8. Renzo
T wo days after Luka’s funeral, Gio called me into his study.
I steadied my breath, trying to be patient as I headed there. He’d been on my ass all week with the same order—find Luka’s killer. As if I could’ve forgotten. And that was all I’d fucking done. The day after the funeral, I was on the road and speaking with capos. Checking in with everyone in the organization, both to let them know I was in charge now and would take the role seriously and to investigate who could have killed my brother.
Yesterday, I was doing more of the same. I’d lost too many hours speaking with a supposed spy the men had caught. He’d been playing a game with us, pretending that he knew valuable details about what really happened the night of Luka and Cecilia’s wedding, but he was just bluffing, trying to earn a little money.
Stupid.
No one bribed us and won. Once we realized he was messing with us and didn’t have any intel to identify Luka’s killer, I had the soldiers torture him until he begged for death.
I didn’t have time to deal with fools like that, and I didn’t have the patience to deal with my father now. But I went to see him regardless.
“You called?” I greeted.
“Rocco Acardi is dead.” He steepled his fingers together and eyed me closely.
What. The. Fuck? I froze, refusing to give away any indication of shock. I was a quick learner. In this position of being the next in line to rule the Bernardi Family, I couldn’t ever let anyone see what I was feeling. It was a hard lesson to acclimate to. I enjoyed being human, fun-loving and reckless. Now, I had to perfect that stupid blank mask I’d always hated on Luka.
“Dead?”
He nodded. “According to Isabella Acardi, he was killed.”
I sat, unable to look away. “What do you mean, according to Isabella ?”
“She claims he was killed, but for fuck’s sake, Rocco wasn’t aging well.”
“How’d he die?” It had to include suspicious circumstances to have a debatable cause of death.
“Cardiac arrest.”
I narrowed my eyes. Just like Luka had, officially. The autopsy showed traces of poison in my brother’s blood, and he was too young and fit to croak from a natural cause like a heart attack.
Rocco wasn’t. He indulged in food and alcohol. He was winded in fights, out of shape.
“I’ve never trusted that woman,” Gio said roughly. “I wouldn’t put it past her if Rocco died naturally but she wanted to use the news to her advantage.”
“How?” Without Rocco, Dario would be the de-facto leader. But he was younger and handicapped, not a leader figure like Rocco had been.
Damn, Giulia. Instead of wondering how Isabella was handling and twisting the loss of her husband, I quickly grew worried about how Giulia was taking the death of her father.
“To sow doubts. To incite drama.” Gio rolled his eyes. “To insist on sympathy. Having your spouse killed gains more respect than telling everyone about what a weak, old fool they were to die in their sleep.”
“Speaking of spouses dying,” I said, “where the fuck is Cecilia?”
He sighed. “No one knows.”
I grunted. “Fucking hell, Gio. She’s your daughter-in-law.”
“Was,” he argued. “For all of a goddamn hour.”
I tilted my head to the side, not understanding his stance on her absence. “Still, you can’t ask Marcus where the hell she is?”
He narrowed his eyes, seeming annoyed that I’d talk back. “You. You ask Marcus. Better yet, ask Nickolas. I’ll need you to meet with him soon about a drug trade he and Luka were arranging.”
I sighed, nodding and rubbing my brow. Business, business, business. No wonder Luka was a dead-eyed zombie. He never had a chance to live. I hadn’t taken a break from all these duties since they were thrust on me, and all I wanted to do if I could have a moment alone was explore this desire Giulia had instilled in me.
After all these days, I missed her. She’s come to matter too damn much, and as I realized my thoughts were wandering back to her, to the memories of her kisses and her surrender, I knew I had to stop it all.
Now, of all times, I couldn’t be distracted. Gio would only nag me more the longer it took me to find Luka’s killer.
I wanted to reach out to her and check on her, but I couldn’t afford to do so with any personal interest. “Did they have a funeral? For Rocco?”
Gio shook his head. “Isabella wanted it to be a private affair.”
I checked my phone, standing and prepared to take off—again—to speak with a soldier who’d been spying on someone who’d stolen from us recently. “Is that all?” I asked. I wasn’t sure why Gio wanted to personally tell me that Rocco had been killed.
“Did you kill him?”
I slanted my eyebrows, squinting at him. “What?”
“Did you kill Rocco?” he asked.
“No.”
He smirked. “Figures.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I expect you to find Luka’s killer. And for a moment, when I heard about this, I got my hopes up that you’d done it.”
I rolled my eyes. After talking with Giulia, I saw how stupid it was to assume Rocco was the killer. “If I had, I would’ve been sure to get his confession to it, then told you as soon as it was done.”
He shrugged. “A man can only hope.”
“Hope for what?” Stop talking in fucking riddles.
“That you’re not as worthless as you’ve always been. That when I ask you to avenge your brother, you will.”
I didn’t reply, leaving him and wishing I could punch that smug sneer right off his face. It wasn’t my fault that he had this low opinion of me. He'd made sure to dismiss me my whole life, and now I had to redefine myself on the spot.
At the club where I was supposed to meet with the man who’d have intel for me, I grabbed a drink and waited for twenty minutes. The man texted, saying he was on the trail of that guy again, and I sighed, realizing I’d been sitting here for no reason all this time.
It wasn’t wasted, though. I killed the time by looking up news about Rocco’s death, unsurprised when I didn’t find much. Like anyone else in the Mafia world, Isabella knew how to manipulate the news. And it seemed she had.
I left, still looking at my phone as I overheard Nickolas Romano entering the club. It was on neutral ground, not a Bernardi or Romano establishment, but I perked up when he mentioned Giulia’s name.
“Now that Rocco’s out of the way, I could,” he said to another man walking into the club with him.
Can what? I ducked to the side of the hall, sticking with the shadows to listen in.
