Chapter 3
CAELIAN
“ L eandra. Wait.”
I rush down the stairs, and she stops just as she reaches the foyer but doesn’t look at me. “I have to go.”
“I have to see him.”
“No.”
“Leandra—”
“I’m leaving.”
I’ve got my coat and nonchalantly pull it on. “I’ll come, too.”
Now she turns to look at me. “I said no.”
“He’s my brother.”
She hisses out a breath then grabs my arm and drags me into the dining room. “He might be your brother, but he’s my husband.”
“I’ve known him longer.” I stop, knowing I’m running my mouth again. “Sorry. I’m just a breathing faux pas today. I need to see him, please.”
“I can’t let you.” She swallows hard. “I can’t let anyone.”
“Not even family?”
Her mouth sets, the grief etched deep. The worry. “He’s…weak, Caelian. He could…” She stops and inhales sharply. “I don’t want anyone to see him in this condition.”
“We grew up together. I’ve seen him hit puberty hard. So trust me, I’ve seen him at his worst.”
“I don’t have time for your jokes, Caelian.”
She’s about to turn and walk off when I jump in front of her, holding up my hands. “Please, Leandra. He’s my brother, for Christ’s sake.”
“Yet you refused to listen to him the day he got shot.”
I inch back because it stings, what she just said. It stings and burns and slithers into my mind with black-gooey tentacles.
With clenched hands, I storm over to the wet bar, pouring a drink and knocking it back. She blames me. I blame me. We all blame me. It’s a blame game, and I’m the fucking star.
I grimace as I swallow the alcohol. “I fucked up. I know that. But family forgives, Leandra. And they’re there when one of us needs it. Right now, he needs us.”
“No,” she replies with a layer of icy resentment. “ You’re the one who needs him . You need him to tell you everything is going to be okay after you screwed up. You need him to tell you that he’ll clean your mess so you can go back to your life where you take zero responsibility for anything.”
I slam down my glass so hard it cracks on impact. “That’s not fair.”
“I don’t care what you feel is fair or not. Right now, my husband needs me, and no one else.” The snap of her words reverberates around the empty room.
Her anger is justified, and I get it. Her life is hanging in the balance, the weight of it constantly shifting, and no one knows which way the scale will tip.
My nerve endings throb, and I stalk past her to close the door. Rubbing the back of my neck, I try to find calm, choosing my words wisely when I start to speak. “You’re right. You’re his wife, and Alexius loves you,” I say. “More than anything in this entire motherfucking world. And I know you love him, too. But tread very carefully here, Leandra.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“That depends on whether you’ll let me see him or not.”
She squares her shoulders, lifting her chin. “Then it is a threat.”
Now, I’m all for ruffling feathers, but even my moral compass, which always points toward stirring shit, is currently telling me to turn this conversation around. That, and Alexius will pull my spine out of my ass when he finds out about this— if he finds out.
“It’s not a threat,” I mutter, letting out a sigh. “Just…you’re locking him away, and I don’t understand why.”
“You don’t have to understand it, Caelian. You just need to respect it.”
“This is not about respect.”
“Of course it is,” she shoots back. “This family is about respect. And Alexius is a proud man. You know that. I know that. And I also know that he wouldn’t like for others to see him so vulnerable. Weak.”
“So?” I challenge. “He’ll suck it up, like any of us and when he recovers?—”
“If.”
“When. When he recovers,” I reiterate, “he’ll appreciate that we were all there. For him. For you. The kids.”
She crosses her arms, her eyes set with resolve. “I won’t change my mind about this, Caelian.”
“You’re in pain. I know that. But so are the rest of us. You’re keeping him to yourself, and that’s real fucking selfish.”
“I’m selfish? You’re the one crossing lines by threatening me simply because you want to ease your conscience by standing next to his bed for ten whole minutes every second day.”
“We have the means and the space to have my brother here!” I snap. “You don’t have to keep him in that cold, sterile facility away from his family. We have every doctor, specialist, and nurse he’ll need on our payroll, so why keep him separate and away from us?”
She steps closer, and I see a glimpse of that fight only a true mafia wife can have—an anger that doesn’t rage and destroy. An authority that doesn’t intimidate and terrify.
Instead, there's a deadly calm that creeps underneath your skin, lilting through your veins, a silent promise of the storm that can and will be unleashed. Leandra embodies that power now.
