My breathing accelerates as I lift my gaze from Elodie’s and sternly demand, “I need to see himnow.”
Enzo leads the way downstairs, and Elodie gasps at the sheer number of dead bodies we encounter.
“Losses?”
Enzo glances back at my question, shaking his head firmly. “Nessune. Some minor injuries, but no deaths,Fratello.”
I grit my jaw, my mind instantly returning to the sight of Emiliano’s lifeless body. “We’ve lost enough today.”
Elodie squeezes my hand, and I shoot her a grateful look, watching as her eyes fill with renewed tears before I haul her against my uninjured side. I press a kiss atop her head in silent comfort when my feet suddenly slam to a halt, and Elodie stops alongside me.
Romeo is standing beside a bare-footed man in torn, filthy clothes. His face is covered by a long black beard, and his black hair is matted, falling well past his shoulders.
And even so, there’s no doubt that my brother is the man standing before me.
He turns his haunted midnight eyes up to mine, and suddenly, my feet move forward right as he does. Our bodies clash as we embrace, and my heart heals and simultaneously breaks all over again at the thought of what my older brother may have endured at Conti’s hands.
We draw back, watching one another as small smiles of disbelief lift our lips. So much has happened since we last saw one another, but all I can do now is be grateful for our family’s second chance.
I twist about to tug Elodie closer, folding her in against my side as I regard both her and my brother.
“Let’s go home.”
CHAPTER 34
RAFE - TWO WEEKS LATER
To look around the compound,you’d never know the devastation that had almost razed the entire place to the ground had ever occurred.
In anticipation for tonight, I’d flown a team in from Milan, and they’d worked literal magic.
Every room has been freshly floored, painted, and adorned in a running theme of classic Italian chic, as per Aurelia’s very specific instructions. She’d kept to our father’s tastes, and I had to admit, everything looked better than ever.
The only remaining reminder of Conti’s attack is the gaping Emiliano-shaped hole that will never be healed. The small burial ceremony we’d had for him onIsola Rosahad been intimate, and focused on Elodie’s baking, something my best friend would have greatly appreciated.
As for my sister, the only time she’d shown true emotion following her return home had been when she had heard of her mother’s hand in the destruction of our home, not to mention her part in Maria’s and Emiliano’s deaths.
“She allowedhiminside our home?”
Aurelia’s voice is high-pitched, her eyes dark with unbridled fury as she glares at me. Elodie’s hand lightly squeezes mine when she witnesses my sister’s temper for the first time.
And inside, I breathe a sigh of relief, having believed we’d lost the true Aurelia to Conti when she’d first been taken over ten months ago.
At my stoic nod, Aurelia rounds on her mother, and despite her smaller stature, she encompasses the entire room with the force of her fury.
“The man who killed Papa and held me captive. The man who held my brother captive in a lightless dungeon, depriving him of food and water for nine fucking months. You allowedthat maninside our home, Mama?”
Sofia’s eyes are wide and pleading when she shakes her head frantically. “I only wanted you home?—”
Her head whips to the side when Aurelia snakes out a hand, her palm connecting with her mother’s cheek with a resounding slap.
“Placing the life of one above the life of many was your first mistake.” Aurelia’s voice drips with venom as she coolly regards her mother, who’s pressed her hands to her red cheek, eyes filled with shocked hurt. “Your second was thinking I wouldeverforgive you.”
My sister turns to me, and I can almost see the rage roll away from her features as she recloaks herself within her shroud of icy indifference. “Ensure she’s suitably punished, Rafael.”
Sofia’s very muchunwanted marriage to Maurizio D’Amato, a loyalSoldatifar beneath her station, had been celebrated two days later, and to say I’d relished in the act would be an understatement.
I smirk in remembrance when I walk across the foyer, stepping outside right as the first of three SUVs arrives. Cesare DeMarco disembarks, followed swiftly by an unusually stoic Santino.
