Chapter19
“Bullshit.”
Low yet menacing, my voice carries across the office. “That’s bullshit, and you know it.
Seated next to my uncle in Carmine’s office, I sigh when I sense his intense stare on me. “Calmati, Damiano.”
I inhale sharply, giving him a simple nod, then sit back in the chair. My hand covers the bottom half of my face as frustration and anger stir within me again.
My uncle’s right. If I lose my cool, we’re not going to get anywhere. The sooner I allow Carmine to finish saying why he called this meeting, the better. I should be on my way to my home in Italy with Echo. I should be enjoying my day somehow. I should be balls deep inside my wife.
I’m not, however.
I’m handling the aftermath of Tommaso snitching to The Council.
As he had promised during the wedding, he claimed that Echo had tried to attack and kill Aldo out of spite. As feeble proof, he showed the tiny cut on his brother’s neck. Typically, The Council wouldn’t care about a matter like this, but considering Echo’s past with Aldo and her expecting my child, they must address it. With the protective sanction that was given to the Rossi’s after Reynaldo’s death, things can get out of control quickly for anybody.
Carmine’s job as our elected council member is to avert any problems. That, however, is difficult when he’s a part of the problem.
Sitting in his office chair, a prideful, smug expression on his face, he stares at me. “I understand you’re angry, Damiano. By way of The Council, you and your wife had every right to protect yourselves, but–”
Right now, he’s doing a shitty job of avoiding a problem with me.
“By way of the council?”
I scoff, interrupting him. “If The Council agrees that Aldo Rossi was out of line when he entered the women’s bathroom during my wedding, then I don’t need to hear any more of your excuses.”
The older man frowns, quickly fixing his expression when he realizes that I’m not his only audience but that he’s sitting with me in front of our Don. Despite our relationship, my uncle has never used the fact that I’m his heir as a reason to ignore things or sweep them under the rug.
If anything, he always makes it a point to steer me in the right direction.
Carmine exhales a deep breath. “They are not excuses.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course, they aren’t.”
I mock him.
This is just another argument between us. Usually, when I disagree with Carmine, my uncle comes between us and deflates any issues that may arise. Today is different. Not only is he quiet, but he has only spoken up to remind me to be calm. Even when Carmine looked to him for assistance, my uncle stayed silent.
I want to be worried about him. I want to be curious why he has chosen to stay to himself when, typically, this meeting would have been resolved, but I also know why. Anyone who looks at my uncle can see something is wrong.
That he’s sick.
Only we know that he won’t be here to see Christmas. That his cancer has spread so rapidly, he won’t live that long, If it does, he will be in more agony than anyone should be.
Which means that I will be the Don.
A weak Don represents a weak family.
Only Carmine doesn’t realize I plan to get rid of him when I become Don. By the way of The Council– A cheap line they use to make themselves seem important, but is overused. When a new Don comes into the family, he can decide whether to retire the current council representative.
In the past, retirement meant they would be killed so that no secrets could be shared, but now we don’t allow it. In our world, Dons come and go quickly. If the council member is mentally fit but still retired at the request of the newest Don, they are set up with a cushy life and left to their own devices.
Though I wish I could retire Carmine the traditional way, only a few things stop me now.
I’m not sure who will take over after Carmine, but it must be somebody I trust more than the older man. Currently, I don’t trust many people. Yes, Carmine’s annoying, but he has never done anything outright that I can prove warrants him as untrustworthy. On the other hand, his words and actions make me feel his allegiance lies elsewhere.
Undoubtedly, wherever the money is.
“You have to consider what they are saying, Damiano.”
Carmine urges. “Don Rossi is saying that Tommaso claims your wife attacked Aldo with a razor in the bathroom. She spilled blood, and they may call retribution with this sanction they have.”
I sit back in my chair. A smirk spreads as I recall entering the bathroom, where I saw Echo had Aldo against the wall with her razor against his neck. It had been the most erotic thing that I had seen in a long time, and remembering it only makes me prouder of her. My wife had outsmarted us all. I told her that no men were allowed weapons, and she, a woman, brought a razor to protect herself.
My hand scratches my chin, reminding me that I need to trim my beard again before we leave for Italy. “I still fail to see where this is an issue, Carmine. Aldo Rossi overstepped by entering the women’s restroom where my wife was. He’s lucky that I didn’t help her slit his throat. And Don Rossi wasn’t even in attendance. So, I refuse to consider anything he says about the matter.”