“You’d do that?” the other man asked.
Nickolas huffed a laugh. “Yeah. I could take over the Acardi Family by marrying Giulia.”
They headed in while I left, and as I walked to my car, I mulled over that idea.
Nickolas Romano marrying Giulia Acardi. It left a nasty taste in my mouth. I hated the thought of that fucker claiming her virginity. Of taking her like I now wanted to. I’d always been aware of her beauty, but it was only since we’d both snapped to the attraction between us that I became obsessed with having her.
“Forget about it,” I mumbled to myself.
Nickolas would marry her if he saw a benefit to it. And what could I do about it? Not a single fucking thing. She’d be arranged in a marriage someday, and it wouldn’t be to me. We were all subject to being married off, pawns for alliances, and there was no way in hell my father would suggest I marry Isabella’s daughter.
I got into my car and came face to face with her. Or rather, face to reflection. I held my breath and narrowed my eyes at Giulia sitting in the backseat of my car.
“What the…?” I looked at her, worried. “How the fuck did you get in here?”
“I taught myself to pick locks when I was six years old.”
Impressive. She must have been a bored child.
“ Why are you here?”
She sighed, sinking against the seat. I didn’t have to be a genius to see that she needed a moment. Hell, I did too. Hearing Nickolas make plans to conquer her and have her as his wife didn’t sit well with me. Knowing she’d sought me out mattered.
But what do you want?
I’d parked in the corner. No one could see in here with the tinted windows, and I marveled at the fact that she knew which car was mine.
She’d been aware of me all this time too, and it sucked that we were crashing too close together now when there was no chance of anything happening.
When she sighed, glancing out the window, I bit my lip and got out.
Was she sad? Mad? Lost and confused? She wasn’t supposed to matter. I wasn’t supposed to care. But I did. I got out of the driver’s seat and got into the back with her, facing her profile.
“Aren’t you supposed to be all important now, taking Luka’s position and having a driver to take you everywhere?”
I scooted in closer. “ That’s why you broke into my car to talk to me?” Her scent hit me hard, enticing me to grab her and hold her close. Her bold gaze threatened to make me lose my mind.
All I wanted was her, a chance to be alone with her, but I knew it was wrong. Now that we were in this private bubble, shrouded and hidden in my car, I wasn’t sure how to approach. Or whether I should.
Her silent stare unnerved me, and that damn worry crept back in. She looked so confused, so troubled, and I wanted to smooth away every worry in her mind. Never had I wanted to take care of a woman so badly, and she was the last one on earth I should be staring at and fighting back this possessive, protective streak over.
“Did you kill my father?” she asked bluntly.
I rolled my eyes. “No.”
“How can I trust you?”
I shrugged. “You can’t.”
She licked her lips, staring at my mouth. “I trusted you to prove yourself to me before.”
In making her come. Fuck. She was trouble.
“Now’s not a good time,” I warned.
But her face fell. That sad, mad, and confused frown deepened as she crawled closer and straddled me. I set my hands on her hips, then her ass, as she settled on top of my lap. When she looped her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly, I furrowed my brow, at a loss for what was going on.
“We will never have a good time,” she whispered.
You got that right.
I rubbed my hands up her back, stunned that she would be so bold as to seek comfort from me. And that I would want to provide it. As she drew in a shaky breath, I held her tighter and gripped her back to keep her flush to me.
“I didn’t kill Rocco,” I told her. It mattered that she knew that. “I was at the bar with Gio and my relatives well into the night after the funeral.”
She sighed, leaning on me and pressing all of her sweet curves to me.
I rubbed her back, relishing this almost peaceful moment she’d insisted on so stubbornly. Asking her if she was all right would be stupid. She couldn’t be. Her father had died, and now she was vulnerable. “Giulia?”
“Hmm.”
“Did your father engage in any talks about your marriage?”
She leaned back, staring at me with a scowl. “No. At least, not that I know of.” Setting her hands on my shoulders, she cast her gaze down. “Besides, he wouldn’t have cared or had any say in it. My mother is scheming. She’ll be the one to choose my fate. Father never cared about anything.”
I watched her trace her fingers over the buttons of my shirt, absent and listless about it, like she couldn’t sit still.
“All he wanted to do was drink and get away from my mother and his daughters.” She looked up at me, pinning me with a sober stare. “I found him that morning.” Her throat flexed with a tense swallow. “And I had to make the arrangements for his private funeral.”
I saw how much she’d been through, and with Isabella as a mother, she would’ve been on her own through it all. For her sisters, too. While Giulia didn’t seem sad about her father’s death, she was stressed. And worried.
Seeing her so concerned bothered me. It excited me that she’d been so desperate to see me that she broke into my car just to talk, but I hated what I’d overheard.
Should I tell her? Will she appreciate the heads up that Nickolas is trying to take over her Family now?
“And all I wanted was… to feel safe again. Like I do when I’m near you.” She sighed, letting her shoulders slump as she gazed at me with such longing that I wanted to growl.
“That’s stupid.”
“I know.” She halfheartedly flicked her finger between us. “We’re enemies.”
Doesn’t feel like it, does it? The warmth between her legs made me harder. Feeling her weight over my dick threatened to change the course of this topic.
But I reined in my lust. I fought it, wrangling it back into control because neither of us could handle the curveball of wanting each other.
I framed her face and pulled her close to kiss her brow. Giving a tender kiss wasn’t my style. Giulia’s vulnerability shouldn’t have been my kryptonite.
Which was why all I could tell her was this sincere warning. “You need to stay away from me. From looking into Luka’s death, and your father’s. You need to stay out of it, Giulia.”
Beneath the sadness and longing burning in her eyes, I saw the curiosity that wouldn’t quit.
That would only promise more worries.
And more trouble.