Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Sophia
“You’re wasted,” I hissed as Gio looped his arm around my waist and pulled me toward him right in the center of the dance floor.
I’d noticed right away how glazed his eyes were and how weird his voice had sounded, but I hadn’t put two and two together right away. It had been years since I had seen him like this. In fact, the last time I had, I had been about thirteen, and he had disappeared for six months,
Now I realized he had been sent to rehab, but I hadn’t back then.
“Gio.” I tilted my head up to his, but from this angle, all I could really see was his angular jaw. Which he was moving side to side.
Shaking my head, I tried to pull away. This was a nightclub, and him holding me like we were slow dancing was going to cause issues. People would look at us. Matteo would look at us.
“What drugs have you taken?” Catching his chin, I yanked his face down so I could stare into his eyes. “Jesus.”
This up close and personal, he looked even worse.
“Don’t fucking touch me.” He slapped my hand away painfully and tightened his grip on me. “Just stand here and fucking listen. The sooner I can leave this dump, the better.”
Again, he pulled me into him.
“It isn’t a dump,” I muttered, and his fingers dug painfully into my hip. “And why did you come if you didn’t want to be here. You should have been…”
“Jesus, Sophia, do you ever stop fucking talking? I don’t know how Matteo puts up with,” his chest rose and fell, “well, I’m guessing you don’t do much talking at all.
Do you know how hard it was walking in here and seeing you sitting on his lap with his hand up your dress like a common street walker? ”
I stiffened. “You’re the one who put me in this situation, Gio,” I ground out. “You’re the one who dragged me back here.”
“Yeah, to help me,” he spat, and some of his spittle hit me in the face.
I blinked it away. “I am…”
“You’re not helping Sophia. You’re fucking in his bed and fucking him, aren’t you? My sister and my best…”
I rolled my eyes. “What did you expect to happen, Gio? That he would take me as his mistress, which was something you agreed to without talking to me, by the way, and we would sit around and knit cardigans?”
“I didn’t expect you to act like a whore and enjoy it.”
I lost my temper. Lifting myself to my tiptoes, I lowered my voice. “Would you have preferred he raped me? Would that have made you feel better?” I bristled. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up.
Someone was watching me, and it didn’t take a genius to know who. Matteo.
Half-twisting in my brother's arms, I lifted my head to the balcony, but I couldn’t see anything. The strobing multicoloured lights made it impossible. I knew he was up there, though. I could feel him watching.
“I’m a grown woman, Gio.”
“You’re his slut.”
For several long seconds, I stared up into the face I had once idolized, and not for the first time since I had been here, I wondered when he had changed or if he had always been this selfish.
“Go fuck yourself, Gio. I’m leaving.”
“How about Lily?”
I froze. Turning back to him in shock. “What about her?” I couldn’t help it. My voice shook.
“It would be a shame if her father found out she’s out alive, wouldn’t it?”
Slowly, I turned back to him. “You don’t know who her father is,” I hissed.
At least, I hoped he didn’t.
“Oh, come on, Sophia. The kid is Matteo’s.”
The blood drained from my face. The world seemed to tilt off its axis, and I swayed. “It’s not. You…”
He couldn’t know that. Not for sure.
“Listen, little sister.” This time, he pulled me into his arms so we could continue our weird swaying back and forth dance that made us stand out like a sore thumb.
“The fact you were his little slut all those years ago doesn’t matter now. In fact, it makes things a lot easier. I just don’t need to have it thrown in my face. How do you think that makes me feel?”
How was I to answer that? My lips thinned. It was strange, because if anyone was listening in, they would assume Gio was an ex-boyfriend and not my brother. He sure did sound like a bitter, jealous lover.
Gross.
But I had to be wrong, right? Either that, or the drugs were making him act out of character.
Yes, that’s what it was. The drugs were messing with my brother’s mind.
“Gio, I think you need help…”
His glassy eyes flashed. “I do. Your help, Sophia, and you owe our family that much. Seeing as when our parents were being murdered, you were sharing a bed with the man responsible.”
“I wasn’t…”
“Yes, you were. Do you think I didn’t know? My sister whoring herself out…” His voice shook with anger. “He was using you, you know/”
I closed my eyes as old pain flowed through me. “I know.”
Sometimes it was easy to forget that. Especially when Matteo held me in his arms.
“He was using both of us, but you?” Gio’s voice dropped to a hissing whisper. “You were his pet project. He killed our parents, but what he did to you was so much worse because he fucking ruined you. You were worthless after he had you.”
My throat burned with the need to sob. I knew all of this. It wasn’t even the first time Gio had said something similar, but now that I knew he had always known it was Matteo who had fathered my baby and taken my virginity, it felt even worse.
The pain was so fresh.
