13. Hollywood
13
HOLLYWOOD
“I didn’t think you’d arrange it this fast,” Leo said, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. After Saint had gotten in contact with Julia Caputi, she’d wanted to meet Leo right away. I received a text from Bear this morning telling me to get my ass over to Leo’s crash pad as soon as I could. I said goodbye to V, promised to come back over tonight, and headed out. Now that I was here, I couldn’t help the skip in my step, nor the perpetual grin on my face.
“You said you wanted to see her,” I explained. “She was in a hurry to see you, too.”
Leo narrowed his dark eyes on me and ran the length of my body before meeting my gaze again. “You fucked your girl, didn’t you?”
I gasped and clutched my imaginary pearls. “Leonardo Elizabeth Caputi. How dare you speak to me like that? I am a lady!”
He ignored my mock protest. “You did, didn’t you?”
“We didn’t fuck,” I confessed, shifting my shoulders as the aches on my back pulled in a glorious stretch. I had an enormous V in bite bruises going from one shoulder to the other, and between me and God, I’d been thinking about getting them tattooed there permanently. I liked knowing she’d roughed me up. The filthy things she’d said to me played on a loop in my head, and my cock gave half a jump anytime I thought about it.
“But you fooled around.” Leo crossed his arms and grinned. “Good for you.”
I cleared my throat and shifted my weight, aware the only person I could talk to about this was him. No one else could find out about this, at least not until she and I were both okay with the news getting out. We agreed it wasn’t anyone’s business.
“How was it?” He raised his eyebrows, awaiting my response.
“Fucking amazing,” I murmured.
Leo threw back his head and laughed, clapping. “Very nice, my friend. I’m happy for you. Are you going to see her again?”
Ignoring the way friend sounded coming out of his mouth, I nodded and smiled. “Tonight.”
“This is a good thing for you,” Leo said. “You look ten times lighter than yesterday.”
Before I could respond, voices echoed from outside and footsteps pounded on the stairs leading to the door. I turned as Saint walked through, the quiet brother nodding before glancing at Leo, who was still seated in the living room.
A small brunette came in next, wearing expensive black trousers and a matching blouse, her feet shoved into six-inch red-bottomed stilettos despite the threat of snow today. Her long hair hung down to the middle of her back, and when her gaze shifted to me, I understood what Leo had meant. Her sneer could penetrate Fort Knox. She reeked of old money and privilege, and the way she assessed me then immediately dismissed me reminded me of pre-surgery Leo. I didn’t need to know they were siblings to see the family resemblance. If he’d been born a woman, they might have been twins.
“Leo!” Julia gasped and rushed to her brother, throwing her designer purse on the sofa so she could wrap her arms around his neck.
Bear walked in behind her, closing the door before giving me a glare like the woman had done nothing but annoy him the entire drive here. I stuffed away the memories of what I’d done to his sister and what she’d done to me last night, focusing on the present. We were here to discuss the terms of a truce. Leo had wanted to get his sister’s opinion before agreeing to anything, and if all went well here, the next step would be to get Crow on board with a compromise.
“How was the trip?” I asked Bear.
“Fucking terrible,” he whispered. “She’s more Caputi than he is, not in a good way.”
I chuckled and patted him on the back. “You’re here now.”
“Yeah,” he said, rubbing his hands over his face. “Let’s just get this over with.”
We walked into the living room while they were still catching up.
“Look at you,” Julia said, cupping her brother’s face. “You’re a mess.” She rambled in Italian while she fussed over her brother’s hair before pointing at the wrappings on his knee. “What is that?” She turned to me and shoved my chest. “What did you do to him?”
I held up my hands and stepped back, making a show of solidarity.
“Hey!” Bear stepped in front of me, leaning down so he was in her face. “Your brother’s lucky to be alive. Quite frankly, so are you.”
She ranted in Italian, putting her hands on her hips and stepping closer to Bear, jutting her chin out to show she wasn’t going to back down from him.
Bear let her spit venom for a few moments before clapping inches from her mouth, startling her enough to shut her up.
She gasped when he answered her in Italian, and whatever he said made her cheeks turn a bright shade of pink.
Saint met my gaze and raised his eyebrows, covering his mouth with his hand while Julia and Bear argued like the rest of us weren’t here. I’d never seen anyone talk to Bear like that, and I couldn’t even understand what she was saying.
Leo chuckled and raised his eyebrows, watching the dramatic display with delight.
“Ahh,” Julia finally growled before turning to her brother. “Leo, please tell me it’s okay to ...” She muttered something else in Italian.
He grabbed her hand, brought it to his mouth so he could kiss her knuckles, and shook his head. “No, mia sorella . Take a deep breath. They’ve been kind to me, especially that one.” Leo nodded to me. “You’ve wanted the war to end since Julian died. This is how we end it.”
She sat on the footstool next to the recliner, holding Leo’s hand while she seemingly got her emotions under control. “What does that mean?”
“Tell me about Gabriella,” Leo said. “What has been going on while I’ve been here?”
Julia licked her lips and looked at us before clearing her throat. “Uncle Frankie is getting restless. He doesn’t believe Gabriella has what it takes to lead the family.”
I didn’t know who Frankie was, but I kept my mouth shut to allow her freedom to continue. I assumed, based on what I knew about their family, Frankie must have been one of Benito’s brothers. But who knew with the fucking Caputis; they bred like rabbits.
“Stefano wants to make a bid for himself, but everyone knows that will end in more bloodshed.” Julia shook her head and brushed away a tear. “If you go down this route, you will surely have Bianca and Gia on your side, and perhaps some of the underbosses.”
