Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
The three Esposito offspring who’d put themselves in contention to step into their father’s shoes sat around their mother’s dining table, making their arguments as to why the family should crown them.
Well, two of them were arguing. Their words floated around Tommaso, barely seeping into his consciousness.
Mattia, as the oldest, thought the position should be his by birthright.
Siena, the youngest and the only female, said his extra years of rotation around the sun made him no more qualified than their grandfather’s cockatoo, who beat him in age by seven years, then dug the knife in a little deeper by pointing out that if their father had wanted Mattia to take control, he would have made it clear while he was alive.
“He didn’t know he was going to die,” Mattia said tightly.
“Marcello Magnani didn’t know he was going to die either,” she countered, referring to another Naples family who operated in the shadows. “But everyone knew Franco was his chosen successor.”
“Franco only had sisters.”
Eyes narrowing into pincers, Siena said, “I am going to be charitable and assume you’re saying that to imply Marcello was a sexist pig.”
“This is a man’s world, Siena. You will never gain the respect of our men or our associates.”
“I’m already earning it.”
“I already have it.”
“You haven’t got the charisma to lead,” she told him bluntly.
Mattia’s jaw tightened. “Maybe not, but the people who matter already respect and fear me.”
“Too much of our business is conducted through human relationships to let it be run by respect and fear alone,” she riposted. “It needs a human touch too. When people like you, it makes them think twice about killing you or starting a war with you.”
“I’ve dealt with the most serious of the threats against our family.”
“Gino Vicario hasn’t been dealt with.”
“He will be. While you’ve been playing with your casinos, Tommaso and I have been working closely together on it.”
Tommaso pulled himself into the conversation, robotically confirming, “We have intelligence in his organisation that has proved faultless. Another week and we strike.”
The only question was who would lead the strike. He should have made his pitch by now, but he could not get his head in the game. Everything in him, from his heart to his brain, had numbed.
“Good of you to join in the conversation,” their mother said, looking at him.
He shrugged. “Petty sniping bores me.”
His mother’s eyes narrowed in the exact way his sister’s did. “Really? Or is it that your mind is elsewhere? Possibly with your little rat wife?”
He clamped his jaw together. His family were the last people he wanted to discuss Gabriella with.
Still looking at him, his mother silkily said, “I was told something interesting earlier about your little rat.”
It took effort just to lift an eyebrow.
“She was seen leaving your villa. Alone, without supervision.”
The silence that followed this was so complete a feather falling to the ground would have made a noise.
“She was then seen some hours later entering her apartment. Again, alone and without supervision. To my knowledge, she is still there. Alone and unsupervised.”
It came as no surprise that Siena was the one to explode. “What the hell, Tommaso?”
Tommaso closed his eyes. He should have known this would happen. His mother took little interest in the running of the business, but she had spies everywhere. They all did. It was how they stayed safe and how they’d stayed on top for so long.
“Gabriella is no threat to us,” he said, his voice as drained as the rest of him felt. “Anything she could have used against us is in my possession. She can’t touch us.”
“I don’t care what she can or can’t do – she was working to destroy us!” Siena shouted. “We only agreed to you marrying her because you swore you would make her miserable life a living hell, not let her swan about alone whenever she pleases!”
Their mother held a hand out towards Siena as a warning to be quiet. Addressing Tommaso, she said, “You’ve let her go, haven’t you.”
He met her stare and sighed heavily. “Yes.”
The explosion from Siena at this would have made a firework manufacturer envious.
Again, their mother silenced her with nothing more than a held-out hand. “We had an agreement, Tommaso.”
He gazed into his mother’s blue eyes. Had there always been such ice in them or had he just not noticed it before because she was his mother and had always loved him as a mother should? “Did you know our father murdered Fabio Romano?”
There was an audible intake of breath from Siena. Mattia’s face turned sharply to him. From their mother… Nothing.
Tommaso nodded slowly and straightened his back. His mother’s silence was her answer. The answer he already knew in his heart. “Gabriella made a deathbed promise to her mother to destroy us to avenge her father.”
“Her betrayal was vengeance?” Siena whispered.