“I do not have to explain myself to you, Caelian del Rossa. And I’ll advise you to focus on your own life right now, because from where I’m standing, it sure looks like it’s falling apart at the seams.”
“This is my life. He’s my brother. He’s the leader of this family, and guess what?” I wave my best jazz hands. “I’m family.”
Her eyes narrow. “Do you want a star?”
“White gold, diamond-studded.” I grab my cigarettes then put one between my lips right before ripping the unlit thing away. “Alexius should be here. Where we can all help care for him.”
“And I say no.”
“I fucking say he needs it!”
“Do not push me away by challenging me, Caelian. You’ve already alienated your wife.”
My anger flares. “Don’t bring Giana into this. This is not about her. This is about my brother, and how he should be here with us, and you know it. Or at least let us see him and stop acting like you have this claim of ownership over everything Alexius. Yes, you’re his wife. You’re the mother of his children, but you are not his God, and you sure as hell don’t have the right to act like you are.”
“I have the final say. Understand my reasoning or don’t. But you will accept it.”
“He—”
“No.” She jabs a finger into me. “You don’t get it. We chose each other, to love. Commit to. And you’re too selfish to get my pain, that I might lose my husband.” Her voice cracks. “Don’t you get it? This is all your fault.”
This shuts me up for a long beat as she continues with the punches.
“If you’d listened, just listened to Alexius and not acted so cocky and selfish, so you , he would never have been shot, and my children wouldn’t be running the risk of growing up without a father.”
I shake my head, my chest squeezing tightly. “Punch away at me all you want, but we both know I’m right. Alexius would want us all together, and I’m not letting you stand in my way.”
The door opens; Isaia takes one look, steps inside, and slides in next to Leandra.
Fucker has always been anal when it comes to this woman, always acting like her personal guard dog. I’m surprised he doesn’t piss on her leg every day at breakfast.
“You okay?” he asks her. “The car’s here.”
“Car?” I level Leandra with a glare. “You’re letting him go see Alexius, but not me?”
“No, asshole,” Isaia bites out. “I’m staying here. And tone it down. Jesus,” he curses, pulling a hand through his hair. “I get it. Fights at funerals, it’s a thing. But do not come at her. She’s done nothing wrong.”
“She’s keeping us from him. She won’t bring him here, she’s being a?—”
“Careful,” Isaia warns. “Don’t say something you’ll regret.”
“When did you turn into a motherfucking hen?” I ask him.
“Since you turned into a plain motherfucking idiot.” Then he bends his head, brushing his mouth against her temple. “I’ll see you to the car.”
“It better not be yours. It’s an eyesore.”
“Not my car, asshole. It’s a black one, tinted windows, because I’m not a moron, and I haven’t replaced my head with that of a fucking pig.”
Did he just call me pig-headed?
They’re almost out the door when Isaia turns back. “I mean it, Caelian.”
“Mean what?” I snap.
“Watch your mouth.”
“You know our brother has already beaten the piss out of you once because of her,” I taunt. “He’s not even dead yet, and already you’re making a move on his wife.” Just because I won’t ruffle Leandra’s feathers… much …doesn’t mean I won’t fuck with my brother’s.
Isaia grins, but it’s one of those oh-you-didn’t grins that’s supposed to intimidate. But on him it just looks stupid. “You have a wife, too, you know,” he starts. “And you haven’t been paying her much attention lately.”
“Oh, don’t go there, brother,” I warn.
“Leave her alone and hanging any longer, and she might just come looking for comfort with someone… familiar .”
“Motherfucker!” With a roar, I rush him, and he goes to punch even though I sock him hard in the stomach. A strangled sound escapes as the air is forced from his lungs, but he doesn't back down.
His retaliation is swift and brutal, the taste of copper saltiness exploding in my mouth as his fist connects with my jaw. The echo of the impact detonates through my skull like a thunderclap, but all it does is stoke my anger further.
I rear back, ready to introduce his pretty-boy face to my fist, when Nicoli pulls us apart and shoves us in opposite directions.
“Decorum, fuckheads,” he growls. “Isaia, see Leandra out. You,” he says, pointing at me, “don’t move. I’ll be back.”
He goes, and Isaia looks at me. “I meant what I said.”
“Go get a wife of your own, you goddamn child.”
He flips me off, and I pick up an empty glass, hurling it at him right as Nicoli steps back in.
He ducks.
The glass smashes.
He looks at me with hard eyes. “Are you serious?”
“Shouldn’t you be mother henning?”
