Chapter 30
The smell of paint clinging to Rodrigo, layered over the musk of Giana's arousal, was going to drive him crazy all day. He could still taste her and wanted to go back and follow through on his promise to use his tongue next time.
Walk it off. Give her space. Focus on keeping her safe.
Rodrigo was in a daze as he strode through the corridors of the Colleoni villa. War was coming, but instead of trying to control every plan and guard shift, he had just fucked his queen against a wall.
Mio Dio, what were you thinking? Just for once, he hadn't been. Giana had kissed him, and then he had no other thought but her.
Rodrigo searched for his brothers and wasn't surprised to find them in the kitchen stuffing their faces with lunch.
Leo was perched on a stool at the massive oak island, methodically demolishing a sandwich.
Dante leaned against the counter beside him, with an arm around him, and was nursing a mug of coffee.
Dario sat opposite Leo, his own sandwich already half-gone, crumbs scattered across the polished wood surface.
All three heads snapped up as Rodrigo entered, and their eyes raked over him. They took in his hair still mussed from Giana's grasping fingers, the faint flush lingering on his neck beneath the collar of his dark sweater, the shock he couldn't quite mask.
Dario's mouth curved into a slow grin. "Well, fuck me. Studio must've been a hit."
Leo took in Rodrigo's disheveled state, laughter dancing in his eyes. "Did she paint you nude already, fratello? Or did you provide more hands-on inspiration?"
Dario snorted. "It's going to be a shit painting if she went true to life. You look like you just wrestled a bear."
"Or fucked one. Again, hard to tell," Dante chimed in.
"You can all mind your own fucking business," Rodrigo snapped, the heat from his neck now spreading over his face.
He walked to the other side of the kitchen and made himself an espresso to drown out their commentary.
He didn't care what they thought. What happened with Giana was his alone, and he wasn't about to give the perverts any details.
"Status on the lockdown?" he asked when they had all run out of witty quips.
Leo swallowed his bite. "Dario and Fred just finished a final sweep of the East Wing perimeter and double-checked that Conti's 'gap' is properly welded shut.
Kon and Athena are enthusiastically stress-testing the new motion sensors near the orchard wall with some of Kon's more magical toys.
" He glanced at Dante. "We might have to make sure they don't accidentally vaporize a section of the 14th-century masonry. "
Dante nodded in agreement. "Good idea. The last thing we need is Altun lecturing us on historical preservation while Sicilians are scaling the walls."
"You say that like I don't always have good ideas," Leo replied.
Dante smirked. "Saying yes to marrying me was your bestest idea ever."
"We'll see about that," Leo said, giving him a soft look for a fleeting second before snapping back to business.
"Silas and Iz are monitoring the Sicilian comms chatter from the library. Julian's charming Altun in the solarium, probably trying to convince her that Venetian glassware is a sound investment for the apocalypse. We're locked down as tight as we can be, Rodrigo, but it's suspiciously quiet."
"What about our prisoners?" Rodrigo asked. Usually, he would have interviewed them himself, but he needed to learn to delegate, and they were all good at what they did.
"Dante has been asking Luca to expand on his earlier statements about Bruno's superiors. They all seem to be terrified of 'the old man.'"
"Vincenzo?" Rodrigo asked, his grip tightening on the mug.
Leo shook his head. "Unclear. He keeps muttering about 'il capo dei capi,' the boss of bosses. Could mean Enzo Falcone, Vincenzo's uncle, someone higher in the Sicilian hierarchy, or someone else entirely. Dante's working on loosening his tongue."
"If he doesn't start giving us more, I will get Altun to do it. She can make a man cry faster than anyone I have ever seen," Dante said with an affectionate smile.
"And Conti?" Rodrigo's tone was flat.
"Singing like a fucking canary in springtime," Dario supplied, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Saw easy money on top of what we were already paying him. Luca approached him, promised him a cut for maintaining the patrol gap. The idiot wanted the money to buy a boat."
Rodrigo absorbed the information. Conti was a dead end. Luca was the key, terrified and potentially holding back. Vincenzo's men were dead. Hovering over it all, the shadowy 'capo dei capi.' The Sicilian hydra had many heads, and they had barely nicked one.
"Get it out of them. Ask Altun to do it if you have to. I don't care. If it's all they know, we will deal with it, but we need to make sure." Rodrigo turned back to Leo. "All of our men have returned?"
Every soldier needed to be accounted for before the storm broke.
Leo pulled a tablet closer, swiping through a list. "All field operatives recalled and accounted for except for Father Sartori."
