Chapter 4 #2
He could still hear his grandmother’s words as they drove away from the cemetery after burying his father, her son.
“It’s time to stop crying, Elio. You’re the man of our family now.
It is up to you to take back what we have lost and avenge those who have been taken from us.
You cannot do that if you think with the emotions of a child.
You need to start thinking like a man, so no more tears. ”
He’d not shed a tear since. Not spared himself an emotion since. His life had been devoted to bringing himself to the exact space he now occupied.
Only when he’d destroyed the Espositos would he allow himself the luxury of emotion.
He cared not if his name had meant anything to this pampered princess when she was growing up.
She knew it now, and she knew the power behind it.
She was in his power, and for as long as he wanted.
They might not fully accept it, but all her family were in his power.
He’d not yet accrued the levels of wealth they enjoyed, but he’d accrued something much more important: the loyalty of his army.
Lorenzo Esposito thought he’d been so clever in framing Elio’s father for Fabio Romaro’s death. And he had been. For years, no one had dared voice their doubts. After all, history was written by the victors. In this case, though, the victor had left one of the witnesses alive. Elio.
He’d been there when his father received the call about Fabio’s death.
His big bear of a father had turned pale.
He remembered that bit so clearly. His mother had noticed his pallor too, and when they sent Elio to his room so they could talk in private, he’d disobeyed, standing on the other side of the kitchen door, listening.
His mother’s voice had been panicked. “Are you sure it wasn’t one of your men, Marco?”
“I am telling you, this is him. He’s framing me.”
“But why?”
“Why do you think? I’ve been saying for years that fucking Esposito dwarf can’t be trusted. You need to take the children and get out of the city…”
Which had been the point when Elio’s little brother had started crying, for what reason he didn’t remember, but he’d raced to the room he shared with him before he was caught eavesdropping on a conversation he hadn’t understood but which had made his chest turn cold.
He’d understood it later. After his parents and most of the rest of his family had been wiped out.
His testimony nearly two decades later had brought many of the doubters to his side.
Many of those doubters had lost people they loved in that turf war.
Lorenzo Esposito had been feared and respected, but he had not been as liked as he’d believed.
All of the doubters had liked and respected Elio’s father.
“What would you have done if my marriage to Niccolo had gone ahead and my father hadn’t died?” his spoils of war asked, her voice laced with bitterness. “You couldn’t have married me then.”
“There is such a thing as divorce.”
Her eyes flashed. “Did it piss you off when my engagement was announced? Did you think your plans had been thwarted?”
“Did it piss you off when Niccolo jilted you?” he shot back with a smile.
“Yes.”
He pulled a mock sympathetic face. “Was the pampered princess in love?”
She hit him with a look that could turn the oceans to ice. “Don’t pretend you don’t know the marriage was arranged by my father.”
“I’m not pretending anything. How does it feel to be traded like cattle by those who love you?”
Her lips tightened, only briefly, but briefly enough for him to know he’d touched another nerve.
“I’ve known for a long time that I’m going to marry you,” he said, and enjoyed the tiny shiver of her body at this.
“All those looks we shared in all those clubs and bars…” He shook his head.
“Every time our eyes met, I would think to myself, this is the woman I’m going to marry, and she doesn’t even know it. ”
Siena’s blood had gone cold. Her instincts about Elio had been right, and right from that very first look between them.
She’d even confided in Gabriella once how unnerving she found his stare, the sensation that if she let him get too close, his incisors would grow and sink into her neck.
Gabriella had been sympathetic, telling her to ignore him.
Siena was an Esposito; a nobody like Elio Ranieri couldn’t touch her.
But, of course, Gabriella’s sympathy and words of consolation had been fake.
It took all her courage to keep the lock of his stare and all the chutzpah she possessed to tilt her head and smile. “So it did piss you off when my engagement was announced.”
He laughed. “Have you not understood yet that I’ve been playing the long game?
I wasn’t surprised about your engagement.
Your father had been cultivating Niccolo’s friendship for a reason, so it made sense that it was to marry you off to him.
” His laughter became cynical. “That was so your father, wasn’t it, trading his daughter just so he could be related by marriage to the son of a duke in a country where royalty no longer means a damned thing. ”
The beats of her heart picking up speed, she felt her eyes widening.
“I wasn’t ready to make my move,” he continued, “so I decided to let your marriage play out. I knew you would be mine in the end. The fates rewarded my patience by having Niccolo jilt you at the altar and your father killed in one strike.” His eyes glittered.
“That was a fortuitous day for me, wasn’t it?
Who could have known a lifetime of crap food – your father really did like his fast food, didn’t he?
– would cut the great Lorenzo Esposito off in his prime?
His death weakened you all and made me stronger, and put all the pieces of my game together that much quicker. ”
“How long have you been watching us?” she whispered.
“Your whole life, princess. I’ve watched you all very closely, and tonight I will watch you as closely and as personally as one human can watch another.
” He smiled, the glittering of his silver, vampiric eyes deepening, and unhooked his ankle.
“But the evening is still many hours away, and I haven’t felt my new wife’s lips on mine for too long. Come here.”
Her heart now pounding hard, she shook her head. “No.”
“As you pointed out earlier, the casinos are your domain. I’ve agreed not to interfere with any of your so-called legitimate business activities, but you agreed to be my wife, and I want a kiss from my wife, so unless you want me to take your refusal as a declaration of war, come here.”
“Is this what my life’s going to be?”