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“We are here as a courtesy,” Ermilo cuts in. He doesn’t lower his firearm, and neither do his men. “To try and recover the product or cash owed to us. If you continue with these baseless allegations, then I will not be able to let the insult stand. I’d tread carefully from here, Mr. Zicari.”
“You’reinsulted?” Stefan laughs, his eyes going wider yet. Crazy. He’s losing the plot quicker than he ever has before.
I keep my focus on Lacey, my hand out in front of me as I take a tentative step forward, then another. Stefan swings the gun on me and then back to Lacey, unsure which one of us is going to be the bigger threat.
“I’m not sure what kind of trick you’re attempting to pull on me, Zicari, but I assure you, I’m not amused.” Ermilo’s men crowd around him, but I have a feeling he’s well able to take care of himself. He wouldn't’ have gotten so far in his career without skills.
“You’re not amused. You’re insulted. You’re put out. Wow. Wow!” Stefan laughs louder and tightens his grip on Lacey to the point where her eyes go wide, darkening to navy as her spine straightens in a steely line.
“We need to settle down.” My voice is hard, unyielding. “Nothing is going to be solved with guns out. Put it away, sit, and let’s be rational.”
“Says the man too stupid to draw his,” Stefan remarks. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out you’re working against me?” He reaches a free hand down Lacey’s back and the discrete holster hidden beneath the bow at the back of her wrap dress.
He pulls her gun out, waving it around like it’s already smoking before tossing it away.
Every nerve in my body lights up at the same time. “Do you think I’d let her join me for dinner without being armed? I gave her the gun, Stefan, to make sure she has a way to protect herself.”
“Or,” he says, “Ermilo gave her the gun to use on me when the time is right. Maybe she hoped I’d find her in the hallway so she could put a bullet in my brain.” He yanks her close, breathless, seething. “Is that right, sweetheart? Do you want to kill me?”
A million thoughts rush through my mind, the most prominent one being that he’s finally cracked. He’s lost his fucking mind. Next are how much I wish Lacey had stayed back tonight, let me handle things, even when I knew I needed her.
Every part of me is on edge, wary, fingers itching to grab the gun from my holster and end it now by just shooting Stefan between the eyes. Obligation, family loyalty—both stay my hand.
There’s no way to signal Lacey’s partner outside. There is no way to get my own gun out without inciting his rage. One wrong move, and he’ll pull the trigger. Lacey will die.
Her safety is more important to me in this moment than any takedown, and so I draw in a deep breath and say, “No, I do.”
Stefan’s darkened gaze slides to me, and his jaw clenches so hard, the muscle at his temple jumps. “Oh? Is that so?”
I step forward. “You heard me, Stefan. I don’t know who you are, but you aren’t my brother, not anymore. The brother I grew up with died the moment our father did. You are a monster.”
There’s a tense moment of silence that overtakes the room, everyone waiting for the other to make the first move so bullets can fly. My hand hovers on my belt where my own gun is holstered, waiting for the explosion, but instead of the boom, it’s Stefan’s manic laughter that erupts. He throws his head back, as if my confession is the funniest thing in the fucking world.
“You think I don’t know?” he says between wheezes. “You’ve been trying to undermine me for months now. Did you seriously think I wouldn’t figure you out? That you’ve betrayed me, repeatedly? I know every move you’ve ever made. But unlike me, you’re weak, Marco. You can’t take me down. You’reweak, just like Father.”
I another tentative step forward, and he swings the gun around on me, his finger trembling against the trigger. “I’ll do it.”
“This is fucking ridiculous.” Ermilo is not amused. If he decides he’s tired of the drama, then we might all die. “You’re messy, Zicari, and I don’t need your mess—”
“Why do you love her more than me?” Stefan ignores his every word; I’m starting to think he’s even forgotten Ermilo is in the room. His focus is set firmly on me.
“I don’t love her.”
“Liar!” he bellows, his face bright red. “You’ve made your choice! Your feelings are written across your face.”
Stefan’s is too far gone and utterly convinced of his rightness. He’s been too close to an absolute breakdown for too long, and this is the consequence. I’ve just been too distracted to realize.
His eyes drop to my hand, now wrapping around my gun’s handle. “You want to shoot me right now. I know you do. Come on, then. Be a big man and step out of my shadow. You want me to pay for what happened to our father? Tell me to my face, little brother.”
Tread carefully. Every part of me is awake and screaming to be alert, to find some way to keep him from doing what he always does, even when I know it’s impossible.
“Stefan—”
“What do you want from me? You want me to suffer for what I did to our father? That’s why you’re really here tonight: to try and change what’s happening, to use your mistress to spy on me and bring me down.”
I’m about to pull out my gun when Lacey shakes her head, the movement tiny enough to be misconstrued as shaking, trembling.
He’s right. That mother fucker with the shriveled heart is right, because I do have feelings for Lacey, and there is no way I’m going to let Stefan get away with threatening her this way, with hurting her.