Carmine sighs. “Aldo says that he mistook the bathroom for the men’s because he was drunk. That’s neither here nor there.”
I frown at the phrase, and he continues. “The problem is that in an event that was protected by The Council, where no weapons were allowed, your wife carried a razor. That can be considered proof of intent to harm someone, anyone.”
“Are you telling me she’s not allowed to protect herself if she has to?”
Next to me, my uncle watches Carmine silently. “That there was no cause for her to be worried after all the Rossi family has put her through? Our rules said no men were to bring weapons or instruments that could cause injury or bodily harm to another. We overlooked the female sex. If this is the case, we need to clarify that.”
I know what he’s getting at. In another world, I could see where Don Rossi, Tommaso, and Aldo were coming from and why he’s trying to get reimbursement or public apology from me for Echo’s actions. The Council has made it very clear that no matter the circumstance, in a protected event, no type of weapons are allowed, but we have always used the term Man.
No man shall hold something on him with the intent to cause harm.
We’ve seen papercuts be the cause of wars starting, but the context is refutable.
I’m not going to back down. If there’s one thing that these men understand, it’s that we don’t play games about our women. That any threat to them is a threat to the entire family. Of course, Don Rossi is trying to distract the other families. His family has always been seen as a nuisance. The fact that we know what he’s been doing and are trying to gather proof is forcing him to make anxious decisions.
He’s well aware that someone was in his warehouse after Luca’s murder.
A fly could figure it out.
He can’t outright say that he knows it was us without drawing suspicions about why we were at his warehouse in the first place. The next best option is to humiliate us, if possible. They are trying to make it seem like my family thinks they are above The Council’s declarations.
But they are so wrong.
No person is going to see it that way. They are going to hear about Aldo being bested in the women’s restroom by Echo and laugh.
My attention turns back to Carmine when I watch him lean back in his chair. He opens his drawer and produces a manila folder. My irritation deepens instantly. I don’t know what game he’s playing, but I’m sure it will end in his demise.
If not today, soon.
He closes the drawer, then slides his chair back, walking around the desk. Rather than handing me the folder I know contains something regarding Echo, he hands it to my uncle. Usually, I would think it’s out of respect since my uncle is the Don, but right now, I’m enraged by the idea.
Maybe it’s because I’m not in control and don’t know what information he’s trying to persuade my uncle with. I don’t know if it’s something I know already or if I will find something new.
In my irrational desire to claim Echo, I allowed too many things to fall to the side. Information that I had people looking into has been ignored, making me vulnerable to many possibilities. Even whatever I had Gio looking into has ceased.
I stop myself from letting my emotions consume me. Quietly, I watch my uncle flip through the pictures Carmine presented him with. There’s nothing reflective of disappointment, disgust, or approval on my uncle’s face, so I wait as long as I have to while he flips through the information.
After a moment that has felt like an eternity, he passes the folder to me. He doesn’t bother looking at me, but I quickly grab the folder to conceal his shaking hand. Still beside my uncle, Carmine places his hand on the back of his chair. His dark brown eyes fall on me, and I catch a fleeting glimpse of a smirk on his face.
“How well do you know your wife, Damiano?”
I roll my eyes. “We stay up every night braiding each other’s hair and sharing stories.” I quirk.
I don’t try to withhold the impatience in my tone. Opening the folder, I first notice a picture of Echo with her ex-boyfriend, Blaine. I quell the ridiculous amount of jealousy surging through me at the picture, exhaling deeply.
Rage soars through me, but I count through it. My eyes lift to meet my uncle’s and Carmine’s. Both of them hold the same inquisitive expression, waiting to see how I will react. I look down at the picture of Echo holding the man’s hand as they walk on the street. A huge smile is on her face as she looks up at him. Despite what I already know about her relationship with Blaine, seeing her genuinely relaxed and happy bothers me.
She looks nothing like the Echo that I know.
The hardened exterior that she always has seems gone. The wall she’s built so efficiently when she’s with me isn’t there. It has me wishing that she could be this way around me. I could get through to her and experience her rawness for once without any doctored emotions between us. It makes me wonder what this uomo bianco has that allowed her to relinquish her fear when he can’t protect himself, let alone her.
