The Twelve Vitali Ch. 15

"You think I have Daddy issues like Nymph?" Cat gasped.

"In some ways," Nero said enigmatically, and held up his hand as she was about to protest his assessment. "Everything, even a simple blood test, has been met with questions, compromises, negotiations, and in some cases outright arguments. In short, you are a brat, and anything where you can't make a clear choice for yourself is met with this type of behaviour. "You will learn that there are times where you must simply do what you are told without the drama." His voice had deepened to an almost growl, and his tone was an authoritative command that made her sit back and think about what he was saying.

She could hear Matteo's voice in her mind complaining, "Why can't you just do what I ask without arguing for once!" She had to acknowledge Nero's words, so she tried another tack.

"I've never been with a woman, or even been attracted to a woman before," she said quietly, still stinging from the rebuke and not wanting another one.

"That matters not. This is not a dating club here; this is a cold, clinical assessment of your capabilities. You have a man who loves you and wants you back better than before knowing what your limits and kinks are, and that you can be trusted to remain safe when a scene becomes overheated," he lectured.

"A clinical assessment," she rolled the words around in her mind.

"Just as your assessments here in the hospital wing have been," he nodded. "I will continue to monitor your health and well being, Marcus will oversee your deportment and etiquette, and my brother, Francesco, will oversee Hella's training for you. We three will be the only ones who know your true identity and why you have come here. If you have any problems and issues you will speak to one of us immediately. Do you understand?" He demanded.

"How will I do that? Will I ask Mistress Hella to call you?" she asked.

"There is a panic button built into this collar which you will wear for the remainder of your time here. The emblem at the front is designated to show that a member of the current sitting table of the Battaglia has shown an interest in offering you a contract once your training has been completed. The panic button is beneath the insignia at the front, and the clasp is a simple swing joint," he completed the show and tell by standing and moving behind her to place the decorative collar around her neck.

"Addictions to the endorphins that come from the merging of pleasure and pain can be even more dangerous when the adrenaline of the fight or flight response kicks in. We will talk often, and you must be unscrupulously honest about how you are feeling both emotionally and physically," he went back to his lecturing tone. "My brothers and I will let no harm come to you here, but we can only do that if you are honest and trusting."

*****

Matteo found that after the initial chafing of settling into life with Ricco's constant presence that he enjoyed having him close by. The scene with Jacobi hadn't gone the way he had expected after the initial accusations. When Matteo had come to Ricco's defence he had seemed to swallow down his anger and disappointment and accept the situation. He sat back thinking about it and waiting for the storm to erupt. He had the impression that Jacobi could only hold down so much stress and disappointment before exploding.

Ricco had moved his office into the office beside Matteo's executive suite with the intention of making it a more permanent second executive suite if this trial continued on beyond a week or two. Lucca, who had joined the company after graduating with an environmental engineering degree and begun to learn the business from his brother, had vacated the office for Ricco without any rancour. He spent more time on the road between projects supervising the project managers and understood there was little choice for his brothers. He also knew that, regardless of where his office was located, he was rapidly becoming Matteo's go-to man for running the company when he was off-site.

During the last few days, Matteo had some hard conversations with several of his brothers about the possible futures that awaited them. Lucca would be stepping up to take a bigger role in his company, and even the youngest of his brothers would begin helping to manage the horse stud they were so fond of, with the help of the men he already had in place at the facility. He needed to know that if he had to leave the security of his family, rather than just threaten to, that the business he had built would remain successful for his brothers.

Stefano had come through the surgery, but he was healing slowly, and complications had arisen that had worried both the medical specialists and their family. He knew Roberto and his uncles were making decisions about their own lives and expecting him and Ricco to do the same. So he was not making any secret of the fact that he was making preparations to hand over most of the running of his business to his managers. Regardless of whether he left the family or became the leader of it, these decisions needed to be made, because in the short term he planned to spend a lot of time with Cat building a home and family of their own.

