26. Cassio
“Your enthusiasm is contagious.” Vitelli approached and offered me a glass of water, and in that moment, I wished I could take his tumbler of whiskey and drain it dry. “I’ve seen you happier at funerals.”
“I’m ecstatic, brother,” I said, my eyes glued on Francesca who had decided to provoke me today.
“In case you didn’t know, this is supposed to be a happy day,” Vitelli continued.
I gripped my glass, almost shattering it as Francesca danced with Michelangelo Martini. His hand was low on her back, and she was laughing at something he said.
“You know…” Vitelli began. “You could just go over there and ask her for a dance.” I turned to face him; Vitelli rolled his eyes. “It’s kind of obvious, Cassio. You haven’t taken your eyes off her the entire night. Every man that touches her, you look at them with murder in your eyes.”
“She’s Donato’s daughter,” I explained.
“And?” Vitelli stepped in front of me, blocking my view of her, and I was forced to look at him. “If you want her, then do something before Micky Martini does.” He tapped my shoulder, but I grabbed his hand and moved it away.
“I don’t want her,” I lied. I needed Francesca. Those things were different.
I had promised myself not to get involved with her, to stay away. I had tried to. I didn’t need this kind of attachment in my life. There was no space for it in my heart. There was only revenge. Murder. Anger. Hatred. Francesca didn’t belong in there with those things, she deserved so much more.
I turned my attention to the glass in my hand.
“You know,” Vitelli spoke after a while. “I think you just don’t want to accept that you do want her,” he said, scratching his cheek. “I reacted the same way with Marie, it was… weird.”
“Love is a weapon, Vitelli,” I recited the words our father would always say.
It was love that broke our family apart. Love that turned me into a cold bastard. Grigori and his men might have killed my sister, but it was love that led me on this quest for revenge. It was my love for Francesca that broke us apart. I feared losing her as I had Arabella. There’s wasn’t a world where I could live without Francesca, I’d rather spend an eternity in hell.
Francesca was my everything. So, I couldn’t allow that kind of power to be wielded against me. But that was the problem, what if it was too late? I knew there was something growing between us. When I killed my feelings for her all those years ago, I might not have buried them deep enough.
“Yes,” he agreed and looked at his fiancée. “But I’d rather experience it than never know it at all.”
I tried my best, but I couldn’t stop looking at her. Francesca was a queen. A goddess and I wanted to worship at her feet. A temple I wanted to visit every day. But I couldn’t, not until I knew Grigori was dead. I couldn’t allow myself to want or need her. Revenge always came first.
“You sound like a sappy romantic,” I teased.
“And you’re a bastard,” he said naturally. “You might be older but not wiser.” Vitelli took a sip of his Scotch. “This need for revenge is going to consume you and everything that’s still good in you.”
My face fell, my nostrils flared, and my jaw clenched. “You forget her so easily.” I was happy for my brother, I really was, but a part of me hated him for being able to move on.
His eyes widened and he shook his head. “You’re a fucking asshole, you know that, right?” he snapped. “I will never forget, but I know she wouldn’t want us to live in misery.”
I fisted my hand. “They would have wanted revenge.”
“That is what you want, Cassio, do not assume it was what they wanted. Arabella would never have asked this of you. Especially knowing how much it has consumed you.”
With that he left me standing there on my own, thinking about his words. Of course, my father and sister would have wanted revenge.
As I looked at Francesca dancing with Michelangelo, my thoughts scattered, making it hard to remember what I had been thinking. Was Vitelli, right? I didn’t know anymore, and honestly, with Michelangelo’s hand close to Francesca’s ass, I couldn’t really care for revenge right now.
“Mind your hands,” I snapped at the man who was dancing with Francesca. I stood directly behind him and when he was about to move, he bumped into me.
“Hey, man, mind your—” He shut his mouth when he saw me. “Sorry, Boss.” He bowed his head in apology.
“Go find something else to do,” I instructed him, eyes cold and commanding. Michelangelo offered Francesca an apologetic smile and quickly scurried away like a rat. I took his place, taking her hand in mine and placing another one at the small of her back.
Francesca tried to contain her smile but failed. “You can’t do that,” she complained.
I shrugged. When it came to her, I became a possessive beast and any man who dared touch her would lose his hand. This was the way things were going to be now. Francesca was untouchable.
“Jealousy looks good on you,” she teased.
“I’m not jealous,” I argued, pulling my shoulders back.
She grinned. “You looked like you were having indigestion every time I danced with someone else.”
How perceptive my little princess was. “You look ridiculously beautiful tonight, Francesca. Everyone else pales in comparison with your beauty.” The words slipped from my lips, yet they were the truth.
Francesca’s eyes widened and her cheeks blazed. “Keep saying things like that and I’ll swoon.”
“And I’ll be here to catch you.” I took a step closer and brought her chest to mine.
“Cassio,” she warned. “People are looking.”