I don’t linger on the picture. Flipping through the rest of the pictures, I ignore the fury that wants to be unleashed. These pictures are all clearly from before Echo entered my life, but I still don’t appreciate that someone was watching her every move…. That Rossi was following her.
I stop at one close to the end.
Disgust and hatred fill me. My eyes lift back up to my uncle and Carmine staring at me. I close the folder, trying to erase the memory of someone taking a picture of Echo in a compromising position. The image is of her and Blaine in an embrace. She wears a black mini-dress, and he’s pressed against her front. They’re trapped in an intense kiss, and it’s apparent that he’s finger fucking her beneath her dress.
The problem is that I’m not only angry that someone caught her in this position but that she looks so satisfied with what he’s doing. Of course, I’m well aware that she’s not a virgin or innocent, but seeing her with another person sexually is just as bad as imagining it.
It makes me want to crush each of his fingers with a hammer, saw them off, and shove them up his ass one by one.
“What’s the point of this? And who did you get these from?”
I ask instead of answering his question.
“Does it matter?”
I don’t think. I don’t comprehend my subsequent actions. Before anybody realizes it, I’m out of my seat. My hand closes around Carmine’s throat. The squelching sound he makes as I lift his feet from the ground and thrust him against the nearest wall does nothing to abate the primal urge I feel and the want to kill him.
“Damiano.”
The older man pleads with me. His hands rest on my arm, but other than that, he does not attempt to protect or save himself. “This is out of order.”
I scoff. “No, what’s out of order is you questioning my wife’s integrity - My Wife.”
I seethe. My grip tightens, and his eyes dart back and forth, begging my uncle to intervene. “You have the fuckin’ nerve. You’re so ready to judge a woman who’s been to the depths of hell and back. You’re defending a family that would no sooner slit your throat than they would eagerly fuck your ass with lit dynamite. Makes me wonder where your loyalties lie, Carmine.”
Behind me, I hear my uncle shuffle to stand. “Damiano.”
He doesn’t need to say anything else. I release Carmine immediately. The older man leans back on the wall as a brace. His hands go to his neck, where he massages my bruises that are already showing.
“I–”
He stops to clear his throat. “I only meant that–”
I stand over him, glaring down menacingly. “Choose your next words wisely, Carmine.”
“Stop speaking, both of you.”
My uncle steps up next to me. His presence used to be intense and intimidating, but now he seems tired. “You will not feed into this rumor, Carmine. Your job is to take care of this without any prejudice. Regardless of her past, Echo is our family now, and she carries the future of Bianchi. Not a disparaging word is to be uttered about her.”
The final word has been spoken. I watch my uncle head towards the office door, but I grab the folder off the desk before I follow him. I have so much more that I want to say. I want to find out who the fuck dared to take these pictures of Echo, then give them to Carmine. I’m well aware of what the intent was.
To make anyone question whether the baby she’s carrying is mine or this Blaine guy’s…. But they don’t even know that she’s not pregnant. So, our farce has paid off well.
The false medical records that I’ve had Benicio doctor are in place. Echo hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol in weeks, and her anxiety-induced vomiting at the wedding gave everybody cause to believe she’s pregnant. What bothers me is that she isn’t pregnant yet.
Or she doesn’t know.
Either way, I have time to figure that out. I can’t exactly tell her that I switched her birth control through Benicio and am waiting for her to get pregnant. I don’t have to imagine the harm that will do to our already fragile relationship.
Outside, I help my uncle get in the car and then move around to the other side. Inside, he’s quiet as the driver starts the car, and that feeling of disappointment that consumes me reminds me of when I was a young boy. It makes me think about how my father yelling at me or hitting me never made me feel anything other than rage, but my uncle’s silence would get through to me.
I should be beyond that at this point in my life, but I can’t stop it. He told me to be calm, that we would discover things we didn’t like, and that I would not say anything unnecessary to Carmine.
And I’d done the opposite. The mere mention of Echo dismissively, and I became a blinded fool.
My eyes shift to my uncle, who is seated with his eyes closed and his head leaning back. He sighs. “Just say it, Dami. I can hear your thoughts, mio figlio.”
“I fucked up.”
He shakes his head, not bothering to look at me. “You did, but you are also a man in love.”
Finally, my uncle opens his eyes. The stern, fatherly look on his face shuts me up. “Don’t deny it.”
