Chapter 21 Constantine
Constantine
I dropped Aurelia off at work and then met up with my mom at the restaurant I intended to buy.
There was no one’s opinion I valued more than hers in this regard.
I walked through the street, then up the stairs to a small grouping of buildings comprising shops, apartments, and restaurants.
Mostly where the locals went because it was away from the main road that was always flooded with tourists who didn’t know where they were going.
My mom stood there in white jeans and a bright-blue blouse, texting on her phone while she waited for me to show up.
I walked up the last set of steps before I joined her in the quiet courtyard. It was abandoned this early in the morning. “Hey, Ma.”
She immediately put her phone away and flashed me a big smile. “Hey, honey.”
I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and then we walked to the front of the building.
The real estate agent was already inside, talking on the phone with another client while he stood in the corner.
The place was completely empty because everything had been removed, all the furniture, the ovens and stovetops, paintings that had been on the walls and left shadow marks behind.
Mom moved through the kitchen and examined the space with an expert eye, then walked through the lobby again before she came back to the kitchen once more. “It’s a little small, Con.”
“It’ll be mostly outdoor seating. Was going to build a canopy with flowers and fountains.”
“That could work,” she said as she looked outside. “There’s a lot of space out there. But you’re going to have to make it an outdoor-only restaurant because you’ll need more room in here to increase the kitchen size if you intend to serve that many people.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“But I do like it. It’s a nice spot. Quiet. Off the main path. What does Aurelia think of it?”
“Haven’t shown her yet. I don’t think she cares that much about all the details.” I knew she wanted to be a part of the business, but she wouldn’t have an opinion about the space or the specifics.
“She’s going to be your wife, Con. You’ve got to include her in everything.”
I grinned. “All right, Ma.”
“Great job on the ring, by the way.”
“Thanks. I know a guy in Paris.”
She stepped back outside, and the real estate agent continued to talk on the phone. “When’s the wedding?”
“She wants to do it in eight weeks.”
She nodded like that was easily done. “Let me know who you want me to call. I’m sure we can make anything happen.”
“Thanks, Ma.”
After I finished up with her and the real estate agent, I headed back home, hit the gym for an hour, and then jumped in the shower to wash off the rivulets of sweat that dripped all over my body whenever I worked out.
I set the air to sixty-five degrees and had the fans cranked, but I was still soaked.
When I was done, I put on my sweatpants, made a cup of coffee, and then went outside on the terrace. I sat on one of the couches in the shade of the umbrella, and Medusa hopped up and sat beside me, her chin resting on my thigh while my arm rested over her body.
I was on my phone when Elio’s text popped up.
Rocco is at the gate. Shall I let him in?
I read the message three times before I reacted to it, before I felt my heart drop into my stomach with the weight of a brick.
When Aurelia and I spoke about the wedding, his name popped up, and I knew his sudden appearance after that couldn’t be a coincidence.
Aurelia must have said something to him. Must have asked him to come.
I just couldn’t believe he’d actually done it.
I sat there for a moment and looked at the sea view before I typed a reply. Yes. Bring him to the terrace.
Of course, sir.
I pocketed my phone, then stood up, forcing Medusa to move aside.
I was suddenly warm and needed space, suddenly anxious when I never felt anxious.
My heart raced a million miles an hour, and it thumped in my chest like a bass drum.
I felt like I was about to face off with Darius . . . not my friend.
Or someone I used to know.
Elio appeared in the glass doorway and opened the door so Rocco knew where to find me. He was in his usual attire, black jeans and a black T-shirt, his dark hair a little longer than it’d been before, the shadow on his jawline darkening into a full beard.
Medusa immediately jumped up when she saw him and ran straight over.
Rocco’s serious face softened at the sight of her, and like they were still on good terms, he kneeled down and gave her a rubdown before he patted her on the flank.
“Glad you’re doing well, Medusa.” He rose to his full height again, his expression directly in the sunlight, and he was hard and serious once more.
His eyes looked at mine for the first time, and a beat of heavy silence followed.
He crossed the terrace and joined me under the shade of the massive umbrella, his hands sliding into his front pockets.
A silent stare-down ensued.
Medusa joined us, but she picked up on the tension and moved to another couch in the shade, staying out of our way.
The silence continued for a while, like Rocco had made the effort to come all the way here but now didn’t have a clue what to say.
To be fair, I didn’t know what to say either. I felt a lot of different things at once. I was still mad about the bullshit he’d said to me, but a part of me felt whole in his presence, like the piece of me that had been missing had somehow returned.
“President Barsetti told me he stopped by.”
Now I knew the purpose of his visit. “Yeah.”
“So you’re aware that Rome burns from the flames of our enemies—and you do nothing.”
So this was basically round two of our verbal fistfight. “I’m putting my family first—and that’s not nothing.”
“I thought I was your family.”
That stung like a hundred wasps attacking me at once.
“You called me your brother. And yet you abandon me and all your other men while you hide away in your fairy-tale storybook.”
“You seriously came all the way here to start shit?”
“I came here to finish it, Constantine. To make sure you’re painfully aware of the consequences of your cowardice—”
“You think I won’t throw you off this fucking balcony?”
Medusa straightened on the couch and issued a low growl.
I didn’t look at her when I addressed her.
“Heel, Medusa.” I stepped closer to Rocco.