The villa's resident priest, Father Lupo Sartori, was a scholarly man who had ministered quietly to the Colleoni household for decades, offering discreet confessions and presiding over Gabriella's elaborate, hypocritical funerals.
Rodrigo had always found a strange comfort in the man's quiet presence, a relic of a simpler time before Gabriella's poison fully took hold.
He knew Lupo had a past in the army before joining the priesthood, which made him better equipped to deal with the Colleoni mercenaries than other priests. Lupo had been visiting his niece in Siena for the past two weeks, tending to her after a difficult childbirth.
"He's still in Siena?" Rodrigo asked, a prickle of unease threading through him.
Lupo was an old man, but his association with the Colleonis made him a target. Especially now, with tensions ratcheting to breaking point.
Leo nodded. "He checked in yesterday. Said the baby had colic, so he was helping out and planned to stay another few days. To be honest, it might be safer if he stays put. Bringing him back now will mean he is here for the attack."
Rodrigo considered it. Leo was right. The compound was a fortress, but it was also a bullseye. Leaving Lupo out there, unprotected, felt like abandoning one of the few genuinely good things tethered to their cursed family. If he were targeted, that would put his niece and her family at risk too.
The thought of Falcone thugs dragging the old priest out of his niece's house, using him as leverage, or the baby… He couldn't allow it.
Rodrigo pulled his phone from his pocket, tapped Lupo's number, and put the phone to his ear.
The phone rang twice before Lupo answered. "Rodrigo? Is everything all right?"
"Father," Rodrigo replied. "We have a situation here. Security lockdown."
A pause. "Lockdown? At the villa? What's happened?"
"The short version? Sicilians are coming for Giana," Rodrigo replied. The priest knew Giana and why Rodrigo was about to go to war for her.
"I see," Lupo replied quietly.
"It's not safe for you to travel openly, or to stay where you are, if your location becomes known. It might be best if you return with an escort."
Rodrigo could almost hear the wheels turning in Lupo's sharp mind. He wasn't a fool. He knew the nature of the family he served.
"Emilia is exhausted, and little Marco…" Lupo's voice trailed off, thick with concern.
"I understand," Rodrigo said, the words feeling inadequate. "But you being linked to us will put Emilia and the child at greater risk. Falcone won't hesitate to use them to get to you."
A heavy sigh crackled down the line. "You are right, of course. I don't have a car suitable for a discreet return. And public transport…"
"I'll come myself," Rodrigo said, the decision forming even as he spoke the words.
He needed to get away from the lingering scent of paint and sex and Giana's shocked eyes. He needed space to breathe, to think, to wrestle the monster back into its cage before it consumed him and everything he was trying to build.
"I'll be there in ninety minutes if you want to meet in front of the Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico."
"Rodrigo, that's not necessary—" Lupo began, but Rodrigo cut him off gently.
"It is for my peace of mind. Wait for me." He ended the call before Lupo could protest further, lowering the phone.
"You're going to Siena? Now?" Dario asked, incredulous. "With Falcone sharpening his knives?"
"Lupo is family," Rodrigo stated flatly. Not by blood, but by decades of quiet affection in a house starved of it. "I won't leave him exposed. Leo, you have command. Keep on top of Luca. I want everything he knows about this 'old man' before I get back."
Leo nodded, his face serious. "Understood."
Rodrigo's gaze shifted to the hallway leading east toward the studio. The image of Giana, trembling, her eyes wide and dark in the aftermath, slammed into him.
He needed distance from that, desperately, but letting her out of his sight… The instinct to lock her in a tower warred with the fragile trust he was trying to build.
He looked back at Leo, the conflict a physical ache in his chest. "Giana's still in the studio. Painting, I hope. Don't disturb her, but keep an eye on her, and if she needs lunch or anything else…" He trailed off, unsure what she could possibly need that he hadn't already provided.
Leo saw the struggle without Rodrigo needing to elaborate. "We'll make sure she's safe, big brother. Are you okay to drive? You look wrecked."
"Speak for yourself," Rodrigo said with a tired laugh. Wrecked was an understatement.
The drive was exactly what he needed. Miles of open road, the purr of a powerful engine, time to wrestle the chaos inside him into some semblance of order. Time to figure out how the hell he was supposed to lead a war when his own heart felt like a battleground.
"I need the space to clear my head and to talk to Lupo." Talking to the old man had always helped, and he needed advice. Not just about what to do with the Sicilians but about Giana.
"Drive safe," Dario called after him as he left the kitchen. "Last thing we need is you crashing right now."
Rodrigo headed to the garage, picking up his guns on the way through. The trip to Siena would be quick. He just had to hope everything would remain quiet while he was gone, and that the fragile peace with Giana would still be intact when he returned.