AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bravery takes many forms, but my response is less courageous and more provocative.
Or else, what?
Niccolo
Or else a dead body is going to show up on your doorstep.
Ialmost drop my phone.
I never should have asked.
I know who his family is; I know who they’re connected to. His threat isn’t idle just because he chose a kinder career path than the other Terlizzis.
“I need a drink. Now,” I tell the girls, my voice sounding as shaky as I feel. I need to forget what I just read.
Chapter 16
Niccolo
“Why so glum, chum?” Salvatore contorts his lips into an exaggerated pout. “Sad your littlebambinadidn’t join us for Thanksgiving?”
“I swear to God, Sal, I’ll kill you,” I deadpan. This is a man that’s been on the other end of my threats before. When we were little, it was an everyday occurrence for one brother to chase another down with a golf club and threaten to bash their skull in. Our father never got involved; he said it built character.
Salvatore reaches out to clap me on the shoulder. “Want me to get you some tea, and we can chat about it over an episode of Dr. Phil?”
An unwelcome smile splits my face in two. “Mark my words. One of these days, you’re going to get shot for being an asshole.”
“As long as I don’t get shotinthe asshole,” he grins.
I want to shake off my bad mood, but even with Salvatore’s light-hearted humor, a dark cloud hangs overhead. “Don’t ever fall in love, brother. She will spurn your invitations and break your heart.”
Salvatore lets out a derisive snort and rolls his eyes. He leans back in his chair, nonchalantly propping his feet up on the table, a clear sign of his cocky attitude. “You’re not in love, Nic.”
“Come again?” I ask with a frown, taken aback by his statement. “You’re telling me how I feel?”
My brother looks at me with a weary expression, his head shaking slowly from side to side. “Now, now, Nic, don’t get angry with me,” he says, raising his hands in a gesture of peace. His body language is defensive in anticipation of my reaction. “I’m just telling you how I see it. You have feelings born out of forced proximity with this girl. You don’t love her. It’s like Stockholm Syndrome but with someone you agreed to live with. Does that have a name, Professor Big Brain?”
Salvatore has not been punched in the head for having a smart mouth nearly as much as he deserves it. “Don’t be philosophical, Sally. It’s unbecoming of your intellectual status.”
“You calling me stupid?” He asks with a raised eyebrow. “Because if you wanna fight, just say so. I’ll kick your ass, Nicci.”
I don’t know how we got to this stage, but I’m exhausted. I hold up a hand in cease-fire resignation. Salvatore and I have never been at loggerheads before. I’ve fought with Dante for being the oldest and raged at Luciano for being the youngest and getting treated the best, but Salvatore and I have always been friends. We were the middle children who got used to not being the family heir or the baby.
“Seriously though,” I meet his gaze. “What do you mean that I’m not in love?”
He surrenders his anger as quickly as I do. “Love should be easy,” Salvatore shrugs. “You and Caterina were in love. You and Christine just want to hump each other’s brains out.”
“You’re wrong.” I look around for the bottle of beer I was nursing earlier, but it’s tipped on its side on the end table beside me, bragging in its emptiness. “I didn’t love Caterina.”
Salvatore clucks his tongue in disapproval. “I disagree.” He leans forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “You two met and married without so much as an argument. You had a happy enough marriage. You tried to have kids, you took care of her when she was sick, and you were a faithful man when other men in your situation wouldn’t have been.”
“I think that’s called doing the bare minimum,” I correct my brother. “We met and married without argument because she was an agreeable woman. Our fathers had already settled on the price; we just had to do our part.” My dad told me that if I didn’t go into the family business, the least I could do was strengthen the family by marrying a woman of his choice. I didn’t expect the woman to come with a premade family, but what was I going to do? I couldn’t say no just because she was an older woman with a child from a previous marriage.
“Yeah, but you could have hated her. Dante hated Adalina. The two of them fought like cats and dogs,” Salvatore points out.
Our oldest brother is a case unto his own. “I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Dante and Adalina had a complicated history. Caterina and I had seen one another in passing, but besides knowing the other’s name, we were complete strangers.” If Dante had married a stranger, maybe he’d be a happier man.
“Not to mention father harangued me every month Caterina didn’t get pregnant.” I don’t bother to mention that Dante didn’t receive the same treatment. I’m resentful of the way Father handled me because he saw me as an outsider. I didn’t grow up wanting to be a cog in the Castiglione family machine, and it burned him inside.