I wanted them to look. For once, I wanted everything to be different. I wanted to be someone else so that I could have Francesca all to myself, and not pretend we were nothing but two acquaintances.
I took a step back, controlling myself. “Say something else,” she requested.
“Greedy, are we?”
She smiled. “It’s not every day I get to listen to these inspiring words.”
I made a mental note, right there and then, to make sure to always tell her how beautiful and incredible she was. Buying her flowers every day wouldn’t cut it, I needed to up my game.
“By the end of tonight, I’ll have to cut out the eyes of every man at this party,” I said.
Francesca’s head fell back as she laughed. “How romantic.”
I couldn’t help the tight and timid smile that graced my face. “It’s true, Francesca. Your beauty is for my eyes only.”
“You already have me, Cassio.”
I don’t think she realized what she said or if she even meant it, but my chest tightened. I swallowed hard.
“Leave these poor men alone.”
“I’ll concede mercy this time,” I teased.
“Say something else.” The music slowed and so did our movements. We had to be careful, this was the second song we had danced to together.
“I wish I could rip your dress off and fuck you right here and now.”
She gulped and looked around checking if anyone had heard me. Francesca’s eyes twinkled with mischief and her answer surprised the fuck out of me. “I’m naked underneath.”
That was the worst thing she could possibly say; if my suit jacket didn’t hide my pants, everyone at Vitelli and Marie’s engagement party would know I was sporting a massive hard-on.
I let my hand slip just so it rested over the swell of her ass. Two could play this game. “I would start by removing your dress and sucking on those pink little nipples of yours.” Her cheeks warmed.
“Cassio—”
“Then, I would eat you up like an ice cream cone on a summer’s day. Licking your pussy dry.” Her eyes widened, but I could see that her nipples were beginning to appear through the fabric of her dress. She was just as turned on as I was. “Then, only after you begged me for it, I would bend you over and fuck you hard and fast. You’d take me, all of me.”
“Cassio,” she panted.
I shrugged. “That’s just a thought.” I leaned and whispered in her ear. “Or maybe a preview of what I’ll do to you tonight.”
With that, I left her and headed somewhere where the air wasn’t tainted with her scent, and I could breathe. Two could play this game, but it seemed that even though I was the one talking, it was Francesca who won. All I had to do was imagine the things I would do to her, and I was a goner. Now I couldn’t get those images out of my head.
FRANCESCA
Why him, dear heart? I asked. When there are so many others out there, why Cassio Moretti? I removed the wet towel from my neck and stared at myself in the mirror, completely lost. I was still trying to get over the things he’d said in the ballroom. It had taken me a few minutes to compose myself again.
We had danced together; bodies pressed together. My heartbeat to the rhythm of the song his was playing. In that moment, we had been just Cassio and Francesca, two people who were learning what it was like to love again.
Why him?
Taking a deep breath, I dropped the used towel in the hamper and tried to compose myself so that no one would notice how crazed I looked. All it had taken was a couple of dances with Cassio and I was already drenched.
I wished our lives were different, not so complicated. That we were just two people dancing together, that there was no Donato to ruin my life or a future husband I didn’t want. I wished it was just Cassio and I dancing freely because we wanted to, and we could.
I pushed the bathroom door open and was about to return to the party when someone appeared from behind the shadows. My breath froze in my lungs and my heart stopped. Donato approached me while I stood there unable to move.
“Cara mia,” he greeted. “There’s nowhere for you to run,” he chuckled.
I crossed my arms and stared him down. I wouldn’t dare show him how scared I was. How much I wanted to bolt in another direction. “What do you want?”
“You are giving me quite a headache.”
“Do you expect me to care?”
“Do you think he will keep his guards around when it’s over?” Donato chuckled. “I want to see just how brave you are then.”
I frowned, fear coursing through my veins.
“Why do you think, Cara mia, that I haven’t dragged you back home? He keeps his men around you all the time.”
“Who does?” I feigned confusion.
“Don’t play dumb, Francesca, I watched you dancing with him.” He stepped closer. “Actually, that’s exactly what you are. How long do you think it will be before he grows tired of you?”
I shook my head pretending I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Cassio will never love you, he’s not capable of that. When he marries, he will do so for an alliance. Why would he need you when he already has my support? You’re just a temporary distraction. Stop this now and come back home before you ruin yourself once and for all.”
“Ruin?” I laughed “You made sure I was ruined. Why would I go back to that place when all you want to do is sell me as a broodmare?”
“So you can do what you are supposed to!” he shouted, taking another step towards me. “You’re my daughter and you’ll do what I tell you to.”
Daughter. Now he remembered I was his daughter.
“You mean spread my legs and bear children? Well, father, I’m already doing the first, maybe I’ll end up accomplishing the second.”
For someone so fat and old, he moved incredibly quick; before I could even blink, his hands were around my neck. I grabbed his hands with my own, trying to fight him in case he decided to squeeze.”
