Chapter 20 #2
I look to Carmine and nod. “Yes,” we both say at the same time. There’s no question about it.
“I don’t want to take over this family, not like my uncle does. I’m on your side.”
“Me too. He’s gone mad with power,” Rosalie confirms. “I don’t want this drama. Maybe I… I thought I was up for it before, but I’d rather unite our families and be powerful together than get everyone fucking killed.”
I chuckle weakly. It’s nice to see her being herself away from our aunt and uncle.
“How are we going to handle Eivor then?” Alessio asks.
“Yeah, how we going to kill the motherfucker?” Tommaso asks in return, squaring his shoulders up. “Cause I sure ain’t gonna just talk.”
Cassian’s voice is smaller and comes from the entrance to the room behind us.
“I don’t think Eivor is willing to talk either, not if he’s what everyone says he is.”
“Cassian, you’re not part of this,” Alessio says, voice low.
Carmine shakes his head. “He is. We all are. If we’re going to handle this, it’s going to be as a family.” He looks to Cassian, and there’s a softer expression there.
Cassian steps in front of the fireplace. “I know I haven’t been very involved in all this, but I’m part of this family. I want to help.”
“That’s how I feel. I don’t want to be left behind to watch everything fall apart,” Rosalie admits.
I frown at her. “You won’t be.”
“Okay, enough mushy shit,” Tommaso complains. “Who is talking to Eivor and what the hell are we gonna say? Oh, please stop attacking us and settle with us like we tried to settle with you months ago?”
“We can only try,” I wave a hand. I look to Rose. “Gimme your phone.”
“Why?” she asks but hands it over anyway.
I pull up our uncle’s number and hover over the dial pad.
“I have an idea,” I say, and the wheels in my head are spinning.
“What is it?” Carmine asks.
“Just follow my lead. Someone use something as a gag on my sister. Just tight enough to seem real. Rose, I need you to scream and cuss me out like you’ve never screamed and cussed me out before,” I instruct them.
“Gag, is that necessary? Ugh, okay, I get it,” Rosalie huffs and plops her ass down on the couch. Tiberi grabs a scarf from nearby and wraps it around Rosalie’s head and places it into her mouth far too efficiently. I wonder briefly if he enjoys doing that.
I press Eivor’s number and wait for it to ring. It only rings twice before he picks up.
“Rosalie, you’re in serious trouble, young lady, what the hell do you think you’re—” I cut him off.
“Eivor, how nice to hear your voice,” I tell him through grit teeth.
Rosalie starts screaming muffled through the gag and swearing at me in words that I don’t understand. She even kicks her feet and acts like her arms are tied behind her back.
“Soren,” Eivor says on the other end. “I knew you couldn’t do it. I knew you’d betray this family.”
“Frankly, I don’t give a fuck what you want right now, Uncle,” I tell him honestly, but I play it up a bit more by making my voice calm and casual. “You tried to kill me. I don’t like being threatened. Especially not by my own fucking family.”
My jaw tightens and my eyes stay glued to Rosalie, who is putting on a very good show.
“What’s going on over there? Where is Rosalie?” he asks me, suddenly seeming to process the background noise.
I mimic smacking myself in the face to Rosalie who slaps herself in the face and makes a sound of pain in response.
“She’s in a bit of a bind,” I tell him. “You see. You might care ‘bout the bitch, but I always thought I could do better.”
“You get your hands off her, Soren. She’s your sister,” he shouts at me over the phone. “She’s not part of this!”
“Isn’t she? You tried to kill me, Eivor.
Not just me, but Carmine. You want to kill their entire family and you’re willing to kill your own nephew.
How sad is that?” I’m glaring at the wall beside Rosalie’s head now.
She is panting for breath and trying to get her energy back up, but I can tell it’s difficult.
I step closer to her and reach a hand out to her, as if to ask for permission. She nods, her eyes burning with emotion. I know she wants to sell this as much as I do.
I grab her by the back of the hair and yank her head back. She yelps. A real genuine sound.