Leo balanced his chin on his thumb, rubbing his index finger over his lips while he considered this.
“And if we take out the others?” Bear asked, glancing between the two of them.
Julia opened her mouth before closing it and shaking her head. “I won’t do that. Any drop of Caputi blood spilled is too much. They will not follow you if you take out any of our kin besides Gabriella.”
“We’d be willing to make a show of allegiance,” Bear cut in. “A member exchange or?—”
“A marriage,” Leo cut in. “I will not accept anything less.”
“Marriage?” Julia and Bear said at the same time, causing them to look at each other before returning their attention to Leo.
Leo hummed a laugh. “Indeed.”
“There’s no need for that,” Bear said. “We stand by our promises. If you send one of your brothers here, we’ll send one of ours to you. The Caputis and the Roses will be allies.”
“No, no, no.” Leo shook a finger at Bear and tsked through his teeth. “Haven’t you been listening to my beautiful sister? The only way this ends is if we are family. Spilling our own blood is a sin. Unforgivable.” He held up his hands like there was no other option. “If I am to trust the Roses will not come for me and mine again, I need to know that to do so would be against their own self-interests.”
I ignored the stirring in my gut and the rising bile in the back of my throat. Deep down, I knew I’d volunteer for this. I would throw myself to the wolves for the sake of everyone else in the club. If this would end things, if this would make it right between us, I could swallow down a marriage to one of my mortal enemies and make the very fucking best of it.
What about V?
My heart twisted and my stomach churned at the thought of never being strapped to her cross again, of never feeling her whip come down on my back or her teeth sink into my skin.
That fucking figures. It’s just my luck.
Of course I would find the girl of my dreams right in front of me and never be able to have her, not the way I wanted, not even in the future.
“Okay, fine,” Bear said, rubbing a hand over his forehead. “I have to talk to my father, but we’ll find a suitable match.”
“Who is your heir?” Leo asked, raising his eyebrows. “Who will replace the old Crow when he steps down?”
Both Saint and I looked at Bear, who shifted uncomfortably on his feet and crossed his arms.
“That would be me,” Bear said, looking at Julia for a moment before glancing back at Leo and tilting his head up, holding his chin high.
“Then, it will be you.” Leo steepled his fingers over his mouth, giving Bear a nod. “You will marry Julia.”
“What?” Julia balked, pushed to her feet, and shouted at him in her other language, waving her arms around like a child throwing a tantrum. “I won’t agree to this.”
At that, Leo stood, towering over his little sister, giving her a glare that silenced her. “Do you want to lose more of our family? Do you want to watch our home overflow with Caputi blood?”
Julia closed her mouth and dropped her gaze to the floor between them.
“When Crow steps down, Bear will be in charge and his wife, his old lady, will be a Caputi. For as long as he lives, he won’t come after us because his family is our family and our family is his. This is how it’s been done for thousands of years, mia sorella .” He stepped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, bringing her in for a hug. “If we left it up to Gabriella, you would marry an underboss’s son.” He whispered something else in Italian, something hushed that made Julia wince, seemingly with regret.
She bit her bottom lip and looked at Bear, who ran his hands through his hair and blew out an exhausted sigh.
“What else?” Bear said. “What else will need to be done?”
“Who do we have on our side?” Leo said, taking a step back. “Who can we convince to turn on our dear zia ?”
Leo and Julia talked about members of their family I didn’t know and how they might be able to convince them that a decades old territory war needed to end, but I could only focus on Bear. He’d widened his eyes and stared at the two Caputis while they hashed out the future of our families, but I saw the signs of his quiet panic: the sweat beading on his forehead, the bite of fear at the corner of his eyes, his tensed muscles waiting to pounce. Whatever he’d hoped to do with the rest of his life had just gone right out the door. The only way for us to end this was for him to marry into the enemy’s family and accept a stranger as his wife.
“You must come home, brother,” Julia said, grabbing his hand. “No one will believe you are strong if you are not visible.”
“No,” he said, leaning forward to emphasize his point. “We play this one in the shadows. Tell only the people you trust. You will speak for me until my return.”
“Leo.” She shook her head, apparently struggling to form words. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Yes, you can,” he whispered, cupping her jaw so she had to look up at him. “You are the strongest of us. You always have been.”
She stood, taking a deep breath before turning to face me and Bear. She raked her gaze down to his boots and back up again before shrugging and giving one final nod.
“I’m ready to go home now.” Then she grabbed her purse and headed to the back door. Saint smirked, clapped Bear on the shoulder, and followed her out, leaving the three of us to finalize the discussions.
“You can trust her,” Leo said, looking at Bear. “She hates the Roses for killing our brother, but she hates Gabriella even more.”
“Why?” I asked. “What could make her turn against your aunt?”
Leo pursed his lips, perhaps debating the best way to explain. “That is not my story to tell, but I will say if Gabriella had done to me what she did to Julia, I would have sliced her open from throat to belly button and left her for the scavengers.”
I met Bear’s gaze, and he returned it with a look that said he didn’t like this but didn’t see how we had another choice. We could kill Leo, maybe even kill Julia, but that would not give us the peace we wanted. It would only make things worse.
“We’ll be in touch,” Bear said, turning to follow Saint and Julia out of the house.
When it was just me and Leo, he smiled and held up his hands like this had been a victory.
“Bear doesn’t like being backed into a corner,” I said. “You could have told me you wanted to arrange a marriage.”
“Where would be the fun in that?” Leo laughed. “To see the look on his face when I said it was vengeance enough for all you’ve taken from me.”
“Hmm.” I narrowed my eyes before turning to leave myself.