Chapter 14 #2
Who’d have thought that Gino Vicario would end up being her saviour? The same Gino who’d forced his way onto the Esposito Group board and forced the Espositos into letting him buy a share in it.
That had been the moment Siena had really felt the ground shifting beneath her feet. For the first time since their father began his rise to power, the Espositos had been outsmarted.
All that energy spent on Gino when Elio had been hiding there unnoticed, waiting like a snake to strike.
Gino would have to hope that Elio was amenable to working with him.
As the majority shareholder of the Esposito Group by a huge margin, Elio could run it as he saw fit.
He could run it into the ground if he wanted. Probably, he would.
Tommaso and Gabriella had hunkered down in Gabriella’s apartment as Siena had known they would, the same with Rico and Marisa in their farmhouse. Rico had offered Siena a home with them, but it was an offer she couldn’t take even if she wanted to. She would never be allowed to leave Naples again.
God knew where Mattia had gone. He wasn’t answering any of his phones. She supposed Elio would know. He knew everything.
The only member of her family she couldn’t let herself think about was her mother. She had to take it on trust that Elio would keep to his word and not let her suffer physically, which was a bigger irony than Gino Vicario being her saviour.
Trust Elio, the man she’d known all along not to trust, to keep his word?
Strangely, though, she did. It was the only crumb of comfort she could take from the whole sorry mess.
All her family was alive and whole. She should take comfort in that, too, but her heart was too shattered to feel anything but pain.
She’d lost everything. Her father was dead, her family fractured, their wealth and power gone. Her shattered heart couldn’t grieve any of it.
She’d known Elio hated her, had known even when they’d become true lovers that a piece of his heart would never let go of his loathing for her, but to learn it ran so much deeper than she’d ever believed lanced the soul he didn’t believe she had.
Maybe he was right about that.
Knowing she’d been born whilst her city was being sprayed in blood was something that had always sat badly in her, but learning she’d been born as Elio’s mother lay dying at her father’s hand…
Oh, God, of course he hated her for that. How could he not? Every time he looked at her, he would see his dead mother. He’d hated her since she’d taken her first breath and would carry a part of that hate until she took her last.
What made it all so much harder to bear was knowing that a part of him had developed feelings for her.
He hated that she lived for what her life symbolised and hated the choices she’d made with her life, but he hated, too, that one day he might be forced to kill her.
Her once mortal enemy no longer wanted her to die.
It gave no more comfort than anything else.
The happy ending her heart had yearned for would never happen.
The happiness she’d found in Elio’s arms was gone forever.
It was a happiness built on a lie, just like the rest of her life.
* * *
Elio entered Gino’s eponymously named nightclub surrounded by his entourage. In the ten days since he’d taken control of the Espositos’ empire, his whole world had changed.
He was now one of the most powerful men in Italy. Certainly the most powerful in Naples. People treated him differently. Deference and respect were automatic.
He was still to find the euphoria he’d spent all those years waiting for.
He was at the club for a private meeting with Gino Vicario, who had a minority shareholding in the Esposito Group.
Elio didn’t know Gino well, but the lengths Gino had taken to force the Espositos into selling him that shareholding proved he needed to be taken seriously.
He also had contacts in their world with tentacles that ran as deep as Elio’s own.
“No Francesca?” Elio asked casually when Gino closed the door of the room their meeting was being held in.
“We agreed it would be just you and me.”
“How is she?”
Gino’s eyes turned cold. “We are not discussing my fiancée. She has nothing to do with our business.”
Elio smiled and took a seat.
Gino’s eyes turned even colder.
“If it will make our future relationship run more smoothly, then let me assure you, I was never serious about marrying her.”
Gino’s expression remained unchanged.
“Siena was always the Esposito I was going to marry.” One day, Elio hoped he’d be able to speak her name without feeling like he had a hot knife plunging into his chest.
“Well, that worked out well for you,” Gino said shortly. “Shall we get down to business?”
