before Marcella could protest. "That was all we needed to know." She stood and left the room, taking the phone with her.

Marcella let out a long breath. A graze? What the hell did that mean? He seemed okay, and Zanto, he was in bad shape? My God, who the hell would target them if not the Suebi? They hadn't done anything wrong. And why did Noah seem so on edge when he said there were things she didn't know? She was left with more questions than answers after her call, and an ache appeared in her chest that she couldn't shift.

*****

Noah drew a steadying breath and nodded to his brother as he handed the phone back. He was elated that Marcella had called when she had heard that he was injured but the fact that he didn't know where she was and couldn't get to her sat heavily on him as he tried to clear his head for what he had to do now. He grimaced against the pain of his injury. He hadn't wanted his thinking muddled by the pain relief Helena had offered him after the wound in his leg had been cleaned, stitched and dressed. He shouldn't have left the hospital. He knew it, but with Gideon's assurance that he wouldn't let his brother out of his sight, Helena had reluctantly agreed as long as he used crutches and put no pressure on his leg or the stitches holding the large gash in his leg together.

The man he had come to see was delusional as far as anyone could tell. His hatred for the Zenati's, in particular, Noah, seemed to come from nowhere. However, after speaking with Nathaniel, who had called him to let him know Oscar and Isadore had been informed and would be with him shortly, he had a better idea about why this man had come to their city. There was little Oscar could do that the Zenati weren't already doing and it was not his city to be pushing the Gambaro's agenda. Still, he and his men had been doing their own investigating quietly.

"Good evening, Mr Gambaro. I believe you have been asking for a lawyer?" Noah said casually. He tried not to limp as he entered the detainment room where Severino was being held trying to appear uninjured and unaffected by the attempt on his life.

"Doctor Gambaro," the man corrected. "I requested my lawyer not some two-bit lawyer from this backwards town," Severino said pompously and folded his arms across his chest. "I'm being held against my will with no legal representation provided. When my lawyer gets here, you will all regret treating a man of my standing this way."

"You are far from home, Doctor Gambaro and as such are subject to the laws of our city where your name and reputation mean nothing. We have however notified our colleagues within the Gambaro family that we have detained you and they should be here shortly although your lawyer will take a few hours to fly so far out of his way. It's a shame that Perth is so far away or I am sure we could get this cleared up sooner. Until their arrival, however, I am more than a capable lawyer and would be happy to stand in for your preferred man and liaise with him when he arrives if you like," Noah said in the same casual tone as if it didn't matter to him one way or another.

"I assure you I am content to wait for the Gambaro men," Severino said in the same pompous tone.

"As you say, but just in case you change your mind, I will leave my card with you," he slid his business card across the table. "I would hate not to offer my service to a member of my fiancé's family. I'm sure Marcella would be most upset with me when she found out if I hadn't." The man tensed before Noah's eyes and looked down at the card before a snarl tore from his throat and a feral grimace adorned his face.

"Problem?" Noah asked. "I thought you would be grateful for my help since we are to become family very soon."

Severino took long minutes to pull himself together as Noah waited seemingly with infinite patience for him to speak even though every cell in his body wanted nothing more than to destroy this man for what he had put Marcella through.

"I don't know who you are or why you are impersonating a dead man, but Marcella will return home. In chains, if necessary and she will face the punishment she so richly deserves for defying her elders," Severino ground out between gritted teeth.

"Dead?" Noah patted his chest as if searching for a wound. "I assure you I am far from dead as is my cousin who was shot in front of me this afternoon. I don't suppose you know anything about that seeing as you are under the mistaken belief that the inept gunmen killed me?" Noah asked in a stern voice, straightening in his chair and clinging to the remnants of the casual tone he had been using despite himself. "Of course, if you hire me as your lawyer, anything you do say or admit to would be held in the strictest confidentiality."

"I have nothing more to say to you until my lawyer arrives," Severino hissed.

"It's your choice, but as I said I had to offer. I would hate for Marcella to think I wouldn't help and respect a member of her family," Noah shrugged. "Now if you will excuse me, my fiancé is concerned about the slight scrape I got today and wants me to rest. She's an amazing woman. I understand your reluctance to let her go."

"She will never be yours. She knows where she belongs, and it is not here with the cursed ones," Severino growled.

While people had heard stories about the Zenati men, the truth of it was never part of the myth and legend that surrounded the idea of the family being cursed. They had a fearsome reputation even though not regarded as the strongest of families few would go head to head against them. Their colour was black for a reason and in times of battle their black standard with a single silver sword slashing across the middle-heralded death to those that saw it. There were the elite of physical combat and deception, and only the Battaglia came close with their warrior training. They were secretive though, and on the large stations where their children were raised, they learned what it meant to be Zenati from the earliest of ages.

"Oh? Does Olivia also know where she belongs, or are the cursed ones, good enough for her?" Noah asked in a biting tone.

"That girl is dead. She was a mistake that should never have been brought into this world, and now she is gone from it. The girl claiming to be her is nothing more than a liar and a fraud. There were only ever meant to be two. Still, the bitch who spawned Olivia hid her pregnancy from all but our mother, the biggest bitch of all. It was she who protected the woman and her daughters in those early days. Until she suffered the consequences of her actions," he said as if it was natural to speak of the women in his family so disparagingly.

"Why only two when the Gambaro's revere large families," Noah asked curiously now that the man was talking and divulging elements of his family's life.

"Two served our needs, had they been sons our needs would have differed," he said with a shrug.

"Jessa has gone to the Farnese, and Marcella is engaged to me. Now you have none. Perhaps your plans for only two would have been better served by allowing more children," Noah said in even tones. He wondered why this man seemed so proprietary over his nieces as if he had ownership of them somehow.