He had seen firsthand how stressed Joshua Donati had become trying to be in control of everything and everyone in his life. Matteo was determined to start loosening the control he had maintained and guarded over the last two years when his work had become his life. Meeting Cat had turned his life inside out and upside down. His fathers' had seen him fall for her and instigated plans of their own. He wondered briefly about their accidental meeting and realised fairly quickly that there was no way they could have engineered the meeting. Both he and Cat had both decided to go to Queensland that weekend independently of any outside influence.

"Ready to go?" Ricco sauntered into Matteo's office.

"Yeah, they're moving him this morning, I think, so I doubt there's any rush, they probably won't let us in any way," Matteo grumbled. "We'll take Knox. Parking there's a bitch during the day."

"Sure," Ricco shrugged. One of the perks of living with Matteo was access to Knox and Lisa, who were good people who seemed to truly care about not only Matteo but his family. He particularly liked Knox and had struck up a tentative friendship with the man.

By the time they made it to the hospital, Stefano had demanded yet again to go home, and a frazzled looking Theresa wrung her hands as nurses and orderlies rearranged his room in a myriad of ways while the older man barked orders at them.

"Looks like he's feeling better today," Ricco noted with a wry smile.

"Give the nurses a break, Papa, Ricco and I can move anything else while we're here, just try and relax," Matteo said. "Thank you for all your help, we'll buzz if we need anything else," he dismissed the grateful looking hospital staff.

"You can't just come in here and start ordering people around," Stefano grumbled.

"Neither can you. You're a patient, these people work for the hospital, not for you. They aren't your personal staff," Matteo grumbled back, but his voice held the smile he was suppressing at seeing Stefano regaining his strength. It had been more than a little disconcerting seeing his Papa looking frail and old.

"Where's your brother? Have you given up already? You swore on my life, remember?" Stefano continued to grumble in his bad mood.

"He's trying to calm Mama down from the nervous breakdown you have given her this morning. What the hell is wrong with you, old man?" Matteo gave his father a hard look.

"I want to go home!" he snapped.

"Well, if that was your way of sweet talking Mama into helping you with that, it was an epic failure," Matteo chuckled.

"No one will tell me anything in here," he grumbled.

"What do you want to know?" Matteo asked.

"Everything! Get Cosimo in here!" Stefano demanded.

"We can't all stop what we're doing just because you decided to pull an attention-seeking stunt," Ricco said walking into the room. "Just give him a call. Or do you need to see him face to face?"

"They took my phone away from me!" Stefano practically yelled, as yet again he couldn't do as he wanted. "I'm not a child!" he snarled at Theresa, who stood in the doorway.

"Yell at Mama like that again, and you might find yourself in time out like a child!" Matteo growled.

"I'm still your father!" Stefano turned his anger on his son.

"Yes, but you are being impossible, Papa. You just had lifesaving heart surgery, and you are about to undo all the surgeon's hard work unless you calm the hell down. Now tell me what it is you want to know so desperately?" Matteo said in a calmer voice.

"Not knowing what's going on with the family is causing him the most stress," Theresa put in. "I've told him what I know, but he doesn't believe that the world, as we knew it in our house, has practically stopped because Roberto and I have been here the whole time. We couldn't use our phones in the intensive care unit, the doctors haven't told us otherwise for in here," she indicated the machines.

"Why don't you go downstairs and call Cosimo, Mama," Ricco said. "We're here now. You can take a break."

"Maryanne will go with you," Jacobi said, appearing at the door. "Papa is obviously feeling better if he can scare the staff again."

"Great, another clown to add to the circus," Stefano grumbled.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," Jacobi walked in and kissed his father's cheek. "I guess that means you can release these two from their trial and things can go back to normal now?"

"You weren't so worried about things being normal for your brother when you took off for Europe without considering him at all," Stefano accused. "For someone who claimed he was ready to share his wife and his life with his brother only weeks ago, you were quick to leave him behind when it suited you."

"That's not how it was, and it's a moot point now anyway, as you have made so clear," Jacobi shrugged.

"He didn't abandon me, Cobi told me he was going," Ricco jumped to his brother's defence.

