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“Why not Roberto? Why not his consigliere?”
“Leo is his brother, and I would be the person tasked with sorting out the problem.”
Sorting out the problem.
“A lot of things pointed toward mybrother.” He spits the word like it’s acid on his tongue. “Enzo set a trap. The feds showed up.”
“Roberto was working with theFBI? But why?”
He shrugs. “Who fucking knows? Who fucking cares? Likely caught up in a case that would’ve seen him do jail time. Flipped quicker than a dog in heat to save himself. Pathetic piece of shit he was.”
“You had to kill your own brother,” I murmur.
“He was no brother of mine.” He dismisses the sadness in my statement. “I told you, Bianca. You cross me, and I’ll kill you without an iota of guilt or hesitation.”
Lost in my thoughts, I sit quietly. “Enzo knows I didn’t sleep with Roberto.”
“As does Leo.”
“He knows I planned to undermine him. He knows I falsely hijacked his plan at peace with the Outfit.”
He smirks. “He wasn’t happy about it.”
“If he knew I was untouched, why not still send me to Salvatore?”
“Because I wanted you.”
My face softens.
“I don’t ask for a lot in life,dolcezza. But I asked for you.”
“I don’t understand.”
He sighs, dropping from his haunches to his ass. “I heard you arrive. I heard Berto and his crude remarks about being alone with him dressed the way you were. You asked him to tell Enzo that he didn’t want Cat, and he laughed in your face.”
I swallow at the hideous memory. The evil bite in Roberto’s laugh as I begged him to leave my sister be.
“You didn’t back down. You offered yourself when he refused to decline a union with Caterina. He threatened to take you both.”
He was disgusting. He menaced that he’d fuck me and use the blood of my virginity—because he promised to make me bleed—as lubrication to defile Caterina on their wedding night. I almost vomited the moment he spoke the words. Instead, he kissed me, assaulting my lips with the poison of his words merely a bitter introduction to the hideousness within him.
“Your lipstick was smeared near his chin. I’d never felt rage like I did right then. I breathe fury, Bianca. It was my fucking job to eliminate threats. I used the poison of mania and violence to carry out every hit I’ve been tasked with. But knowing he hadtouchedyou, knowing he had touched something I knew to bemine”—he stabs at his chest—“I was theembodimentof wrath. Roberto had to die. He’d tasted something too pure to survive.”
I’ve forgotten how to breathe. Or my breath has left my body. I’m shocked into stillness when all I want to do is throw myself into his arms.
“Tony—” I start.
“I was gone before Tony arrived. It was over in seconds. I didn’t even know he’d been there until your father called Enzo.”
“Does my father know?”
He shakes his head. “No. We can’t risk the knowledge about his betrayal surfacing. I know it would make your life easier—”
I place a finger against his lips. “I’m glad he doesn’t. My value in my father’s life was revealed when he thought the worst. I’d prefer not to hold on to his lies of love and affection.”
I’m empty and full all at once. My secrets have dissipated, and their heaviness no longer resides within me. In their place sits a flame of acceptance, one of appreciation, and one of connection. They burn with love and freedom and a knowledge that Vincent’s vow to protect me has never wavered.
Sliding a thumb over my eye socket, he drags it down the contour of my cheek, moving toward my lips. Pausing in the center of my lips, he watches heatedly as he tugs my bottom lip down, clenching his hand into a fist when it falls from my chin.
