33. Luna
THIRTY-THREE
LUNA
Luna’s eyes snapped open to the sound of footsteps approaching. Her back ached from the uncomfortable waiting room chair, but she refused to move from that spot in the chance that the doctor would come out to speak to her.
No one had yet.
Dante sat next to her, carrying a cup of coffee in his hands. “Got this for you,” he said, trying to hand it to her.
She shrugged him away. “I don’t want it.”
Her voice was back to being rough and raspy, but this time it was because of the screams and cries she’d let out earlier.
Oh, how she wished she was the one in the operating room and not him. Her Valerio didn’t deserve it, and if he didn’t make it—she stopped herself, swallowing harshly.
“Maybe you should at least wash up and change?” Dante asked.
“The girls are bringing me clothes,” she said. She was still in her dress and hadn’t washed the dried-up blood yet. She didn’t want to leave though. The moment she turned her back, Valerio was on the floor with a bullet in him. She didn’t want to turn her back on him ever again.
Dante sighed. “The nurse said it was going to be a long night.”
“And I’ll stay here until he’s out of surgery and I get to see him. What’s your fucking problem?” she snapped.
“He would want you taken care of.”
“Then he can do it when he recovers and is next to me,” Luna said. “I’m not leaving this spot until then.”
“Then I hope you enjoy the company,” he said, stretching out on the chair beside her. “The others are back at the library looking for anything that would point to who did this. They’ll be back soon.”
“We’ll find who did this,” Luna said. “And when we do, I’ll put a bullet through their head myself.”
He was silent for a moment. “You mentioned earlier that none of us were safe.”
“And I believe it.”
“You believe your father tried to kill you,” Dante said. He didn’t say it as a question, but more so a fact he was checking.
“I don’t need you to tell me it’s a wild idea,” she said dryly.
“I’m not. I think he did it and so did Valerio,” he said.
“He told me,” she said.
“Did he also tell you about the war between him and our father? It would make sense that your father would attempt to kill you to make it look as if my father had done it. Help push Valerio into a war with our father and give him an opening to pull you out of the contract, unless of course you had actually died,” Dante said. “It’s kind of genius when you think about it. Too bad he didn’t know Valerio’s war with my father started long before any of that and now he’s keen on destroying both of them.”
Luna looked at him with wide eyes. “Valerio mentioned something about your father not being trusted while we were on the balcony. He didn’t have a chance to say anything else, so what am I missing here?”
“A couple of weeks ago, my father threatened your life because Valerio had resigned the contract with you. He realized there was no monetary gain from the union with the Kingsleys, it was all bullshit. Valerio was in love with you. Cesare realized his heir had a liability—a weakness.” Dante shook his head. “Valerio threatened to kill him. His trip down to Buffalo wasn’t because my father sent him. It was because he was arming himself.”
“I don’t understand. You think it was your father who tried to kill me then?” Luna asked, trying to add everything up. That had to have been what he was saying. If Cesare Vitali had threatened her outright, maybe he did actually try to kill her. Maybe her father hadn’t succumbed that low.
But that hope was quickly extinguished by Dante shaking his head. “No, no. That would be too easy. Valerio would know it was him right away. But tell me this, if your father tried to kill you, who do you think tried to kill Valerio?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Luna asked bitterly. “I’m still alive, so he probably moved onto his next target.” That was the sick truth, wasn’t it?
“What do you think is an easier situation to accept? That your father tried to kill you or that he tried to kill Valerio?”
Luna swallowed harshly. “What kind of question is that?”
“I mean, he must have felt pretty murderous after what you told everyone earlier,” Dante said. “When he held Valerio down and threatened him, especially when he had plans to put you into another contract since you’re not dead. Probably won’t get much for you anymore since your cherry is gone. You’re right about Valerio being the next perfect target with all of that in mind.”
She turned to him with a murderous glare. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
He stared at her for a long moment. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Then shut the fuck up and let me worry in silence,” she spit out.
He obliged. Luna watched nurses and doctors run around the waiting room. Her heartbeat sped up every time she thought they were finally bringing some news about Valerio, but it was always a false alarm.
“When did you fall in love with him?” Dante asked suddenly.
She sighed. “Far earlier than I thought I would.”
“I had someone like that once.” He looked at the hallway in front of him as if he was remembering something beautiful. “He was the love of my life. He was bright-eyed, with the whitest hair I had ever seen. I swear to God he had to have been bleaching it or something, but he denied it.”
“He sounds beautiful.”
“He was,” Dante said, a small smile on his face. In an instant, the smile was gone. “Until I found him with a bullet in his back, tossed in a bathtub like he was a piece of trash.”
Horror struck her. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You didn’t kill him. My father did,” he said.
“Why are you telling me about this?” Luna asked, her voice shaky.
Dante turned to face her. He leaned in close, his voice a low whisper. “Reece Kingsley trying to kill Valerio makes sense. Too much sense. It’s almost the perfect cover-up, don’t you think?” He shook his head. “There is one man I know that hides behind the easy kill, that has a specific specialty: my father.”
Luna swallowed harshly. “What are you saying?”
“Cesare Vitali prefers his enemies be killed with a bullet to the back to blindside them, to make them regret turning their back on him. The minute Valerio chose you over our father, that was exactly what he did; he turned his back on the Vitali family in my father’s eyes. But he wouldn’t kill Valerio unless the bloodline was secured and continued.”
Luna’s mouth dropped open. “A baby.”
“Exactly. Your pregnancy secured an heir without him needing Valerio around. The baby would be someone he could manipulate, and by blaming your own father for it, you would have no choice but to trust the Vitali empire.” Dante let out a laugh of disbelief. “Even though Valerio told you not to trust our father, you still jumped on your father as being the culprit. It’s genius. Both sides targeting their own children so they have a reason not to unite, so they can continue their wars.”
“He tried to kill Valerio,” Luna whispered. The thought made her nauseous. How had everything become so twisted that there wasn’t a single soul they could trust anymore?
“You have more worth to my father as long as he believes you are pregnant,” he said. “But only until the baby is born.”
“There is no fucking baby,” she whisper-screamed. The guilt tore through her body.
“Do you see the problem now?” Dante muttered.
“How do you even know all of this?” Luna asked. “What if you’re wrong?”
“Maybe I am,” he said. “But as it stands, Valerio is lying in an operating room clinging onto his life. Someone is responsible for it and there are two people who are at the front of this chaos.”
She finally understood what Dante was saying. For the longest time she had been thinking they had to unite the families in order to stop the madness between them. But that wasn’t what they needed.
No, they needed to do the opposite.
“You want to get rid of Reece Kingsley and Cesare Vitali?” Luna asked, her voice slow, making sure he heard every single word that came out of her mouth. What they wanted was a betrayal they couldn’t turn back from. It guaranteed them death if anyone found out or if they didn’t succeed. But if any of them wanted a chance at a normal life, if they wanted to start their families and avoid their children living in the same generational trauma as they all did, then they needed to change who ran things.
“I want them dead,” Dante clarified. “And so do you.”
Before Luna could say another word, the girls were walking toward her with a bag of clothes. They practically dragged her to the bathroom where they washed the blood off her arms and legs and put her into a pair of sweats and one of Valerio’s hoodies.
She was numb, but when she came back to the waiting room chair, something changed. There was a different energy in the air, signaling change was approaching. They could either get on it, or they could miss it and end up with bullets in all of their backs.
Whatever it was gave Luna something to focus on, something to set her mind to. Valerio would pull through; he would. And when he did, they would start taking control of their lives.
She would start with their fathers.