Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Alessio
“Iswear this better be good,” Carmine says as he comes storming into the house, his suitcase in his hand. Soren walks in behind him, a rolling suitcase in his grasp.
I called both of them home early from their little getaway. Frankly, I don’t care if they’re irritated about it. This is far more important than them having some alone time. But honestly, I feel a little envious of them as well.
Carmine and Soren get to do whatever they desire. Go away and be alone together, no one telling them where and when they need to be, and no one forcing them to marry someone they’re not interested in.
Carmine could have told me to fuck off and not come home if he really wanted.
Thankfully, he didn’t.
“It’s good alright,” Tommaso says from beside me in the family room. All of my other brothers are with me. Tommy, Tiberi, and Cassian. We’ve been waiting on Carmine and Soren for at least an hour.
“Apparently, if all of you are here,” Soren comments as they set their things down at the doorway and remove their coats as they come in. Carmine tosses his coat onto the couch and then stands a few feet away from me with his arms crossed.
“What’s going on?” he asks. “Why does Tommy look like he’s ready to kick someone’s ass?”
I roll my eyes. “He always does…but this time it’s serious,” I tell him. “It’s about Eivor.”
Soren pauses while in the middle of taking his hat off, and then tosses his coat and hat near where Carmine’s are before walking over to us.
“What’s he done this time?” He looks tired of the situation already.
“I don’t know, but maybe you do?” I ask Soren, curious as to if he was part of this, if he knew anything. I doubt it. Considering Damian and I are pretty sure Rosalie doesn’t know…but you can never be too safe.
“What are you accusing me of?” Soren asks, his expression turning dark and stormy.
Carmine unfolds his arms and puts a hand on Soren’s chest. “Let us be calm about this,” he insists. “If Soren knew Eivor was up to anything, he would tell us.”
“He’d tell you,” Tommaso accuses. “That doesn’t mean he’d tell us.”
“Soren is a part of this family now,” Carmine insists, then glances at me. “He would tell us.”
“Yes, if I knew anything I would…but I don’t,” Soren replies. “Not that I’m surprised if he’s up to something.”
Tiberi sighs. “Tell them what you told us, Alessio,” he says with annoyance lacing his cool tone.
Cassian sits nearby on an ottoman with an uncertain look on his face.
“Eivor has been spying on us,” I explain. “He hired Damian to protect Rosalie, and spy on me. To find information about me, about Carmine, that will give him the upper hand in destroying us.”
Carmine blinks, and then looks toward the fire burning in the fireplace across the room. “Of course.”
“Son of a bitch,” Soren curses and takes a step to the side. “He can’t just play nice, can he?”
“Apparently not.” My jaw clenches as I think about the photographs that Damian found. I need to tell Carmine. But we haven’t spoken about what happened with our father before. So, I settle for telling him in as vague of a way as possible. Especially with the rest of our brothers there.
“Damian found information about us but—” I start, but Cassian speaks up.
“Damian was lying to us this entire time?” he asks. “Tell me you got to him before he told Eivor. That man is crazy.”
“If you know Damian found the information then I’m assuming he’s been dispatched,” Carmine says.
I shake my head. “Everyone just let me speak,” I put a hand up for a moment. “Damian came to me. He didn’t want to hand the information over to Eivor. He’s on our side.”
“How do we know that?” Tiberi asks, a question I’d avoided answering earlier. “How do you know we can trust him?”
“Because if he wanted to betray us, he would have simply handed the information over to Eivor,” I snap at him. “He didn’t.”
“What did he do?” Carmine asks. “What information did he discover? We don’t have very many secrets, but the ones we do are well kept. There’s not a single paper available for him to find.”
I lick my lips nervously. My stomach aches just thinking about our father.
“He…found information about our father,” I explain. “He burned it. There’s no way for Eivor to get ahold of it now, but when he finds out that Damian isn’t interested in handing over any information about us, who knows what he’ll do to him.”
“Why do we care about this bodyguard anyway?” Tommaso asks.
“We should have him here questioning him,” Cassian mentions.
Tiberi nods in agreement. “We need to know what Eivor is up to.”
“It’s obvious,” I tell them. “He wants something to bring us down a level. Something to get the upper hand in fighting us.”
“Why would he marry you off to Rosalie while doing this?” Carmine mumbles out the question.
“He’s all about control,” Soren reminds him, and us. “Plus, it distracted us from what he was really after.”
I nod. “Exactly.” I take a breath. “Now, we need to figure out how to get Eivor out of the picture. I know you don’t want to kill him, Soren but—”
Soren straightens his shoulders. “I’ll do what needs to be done.”