Now he’s pissed at me. I know this because he stalks up, grabs me, and shoves me over on my back on the floor. Before I get a chance to put up a fight, he’s already sitting on my ribs like when we were kids.
He grabs my hair, knees on my arms. I could throw him. Probably. The man’s a beast when he’s mad.
“This is already one of the shittiest days of our goddamn lives,” he spits out. “For the love of God, pick a different day to wave your dick around and piss everyone off.”
“Fine. Now get off me.”
Muttering, he lets go and stands. I sit up, straighten my tie, then get to my feet. “God, I wish Alexius tore his spleen out through his throat,” I mutter. “Fucker.”
Nicoli stomps over to the bar, pours a drink, pulls out his cigarettes, and tosses the package to me. With a sigh, I light up and then go to him, lighting his.
I collapse on the sofa as he sets a fresh drink in front of me.
“It’s been a hard day for everyone, so just tone it the fuck down. And talk to your damned wife. You’re both moping like morons.” He sits across from me, inhales some smoke, and blows it out slowly. “You do know there’s another reason Alexius isn’t here, or has nothing we’ve been doing sunk in?”
“Damage control and all that shit. Got it.”
“Do you? Because from where I’m standing, I’m not sure you’re aware of what’s actually at stake here.”
“Hey,” I hold up my arms, “all I want is to see my brother.”
“We all do.”
“Then why the fuck can’t we see him? Why can’t he be here in his own damn house while he fights for his life?”
Nicoli leans back on the couch. “We agreed that no one can know his condition.”
“Yes.” I nod with a sarcastic flair.
“What if we have to start seeing people here at the estate? Business needs to continue as normal, as if nothing is wrong. He can’t be here, recuperating. We can explain his absence, but not with doctors and nurses coming and going daily. As far as the outside world is concerned, there was a stand-off, triggers pulled, and Alexius walked away with a mere graze of a bullet. Then our mother died, and he’s taking it really fucking badly, which explains his absence. If Aurelio knows he’s in a coma?—”
“ Induced coma.”
“—and figures out where he is, like here ,” he emphasizes, “he’ll throw everything he has and more into finding Alexius so he can finish the job. A dead crime lord killed by his hand is worth more than the pretty bird the crime lord’s brother stole, don’t you think?”
“God, I hate it when you make sense. Pisses me right off.” I touch my aching jaw then throw back my drink, swallowing it all in one gulp to take the edge off.
“What about Giana?” he asks.
“I told her,” I say, shrugging.
“I know things are shit between you two right now, but please tell me you can control her.”
I scoff. “There’s no controlling that crazy.”
“Her father can’t know.”
“Well, lucky for us, he pussied out of the funeral today where he would have noticed Alexius’ absence.” I tilt my glass toward him. “Mistake number one, expecting that coward to at least show his face.”
Nicoli taps a finger on the couch’s armrest. “Silver lining.”
“Black omen. Doom sprinkle. Misfortune muffin.”
“God, your optimism is contagious.”
“I aim to please. If you need any more sunshine, I’ve got a whole storm cloud of it ready to go.”
Nicoli stares at me. It’s one of those stares where you’re not sure if he’s telepathically ripping your head off or feeling you up.
So I just smoke and wait for lecture number three-billion-and-nine to start so we can get it over with.
“The world needs to think he’s fine, Caelian. If word spreads about Alexius’s condition, our enemies will see it as a hole in our armor. They’ll come for us. And while I say bring on a good fight, there are kids, wives. My wife. Got it? We don’t put them in danger. And that’s exactly what will happen if they find out.”
“You’re saying it like I don’t know all this.”
“Do you, Caelian? Because if you did, you wouldn’t be going around picking fights with everyone.”
“I didn’t pick a fight with you.”
“Yet.”
“Listen,” I start, “I’m well aware that Aurelio the Great Fucker wants a piece of our pie, and that this is no longer just about Giana.”
“Exactly. That’s why only the most trusted guards are on watch, and we’re relying on tech. That’s why staff is bare-bones and our most loyal are the ones we keep close. That’s it. To everyone else, we’re all fucking peachy apart from losing our mother. But we can’t milk that for too long.”
I rub a hand over my face. Milk it. Sounds so callous, even if Mom would be the first to tell us to do that.