"After it had been decided, no doubt. I don't believe either he or Maryanne included you in the conversation when they decided on this babymoon," Stefano challenged his son. "Nothing had been decided for either of your futures, we only wanted Alessandro's life acknowledged instead of written out of your version of the family history. We merely pointed out that you were not the second son and that you assumed too much. We have also had similar conversations with Matteo, in which his assumptions have been challenged, and instead of running away in a self-indulgent tantrum, he has not only accepted his own trial but sent the woman he loves to the Battaglia."

"The woman he loves?" Jacobi raised an eyebrow at Matteo before turning to Ricco. "You never said anything."

"Now is not the time for this conversation," Ricco said quietly.

"Now is the perfect time for this conversation," Stefano argued. "Tell your brothers how you really feel, Enricco."

"No, Papa, it's not. You can't always bully us into doing what you want, you won't like the consequences if you continue to try and force your will on us," Ricco sighed. "Take out your bad mood on someone else. Stay if you want, Matt, I'll be in the waiting room."

"Take the goddamn watch off, and I'll drive you home," Jacobi said incredulously. He had never seen Ricco lose his temper or talk back to their fathers the way he had just done.

"No! Unlike you, I am a man of my word, and I swore to wear this for as long as was necessary!" Ricco said in a harsh voice, then threw up his hands and groaned as if he couldn't believe he had said that to his twin, and walked out of the room.

"Someone want to tell me what that was about before I go find him?" Matteo looked at Jacobi and Stefano.

"Ric and I will sort it out later," Jacobi said.

Once in the waiting room, Ricco turned on his phone to check for messages. As soon as he turned it on it came to life in his hands with an unknown number.

"Hello?" he answered cautiously.

"Ricco? It's Cat," she felt a wave of relief as, finally, someone answered their phone.

"Cat, what's up? Is everything alright?" Ricco frowned. He hadn't thought she would have phone privileges during her trial.

"They are moving me from the hospital to a training facility, and this will be the last chance I have to talk to Matteo. He's not with you, is he? Are you at work? Can you find him for me? His phone is off, and I'm worried now," she spoke rapidly as if she had very little time to talk.

"We're at the hospital with Stefano. Talk to me while I find him. Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's so good to hear your voice, I'm a little homesick. How's Stefano?" She asked.

"He's grumpy and being mean to everyone, which means he's getting better," Ricco chuckled. "Don't go anywhere, hang on just one minute, okay, I have to get him out of the room. We can't have phones in there or Stefano will steal them." Cat could hear a murmured conversation and the phone being handed over.

"Hello?" Matteo answered the call Ricco had passed him cautiously, not knowing who it was.

"Matt," Cat breathed into the phone and felt her whole body relax. "When your phone was off I thought all sorts of things. I'm sorry, you will have a few panicked messages. Luckily Marcus had Ricco's number handy."

"Kitten," Matteo sighed, echoing the relief in her voice. "I miss you more than I thought possible. Are you okay? Nothing is wrong, is it?" Worry crept into his voice.

"They're moving me from the hospital to a training building today, so I won't be able to contact you again for a while, and I just needed to hear your voice," she said with an obvious smile. "I miss you so much, it's not nearly as much fun being woken up early if you're not there."

"I feel the same way. Ricco is staying with me, and it's not nearly as much fun hauling his lazy butt out of bed in the morning," he chuckled.

"Matt?" Cat took a deep breath. "I'm being trained with the Kept, they said you knew and asked for a female trainer?"

"I don't like the idea of you with someone else at all, and it seemed the better option," he admitted.

"Better for you, maybe," she said quietly. "I'm not sure I can do that, you know... with a woman. I don't want to fail or let you down, but I'm just not sure I can do it."

"Kitten," he said in a commanding tone after hearing the anxiety in her voice. He knew she wouldn't have bothered to mention it to him unless it was seriously freaking her out. "I understand this isn't easy. It isn't easy for either of us right now, but I want you to try. I will talk to Marcus about your limits and just testing out a Mistress, but you need to at least try for me, Kitten. Can you do that?"