“Yes. Our father killed Fabio and framed the Ranieris for it – his secrecy means they’re a danger we haven’t considered – but as far as vengeance goes, Gabriella’s was a kinder one than any of us would have given if our father had been murdered in cold blood by a friend.
She’s paid the price for her treachery, and… ”
“She hasn’t paid the price,” Mattia interrupted, his jaw as tight as Tommaso’s.
“I don’t care what happened two decades ago; it’s the present and securing our family’s future that I care about, which is where your head should be at too.
There are no exceptions for treason. Siena was right that you’ve always had a thing for that rat, and now she’s running rings around you.
The agreement stands, and if you won’t enforce it, then I will. ”
A pulse was throbbing loudly in Tommaso’s temple. Breathing heavily, his hands fisted, he rigidly said, “Explain what you mean by that.”
“You know what I mean. You bring that bitch back to your villa tonight or I will do what you should have done to begin with.”
All effort at keeping a cool head wasn’t so much lost as detonated.
In the beat of a moment, Tommaso had thrown himself across the table to grab his brother by the throat.
Although they were similar in height and size, there was a fuel in his veins that had him lifting Mattia off his feet and pinning him to the wall with the same effortlessness he’d lifted Gabriella into his arms.
“You touch a hair on her head, and I will kill you,” he snarled, his spittle landing on Mattia’s face. “Gabba is under my protection until the day I die. You want to kill her, you have to kill me first.”
His mother’s icy voice sailed into his pounding ears. “Tommaso, put your brother down.”
Ignoring her, he tightened his grip around his brother’s throat and raised his voice so the females of the family knew he was talking to them, too.
“She will not be harmed, not by anyone. Is that understood? Gabriella is mine, and I will bring hellfire down on anyone who dares touch her. Is. That. Understood?”
Mattia’s black eyes spat their own hellfire, but the jerk of his reddening face told Tommaso that he, at least, understood. Tommaso let him go. Immediately, his brother started coughing.
As cool as a cucumber, their mother handed her firstborn a glass of water before looking at Tommaso. “I think you have made your point.”
“Good.” Folding his arms across his chest, he took a long, deep breath and cast his gaze over his family.
Siena was still seated, absorbing everything with uncharacteristic silence.
Her cheeks had paled, although whether at the revelation that their father had killed his best friend all those years ago or that their mother had known it or because of Tommaso choking Mattia, he didn’t know.
Maybe it was all those things. His mother, for all her coolness, had lost some colour too.
Only Mattia, once he’d stopped coughing, looked unruffled, but then Mattia had always had their mother’s temperament, and it was Mattia who now took charge.
“If we agree to let the rat live, you know we can’t let you step into our father’s shoes, right? There is no room for sentimentality in the role.”
Tommaso jutted his chin the way he’d seen Gabriella do so many times, the dim thought in his head that he finally understood why Rico had walked away from it all for the sake of a woman.
“If you agree to leave Gabriella alone, I am prepared to let you three decide the new head of our family. Whoever you choose will have my full loyalty and support, just as our father always had.”
“You withdraw?” Mattia clarified.
“I withdraw on the condition you all agree to leave Gabriella alone. She never asked to be born into this world and has suffered enough at the hands of this family.”
“And you will guarantee her silence?”
“Yes.” But he would do nothing to guarantee it.
The physical proof she’d gathered was locked away in Tommaso’s cellar, still waiting for him to go through it.
Her verbal testimony, if she chose to go to the authorities, would not be worth the paper it was written on, but could make life difficult for them.
He no longer believed she would do even that.
“Then I agree to your condition.”
Tommaso looked at his sister. She closed her eyes and nodded.
His mother’s cool stare was intense. “If you were not my son, I would cast you out. But you are my son, and as your father always said, family comes first.” Her face softening, she wrapped her arms around his waist. “And I always say it too. Gabriella will suffer no harm from me.”
With a deep sigh of relief, he returned the embrace and kissed the top of his mother’s head.
Catching his brother’s eye, they exchanged a look of understanding, and when his mother finally unwrapped her arms from him, he embraced his brother and felt more deep relief when it was affectionately returned.