“You know nothing about me,” I rasped. Achille had told me he’d offer Amelia to Remo if the chance ever arose. What if the oldest Falcone wanted my dove? Could I kill him and the men who obeyed him?
His face broke into a smirk. “Oh, but I do. I know the look in your eyes, and I know exactly what you crave with every broken part of your damned soul.”
I shuddered because his words did something to me. They answered a call I couldn’t answer in years.
Remo and the other man turned and moved through the doors into the ballroom. Niccolo remained in the hallway with us. “You can trust me. You can trust them. Remo is a good Capo.”
“Is he Capo?” I asked.
“To everyone who matters, yes. The traitors who remain in his territory will eventually be dead. Lamorgese called himself Capo until today.”
“Where is he?” I asked with a tremor in my voice. Fear and rage battled a bloody war in my body. I wanted to feed the latter and starve the former. I was stronger than my fear.
“He got captured.”
“Is he alive?”
Niccolo motioned toward the ballroom. “You should talk to Remo. It’s not my place to tell you everything.”
My lips curled. “Where do your loyalties lie?”
“With Remo and you. Come, Nestore. Let the past rest and become part of the new Camorra.”
“Let the past rest?” I snarled. Amelia flinched against me. I had to swallow my rage and need for blood in the basement, but she would soon get used to this side of me. “Do you have theslightest idea what I have endured these…” I hesitated. I wasn’t even sure how long I had been down in the basement.
“Almost three years. Next month, you’ll turn eighteen.”
“Three years,” I echoed, my throat tight with useless emotions. Amelia pressed her small palms against my bare back in silent reassurance, and I relaxed slightly. I swallowed down the pain and sorrow to glare at my cousin. “Do you know what I went through these last three years while you were free to join a revolution?”
Niccolo’s eyes scanned my naked torso. “I can guess.”
I shook my head. These scars didn’t even tell half the story. They didn’t show the many ways in which Lamorgese and his men had humiliated me and made me feel less than human. Sometimes I still tasted the vileness of everything they forced me to eat in my mouth.
“Come, Nestore. Remo will give you a great future.”
Niccolo moved backward but kept his eyes on me. Maybe he realized the danger he was in. I glanced back at Amelia, who watched me with huge, anxious eyes. I wanted her to be safe, but for that to happen, I had to become powerful, more powerful than Lamorgese, more powerful than my father even. I couldn’t do this alone.
I squeezed her hand and tugged her along as I followed Niccolo into the ballroom.
It was littered with dead guards, but several of them were alive and kneeling on the floor with guns pointed at them by Remo’s men. Their eyes flitted to me, shock and revulsion twisting their faces, before they looked away.
Remo and the other Falcone brother waited in the middle of the vast room. I wondered where his two youngest brothers were. If he were anything like Benedetto, he’d probably have killed them.
Remo looked like he considered himself the king of this place. As Capo, he technically was, but I wanted to become the master of these walls again.
“You decided to join us,” Remo said with a twisted smile.
I didn’t return the smile. I allowed my eyes to take in the splendor of the ballroom. This room used to be filled with good memories for me, but now all I could think of as I scanned the hardwood floor was how father’s blood and bowels had spilled on it.
“You are both injured,” Remo’s brother said.
Amelia’s wrist was swollen. Nobody had treated it. I worried it had been broken two weeks ago.
Remo’s brother stalked toward us and reached for Amelia, so I lunged. He blocked my weakened body and stepped back, palms raised in a way that erased most of my rage. “Nobody touches her,” I growled. Amelia cast a terrified look up at my face. She didn’t have to be afraid. I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her ever again. I had failed her for too long.
His cool gray eyes took me in with a calm I couldn’t fathom. “She’s yours.”
“Mine,” I exhaled.Mine. Nobody would ever hurt Amelia again. I had been powerless for too long, unable to help my dove. Never again. I tucked Amelia closer. She was mute, shaking in my hold, her cheek pressed against my sternum. Too much had happened.