I chuckle. “It’s not love, Zio.”
I don’t wait for him to say more or dispute my words. “I do like her a lot. There’s more to her than meets the eye, but it’s not love yet.”
My uncle regards me with a look I know all too well. He thinks I’m still in denial regarding my feelings for Echo, but I’m not. I know and can admit that my obsession with her runs deeper than I acknowledge. I have an immeasurable urge to make her happy, protect her, and see to all her needs. She is on my mind often, and when I’m not with her, like right now, I have an incessant craving to be near her. Just the smell of her vanilla scent relaxes me, and her voice soothes me.
“If you say so.”
A yawn escaped my uncle’s mouth. “After you drop me off at the airport, try not to cause too many problems in my absence. Receiving calls from Carmine while I’m at a cancer treatment center isn’t how I wish to spend my last days.”
I doubt any calls have been made to my uncle and that he’s being dramatic after what happened between Carmine and me. It makes me realize that I must tread carefully in the unforeseeable future. Somebody's watching me, and Carmine is receiving things from them. What he’s divulging from these details is also something I need to find out.
“I will get with Carmine as soon as I’m settled and have him give you everything he’s received regarding your wife. I meant what I said. She’s family now. If anybody talks about her, they are talking about us.”
I nod. The happiness and pride that swell inside me at my uncle acknowledging Echo as family takes over me more than I want to accept. I realize that for a long time, I’ve been waiting to have a family, but I didn’t know what it would incite in this business. So, I avoided it.
In the silence of the car that grows while we drive to take my uncle to the airport, I pull out my phone and look down at the text message from Echo.
I love the idea of sending her a cryptic message and then watching her on the camera in the house. Or maybe it’s just the idea of watching her. I enjoyed it far too much when I was away last time.
I chuckle at her response.
I shake my head and put my phone down. When I look up, I see my uncle looking at me. The smirk on his face tells me that he knows I was texting with Echo but doesn’t want to mention it.
I understand what he’s saying and why. I know full well that my uncle believes in love and that it can change a man for the better or worse. For him, it happened to be for the better. But for me, there’s no room for love. I’ve been fighting wars for my family since I was old enough to fully comprehend the weight of taking a man’s life.
It started before I took my father’s.
Part of me is fully aware that I will have to take many more on her behalf, and maybe that’s stopping me from entirely giving myself to her. She hasn’t told me everything she’s hiding and has made it clear that there are things she wishes she could divulge but won’t until she believes I’m ready.
That alone makes me hesitant to allow anything more than sex between us, but I know this is so much more.
All too quickly, my uncle is dropped off at the airport, and we’re headed back to the house. From the front seat, I catch Gio looking back at me multiple times through the rearview mirror. My best friend knows things have been strained since the wedding, but it has been so hectic that we barely have had a moment to talk.
I’ve either been with my uncle trying to fix the cluster fuck that Aldo left when he allowed Tommaso to snitch like a little bitch, or with Echo. We’ve been planning our trip to my home in Italy, which I haven’t visited in forever. She must sense that I’m nervous about going back to the house my mother was murdered in because she quickly finds ways to distract me from my thoughts when they start to wonder.
“What did Carmine have to say?”
I sigh. “Tommaso claims that we broke the agreement because Echo had a razor on her during the wedding.”
He scoffs. “How do they know that it wasn’t Aldo’s?”
I shrug. I don’t know or care what has convinced Carmine he could trust the council leader from Rossi’s side. “He says that it could incite war if we don’t make a public apology or some shit.”
“Or some shit? Like relinquishing a month of wages?”
That’s the typical public apology that is demanded. Depending on the amount of money and time of the year, whatever The Council decides could be a significant dividend of what some families bring in. The months can vary from thousands to millions in mere weeks. Which I’m sure Tommaso is very aware of.
He’s a son of a bitch, but not a stupid one.
“No.”
I shake my head. “We’re not sure yet what they want. Carmine’s concern is that they will want war rather than reimbursement.”
Gio scoffs. “Reimbursement for him trying to attack your wife during your wedding? What will they cry about next?”
Everything. Anything.
I shake my head, debating if I should tell Gio, but when I look up at him, I see he knows there is more. “They sent pictures to Carmine.”
His brow furrows in confusion, and he looks at our driver, Antonio. Stoic and silent, we trust him but don’t want to air out things that could cost us in the future. “Is that the folder you have, and why your uncle mentioned getting everything from Carmine?”