“I understand she’s living in one of your apartments.”
Gino took a sharp breath. “You would have her on the streets?”
“It wasn’t a threat,” Elio assured him. “It’s good that she has you and Francesca.
But I’m not here to talk about my estranged wife; I’m here to talk business, and the first piece of business is my intention to sell my holding in the Esposito Group.
Take the time to think about whether you want to sell with me or hold on to your shares.
I assume you don’t want to buy it from me. ”
“Why would you assume that?”
Elio shook his head with a wry smile. “We both know you forced them to sell you your share as leverage over them so you could move deeper into their shadowed world. Well, their shadowed world belongs to me now, and I’m open to working closely with you in it.”
Gino’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m serious. That was the other piece of business I wanted to discuss. A new order in our world has been formed with me at its head, and I need men in my inner circle that I can trust. I want one of those men to be you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Always.”
There was a long pause. “Why me?”
Why me, Elio? Why me?
He blinked Siena’s voice away.
In the long ten days since she’d left the villa, her voice was never far from his ear.
“Many reasons. You’re smart, you’re self-made, and you’re hungry. Our world is dangerous, but your love for Francesca means you will think twice about taking unnecessary risks. Hot-heads have their uses, but not when it comes to conducting business.”
“You’re not afraid that my outsmarting the Espositos means I can outsmart you?”
“You outsmarted them and took a small portion of the Esposito Group. I outsmarted them and took everything.”
Gino held his stare. After another long pause, he shook his head, and his features loosened. “You certainly did that. Drink?”
The change in atmosphere was palpable. “A malt whisky would be good,” Elio said appreciatively.
“Neat?”
“Is there any other way?”
A smile came close to cracking Gino’s face.
Moments later, they were both nursing a hefty measure of aged whisky.
“What happens if I refuse your offer?” Gino asked, leaning back in his chair.
Elio shrugged. “Then you refuse. I’m offering you everything you wanted from the Espositos and more, but I’m not going to put a gun to your head for it. I prefer to conduct business without blood being shed, which is why I am making this offer to you.”
Gino gave another slow nod. “Can I speak freely?”
“Of course.”
“Francesca hates your guts.”
“I don’t imagine there’s an Esposito alive who doesn’t,” he said drily.
“She doesn’t hate you for what you did to the family as a whole but for what you did to Siena.”
And just as he wished he could speak her name without having the sensation of a hot knife being plunged into his chest; Elio wished the same for whenever her name was uttered.
Keeping all emotion from his face, he looked Gino in the eye. “Siena always knew what she was getting into.”
And she’d married him regardless. To save Francesca from the fate she feared for her.
How, he’d wondered many times since they’d parted, had he known that his plot of insisting Francesca be his bride would work? How the hell had he been so sure that Siena would capitulate?
“I don’t disagree – Siena’s told us herself that she knew your vengeance wasn’t over when you married, but Francesca hero-worships her. She’ll go along with whatever decision I make, but it’s only fair to warn you that if I do agree to work with you, you are unlikely to be welcome in our home.”
“Noted. It doesn’t change my position.” Draining his whisky, he pushed his chair back and got to his feet. “Think about it and let me know. And let me know what you want to do with your shares in the Esposito Group.”
“I don’t need to think about it, but I do need to speak to Francesca before I confirm anything.”
“You’re on board?”
“Unofficially, yes.”
“Then we will shake hands on it when you confirm it officially.”
“Give me until the end of the weekend?”
“Sure.”
Only when they were about to leave the room did Elio find himself unable to hold himself back from casually asking, “How is Siena?”
Gino raised his shoulders. “Francesca thinks she’s pining for you, but I think that’s what she wants to see. Siena’s the same tough cookie she’s always been.”
“She is that,” Elio agreed, before, on impulse, he patted Gino’s shoulder. “Tell Francesca I’m glad Siena’s got her in her corner.”