“Let her go,” Eivor demands.
“No, I don’t think I will. I don’t think we will,” I tell him. “Six men here, one woman. What do you think is gonna happen, Eivor?” I smirk. Trying to sell the emotion in my words.
“What’s going on?” my aunt says in the background.
“Oh, you can tell Aunt Patricia that we’ve kidnapped Rosalie,” I tell him calmly. I smack my own sister across the face hard enough for it to make a noise and her to grunt in pain and hiss in irritation.
“Stupid bitch,” I spit at her.
“You’ll let her go, or you’ll die,” Eivor threatens me.
“Oh, no, you can’t use that one again, Eivor,” I remind him. “You’re already after my head. I have nothin’ to lose.”
I chuckle and shove Rosalie down onto the couch.
I make a motion with my hand trying to get her to amp it up.
She starts pretending to cry and beg. The sounds are muffled into the couch.
My stomach feels sick, but there’s also a part of me that enjoys what’s happening right now.
The dark and sick twisted part of me that wants to see pain and suffering.
I shove it down and focus on only what the point of this is.
The real man I want to see pain and suffering from.
“Soren,” Eivor’s voice is frantic. “Rose is innocent.”
“Nah. She’s not because you’re a sick, sick man.
I know you defiled her like you tried to defile me,” I accuse him.
“How about you tell your precious wife that, huh? All about how you tried to fuck your own brother’s children.
Maybe you actually did. Maybe that’s why I’m so fucked up, huh? ” I laugh softly.
I feel eyes on me and a mixture of excited and disgusted expressions.
My eyes are burning.
I hear Eivor’s panting and anxious breath.
“What do you want?” he asks.
“I want you to back down,” I tell him. “Stop coming after me, stop coming after the Dresvannis.”
He growls in frustration. “This is not part of the plan!”
“There will be no plan, no future, for Rosalie, for you, for Patricia, if you don’t give this ridiuclous need for power up, Uncle,” I warn him. I push Rosalie harder into the couch and she’s sobbing.
“You hear that? That’s the sound of your precious baby girl begging for her life,” I sneer.
“Soren, please,” Eivor starts.
“Promise me you’ll back down,” I demand.
“For how long?” he asks me.
“Long enough to talk. Long enough to figure this out without ending up dead. All of us,” I tell him.
He pauses.
“Promise me!” I yell at him. “Tell me or she dies!” I grab her by the hair and pull her up closer to the phone. I shove the phone in her face and let him hear her scream.
I bring the phone back to my ear.
“You’d really do this to your own sister?” he asks me.
“Nothing you haven’t done.”
Eivor huffs. “Fine! Fine! You win! I’ll call it off. I’ll call everyone off. For now,” he says. “Just let Rosalie go.”
“You’ll talk to us?” I ask him.
“Whatever you want. Just let her go, Soren. Don’t touch her.”
I grin. “She’s safe. As long as you stay away,” I tell him.
“Let her come home,” he insists.
“I’ll let her go. Where she goes is her decision. Goodbye, Eivor.” I hang up the phone.
“Holy shit,” Cassian whispers. “That was…”
“That was fucking amazing,” Tommaso gasps. “Damn man.”
I notice that Tiberi is missing from the room.
“We did it, Rose,” I tell my sister.
When I look down at her again, I realize that she wasn’t pretending to cry. She’s still crying.
I drop the phone on the floor and kneel in front of her on the couch.
“Hey,” I say quickly. “It’s alright. It wasn’t real.”
I quickly untie the gag from around her head and brush her hair behind her ears. Her face is dripping with tears.
“I-I know, I just,” she stutters, “God, it felt so fucking real.”
She takes a deep breath and tries to settle herself but she’s still trembling. “I h-hated feeling you like that. Hurting me like that.”
I quickly pull my sister into my arms. “I would never hurt you,” I whisper. “Not for real. Not like that. I’m sorry.” I squeeze her tightly.
“It’s okay,” Rosalie insists. “I just—I need a minute.” She pulls away from me and stands up from the couch.