I opened my mouth to tell him that I wasn’t worthless, but he spoke first and cut me off. “He needs to die.”
My head snapped back. Speechless, I stared at him.
“You know it’s true, Sophia. For what he did to our family, he needs to die. We will never have any peace while he is alive.” My brother’s eyes narrowed. “You won’t ever have any peace.”
“Gio…” My voice shook.
“If you won’t do it to avenge your family, then do it for Lily.
God knows what he will do to you and her if he finds out.
Maybe he will kill you both, or maybe he will take her away from you, and you will never see her again.
” His eyes narrowed. “You do want to see her again, don’t you, little sister? ”
Mutely, I nodded. I didn’t trust myself to speak. Not now,
“Then you will do this for me. For us, for our family. For Lily.”
That was twice he had used her name now. He never used her name. It made me squirm uncomfortably. My brother never called her by her name. She was always “the kid.”
Not that I was surprised, not now that I knew he knew Matteo was the father.
“Do what?”
“Poison.”
One word, and I felt like I was going to faint. The dance floor with its mass of people and flashing lights blurred together and spun around me until it was only his bruising hands on my hips that kept me upright.
“You want to poison him?” I hissed. “Wouldn’t it be easier to…”
Violence was a massive part of his world. It would be easier and less suspicious if he was shot.
Did I want Matteo to be shot?
No, of course I didn’t.
“I want you to poison him.”
I whirled back, completely taken by surprise. “What? No way. That’s not what I agreed to do. I just thought…”
“It has to be you, Sophia.”
Wildly, I shook my head. “You can’t expect that from me, Gio. I’m not a murderer. I could never—" I broke off, my thoughts going a million miles an hour. I could never kill anyone, but there was no way I could murder the only man I had ever loved.
I just didn’t have it in me.
“Please don’t ask me to do that, Gio.” I was so close to tears that my throat felt constricted.
“I’m not asking Sophia. I am telling you,” he growled out.
“And what exactly are you telling my woman, Gio?” Matteo’s voice rang out from right behind me.
Shit. Had he been there and listening all along? But no, Gio would have seen him.
Gio was so wasted that he couldn’t even stand up straight, a small voice in my head said snidely.
“This is a private conversation between me and my sister.” Puffing himself up, Gio tried to yank me back into him.
“And that conversation is now over.” Matteo didn’t step forward or reach for him. His voice remained even and low, with no signs of threat, but it was menacing anyway.
“I want to dance with my woman.”
“Sophia doesn’t want…”
“You don’t talk for me, Gio.” Freeing myself from his arms, I went to stand next to Matteo. No one moved. The two men, who had once been the most important people in my life, just glared at each other like I was something they could fight over.
“You heard her. Leave. You’re not welcome here now. Your sister doesn’t want to talk to you.”
“You don’t talk for me either, Matteo,” I snapped. Head held high, I stomped away. I had too much to think about and process to deal with them.
Matteo caught up with me, grabbing my wrist and twirling me into his arms. “Dance with me.”
“I’m really not in the mood,” I murmured against his chest, but I didn’t yank myself away.
“Dance with me,” he repeated. Two big hands slid down my waist to cup my ass and grind into me. “You can be mad at me and still dance with me. Seeing you and Gio…”
I cut him off but didn’t raise my head. “I’m mainly just mad at him. He’s a mess.”
“What did he say to you?”
Shit. I’d walked right into that one. Matteo had heard the end of the conversation.
“He doesn’t like the dress.”
I felt Matteo stiffen. “What?”
“It’s nothing. He just doesn’t like me dressing like this, I guess.” God, the lies just kept coming. “And I think seeing us together—"
“He was the one who put us back together.”
“I know. None of this makes a bit of sense.”
“Look at me, Sophia.”
Warily, I tilted my head up, forcing myself to meet his eyes.
“Are you lying to me, Sophia?”
Mutely, I shook my head. “Of course not. It was just about my dress.”
Holding me close, he swiped his thumb under my eye. “Then why are you crying?”
Confused, I stared at the wetness on his thumb.
“It’s just…Jesus Matteo.” I sighed heavily.
“Look around you. This was your dream as a kid. And you did it. You have everything you have ever wanted. And I…” I shrugged.
“Forget it. This is just making me sad, and my brother being an ass pushed me over the edge.” Reaching up, I wrapped my arms around his throat, rising up to press my lips to his.
“You would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?” Matteo whispered against my mouth. “You would tell me if Gio was threatening you in any way?”
“He’s not. I’m just sad because I keep thinking about the past and wondering…”
His dark eyebrows shot up. “Wondering what?”
I shook my head.
“But he’s not threatening you? Because it looked like he was.”
“He wasn’t threatening me.” I forced myself to smile, and that was the truth.
Gio hadn’t threatened me.
He had threatened my child.