“Piero hasn’t shut the port. He’s just restricted our shipments.” I reached for my phone to ring Maximus as Gio frowned at me, not following. “We need to know who is operating those other ones and who they are connected with.”
“We’ve been looking into it. So far, they’re all legitimate companies in Rome. Nothing stood out. No links with the Irish or Russians, if that’s what you’rethinking.”
“Unless they’re hiding behind someone with influence.”
“You mean Piero?”
It seemed far-fetched, but fuck, someone had to be. “Possibly.”
“Pronto, Sani,” Max answered at last, sounding a little out of breath. “I was about to call you.” My instinct that this had something to do with Aria made me forget everything.
“What is it? Aria, is she okay?”
“Si,” he breathed, and I relaxed, though only slightly. “But I don’t know how to tell you this. Fuck, are you with Gio?”
“Why?”
“Put me on speaker.”
I did. My heart pounded as I started to sweat. “Max, spit it out.”
“The mayor’s daughter… she’s getting married.”
I stared at Gio, my lips twitching because he had to be winding me up. Granted, it would mean he had the worst sense of humour in the world, but he was fucking with me for a laugh or revenge or whatever this was. However, the look on Gio’s face as he slowly raised his hands, his body ready to pounce because he knew I was seconds away from losing it, had me doubting that in an instant.
“You have three seconds to tell me this is the worst joke you’ve ever made, or I will drive to your house and destroy every fucking Harley you own,” I said with an eerie calmness I didn’t feel.
“I wish I were joking. She went to a bridal shop with her friend. I rang Cami straight away to go into the shop and get some information before I rang you. I wanted to be sure. She overheard Arianna saying she was getting married.”
“To fucking who?”
“She said her fiancé’s name was Callum. The wedding… It’s tomorrow. I’m sorry, man.”
The darkness seeped in from all angles as disbelief morphed into something vicious. Gio was saying my name, his hands raised, but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t see him. All I knew was that I needed to get out of there. I needed to get back to Rome, find Callum D'Ardenzi, and show him what happened to a man who thought he could take what was mine. I’d watch him bleed out, a slow, agonising death, and smile the whole fucking time. My body was moving, but before I’d even reached the door, something solid and relentless bulldozed into me, tackling me to the floor and stopping me from getting to her. I saw red.
“Let me the fuck out,” I roared, grabbing the steel bars and trying to rip them from their fixings. Gio leaned back against the wall outside the cell as if he had all the time in the world. With one hand on his shoulder, he rolled it, grimacing, popping the joint back into place, then folded his arms over his chest and stared me down. His lip was split open, and an angry, dark purple bruise was appearing around his right eye, courtesy of yours truly.What did he expect when he tackled me to the floor? I’d thank him? It could have been a lot worse. If he didn’t let me out of this cell soon, it would be.
This wasn’t the first time I’d been locked in my family’s cellars because they believed I needed to calm the fuck down. But it was the first time I’d felt like murdering my flesh and blood for doing it.
When he made no attempt to meet my command, I shoved off the bars, turned my back on him, and paced a few steps around the small, boxy cage. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on breathing to gather my thoughts, because I knew that was what he was waiting for. The rational Sani. The man he’d raised to think strategically before acting recklessly. The problem was, I’d had to learn to be that way. My instinct was to act first and deal with the aftermath… well… afterwards. I was finding it very hard to think straight at all. I wanted blood, Callum D'Ardenzi’s, to be exact. I’d drink it from a chalice made from his skull.
“You’re going to leave the girl alone, Sani,” Gio demanded calmly, his voice full of authority, telling me this was him speaking as Boss rather than my brother. I placed my hands on my hips and shook my head, glaring at the filthy, blood-stained ground beneath my pacing feet. “That’s an order, not a request.”
“No,” I said through clenched teeth. “Sorry, Boss. I can’t.”
The calm was gone. His face mimicked a raging bull as he stepped closer to the bars. “We may be family, Santino, but when I give you a fucking order, you will obey it.”
“Give me any other order in the world, and I’ll follow it,” I snarled through the iron bars, meeting his glare head-on. “But not that one. She’s mine. The only way you’ll ever keep me away from her is to put a bullet between my eyes, and we both know I’m your favourite sibling.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “You’re so much likePapiit’s insane. Obsessed with the notion of soulmates. But there’s a thin line between unhealthy obsession and love, Santino. And if I let you out of here, you’re going to fucking cross it.”
I growled at him because, at that moment, all I wanted to do was smash my fist into his other eye.
“Says the man who’s so obsessed with his wife that he’s named a dish after her in every restaurant he owns. Do you think forcing people all over Italy to order theBambolain Michelin-starred restaurants is normal behaviour? Or punching a waiter in the dick because he pulled out her chair and glanced at her ass? You’rea fucking hypocrite.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged. “But I’ve always given Liv a choice to be with me, and that obsession is appreciated. All I’ve heard in the last few hours is that the mayor’s daughter wants nothing to do with you. She’s made a statement to the police and is now marrying Rome’s Golden Boy in a shotgun wedding. She couldn’t make her choice any clearer.”
“This isn’t her choice,” I hissed. “This is Piero! And that fucking prick. They’ve gotten into her head. She’s running scared.”
