“What were you thinking, sneaking around the city, andwhy the fuck is your brother standing in the living room right now?” He bore down on us, a pissed-off wall of muscle and bad attitude, boots thumping across the stone floor in time with my heart.
“Oh, so you’re alive, too?” Luca glared at me. “Didanyonedie in that explosion?”
“Only a few unfortunate pigeons,” Dante growled at my brother, pinning me beneath that glare. “Answer me, Emberline. Why is your brother in our living room?”
“You dematerialized from a public place?” Nico’s gazeswept the room—windows, door, corners—fingers twitching. “Tell me you took precautions.” When I shook my head, his eyes narrowed on Luca, like this was somehow his fault.
“Do you have any idea the trail you two left?”
“Yes,” I said flatly. “I do. My brother was in danger. I had no choice.”
Well, I did, but it wasn’t a choice I was willing to make.
Dante stopped a pace away, fists clenched. “Explain,”—every syllable was dangerous—“why you just compromised every layer of security we have. Why you’ve exposed us, at a time… and I will quote your words back to you, when we are the only ones standing between your uncle and disaster?”
I stepped in front of Luca without thinking. Dante’s nostrils flared, and he lowered his head like a bull about to charge. I wanted to stab my finger in his chest and ask him why he’d been walking this dangerous edge ever since he’d come back, but I didn’t want a repeat of earlier.
I should be careful about what I said next.
Except I’d been crystal clear from the very beginning where my loyalties lay, and those loyalties hadn’t changed. They’dexpanded. To my husband. To Gabriel and to Nico. To this small, chosen family I couldn’t lose. But…
“Because my brother’s life is not expendable, and I will not stand by and do nothing while the vultures circle, looking for ways to use him. Even if protecting him exposes us. I made a promise to protect Luca. I mean to keep my word.”
The truth hung there, heavy and unyielding.
My choice, my line in the sand, except… now, I wished the world wasn’t so fucking absolute. In my heart, we were all on the same side of that line now. A family, except none of us fit together in the right way, with our fragile alliance cracking apart.
Part of me wondered if this would be the thing that made it shatter completely.
Even Nico slanted me a pointed glare. Dante’s expression shifted—something else bleeding through his rage. Hurt… or disappointment.
“Well, I hope it was worth the risk,” he started.
“I’ve never kept my loyalties a secret, and I won’t abandon my brother.”
And I was tired of apologizing for doing the right thing.
We’d all been through hell this past month. He could take his shit attitude and shove it.
I turned to face them, heart pounding, the warmth of the safehouse suddenly inadequate against the cold knot in my chest. “Rocco set up a meeting with Luca tonight. Convinced him to spy on Giovanni. I couldn’t let him go back to the palazzo without…” I shook my head. “If our uncle knew he met Rocco, he would kill him.”
“Uncle Gio’s not going to kill me,” Luca waved a dismissive hand. “He needs me, remember?”
“Not for much longer,” Nico muttered beneath his breath, and my brother gave him a sharp look before whipping his head back to me.
“What is going on here? Why are you pretending to be dead, Emberline? What really happened in that explosion?” Luca swallowed, shoulders drawing in.What the fuck is happening here?
There is so much you don’t know, Luca. But telling you puts you in more danger.
He snorted.I highly doubt that. I was desperate enough to take a meeting with Rocco. Things are dangerous enough.
Dante paced, scrubbed a hand over his face. “Okay, I agree, he’s in danger. But you shouldn’t have brought him back here.”
“Rocco knows Marcello’s been poisoned. Which means he has spies within the household, so Gabriel needs to deal with them. And he all but hinted he knows Giovanni’s plans.” I slanted a sideways look at my brother. “Hisrealplans.”
“Rocco’s never been an idiot,” Nico pointed out neutrally. “But you’re right. Gabriel needs to clean house. Tonight. Lock that island down tight as a drum before Marcello passes.”
“He really is dying, then? Poison?”