“You have no idea how hard it was for me to walk away. The depression that drowned me every fucking day and I couldn’t catch a single breath.
When you love a woman someday, you will understand.
You will watch yourself burn the fucking world with your own goddamn matches.
I’m not sorry for turning my back on you or Rome—and I’d fucking do it again. ”
He watched me with his ice-cold eyes.
“But I wish it hadn’t come to this. I wish I hadn’t let Darius outsmart me.
That regret will haunt me for the rest of my life.
I failed everyone I care about, and that will always make me feel like shit.
Is that what you want to hear? That I hate myself for letting you and everyone down?
That I see the way you look at me right now, and it kills me a little more than it did before. Because yeah, I fucking hate myself.”
His eyes shifted back and forth between mine as he listened.
“Then come back. Outsmart him. Avenge your brother and save our city. I’m with you in this.
I agreed with you from the beginning that Darius needed to be handled, but everyone was too much of a pussy to face him. Let’s fucking finish him.”
For a brief second, I wanted to do it. Take his offer and return to Rome with guns blazing.
Wanted to rip Darius apart with my bare hands for touching my woman and shooting Medusa.
Wanted to break open that oil barrel and finally align my brother’s headstone with his remains.
Finally unleash this rage that had simmered below the surface every fucking day these last seven years.
Rocco’s eyes flicked back and forth between mine as if he saw it. “Yes . . . come on.”
But then that desire was washed away by reality. “The only reason he let me go was because I gave him my word. And my word only meant something because I always keep it. I can’t break it now.”
He released a frustrated sigh.
“He said if I ever came back, he wouldn’t just kill Aurelia and Medusa, but everyone I’ve ever known and loved. That means my mom, my sister, my cousins, my aunts and uncles . . . my entire line. I know you think I’m a coward for refusing to return, but I have to protect my own first.”
He bowed his head and released another frustrated sigh.
He dug his hands deep into his hair and his scalp before he abruptly dropped his arms. Then he looked at me again, his eyes furious.
“Con, he can’t kill your family if you kill him first. We hit him hard and put his bones in the ground, and everyone wins. ”
“The second he knows I’m in Rome, he’ll make good on his promise.”
“Where’s the man I knew?” he snapped. “The man who’s never even fucking blinked when a gun was pressed to his head.”
“The gun isn’t pointed at me, Rocco. It’s pointed at my wife. At my child. At my mom and my dog. If it were just me, then we both know I wouldn’t give a damn. You seriously don’t understand that? I thought you liked Aurelia.”
“I do like her,” he said. “I liked that she accepted you completely and was willing to support you in your reign. That she understood the risks of loving an emperor and chose to stay. I liked that she was fucking brave. But now, she won’t let you leave—”
“It’s not her.” I didn’t want to disclose this to him, not when it would just make him hate me more, if that was possible. “She told me she would hide and let me finish this. She’s always been supportive of me, even though I know Darius scared her to death. I’m the one who chooses to stay, Rocco.”
Disappointment filled his gaze.
“What kind of father would I be if I left?”
“You aren’t a father yet—”
“Something else you won’t understand until it happens to you, Rocco.
My life was forever and irrevocably changed the instant I knew she was pregnant.
I’m not a son or a brother or a friend anymore.
First and foremost, I’m a father. It’s primal and instinctive, and it would go against my very essence to risk the child I haven’t even met yet. I can’t do it, Rocco.”
His arms crossed over his chest, and he bowed his head slightly.
“I don’t understand why you need me anyway, Rocco.”
He lifted his chin slightly and looked at me again.
“I know you can do this.”
He gave a slight shake of his head. “You don’t get it, man.”
I was too afraid to ask exactly what I didn’t get.
“Grow a pair and turn on the fucking news, Con. Maybe then you’ll fucking get it.
” He tapped his fingers against his temple hard enough that I could hear the thud of his fingertips.
“Most of our men are either dead or they’ve fled—or they’ve joined him.
It’s me and a few others, with Barsetti’s military and police.
But it’s fucking complicated because Darius has his hands in the Senate now, and he’s threatening and bribing everyone left and right.
Policies are changing. Did you know he’s stripping people of their universal health care?
And you want to know why? Because he wants tariffs from the gangs and the government.
He wants the citizens of his country to pay him to destroy their republic.
Tourists have fled, hotels are vacant, motorbikes aren’t on the street anymore.
Never in my life have I ever described Rome this way—but it’s fucking quiet. ”
It killed me to hear all of that, but I still didn’t know what the solution would be. “It sounds like this is bigger than one person, Rocco.”
“You don’t understand why people left?” he asked incredulously.
“It’s because they lost all hope when their emperor skipped town.
When the person who’d transformed Rome into a goddamn legacy ran off in exile.
Not just the men who served the Roman Republic, but the police who felt protected under your regime, the Senate who never had to battle corruption because no one was dumb enough to try.
Perhaps you don’t fully understand the impact you had on everything and everyone in that city—but it was fucking massive.
I still believe in the Roman Republic.” He patted his palm against his chest. “I still believe in everything we stood and fought for. I will fight for it until it kills me—and in all honesty, it probably will kill me. And that’s okay because there are things worth dying for, and this is one of them.
So don’t be surprised if this is the last time we ever see each other .
. . because I know Darius is coming for me, and it’s only a matter of time before he finds me. ”