I nod. “I don’t know Carmine like my uncle does, but I don’t trust him.”
Gio frowns again. “What did he say?”
“It’s what he did. He’s not protecting my wife.”
Though my words are direct, unwavering, and strong, a part of me still finds it weird to admit that I’m married. What’s more shocking is that I enjoy referring to Echo as my wife.
“Well.”
I look up at Gio's uncertain gaze. He must decide it’s worth saying to me. “As a part of The Council, it’s his job to stay unbiased, no matter how close he is. He exiled his own son for planning to overthrow your uncle and you.”
I hate that he’s right. Mostly, I hate that I forgot how broken up Carmine had been about his son being exiled for treason when the only other option was death. But that alone gives me a valid reason to believe that he may not have bounced back into his position as council leader as quickly as he made it seem.
It had happened not long after I had sent Keyshia and her family away to protect them. His son had gathered a few men to try and overthrow us. He had planned to kill me on a night I was drinking away my shallow sorrows, then my uncle after that. Word had gotten back to me, and instead of approaching him immediately, I had known that I would need to provide actual proof. Gio had pretended to hate me due to the rumor that he was my father’s first son, and we had gotten what we needed from there.
Growing up, my uncle never hesitated to tell me that pride was almost every man’s downfall and that I would have to look mine in the face to gain control of it. I figured he was talking in riddles then, but he was right.
Pride had been the downfall of Carmine’s son.
At his young age, full of cockiness and stupid ill-placed ambition, he had promised Gio that if he assisted him with our displacement, he would put Gio in charge of everything in Italy.
It was a stupid notion for two reasons. One was that if Gio had been angry about potentially being my father’s bastard, he wouldn’t have stepped down for anyone else. His goal would have been to take over as the new Don Bianchi. Two was that he’d been stupid enough to trust Amelia and her ass backward plot to get rid of me.
It ultimately had been the hand that dealt their demise.
Carmine had fought as long as he could, but then, as a compromise for him dedicating his life to us, we had allowed him to choose his son’s punishment– My uncle had given him that small grace as a long-time friend.
Death or exile.
Carmine had chosen exile, and three years later, his son had passed away from an overdose. That news felt better than my initial desire to riddle the young man with bullet holes.
“At what cost?”
I ask, brought back to the present.
We reach the house, and all conversations die until we pull into the driveway and enter the office. Exhausted, I pour myself whiskey from my decanter and carry my glass to my desk without a second thought.
Gio grabs a beer from the fridge and sits in a chair across my desk. “So, what do we do? Do we wait for them to declare war or retribution? Or do we take it upon ourselves?”
I sip from my drink, wincing at the slight burn. “I’m not sure yet.”
My fingers play with the rim of my glass, tapping a tune I’m unfamiliar with. “I want just to end this.”
Gio nods at me. He understands just how long this war has been going on. It started before Echo and will probably end way after her. “What did they send to Carmine?”
I hesitate showing him, then decide against it. I won’t have any more people looking at Echo and seeing that. Her looks of pleasure belong to me now. Anybody who sees her with Blaine will know she makes different, more pleading, and urgent ones with me. “Echo and that man.”
“The ex-boyfriend, Blaine?”
He shakes his head. “I’m sure not in a good way.”
“Some of them were in a good way. Not all of them.”
I groan. My hands run over my face dramatically. “I keep seeing his hands on her. I want to strap them to train tracks and have them run over again and again.”
Gio chuckles. “You need only say the word.”
I debate it for a while, then shake my head. As much as it would bring me joy, I wouldn’t be able to tell Echo. Yet, it would be something that I wouldn’t want to hide from her. A dark part of me would like to boast that I eliminated the only other man I had witnessed who made her look so happy.
Aldo doesn’t count. Our mutual hate for him has won over everything.
I shake my head. “No, we need to find out who took these pictures and why. I also want to look into Blaine more. We thought that he was nobody before, but now he may ju–”
My words die on my tongue when my office door opens without warning. I frown, beyond irritated and ready to kill the person who would be so stupid, until I see Echo. Her everyday wild, curly hair is wet from being washed or moisturized. She’s dressed in a simple pair of shorts and one of my shirts that hangs low off her right shoulder, but the tug in my loins reminds me that I didn’t slake my lust for her this morning as I should have.