“Where is your bathroom?” she asks.
“I’ll take you,” Cassian tells her softly, and I watch them leave the room together.
I look to Carmine, who has a conflicted look on his face, eyes wide.
“I can’t believe you did that,” he tells me. “I can’t believe it worked.”
I sigh. “He’d never believe Rosalie betrayed him too. I had to use her against him,” I tell him. “Maybe I went too hard.”
“No, it was perfect,” he insists. “It needed to feel real.”
I nod slowly and look at my hands. My eyes burn. “I never want to touch my sister like that again,” I tell him, voice breaking.
“You had to,” Tommaso says from the side.
Carmine glares at him.
“Can we have a minute?” he asks. His eyes sweep over to Alessio too, who has been quiet this entire time.
“Fine!” Tommaso huffs and leaves the room. “But we’re talking more about this whole thing with you two later.”
Alessio doesn’t move from where he’s standing.
“Aless?” Carmine says slowly.
Alessio shakes his head. “No.”
At first, I think he’s just not going to leave, but he speaks again.
“That isn’t enough,” Alessio says. “He’ll come after our family again. He’ll try to destroy us.” He takes a step forward toward the doorway.
“It’s enough for now,” Carmine insists. “We’ll figure out a plan later.”
“Later is too late,” Alessio snaps. “We have to kill him now.”
“Eivor?” I ask slowly. “Maybe we don’t. Maybe we can—”
Alessio scoffs. “Reason with him? After what you just had to do, you really think we can reason with the man?”
“We need to try,” Carmine tells him. “Or else both of us could implode.”
“No. He dies, problem solved.” Alessio starts to move out of the room but Carmine reaches for him.
“And what… You are going to kill him yourself? Get yourself killed in the process?” he asks him.
“I’ll do what I want to do,” Alessio snaps and yanks his arm away.
“No. I’m the leader now. If Eivor is going to die, I’ll be the one to set it in motion, not you,” Carmine tells him, voice loud and dominant.
Alessio glares at him. “You cause all this fucking trouble for us, and now you want to stand up and be a man? Be the man of this family? Great timing.” Alessio steps back and turns around, storming out of the sitting room.
“Where are you going?” Carmine asks.
“Anywhere but here,” Alessio replies.
Then, we’re all alone.
Just Carmine, me, and the fire that’s crackling in the fireplace.
I sigh again. Weight lifts off my shoulders and I step closer to him.
“All of this is my fault,” I tell him.
“No. It’s not. Do not put it on yourself,” he demands. “Your uncle is the one looking for total destruction, not you.”
I step closer to him until our noses are practically touching.
“What do I do now?” I ask him.
“You stay here. You and Rosalie are both welcome here while we get this sorted,” Carmine tells me. “However long that takes.”
I press my lips to his softly, once, twice, and a third time. It’s difficult not to continue. Not to kiss him until my head is dizzy and I can’t think about anything else.
But I hear my name being said from the entryway, and I turn to see Rosalie standing there, looking a bit less frazzled.
“Are you alright, Rose?” I ask her.
She nods. “Yeah. It was just intense,” she tells me, giving me a small smile.
“Good. I never meant to—” I start, and she shakes her head.
“Don’t. Please. I don’t want your pity.” She gives me a pointed look.
I nod.
“I noticed the library, is it cool if I go in there for a while?” she asks.
Carmine nods. “Of course. You’re welcome here.”
“Why don’t I come with you,” I tell her. “While we wait for the soup.”
“I’d like that,” Rosalie agrees and heads down the hallway ahead of me.
I turn to Carmine again, and he kisses me this time. “You coming?” I ask him.
“No. I’m going to talk to my brothers some more,” he says.
“Alright. Let me know when the food’s done. I’m starving.”
With that, I leave to follow my sister down into the library.
Where we sit for an hour side by side reading. Comfortable. Just like when we were kids.
For the first time in a long time, like a family again.
Just like that, this day becomes the first day in which the Dresvanni home is my own.