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"I didn’t?" Shit, I am repeating myself, but clearly, these guys are fucking around with me. "Get out of here," I murmur. "You guys could do better if you wanted to play a trick, which by the way, is something so juvenile I’d have expected it of the twins."
"Hey," Both Christian and Xander protest, for once, sounding exactly like the twins they are.
I continue, "It’s not something I’d expect the possible future Capo to be after me to say."
Seb blinks, then laughs, "Now, you’re the one yanking my chain,brother."
"Am I?" I allow my lips to tilt up. "You stepped in when I was out of commission."
He opens his mouth and I raise my hand, "I know it was only for a couple of hours, but you stepped in, took up the reins like you were born for it. And given Luca is, clearly, not the person we thought him to be—" I raise my shoulder, "I can’t think of anyone better succeeding to become Capo after me."
"But," Seb frowns, "I am the bastard child—"
"Who was more loyal to me than my own blood brother." I rise to my feet, walk over and grip his shoulder, "I confess, I doubted your loyalties to me, but you came through for me when it most mattered, Seb."
He opens and shuts his mouth, then shakes his head, "But the rules of the Cosa Nostra—"
"Iamthe Cosa Nostra," I draw myself to my full height, "and as soon as I am Don, I will ensure that these archaic rules are overturned. We need to move with the times if we hope to survive in a fast-changing world."
"And her?" Xander’s voice has me glancing at him over my shoulder.
"What about her?" I scowl.
"You want to modernize the Cosa Nostra, but what about your views toward women?"
"What about them?" I draw myself up to my full height, "What are you trying to tell me,fratellino?
"That you need to treat her more as your peer and less as your possession."
Silence descends on the gathering. Adrian shifts his weight from foot to foot. Seb glances between us, turns to me, opens his mouth as if to speak, then seems to change his mind. Massimo tenses, and Christian… He’s the only one who doesn’t seem bothered. He watches his twin with something akin to admiration on his face but he stays silent. Thank fuck.
Bad enough, one brother is trying to tell me something which my subconscious, perhaps, even recognizes as the truth…but fuck that. No one tells me what to do. Not her…and definitely not, my youngest sibling… So what, if he’s always been the conscience among the group? Only I decide how I manage my wife, and no one else.
"You advising me on how to run my domestic life?" My voice is soft, yet it seems to echo back from the walls of the room.
"Of course, not." Xander’s lips quirk, "All I am saying is that you might want to do the one thing that most couples don’t seem to master even after years together, which is tell her the truth."
"Thus says the man who hasn’t been able to come out and share his truest feelings for the woman he’s spent most of his life loving from afar."
Xander pales. His features take on a stricken look. He glances away, and when he looks back at me, his features are once more composed into that angelic face that all of us associate with him. "You’re right." He lowers his chin, "I have never managed to tell her how I feel, probably because I suffer from the same issues as you when it comes to women. Apparently, our father’s treatment of our mother screwed all of us over enough that, when it comes to the opposite sex, we have only one use for them."
I stare at him. "Now, that is not what I was expecting from you, I confess. You surprise me often, little brother, with your insight into human nature."
"Not as much as you surprise me with your empathy."
"Me? Empathetic?" I laugh, "Surely, you are talking about someone else?"
"If you weren’t, you would have killed her as soon as she showed up in that chapel—which you didn’t."
"Thought you said you didn’t like how I treated her."
"I wouldn’t dare butt into a relationship between a Capo and his wife, but when it comes to my brother and his soulmate…"
"Whoa, hold on." I raise my hand, "Who said anything about a soulmate?"
"It’s not what you say as much as your gestures that indicate that you love her."
"No, let’s not get ahead of ourselves." I smirk, "All this emo shit is not in my vocabulary."