“Open your eyes, Francesca.” He shoved me back, making me stumble on my dress and hit the wall with force. “Cassio only wants one thing and that’s not you. He has given me permission to marry you off as soon as I wish to.”
“W-what?”
“I told you, cara mia,” he chuckled. “Cassio is a man of business. So am I, when the time is right, I’ll marry you off to a boss’ son.”
He let go of me. Instantly, my legs gave out, and I fell to the floor with a crunching bang. I didn’t feel the impact, there was nothing inside me. In that moment, everything came crashing back. The pictures Marco showed me, Donato’s meeting with the Russians.
“That’s…that’s betrayal,” I looked up.
He lifted my chin and held it with force. “If you open that mouth of yours, dear daughter, I will make sure everyone you care for is punished for your sins. I won’t be so inclined to be nice. That little friend of yours, what a lovely woman. It would be a pity if she was killed.” He let me go, the threat lingering in the air. “Oh, and before I forget.” He pulled something from his pocket, and I froze.
I felt something hit me and then fall to the floor. I picked it up and looked at it, the Ziplock was filled with a whitish powder. Not just any powder, I knew it just by looking. Coke.
“Who says I’m not a caring father?” He left me there and left.
I reached the parking lot on trembling legs. My entire body shook, and I couldn’t seem to control it. Everyone who passed me by looked like blurry figures; I couldn’t make out a single face. The doorman opened the door for me, and I finally reached outside, breathing in the chilly night air. I leaned against the stone rail and took one minute to focus.
“Francesca!” I looked back.
Oh God.
“Francesca,” Gianluca called out to me as he quickened his pace to reach me.
Looking back at the parking lot before me, I didn’t see anyone else and I didn’t really have a way to leave, so I couldn’t just run from him. I had seen Gianluca earlier at the party and he even came to talk to me as though nothing had happened. Like he hadn’t forced himself on me.
“You’re leaving?”
“That was the plan.” I looked at the cars again.
“You okay? You seem off.”
“Couldn’t be better.” I looked back and smiled again, trying not to force it.
He shrugged. “Wanna go clubbing?”
My jaw dropped slightly, and I scoffed. Was he that delusional? A shiver raced down my back. I didn’t want to be alone with him, but returning to the party wasn’t an option either. “Thanks, but I’m leaving.”
“Come on, it’ll be fun.”
“Gianluca,” I warned. “Just leave me alone.”
“I heard you used to be fun,” he said in disdain.
“I used to be high most of the time.” I snapped wishing he would leave.
“I can see you still are.” He looked at my hand.
I instantly put it back behind my back. Fuck. How long had I been holding it like this for everyone to see? I looked around, but again, there was no one but us out here. Gianluca laughed out loud as if he were having the time of his life.
“No need for innocence now.” He went to touch me, but I moved away. “How long are you going to pretend, Francesca?”
“Pretend? I’m not pretending anything,” I snapped at him.
I picked up my clutch and opened it, and because my hands were still shaking, I let the Ziplock fall on the ground. Before I could pick it up, Gianluca did, and when I thought he was going to give it back to me, he pulled it away.
“I know you want me, Francesca, that night at Vitelli’s, I knew you wanted me.”
“Wake up, Gianluca.” I tried to get it back from him.
“Stop being a bitch, Francesca,” he snapped, pulling me toward him.
My hand connected with his face.
My reaction was so fast that both of us were surprised. My jaw dropped, and he stepped back putting his hand over his cheek. I was horrified by my reaction, but I didn’t regret it. Gianluca, on the other hand, was fuming. His eyes blazed with anger.
“Your father was right, you’re nothing but a cheap whore.” He moved to hit me. I flinched. But the impact never came.
I opened my eyes to find Gianluca’s hand inches from my face. Cassio held onto Gianluca’s hand holding it tight. I followed the extent of his arm up to his eyes to find them burning. Cassio vibrated with anger.
“You were lucky your hand didn’t touch her,” Cassio spoke, his tone laced with the promise of pain and death.
Calmly, Cassio pulled him away from me, but I didn’t dare move. He hadn’t yet looked at me, but I didn’t need to know what would happen if he did.
“Do you remember what I told you the last time we met?” Gianluca, who was usually so high up on his horse, swallowed hard. “Answer me.” Cassio was acting scarily calm.
“Y-you’d kill me.”
“Correct,” Cassio deadpanned. “Apologize to her.”
“Sorry,” Gianluca mumbled.
“She didn’t hear it.”
“Cassio,” I pleaded, scared of what his intentions were.
“I’m sorry,” Gianluca said with more enthusiasm. When it seemed Cassio would let go of Gianluca’s hand, he did.
Crack.
Gianluca screamed, and I jumped back holding a hand to my mouth, keeping me from crying out. Holy fuck. The sickening sound of bone cracking echoed in my ear. The movement was so fast that I didn’t have time to process it, and neither did Gianluca. Cassio’s head snapped in my direction.
“Go wait in my car.” He offered me his car keys and turned his attention to Gianluca. “Go,” he roared.
I did.