A tear falling down her cheek, she shook her head. “You don’t need to kill her. You’ve already won.”
“She doesn’t deserve to live. She knew. Your father would never have fired the first bullet without her blessing and approval. You know that.”
“I do know that, but if you kill her, I will never be able to live with myself. Kill her, and you kill me.”
Strangely, until that moment, she’d never felt her heart actually pump blood through her body. She’d always been aware of it, hugely so since Elio had come into her life, but as a life-giving organ in its own right…?
One squeeze of the trigger of the gun pressed against her mother’s head, and her mother’s heart would stop beating forever.
“I couldn’t live with myself,” she repeated, her voice choked. “She’s everything you think she is, but she’s still my mother, and if you ever felt even the tiniest amount of affection for me, no matter how small, then I beg you, let her live.”
His face twisted.
“Please, Elio. Don’t do this. Do what the Caesars of old did and banish her. Make her live in poverty on some godforsaken island there’s no escape from, but if she does pull off a miracle and escapes or if one of my brothers is stupid enough to try and rescue her, you can takemylife as punishment.”
Something dark and pained flashed in his eyes. “You would give up your life forher?”
“You already know I’m not bluffing. If Elvira pulls that trigger, then I pull mine, and the consequences are for you to live with.”
Not the consequence of her death as his wife or lover. He might grieve her privately for a short while, but the flame of his hatred for her had never stopped burning, not even through the loving intimacy that had grown between them.
If she pulled the trigger now, the consequence would be to weaken his position in their world. He’d said it himself, the people in their world trusted and respected Siena. They would understand and respect Elio killing her mother for her part in triggering the war, but if they learned Siena had died too, aftercapitulating to his demands without any argument and without any gunfight, they would look at him with new eyes that would be less than favourable. After all, she’d still been in the womb when the first bullet had been fired.
Steadying her hold on the gun as best she could with hands that were getting clammier by the second, Siena injected strength into her voice. “Take the deal, Elio. If my mother loves me, she won’t try to escape if she knows the consequence will be my death. If my brothers love me, then the same. I will be your surety. Bring Vincent back into the room. He can be a witness to our deal.”
He held her stare. Only she could see the myriad of emotions flashing through his eyes.
There was not even a breath of noise in the room.
Although Siena’s eyes were glued to him, she could feel everyone watching them. Feel the fear. If she closed her eyes, she thought she’d be able to hear her mother’s frightened heart thrashing. She didn’t imagine it had ever experienced a moment of fear before.
Eventually, his throat moved, and he turned his stare to his brother and sister. Siena’s gaze still glued to Elio’s, she couldn’t read what they were silently saying to each other.
When he looked at Siena again, his eyes had become blank. There was no expression or emotion on his face. “If I take your deal, she spends the rest of her life suffering. There will not be any physical suffering, but she will live a life even a nun would consider frugal. You understand that?”
“I understand.”
“And you understand you will never be allowed to leave Naples and that I will not hesitate to hold you to our deal if she tries to escape or your brothers try to rescue her.”
“I’m your surety. That’s the whole point of the deal.”
His eyes closed briefly, his nostrils flaring. “Then I accept.”
Chapter Fourteen
Elio had won.
Everything he’d spent over two decades plotting and planning had finally come to bear. The Esposito empire now belonged to him. The Espositos themselves belonged to him.
Bruno and Elvira had left, gone to celebrate their success.
Elvira had been so young when their parents had been killed that she didn’t remember their faces. She’d been pissed at being unable to kill Valeria, but she’d recognised that Siena wasn’t bluffing as well as he had.
He would not allow himself to think of how he’d felt when Siena produced that gun.
Pouring himself a good measure of whisky, Elio took the glass and the bottle outside.
He was sure the numbness he was currently feeling would soon leave, and the euphoria he’d expected to feel at this moment would hit him. Soon, when Siena had gone. She was in the bedroom packing her things. There had been no discussion. Once her brothers and their wives had gone to wherever they were going, she’d met his eyes briefly and said, “Give me an hour to get my things together?”