"Nunzio gave his away to save his skin. I will not be so generous with what belongs to me. Marcella will be returned to me whether she likes it or not. It is the way of our people," he said with so much certainty that Noah just stared at the man.

"Nunzio gave Jessa away?" It was Orlando who had asked. Noah had forgotten that he had been standing in the background listening to all the details of their conversation. "Her father gave her to the Farnese man investigating him for his silence?"

"Why else would he give away such a beautifully broken woman?" Severino asked clearly confused by the question.

"Marcella is not broken," Noah said, tilting his head.

"I know, and I have found myself enjoying her struggle against her fate. Yet she knows where she belongs and is drawn back to me time and again. It is a true aphrodisiac to see such a strong woman bend so far without breaking, but this time she will break because I tire of her games. She will lose the very people who keep her strong, and when that last ray of hope dwindles, she will break," he said without a hint of guilt about what he was doing. "As tables men, I am sure you understand the thrill of breaking the woman you want so that they serve only you forsaking all others. Unfortunately, your man Noah got in the way, but that is dealt with now, and we must move on without all this petty finger-pointing. We are men of the tables, and the laws of the land don't apply to us."

Noah felt a steadying hand on his shoulder as he seethed at the incredulous things this man said. Orlando moved to sit in the chair beside Noah, keeping his hand on his shoulder.

"What do you mean she will lose the people that keep her strong?" Orlando asked.

"Marcella's downfall was thinking she could save them all but she can't. You know I should thank you, I suppose. Your interference in our family has saved us the bother of tying up so many loose ends. With her husband's help, poor Jessa took her own life today, after being humiliated by the investigation into her family caused by the imposter you have fostered. The medical information I gave to the AFP today should ensure the imposter's arrest and subsequent life imprisonment despite your brothers best efforts. The Aunt that Marcella had lived with died from wounds received when a home invasion went wrong before I left to come and retrieve her. The man she became engaged to here in your own city, the man you are pretending to be, died today in a drug deal gone wrong. It's all so very tragic," he said with mock sympathy. "As for her mother? No one can save her now."

"Go tell X. Tell him to call his friends and find out if what he says is true," Orlando said.

"You're lawyers, and men of the tables, you can't breach confidentiality," he said smugly. "You said so yourself," he pointed out to Noah, unconcerned by their apparent rage at his words.

"Noah is a lawyer, but you refused his services, so he owes you nothing. As for me, a man of the Tables? I'm your worst nightmare come to life, because it will be over my dead body and that of each of my brothers that Marcella ever returns to you," Orlando announced in a cold-blooded hiss making the man in front of him flinch. "You sit tight and wait for your lawyer. You are going to need him because I don't plan to let you out of this room or this city alive." With that Orlando pushed a stunned and seething Noah from the room before he did something, they would all regret and locked the door behind them.

*****

Olivia looked up from where she had been telling the cobbled-together story of Marcella's life, from what she now knew, in fairy tale form. Twelve black-suited men had burst through the door and were now spread out around the edges of the room surrounding the women.

"This doesn't look good," Beverly said just as her phone buzzed with a text.

Orlando: "If the AFP come for Olivia, hide her. Go to the cellar I have sent men to guard the women. There are multiple threats, and we need you all safe."

Beverly quickly showed her phone to Emma, who took in the men around them. She then looked at Olivia who seemed to have shrunken in on herself making herself as small as possible in the face of so many intimidating men.

"Ladies, if you will follow me downstairs please," Emma invited. "I have been dying to raid Junie's wine cellar, and this seems like the perfect time to have a small interval in the delicious story Olivia is telling us all."

"I'll organise some food," Beverly offered.

"Ooh and the kids are already down there with the nannies so some food for them would be great too," Shari suggested after reading her own message from Claudio and watching the silent exchange between Emma and Beverly. "I'll help," she added planning on finding out what her daughter in law knew that she didn't. With Junie gone, it was up to her to help and support the younger Mother of the Zenati.

Olivia was relieved to have the focus taken from her at last but continued with the story in her mind. Editing bits here and there of what she had told already to fit better with the later parts of the story. She found that even though she didn't like the attention that telling the story to an audience brought her she like the creating of it and fleshing out the characters to add a little more fact to the fiction. Maybe Vivienne and Marcella had been right, and she could be a writer and illustrator of children's stories. The thought made her smile. Perhaps she could do something worthwhile once the horror show of her life with the Suebi was over. With any luck that would be soon.

"Hello Olivia, I'm Nicola, but most people just call me Nicky. I don't think we've met properly yet. I'm supposed out on the station putting the Halloween gathering together with the others. I only came to the city last night because I had to get my whirly-bird serviced. I flew your sister and Noah out of the property yesterday. It was a good opportunity to get away from the chaos for a little while," Nicola said with a friendly smile.

"Your whirly-bird?" Olivia asked.

"Helicopter, just a small one which is why I think of her as a bird," she grinned. "Do you like to fly? I could take you up sometime."

"I've never flown anywhere; I'm more of a sailor than a flyer," she admitted. "I saw Marcella this morning. I hope everything is okay with her. Gen didn't say much when we rushed here this afternoon."

"Nobody tells me anything anymore," Nicola sighed. "My husband passed away a few years ago, and while I am still family, I am so far out of the loop I may as well be in another city," she gave a small laugh. "I wanted to talk to you about your story though if you don't mind me asking a few things," she said hopefully.

"I guess," Olivia said guardedly and looked around for Vivienne, the one familiar face in this crowd even though she had spent time with Emma and Beverly recently she still didn't feel like she knew them very well yet.