“We need to get Damian out of this situation first, then we’ll handle Eivor,” I tell them. “He’ll be the first that Eivor goes after when he finds out the truth. That he hasn’t been working the job.”
“Again, why do we care?” Tommaso asks frustratedly. “Let’s just go and kill Eivor. If Damian is in the way…well, he shouldn’t have been working for him in the first place.”
“No,” I growl out. “Damian is on our side now.”
“Because he burned some papers?” Cassian asks. “We don’t even know him.”
Heat floods my chest and face and I’m about to say something when I hear the front door open and heels clicking on the hardwood floor.
“Why should we care about this bodyguard who decided to cross Eivor?” Carmine asks as well.
I glance to the side and see Rosalie walking into the family room, followed by a familiar face. Her ex-boyfriend. Julian. The guard who was working the wedding for some reason.
“Because Alessio cares about him,” she answers Carmine’s question as she stops just behind him.
All of my brothers, and hers, turn to look at her in confusion.
“Yeah, I’m here, and it’s bad news,” Rosalie tells us.
“And yeah, I know about your little affair, Alessio,” she sneers at me. “Thanks for the warning. I had to learn about it while my uncle had guns pointed at Damian’s face.”
My heart jumps into my throat. She knows about us, Eivor knows about us…and worse than that, Damian is in trouble.
“Where’s Damian?” I ask quickly.
“I’ll tell you, but we need to talk alone,” Rosalie insists.
I look at my brothers who are all looking at me with various expressions of confusion and amusement.
“Yeah, okay, I’m… There’s something going on with me and Damian. Wipe that look off your faces and pay attention,” I snap at them. Carmine shifts closer to Soren as though he is signaling that he wants to talk to him later.
“What are you doing here?” I ask Rosalie. “What’s he doing here?” I motion to Julian.
“Rosalie told me the truth about your marriage and about Eivor’s plans. I don’t want to be a part of whatever he has going on,” Julian admits. “Especially not with Soren here now, and Rosalie…well…” he glances over at her with the look of a lovesick puppy.
I sigh. “Fine. But you’ll need to be looked over. Make sure there’s nothing sketchy going on,” I tell him. “Tommaso?”
Tommy grins. “I’m on it. Come with me.” He motions Julian to leave the room with him.
Rosalie grabs Tommy’s arm. “You hurt him, and you’re dead,” she hisses.
Tommy growls at her. “You don’t let go of my arm and you’re dead.”
“Both of you stop,” Soren demands. “No one needs to get hurt. Look Julian over and get him back here so we can talk.”
Rosalie lets go of Tommy, who nods stiffly and leaves with Julian.
“So, you have…an interest in Damian then?” Carmine asks me. “That’s what this is about.”
“Yes, but…no. It’s also about keeping everyone safe. Eivor is a menace. Who knows what he’ll do next. Even the Tulo family wants him gone apparently, or they wouldn’t be going after Rosalie because of our marriage. Maybe we can end this whole thing with the Tulos just by taking him out,” I suggest.
Rosalie folds her arms. “I’m waiting.”
I sigh. “Can’t we talk later?” I ask her.
She shakes her head. “No. We need to talk now.”
“Fine,” I growl under my breath. “I’ll talk to Rosalie while you all figure out what we should do about Eivor.”
I follow Rosalie out of the room and down the hall into the library where we can talk alone.
“Where is Damian?” I ask her quickly. “I’m assuming that’s what you wanted to talk about.”
“Yes,” she admits. “How the fuck could you not tell me you were fucking our bodyguard—or excuse me—my bodyguard?”
I swallow hard. “It just happened,” I tell her. “I thought if I told you… Well, I didn’t exactly think it would go well.”
“Of course not. We’re supposed to be a team and I gave up Julian for this,” Rosalie reminds me.
“I didn’t ask you to do that,” I remind her in return. “If you wanted to continue shacking up with him, I’d have been fine with that.”
“Would you?” she asks. “I’m not sure if I would have. How are we supposed to act like a couple in public and then go around fucking whoever?”
My jaw shifts and tightens. “I guess we don’t have to worry about that anymore, do we?”
She blinks and looks to the side. “I guess not, but we’re still married. What did you think was going to happen with Damian anyway? Was it just to get your rocks off?”
My eyes burn and I swallow trying to ignore the tears. “It’s none of your business.”
Rosalie eyes me. “You care about him.”
“Of course I do!” I blurt out. “I care about you too. Just…in different ways.”
She’s quiet for a long moment.
Irritation rises up in me. “You said Damian is in danger,” I tell her. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you…” she says slowly. “If you agree to take Eivor out.”
I scoff. “We’re already discussing that, Rosalie. If that’s all you wanted…”