Chapter 15 Constantine
Constantine
“What the fuck is wrong with your face?” Rocco asked as he stood across the table from me.
“What?”
“You’ve been smiling for like fifteen minutes straight. It’s fucking weird.”
I scoffed. “Fuck you, asshole.”
“What are you so happy about?”
“Aurelia.”
“She suck your dick for the first time—”
“Are you trying to get me to punch you in the face?”
He gave a quiet chuckle. “You make it so easy, Con. May as well put a big red button on your forehead that says Aurelia on it.”
“Your woman should be your big red button.”
“Seriously, tell me what you’re so happy about. Because last time we spoke, you were in a pretty dark place.” He moved to the open chair and dropped into it, shutting the laptop in front of him even though he hadn’t been using it.
I’d had to look my brother’s killer in the face and play a game of diplomacy.
It felt like a betrayal to him and to my family.
The guilt choked me from the inside out.
But then a fight with Aurelia changed all that.
“Aurelia said she loved me.” The smile crept back at the memory, the way she didn’t let me finish saying it first before she cut me off.
“I thought you guys were long past that.”
“I was trying to take it slow.”
“Slow?” he asked. “She’s living with you and you’re dropping the L-word, when you met six weeks ago.”
“What can I say? When you’re in love, every day feels like a week.” It’d been a whirlwind, a tornado that lifted me off my feet. I’d spent the last decade questioning the decisions I made, the path I took in life, jumping from bed to bed and woman to woman.
“By that math, then it would be a year, which is still pretty fast.”
“Asshole, you’re supposed to be happy for me.”
He grinned for a moment before the smile faded and the seriousness crept in. “Come on, you know I’m happy for you. I like Aurelia and think she suits you well. Just like to tease you a little bit.”
I pulled out the chair and sat across from him, the place a mess with old take-out meals, devices, guns, and grenades. Constant clutter because there was never time to organize the space, not when there was so much going on all the time. “Thanks. Means a lot to me.”
He gave a nod. “Gonna ask her to marry you?”
“Yeah.” I knew I would. Had no doubt about it.
His eyebrows rose slightly, like he was surprised. “Now?”
“I don’t know when, honestly,” I said. “I’m happy where we are right now.”
“And how do you think this will affect your work?”
“Affect my work?” I asked in slight surprise.
“Surely it must have crossed your mind already.” He sat back in the chair, hands together as his elbows propped on the armrests.
“I told her from the beginning that I’m never walking away from this. Not if I get married, not if I have kids. And she’s not the type of woman to try to change my mind either. She was shaken up by what Pierre did to her, but she bounced back pretty quickly. I think she can handle it.”
He gave a nod. “Yeah, I think she can handle it too.”
“She’s it, man,” I said as I gave a slight shake of my head.
“I’m almost thirty-five, so I started to wonder if she was out there.
But she was in Rome the whole time, right under my fucking nose.
” I’d spent time with a lot of beautiful women who had a lot to offer, but whatever I was looking for just wasn’t there.
Whoever said you couldn’t choose who you loved was right on the money, because I’d been ready to settle down for a few years and felt absolutely nothing for every woman and every fling.
I wasn’t sure exactly what made Aurelia stand out to me, but whatever it was got me the second I saw her.
My phone started to ring in my pocket, so I fished it out and glanced at the screen, my instinct always going to Aurelia in case she needed me.
My priorities had already changed drastically if she was the first thing I thought about every time my phone went off.
But it wasn’t her. It was one of my guys in Florence. “Roger, what’s going on?”
He skipped the small talk and pleasantries. “Been a lot of movement here, Con.”
It was a vague message, but it made my heart drop like a stone.
“Tanks, Hummers, the Skull Kings are making big moves—and they’re headed south.”
My eyes went to Rocco across the table.
He was absolutely still, focused on me like he could hear the words over the line.
I put Roger on speaker and set the phone on the table. “You’re on speaker. Rocco’s here. Know anything else?” I asked, hunching over the phone as I scooted closer to the edge of the table.
“No,” Roger said. “But it’s a massive operation. All hands on deck, it seems.”
Rocco continued to stare at me.
I stared back. “Let me know if you hear anything else.” I hit the red button and hung up.
“The arms operation was either a distraction or the gesture of an alliance,” Rocco said.
“So an attack is coming from the east and the north . . .”
“Possibly. Perhaps he gave those arms in exchange for helping him take Rome.”
“Or he’s just pissed that I called him out for being a traitor, so he’s coming for me.”
Rocco nodded. “Either way, he’s coming for Rome.”
I nodded in agreement, and instead of launching into action, I thought of the two people who mattered most. “I need to move Aurelia and Medusa to a safe house. You prepare for the attack.”
He was already out of his chair and across the room.
I got to my feet because I couldn’t sit still with all the adrenaline knotted in my stomach. It was after midnight when I called Aurelia, and I hoped she’d answer. Otherwise, Elio would have to wake her up. It rang a couple times, and she didn’t answer. “Pick up the phone . . .”
After the fourth ring, she finally answered. “Constantine?” she asked in a tired voice.
“Sweetheart, I’m about to come at you with a lot, so listen carefully. Pack a bag and get ready to leave. My guys are moving you and Medusa to another location.”
That yanked her out of sleep in record time. “What’s happened?”
“I don’t have time for this. Do as I say.”
She didn’t ask me again. “Okay.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too,” she said quickly.
I hung up, told my guys to move the girls, called the security at the Vatican so they could discreetly move the pope in case he was a possible target, and then prepared for the moment I’d been waiting for.
To finally kill Darius.