Like I usually would have.
“Hey.”
She smiles, entering gingerly and closing the door behind her. “Marco’s gonna have a shit fit when he realizes I interrupted you two, but I couldn’t resist.”
My irritation wins. I sigh, looking at her. “Obviously.”
She stops for a milli-second at my words, then continues advancing into the room. Her brown eyes raise to meet mine and fuck if I don’t almost lose myself in her heated stare of wanting. She smirks, aware of what I see, and continues approaching me.
“Has he been like this since he left the meeting?”
She addresses Gio, who smiles at her question.
Gio nods. “Worse.”
I scowl at my best friend for divulging details to Echo, but he shrugs as she passes by him. “So, he’s better now?”
“If you call it that.”
“Giovanni.” I snap.
My second smiles at me, but when Echo steps up between my open legs, the scent of her vanilla body wash entrancing me, I look at her. Standing in front of me, her hands fall to my shoulder. She throws her legs over both of mine nonchalantly, planting herself on me. Her arms loop around my shoulders, intertwining around my neck, and she plants her center against my hardening cock beneath my clothes. “Leave, Gio.”
Gio hesitates until she continues as if he’s not in the room with us. He moves to stand when she presses soft, lingering kisses along my neck, her warm breath causing me to inhale sharply. My eyes snap to him. “Stay, Gio. We have business to discuss.”
Gio stops, uncertain, but says nothing. I can sense his uncomfortability right now, as if he’s never seen me in an uncompromising situation. I feel Echo smiling against my skin. “Gio,”
she licks below my ear, then takes the lobe in her mouth. "I've come to the office to discuss business with my husband, and I would prefer privacy.”
Again, Gio braces his hands on the edge of the chair he’s sitting in to stand. I stop him with a glare. “Bellissima, we’re busy.”
I address Echo softly.
As though she doesn’t hear me, she rocks her hips against me. The fingers from her left hand inch into my hair and gently massage the back of my scalp. “Fine, stay, Gio. Discuss what you need to, but time is running out.”
Not only do my eyebrows raise at her bold tone, but Gio’s do as well.
“What do you mean time is running out? Have you heard something?”
“What are you guys talking about?”
Confused, Echo sits back. “I’m just horny.”
“Just horny?”
I tease her. This lack of modesty is interesting, and I can’t help but like it.
She rolls her eyes. “Oh yeah, ladies don’t get horny where you come from. When a woman and a man meet, and there’s an insane attraction between them, they get romantical.”
Despite my irritation, I can’t resist the smile I give her at her quip. “Bellissima.”
I gently take her chin between my thumb and forefinger, inching her towards me. I plant a kiss on her lips. “Patience. When I’m done here, I will find you, and it won’t be for a quick fuck behind my office doors.”
I kiss her again, a quick one.
Across from us, Gio settles in his chair with the finality that he’s staying. I know he expects me to dismiss Echo, but now that she’s here, she might as well stay. It’s not something I’ve ever done, but I don’t feel like having this conversation with her again. Plus, Gio may be able to detect something I’m too blind to see.
“But we do have an issue.”
In my arms, she stiffens.
The buzz killed, she inches off my lap, leaving me to adjust myself. “What happened at the meeting?”
I nod towards the folder on my desk, and she picks it up. She bites her lower lip, and I see her guard build back up instantly. “Feels like we just keep circling back to these folders, huh? You guys buy them in bulk, or what?”
Though I catch the light joke in her words, I don’t react. Effortlessly, she sits against the edge of my desk and opens the folder. On the first image, she shows no response to seeing the pictures of her and Blaine. Her eyes scan over it, and I’m sure she’s recalling the moment captured without her knowledge. It takes a second, and she flips to the next photo, then continues until she gets to the one that disturbed me the most. I wait to see her react – A frown, confusion, denial, or anything. Nothing shows after a while, and I realize she’s gained control.
Whatever she’s feeling, she won’t let us know.
“So?”
Echo closes the folder and hands it back to me. “What questions must I answer to avoid looking like the villain?”
“The villain?”
I ask her.
She nods, looking between me and Gio. “Yes. I’m sure whoever gave you this has done their research.”
She’s right. I’m sure Carmine looked into this before giving it to me, but I’m unsure of his motive.
