Chapter 17 #2
I nearly throttled him when he played with his phone, but then he looked up and smiled. “We won’t need to be on the video feed for this. Follow me.”
I was already on his heels as he strode down the hall toward Vivi’s suite. He stopped, pivoting to open a door just before we reached hers.
Frustration welled up into a bark. “She’s not in the fucking closet, Dante.”
“You’re right,” he said, waving me into the black hole. “She’s upstairs in Simone’s room.”
I followed him for lack of anything constructive to add.
“Vivi wants her mother’s personal belongings, and Stefano’s kept them from her.” He flipped a switch. Soft light flooded the space as he flipped another one, which opened a second door.
“What is this, a house of cards?”
He snickered. “Vigo Cabello doesn’t leave much to chance. He’s too paranoid for that. Every room has an entrance, and it also has an undetected exit. Just in case of a raid.”
Understanding eased my nerves. “Vivi wasn’t taken.”
“No, she wasn’t,” he said, stepping inside and up. “And let me tell you something before you read her the riot act. Mia sorella is obstinate.”
“You don’t say.”
A quiet laugh drifted down the stairs. “You going to listen or just add commentary?”
“Get to the point.”
“She once asked Vigo for a donation to her friend’s church, and he felt as if he’d given enough.
It was at dinner, just the five of us. I’d never seen her so pissed.
Not even sixteen, but stubborn as a mule.
She wouldn’t leave the table until he reconsidered.
Night after night, she slept in her chair, wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink. It was quite a protest.”
I almost smiled at the image of a little bird scowling the household into silence as the minutes passed into days. “Did she get the money?”
“No.” He stopped, reaching for a keypad next to a new door at the top of a small landing. “Vigo had a dinner party scheduled. She wouldn’t leave without the donation, so he removed her by force. Had Stefano do it for him, actually. Vivi couldn’t sit for a week, but that’s beside the point.”
I curled my fingers into a fist that I wanted to connect with Stefano’s jaw. My own was tight as I urged Dante to continue. “Then get to it.”
“She goes after what she wants and suffers the consequences for her actions. She’s spontaneous, doesn’t think things through like she should, and now she’s interfering in family business.”
“You’re searching Simone’s things.”
He signed the cross. “God rest her soul. We can’t be too careful with what she left behind. Simone was a lot like Vivi—she held too much animosity to trust blindly. So Stefano is making sure there’s nothing that can harm the family. Once he’s confident it’s clean, Vivi will get it all.”
The nuclear explosion was churning again inside my gut, ominous and deadly. “But she found a way inside before he gave her permission.”
He laughed again, soft and sorrowful. “Vivi didn’t find anything. She knows this house better than anybody. That girl grew up alone more than she had family around. There was nothing for her to do but snoop, and I fear this could be the one time she regrets her spontaneity.”
I grabbed his shirt, pulling him in until we were nose to nose. My monster wanted to growl. I simply sneered, “Anyone who lays a hand on Vivienne won’t live long enough to regret it. Even someone in the family. Capisci?”
Dante’s mouth curled up with good humor. “Gesù Cristo, Mancini, ease up on the Prada, will you?”
I loosened my grip, and he brushed away my hands. “Calm down. I’d never hurt my sister, okay? We’re good. It’s Stefano you need to worry about. Let’s get her out of there before the goon wakes up and decides to spend more time in Simone’s lingerie drawer. Yeah?”
At my nod, he punched in a code and pushed through the door.
The suite was large, had high ceilings, and a lot of windows and natural light.
We stalked silently to Simone’s bedroom.
Relief seeped into my veins at the sight of Vivi knee-deep in a mound of clothes, a light pink dress clutched in her hands.
“Sorella, this was not your best idea,” Dante said.
She screamed and twisted around. Blood drained from her face. I pushed past Dante, grabbing her waist before she toppled over.
“Vivienne.”
She blinked wide eyes to mine.
“You scared me,” she whispered, crinkling something in her fist.
I shifted just enough to block Dante’s view. “I can see that we did, but not as much as your cooking terrifies me, and I’m starving. You left before breakfast.”
She gave me her weight, leaning into my arm as her head fell back and she gazed at me with heavy lids. “You want me to cook for you?”
“I want to bend you over my knee,” I mumbled. “Disappear like that again, and I will.”
“Promettere?” Do you promise?
My vision dopped to the pulse thrashing in her neck.
No doubt, I wanted to fuck Vivienne. At one time, that’s all it was.
I wanted to fuck her out of my system and move on.
Now, something else gnawed away at my insides.
I never wanted her to look at someone else like she looked at me.
Sometimes soft and hopeful. Other times hard with spite.
Every time with a possessive hunger that fed into the dark craving scouring through my veins.
For once, I let her hear my truth in a whisper meant only for Vivi’s ears. “Prometto.” I promise.
Color flooded her cheeks, but her smile—good Christ—lit the room and blinded anyone from seeing her slip whatever she held in her hand into the back pocket of her shorts.
“As much as I’m enjoying the hell out of you two,” Dante said, moving into the room, “we need to clean this shit up and get the hell out of here before your brother wakes up. He’s such an ass in the morning. Don’t you think, sorella?”
Vivi’s grin grew so big and brilliant that all her teeth showed.
She flashed it to me and then to Dante before throwing herself at him.
He locked her in his arms, staring at me while he did.
Glaring an accusation I couldn’t deny. She had hidden something important.
Something the family wanted, and something she found among a pile of designer dresses.
Simone’s secret belonged to Vivienne now.
And Dante and I both knew it.