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“I know.” He shrugs, “I told you, Lance, that job was your last, but you’re not leaving the Cavalieri. You’re my best soldier, and I’m not letting you go.”
“But your offer still stands?” I question, stalking closer, my hands flat on the smooth wooden surface of his desk. “Giuliana and I are not leaving. We’ll be staying in my home. You won’t come between us, ever again.”
He meets my gaze with his cool one, those depths of azure that match his daughter’s lock on mine. “Of course. You have my word.”
“Forgive me if I feel as if your word means shit,” I retort. It’s the first time I’ve lost my calm around Arthur. But he only chuckles in response.
“You know, Lance, from the moment you ran into me as a young boy, I knew you were special,” he tells me, rising to full height. “But it was the moment you told me you loved my daughter that I truly realized there was nothing I could do to stop you. Stubborn. Just like I was.”
“I don’t toy with people’s emotions.”
“Perhaps not,” he smirks. “But you’re as ruthless as I am.”
Nodding, I step back, righting myself. “Maybe, but let me tell you one thing, Arthur Calthorpe, I’ll never hurt Giuliana. Not like you did with her mother.”
“Sometimes in life you need to make difficult choices, Lance,” he tells me, but there’s not even a hint of an apology in his tone. He feels nothing. I wonder if he will ever find love, if he’ll ever truly feel something for anyone.
I know he loves his daughter, but other than that, Arthur is a man closed off to everything. To anyone. And that is the saddest thing of all.
“Are we done, Arthur?”
“We are. You’ll get your next job in a few days,” he affirms with a nod, but he doesn’t look at me, his gaze focused on the window. “Your mother is doing well I heard. The rehabilitation center is doing her well.” His words aren’t meant to hurt, they’re merely to inform me of what I’d heard from the doctors. “I trust you’ll visit her soon.” There’s darkness in his tone, a vow I don’t want to hear.
I turn to leave, no longer wanting to be in the same room. As much as I know I shouldn’t trust him, I feel at peace with his affirmation. When I reach the office door, I stop, pulling it open and wait. I’m not sure why, but it’s as if I feel his eyes on me.
“Don’t hurt her, Lance.” His warning is loud and clear. “Or I will be forced to make another choice.”
“You know you’ll never have to worry about that,” I tell him, then step out of the office, shutting him inside. Time to go home.
* * *
Giuliana
The sunlight shines through the windows as I push the doors to the balcony open. Down below, I take in my fiancé and his friends. The Cavalieri Della Morte — twelve men, brought together by the same man, Arthur Calthorpe. They may not be brothers by blood, but looking at them sparring on the grounds, you wouldn’t guess they’re not really family.
Smiling down at them, I watch for a moment before I head into the bathroom to freshen up, but my phone rings from the nightstand, stealing my attention away from my plan.
Picking it up, I glance at my father’s name. This will either be a good call, or he’s going to try to talk me out of getting married. This has been our conversations over the past few months.
Since Lance completed the job to kill his uncle six months ago, my dad has taken a step back, but he still slips up now and then.
“Hello, Dad,” I answer, putting him out of his misery because I’m certain he was cursing the ringing in his ear.
“Giuliana, where’s Lance?” As always, my father, cold, heartless, and straight down to business.
Stepping up to the window, I find him rolling over on the grass with one of the guys, not sure who since they’re in a headlock.
“He’s training,” I tell my father.
“Tell him I have a new job for him.” His gruff tone makes me smile. In the past, I’d be angry at him, or even frustrated that he can’t talk to me like a human being, but I realize that’s just my father’s way.
“Okay. And who are you killing today?” My question is nonchalant, but I know it annoys him to no end. That’s one thing about Arthur. Even though I know what they do, my father has always forbidden me to ever come into his office when he’s not there. He’s also locked me out of their meetings when they all sit in the Tabella room which happened monthly when I was growing up.
But even then, I knew I would one day want an in. To be a part of it. If not for Lance, but because I wanted to be closer to my father.
A grunt, then a dark chuckle greets me on the other end of the line. “This is not a conversation I’ll be having with my daughter.”
“Okay, Daddy,” I tell him sweetly. “You know I’ll just ask Lance.”
