The sound of a plane landing on the island cut him off. He exchanged a glance with his capo I knew too well. I watched Lina’s sunken face. She had that look, too, but more prominent. That look that said, “We’re fucked.”
I smirked. Sebastiano Bellomo had arrived.
CHAPTER 29
Leo
I pushed Ravenna under my chair and limped up, snatching a gun from the nearest soldier as fast as I could.
“You motherfucker!” Dom pointed his gun at me, all the other dogs gathering on me.
I dragged Ravenna and ran to stand behind Lina and Niccolino before they could catch us, shooting the one guard next to them, ripping my fucking stitches, but I didn’t give a shit. “If you shoot me, you’ll never know where Nicky is. If you touch Ravenna, I’ll shoot everybody here, starting with Lina. You go explain that to Il Lupo.”
“Enzio, Dom, please, don’t shoot him,” Lina said, holding my brother tight. “Tino will never forgive you if either of us is dead.”
Gunfire roared outside. My father’s crew must have been clashing with the Lanzas’. That was hopeful.
“Che cazzo succede?” Enzio barged outside. “Nobody shoot! Che cazzo, Tino?!”
Silence rang among us, except for the sounds of my heart—and surely that of everyone in the room— and the distant talk outside the house. We were all staring at each other with anticipation and alarm, no one daring move.
My father was here. Whose team was he going to be on? Who was he going to believe? And what was he going to do to whomever he believed betrayed him?
Footsteps echoed closer, and Ravenna held on to me like a scared, little girl and I was the only man who could protect her. I’d protect her with everything I had. I was already prepared to die, and I’d die for her. What was a better way to go than saving the woman you loved?
My father’s face appeared at the entrance, a grim reaper coming to take damned souls. I couldn’t explain the way I felt when I laid eyes on him after all this time, after he took my own wife from me, after I watched him bleed in this very place. Hate didn’t even begin to explain it, but there was something else beside the rage and the loathing and the grudge. Something I couldn’t find the word to it, but it hurt more than all of the other vile feelings combined.
I wasn’t prepared for that kind of pain. I’d always thought if I saw him again, I’d kill him and end him along with everything he’d ever put me through once and for all. Here we were, face to face, our gazes piercing each other, our guns pointed at each other, fingers on the triggers, but no one was pulling them.
Why wasn’t he pulling the trigger when I could see the lies the Lanzas had poisoned him with etched on his face and I was standing, a living breathing threat to the family he betrayed his own blood to have?
Why wasn’t I pulling the trigger when this man took everything from me and left me to burn and rot? When every time I saw him I felt nothing but loss and ache and betrayal? When he was everything I loathed in a man, yet everything I had to become? The fucking monster that destroyed his own family instead of protecting it. A fucking selfish coward that didn’t deserve the air he breathed.
Why? Why could I not shoot him before and shot Lina instead? Why could I not shoot him now? Fucking why did I feel like throwing myself in his arms instead, asking him to stop this shit and be my fucking father again?
Was it too much to ask for a father’s love and protection? Was it too much to seek acceptance in his arms?
“Put your gun down,” he said, approaching quietly. “Angel, take Nicco and go upstairs.”
My fist tightened around the gun. “Not before she confesses in front of you. You have to know the truth.”
“I won’t listen to a single word when you’re pointing a gun at my wife and son. Now, put the gun down and let them go. Your beef is with me and me alone. We’ll settle this the way men do.”
“If I gave a shit about her anymore, she wouldn’t be alive now. And yoursonismybrother. I’d never hurt him.”
“Then put the gun down, Leo.”
“She has to tell you what she’s done. They all have to tell you what they’ve done. To me! I’m your fucking son, too! You should have loved me more than you loved her. You should have embraced me, not pushed me away. You should have helped me heal after our loss and usedmylove to heal you, not searched for consolation somewhere else. You should have been there for me, not fucking replaced me. You should have beenmyhero instead of playing that role with strangers. You should have seenme. You should have savedme.”
Ravenna was crying behind me, and Lina was joining the pity party, sobbing for me. The prodigal son that had never returned. The failure that destroyed those whom he dared care about because he knew deep down he was not worthy of their love. The psycho fuck that even his monstrous father couldn’t accept.
They said to look in the eyes of the wolf was to see your own soul. As I looked into Il Lupo’s bottomless blues, it was as if I was looking at myself in the mirror. I did see my soul. The darkness we shared. The pain we hid. But did he see me? Would he ever?
The wolf’s eyes glistened yet had never been darker. “I see you, Son. I see you.”
He reached for my gun, and I knew this was the end. Should I give it one last fight? Should I burn everything down with me? Should I destroy the ones I loved, punishing them for ever feeling anything for me I never deserved?
The screams were screeching as always, the urges flaring. My gaze yearned for one last glance at Ravenna and Niccolino. I shouldn’t leave them in this world alone. They shouldn’t be under the mercy of these monsters. I took a step back and aimed at Don Bellomo’s head. “No. No, you don’t. They deserve better. They deserve better than us. All of us.”