"Yes," she whispered petulantly, making him smile as he imagined her face as she gave in to him.

"Is Marcus with you right now?" he asked.

"No, I am with Sir Nero," she said with only slightly more volume than her whispered yes.

"Let me talk to him, Kitten," Matteo commanded. He then spent a few minutes explaining why he couldn't just give in to her and that Marcus could use his best judgement if having a Mistress train her was pushing her limits too far. He spoke to her briefly again, reminding her that he loved her just the way she was and to be honest with Marcus about how she was feeling during every stage of the training.

In the week they had together since Valentine's Day, he had realised that when he was kind and giving she argued and negotiated more than ever, and if he was commanding and had specific expectations for her she seemed to revel in meeting those expectations and the praise he gave her when she was successful. When he ended the phone call, he turned around to find Ricco staring at him intently.

"This, we will talk about tonight," Ricco said in a deep, unhappy rumble.

*****

"Who knew a simple waltz could be so complicated," Cat said as she tried to take in all of the steps Marcus was patiently teaching her.

"This is a Viennese waltz and is different to just shuffling around the dance floor," he explained and tapped his hand in the middle of her back to remind her of her posture. "When we are done you will walk, eat, speak and dance as if you were born to the royal court," He said encouragingly, but had to admit she was not particularly coordinated or well-balanced. "You will become the perfect hostess and be able to converse with people from wide and varied backgrounds on a range of topics."

"I danced with Matteo once, and it was easy to follow his lead. Why do I have to learn all this?" she asked, not in complaint but out of curiosity.

"Because in your life you will dance with a great many people, and not all will be as gifted at leading a partner as Matteo Vitali," he chuckled. "I believe Nero's assessment of you was correct. You are not a brat in the traditional sense of the word, but you do not do anything easily, not even things you want to do, do you?"

"I do the things I want to do," she rebutted his words, looking up at Marcus, and he could see the questions forming in her mind.

"Not one thing we have done here have you come to with an open mind and less than ten questions," he scolded her. "Some you even ask twice, changing the phrasing as if you are looking to catch us out in a lie. You need to trust me and my colleagues, Jane. Everyone you encounter in this facility will be scrupulously honest with you. Shockingly so, in some cases."

The music ended, and he spun her away from his body, watching her form in the high heels. Her posture still needed quite a lot of work if she were to become less clumsy, but at least the back brace was helping, to some degree. He kept hold of her arm and led her away from the other dancers in the class before she could become distracted by Nymph, who had already met with Mistress Hella while he had begun his etiquette classes with Cat.

Unlike Peri, Cat had no influential teachers or friends to help her overcome a lack of social graces. While Peri was at the lower end of the middle classes growing up with a single mother, Cat had been more than poverty stricken growing up in the lowest of social classes. He tried not to compare the two women, but having an outsider rise to the rank of Mother of a table was unheard of until Peri, and now, only two years later, there was Cat, and, truthfully, Marcus wasn't sure, from what he had seen so far, that she was up to the challenges she would face. Peri had an inner strength that was obvious. Cat was a conundrum for him so far. She seemed anxious and out of her depth, but when she was pushed she always rose to the task before her, yet she would attempt to negotiate, question, and attempt to make a task easier or more palatable by arguing, if only subtly.

The three brothers would often meet to monitor her progress and come up with a strategy for fast-tracking her through training that could take six months to a year for a girl with a similar lack of education and breeding. Nero thought her more than capable once she learned to trust them and accept their authority, Francesco was waiting for Hella's initial report before he could decide if she understood the seriousness of why she had been sent here.

He watched her as she came to sit with him in the Atrium where tea had been laid out for them. She sat demurely with her knees together to the side of her chair and her feet crossed at the ankles beneath her chair. He had to explain several times why this was the preferred posture for a lady sitting before she had adopted it. Peri, being a natural submissive, had just accepted everything he had asked of her without concern. Catriona Leone, on the other hand, seemed to constantly be testing the necessity of everything he asked of her.