Nicoli moves to the edge of our seat. “We need to keep this family safe while Alexius isn’t here. And we can only do that if we’re a united front. The last thing we need right now is civil unrest in this goddamn house. You need to trust that Leandra is doing what she feels is right for our brother, and you need to get your head out of your ass and fix things with Giana because we’re going to need her to play her part in all this.”
Discomfort settles as I brush my fingers along my chin. “It’s not that easy,” is all I say.
Nicoli sits back again. I’ve known my twin brothers all my life. To others, they look exactly alike—dark hair, panty-melting blue eyes, jawlines like sharp-edged scalpels. But to me there’s a clear distinction between the two, and I can easily tell them apart.
Yet, right now, the way he stares at me, it’s like he’s channeling Alexius, telling me to pull my shit together without telling me to pull my shit together.
“You need to stop feeling guilty, Caelian.”
There’s that tightness in my chest again, that uncomfortable twist of my insides whenever someone touches the nerve just to the left of the giant black hole of guilt. “Are you saying you don’t blame me?”
“I’m saying I understand. I get it. You love her.”
“I don’t lo?—”
“Yeah, you do. That’s why you didn’t give a shit about what Alexius or I said that day. All you cared about was her, keeping her safe.” He pins me with his gaze. “Not losing her.”
“I was reckless,” I mutter as I lean forward, placing my elbows on my knees.
“Because you were scared shitless. I know that feeling. I know how helpless you feel when you’re faced with the prospect of losing that one person you love so much, it consumes you. It’s a cold goddamn slice of terror that paralyzes you.”
I don’t respond, pulling my lips in a straight line, my insides pulled taut.
“I’ve lived through it twice. First when Mira was taken from me, and then when we thought she might lose the baby.” He shifts, sniffs, and pulls a palm down his face. Just talking about it affects him badly. “So, I understand, Caelian. And I don’t blame you. And I know for a fact that Alexius won’t blame you either because love makes us all do stupid shit at the wrong time, man.”
I rub my palms together. “Leandra, she blames me.”
“Leandra is hurting. Right now, she’s the one paralyzed to death with the fear of losing her husband. And if she needs you to be the villain while she tries to get through this, then you be that fucking villain because that’s. What. We. Do. We’re there for each other in whichever way we need to be.”
It cuts deep. It resonates inside my soul. And by God, it eases the self-reproach that’s been festering for weeks. “You’re right,” I murmur.
“Say what?” His eyes go wide as he enters jerk mode. “I’m what, now?”
“Don’t ruin it, jackass.”
Nicoli smirks, and there’s this lukewarm, fizzy feeling of comradery I’m afraid might turn me into a hugger.
“Now, little brother,” he says as he lights another cigarette, “we need to focus on unfucking ourselves.”
“But what’s the plan?”
“You know the plan.”
“It’s short term. We need something solid. What happens…”
Shit, I can’t even say it.
“What happens if Alexius…if he doesn’t?—”
“We can’t think that way.” He darts up, moves to the bar, and pours himself another drink, like he’s trying really hard to ignore the reality of the situation.
I shake my head. “Nicoli, we don’t know what’s going to happen. And if he lives— please, God, let him live —we have no idea how long recovery will take, so what do we do?”
“We get Alexius back in his role as head of this family?”
I look up, and there’s Maximo towering to my right. He’s a big fucking man, so I’ve no idea how our top enforcer slipped inside without me noticing.
“I don’t know where you’ve been the last two weeks,” I say, “but Alexius is currently indisposed in his comatose state, and unable to take his seat on the Iron Throne while we wait for dragons to breathe fire up our asses.”
“No, he’s not.” Maximo crosses his arms, the leather of his jacket creaking under the pressure of his thighs-for-arms. “He’s right here.”
He stares at Nicoli, and I do a double take before the eureka moment hits me like the heavens just opened and showered me with a divine revelation.
“Holy shit. You.” I point at Nicoli. “That’s it.”
There’s a huge, flashing question mark on his forehead. “What?”
“Maximo, you motherfucker!” I stand and slap a hand on his shoulder. Fucker doesn’t even flinch. “Who knew beneath all these layers of muscle hid a brain that could be useful?”
Nicoli sits up straight. “What the fuck is happening right now?”
“ You, dickwad. You,” I press. “You just became Alexius’ stunt double in this giant vortex of ass-fucking we’re in.”
Nicoli raises a brow. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak moron.”
“The world needs to see Alexius, so we’ll give them Alexius.” I cross my arms and smirk. “You, dear brother, will be Alexius.”