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LUCA
“Sit down, son,” Papa urges, watching me as I pace his office. “Sit. Have a drink to steady your nerves.”
His words are wasted. There’s only one thing I want, one thing I see in front of me—my goal, my destination, my everything. Nothing else will do.
Which means there’s only one objective. “I’ll kill him. I’ll fucking kill him myself. This ends here, now! We have to find him. I’d bet anything he’s with her now.” A growl tears its way out of me. “I’ll break every fucking bone in his worthless body if he lays a finger on her.”
Dante has remained silent since my arrival. For some reason, he chooses this as the moment to speak. “Are you finished?” he asks, sounding bored. “We have business to think about now.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I whirl on him, and something in me is glad for his asshole attitude. He’s given me something tangible to hate, something here, in front of me. “You have never been good at knowing when not to push me. Let me tell you, this is not the time.”
“Dante, please,” Papa speaks but watches me because I resume walking the perimeter of the room, my hands clenched into fists so tight my joints ache. I welcome the discomfort. I can focus on it rather than the mistakes I made to get me to this point. Was it ego or plain stupidity that made me think we were safe?
Dante yawns loudly and scrubs a hand over his face. “Maybe this is for the best.”
“Get him out of here,” I snap at Papa, pointing to Dante. “I’ll fucking kill him.”
“Would you listen for once?” Dante demands, raising his voice to be heard over mine. “Let’s face it. It was never right to begin with. She doesn’t belong here. I can accept you getting involved with her, but she has cost this family dearly.”
I used to think of my brother as nothing but a soulless machine. I was nowhere near the truth. A machine isn’t cruel on purpose. “You need to leave before I kill you,” I warn in a shaking voice. “I’m serious. If you can’t fucking pretend to understand what I’m going through or at least muster up a little sympathy for an innocent civilian, I don’t want to have shit to do with you.” I don’t care if we share blood. Blood means nothing to me if it means nothing to him.
“If she’s suffering now, it’s because you didn’t have the balls to do what needed to be done!” he shouts over me.
That’s it. That’s what does it. We’ve been building to this for a long time, and now there’s nothing to keep me from charging across the room, taking him by his collar, and hauling him in close. “You’re fucking dead!”
“Try it!” he bellows, his spit flying in my face before he shoves me away with surprising strength. I stumble back and fall against a chair, tipping it onto its side and grabbing hold of Dante’s shirt with my left hand, swinging at his jaw with my right. The moment of contact is sheer exhilaration. Finally. He’s had it coming to him for too long.
The door to the study opens at the sound of our fighting, and in comes Vinny. “Get them off each other!” Papa bellows, and Vinny responds by placing his very sizable body between ours.
“You worthless son of a bitch.” I snarl around Vinny’s arm, swinging for Dante because, dammit, I need to hit somebody. I need to make somebody bleed. He’s been begging for it for too long. Dante only rubs his reddened jaw, sneering.
“Stop. Right now, both of you.” Papa stands, rounding his desk, and takes me by the back of the neck. “Enough of this. You aren’t helping anyone by losing your grip on yourself. As for you…” he continues, taking hold of Dante with his other hand while Vinny backs off. “Like it or not, Emilia is part of the family now. It doesn’t matter if you like it. That’s the decision your brother made, and because we’re family, we’re going to respect that. If you can’t accept it, it could be we have bigger problems than we thought.”
“You know this is wrong,” Dante insists. I can’t remember the last time I saw him looking so intense, shaking, and practically spitting out every word. “This is only leading us deeper into war. Let’s say we waste money and resources on finding her. What happens if we don’t have what we need when they bring the fight to our doorstep? How do we protect Mama and Guilia and ourselves if that happens?”
“Don’t pretend you care so much about them now,” I growl out, which earns me a vicious squeeze from Papa. It could be he’s not as weak as I thought, or the situation has him feeling as energized as I do. Ready to snap bones and crush skulls. I only need the opportunity.
“You aren’t helping things,” he snaps, scowling at me. “Your brother does make a good point. These are the factors we have to weigh. As much as we would like to pretend nothing else matters but what we want here and now, that isn’t the way life works. Better you figure that out now than someday down the line when you have children of your own to protect.”
“Fine…” I grunt for the sake of ending this and getting back to what matters. “I understand what you’re saying.”
“That won’t change anything, will it?” Dante asks, scoffing.
Papa groans, releasing us. “I’m talking to myself.” Shaking his head, he perches on the edge of his desk, blowing out a sigh.
I spare Dante one more dirty look before checking the time on my phone. Nine-thirty. How much damage could he do to her in such a short time? I shouldn’t entertain the question. A world of pain could be inflicted in ninety minutes. “How the fuck did he know we were there?” My voice echoes throughout the room, but neither man can offer a response.
Turning on Dante, I snarl. “For all I know, you fucking tipped him off to get Emilia out of the way.”
For once, he’s caught off-guard. He quickly wipes away his wide-eyed shock. “You’re out of your fucking mind,” he scoffs. “We don’t have time to go into all the reasons I would never do that.”
“Luca…” Papa sighs. “Your brother would never do that to you.”
“After what he said?” I counter. “Telling me this is how it was always going to be, and I should’ve put her out of her misery before this? Do you think he would stop at anything if he thought it would protect the family?”
My father holds up both hands, closing his eyes in silent surrender. “Stop wasting time and consider that this could be part of a larger play. It could be a means of flushing us out, weakening us before he launches a direct attack. We need to consider all possibilities before making a move.”
“I understand.” When Dante scoffs, I bear my teeth at him. “I mean it. I understand. So, if necessary, I’ll take care of this by myself.”
