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“Yeah, well, I need to speak with him.”
He tilts his head and eyes me. “You got balls of steel, Keres.” Scoffing, I brush past him and step inside the house. “Runs in the family, kid,” he says so quietly I wonder if I heard him correctly.
I glance around the opulent hallway, once again overwhelmed by wondering what it must have been like growing up here. “Where is he?”
“In the library. Follow me.” Max makes off in the direction of the library and I follow after him. My mouth is dry and I need some water, but I’m not sure I trust Max DiMarco not to poison me if I ask him for a drink. I’m not sure I trust anyone in this house. I may have just walked myself straight into the lion’s den, but if I don’t do this I will spend the rest of my life wondering if I could have made a difference in whatever fate lies in store for the two men I left behind.
Max shows me into the library and closes the door behind me. Lorenzo sits behind a huge desk, his hands steepled beneath his chin and the light from his screen illuminating his dark features.
“You took care of Wynn?” he asks without taking his eyes off his monitor.
“Yes.”
“Ace and Romeo too?”
I swallow hard. He thinks I’d hurt them? “I left them at the motel. I expect they’ll be on their way back here now though.”
He looks at me now, his dark eyes narrowed. “If they have any sense they’ll travel slowly.”
“They’re incredibly loyal to you. I expect they’ll be back here before nightfall.”
He runs a hand over his thick beard, and I’m sure the corner of his mouth ticks up. “And why did you come back here, Keres? For a claim on your birthright?”
“I want nothing from Salvatore Moretti.” I spit his name from my mouth. It has no place there.
“We’ll see,” he murmurs, but before I can ask him what the hell that means, he gestures to the chair in front of his desk. “Take a seat.”
My knees tremble, and I glance at the corner that’s set up with beanbags, toys, and children’s books. He’s not going to kill me in this beautiful library, is he? Nah. If he wanted me dead, he could have had Ace or Romeo slit my throat while I was sleeping. But maybe he still plans to make good on his promise to chain me in his basement for the rest of my life.
A shudder runs the length of my spine, but I roll my shoulders back and hold his gaze. “I wanted to thank you for what you did for my mom. That was a very kind thing to do for somebody you didn’t even know. I didn’t expect that from you or your brothers,” I say, knowing he considers Max a brother too.
His dark eyes twinkle. “You’re surprised that we’d show kindness?”
“I guess I’m just not used to people showing kindness in general. Father Mike was really the only person who ever showed me any.”
He studies my face intently. I always feel like he’s assessing me, and I usually feel like I come up short. “It’s hard to show kindness to people who refuse to accept it, Keres.”
He might have a point, but I’m not here to talk about me. “Well, I wanted to thank you.”
He nods once. “It was a small courtesy for a woman who fought so valiantly.”
“How do you know she fought?”
Sorrow clouds his handsome features. “We could tell.”
“I love what you had engraved on her headstone. Here lies a true warrior.”
“We didn’t know her name at the time, and it seemed fitting. Perhaps we were remiss in not telling you when you were a child, but we weren’t certain she was your mother although we knew you’d been taken from the same house. And Nicole and Sabine have been in hiding for a long time. We didn’t want to draw any attention to them and… well, we didn’t want to remind you of your past. Which I now understand was a grave mistake. We’re all the sum of our pasts, aren’t we?”
What would my life have been like if I’d grown up with a brother like him? I close my eyes and take a breath. A warrior doesn’t escape fear, they conquer it. When I open them again, Lorenzo is staring at me, and I fill the awkward silence that now hangs in the room. “I also came back to talk to you about Ace and Romeo.”
He smirks. “Has the warrior with a heart of ice fallen in love with two of my men?”
I bristle at his words. “No.” God, my throat is so dry. “But…”
“But?”
“What happened to… to Mia… It wasn’t their fault.”