I shake my head. “You mistake what I want from you, Amore.”
Echo stays silent. “I need to know about this Blaine.”
“Y- you think he was involved?”
She seems genuinely confused.
My eyes meet Gio’s, and he seems to be trying to read her. No matter how caring her voice sounds, I know that Echo is well-versed and that all her displayed emotions are intended.
I will never see more than she allows me to.
“Not necessarily. But he may be in danger if he’s also in these pictures. Rossi may have coerced him with these photos to give info about you.”
She chuckles. At first, it sounds mocking and bold. Then, it instantly turns nervous. “I wasn’t with Blaine for longer than three months. Plus, he didn’t know anything about me. Which was why I ended whatever he thought we had.”
Now I’m confused. “What do you mean?”
“He was a means to an end. I’ve been with plenty of men while waiting to get close enough to kill Aldo. I grew too comfortable with Blaine, but when I realized he was too attached, I told him to stop calling me and coming by.”
I am only able to nod at her words. I want to understand them, but most of what comes out of her mouth sounds like she only needed Blaine for a moment, and then she didn’t. Not that it’s a problem, but I’m thrilled she has no emotional attachments to him. I know that Echo needed him for more than carnal purposes.
They appeared to have decent foreplay and sex together, but I know that she’s not the type of person who needs sex. She’s making it seem like Blaine was simply sex. It doesn’t sit right with me.
Maybe it’s because I expected some long, drawn-out romantic story from her. Now that she's made it seem as dry-cut as it really is, it makes me think of how she sees me.
Am I just a means to an end?
“Do you know who took the pictures?”
My eyes cut back to Echo, leaving my self-pitying thoughts. “No, but we’re going to find out.”
She nods. Standing to her full height, she quickly edges her way to me, leaning forward to kiss my lips. “Don’t spend all day on business. Baby making time is critical, right?”
She’s joking but isn’t aware of half of it. She heads for the door with a final disapproving look cast at Gio. “Don’t keep my husband.”
Both me and Gio watch her leaving the office. I look to my best friend, who whistles out. “She’s hiding something.”
I agree.
My hand lifts to scratch my chin. “She has so many secrets.”
I switch to Italian in case Echo is right outside the office door. I doubt she can hear us, but I don’t want to be too careful.
“She does, but we all have secrets.”
Gio nods, more to himself than anybody else. “I like her for you. Your uncle is right. You are happy.”
I scoff. “Did he say that?”
My best friend nods. “Does she know?”
I must frown or give Gio an angrily confused look. From his chair, my best friend backpedals. “I assumed that she might know something about the pills. She mentioned baby-making time.”
He stands from his seat, and I can tell he is uncomfortable with the topic. “I will find everything I need while you’re in Italy.”
The reality crashes in on me. By tomorrow, I will be in Italy with Echo, and Gio won’t be with us because, as my second, he will be here running things for me. We will have an entourage of men, including Vlad, but it will be weird not to have him with me. We haven’t been separated since the last time we were in Italy together.
In a lot of ways, Gio is an extension of myself. Albeit, an older, gentler, relaxed, and logical extension. When I moved to Italy as a child and had trouble grasping stuff, he took me under his wing and taught me. When I was bullied at school, he taught me how to fight to protect myself. And when I cried, he taught me to embrace and release my emotions in another way. Eventually, we grew close. So close people knew if they found Gio, they would find me, and vice versa.
As we grew, people always said that we looked like we could be brothers because we resembled each other so strongly. Yet, it wasn’t until our mothers were killed in the house fire that we realized that he could be my brother. The estate lawyer for my mother, a man hired without my father’s permission, had kept a log with dates or all of my father’s movements from years before they married. He had taken a significant vacation in Italy around the time of Gio’s conception and birth. Though married, Gio’s mother, who was a maid in our house, had left her husband shortly after getting pregnant and stayed happily running the compound.
Even with that news, Gio still hadn't tried to take over. He had vowed to stay silent about it and protect me with everything like an older brother. In return, I had kept my promise to make the person responsible for our mothers’ deaths pay….
It had been my father.
Our father.
If there is one person in the world I trust to give me answers, whether I’m ready for them or not, it’s Gio. He likes to provide the answers as little as I like to receive them, but I have to prepare myself even if they are answers regarding Echo that I don’t want.
That realization hurts more than the fact that I am falling in love with my wife.