Chapter 29
GIO
With my face in my palms, I replay yesterday over and over, seeing Red’s reaction to what we were being told about Bryce.
I didn’t want to see it then.
I didn’t want to believe that she could possibly be involved.
But what if she is?
I caught tension in her body and the way her entire face turned hard the more that man told us. But how the hell would she know Bryce? Were they involved somehow?
Fuck!
I can’t ask her either. She’ll deny it. I know her well enough to know that.
I have to figure out a way to find out who was with Bryce that night. If only I could find Donny and beat it out of him.
“Who’s the lucky girl?” my mother asks as I wait for Michael in his den.
He’s on a business call, and after that, he needs me and Raph to discuss expansion of our properties overseas.
But I need our meeting to end quickly, because I have plans today and they involve Konstantin Marinov. I’ll be paying the oldest Marinov a visit. And he will tell me where his father is, even if I have to bleed it out of him.
Faintly, I look up at Ma. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, you look like you haven’t slept for a week, and your whole face looks tense.” There’s a knowing glint in her gaze as she takes a seat beside me, gently laying her palm on my shoulder. “And there's only one thing that’d make a man look that way.” Her mouth quirks up. “A woman.”
I give her a long look.
“So, what's her name, Gio?”
I scrub a hand down my face. “Ma, you’re with Patrick now. We can’t be discussing this.”
She scoffs. “I don’t care who I’m with. You’re still my son, and your happiness matters to me a great deal. So, if there’s someone other than Eriu, then I want to know about it.”
“What difference would it make anyway? She doesn’t even want to try.”
“And who is she?”
My jaw grows tight, looking at her while I consider telling her what’s been going on. Maybe she can talk to Patrick for us and make this shit with Eriu go away.
Fuck no. That’s a bad idea.
If Iseult finds out Mom talked to him, I’m going to lose Red for good.
She has to be the one to tell him, and it has to be before he publicly announces my wedding to her sister.
And since I won’t actually be at my own wedding, Patrick will be pissed either way.
May as well piss him off sooner than later.
“You can’t tell Patrick any of this, Ma.” I look her square in the eyes. “I mean that. If you can’t keep secrets from him, I understand. But then I can’t tell you.”
“He doesn’t have to know if it doesn’t directly involve him,” she counters. “So tell me, because now I’m starting to worry.”
“I have feelings for Iseult.”
Her brows shoot up. “Well, that’s a plot twist I did not see coming.”
I chuckle dryly at her amused expression, groaning as I cover my face with a hand. “It’s not funny, Ma.”
“Well…it’s a little funny.”
I shake my head as I level a gaze at her. “I don’t know what to do, and now I think she may be involved in something else that may mess things up even more for us.”
“Listen,” she says. “Do you have that feeling in your heart that’s telling you she’s worth it? Worth pissing off Patrick? Worth angering the world just so you two can be together?”
I nod.
“Then there’s your answer.” She smiles. “Go ahead and burn the world to the ground, my boy, because sometimes that’s the only way to fight for what you want.”
“Are you advocating that I piss off your boyfriend?”
She grimaces. “Eh, why does that word sound so vile at my age?”
My shoulders rock with laughter. “What the hell do you want me to call him? Your baby daddy?”
“That’s even worse.” She whacks me on the back of my head, but she’s grinning.
“I’m sorry, Ma. I’m just kidding.”
“I know, sweetheart.” She sighs. “I want you boys to have better than I did. I was never in love with your father, and both you and Eriu deserve better than that. So if you want me to talk to Patrick, I will. Though that man…” She shakes her head and widens her eyes.
“Stubborn then, and even more stubborn now.”
“No, don’t say anything. Iseult needs to be the one to tell him.”
“You’re right. But you’d better convince her to do it soon before he finds out on his own.”
That’s what I’m afraid of.
A little while later, once Mom’s busy in Michael’s kitchen, Sophia’s staring inquisitively at me.
Her big brown eyes twinkle as she twirls a makeup brush in her hand, me her latest victim.
This kid loves makeup. I think she gets a new set every few months from someone in the family.
There hasn’t been a person in this household whose makeup she hasn’t done once in their life.
“I think I need more color on my cheeks,” I tell her while she narrows her very serious expression, like she’s examining a science project.
“I think you’re right, Uncle Gio.” She nods real slow. “You’re too pale. And maybe more lipstick too. Red looks good on you.”
She sure as fuck does…
She giggles when I wag my brows, her large Bambi eyes shimmering while she dips her fluffy brush in her pink powder.
She returns to dabbing my cheeks with precision. I’d be surprised if twenty years from now she wasn’t some famous makeup artist.
“She likes you,” she throws out nonchalantly, and I instantly sit straighter.
“Who?”
“Iseult.” She lays the brush down on the coffee table and picks up the eyeshadow, rubbing some purple on my eyelid.
“And how do you know?”
“Well…” Another dab. “When she danced with me and Elsie a few days ago, she was acting like she doesn’t have a crush on you, but I could see she was just shy, kind of like when I get shy when Connor says hi to me in class.”
More eyeshadow hits my other eye, but I have completely tuned out that she’s making me look like a clown.
“She danced with you?”
“Yep!” A big toothy grin appears. “She didn’t want to at first, but then I made her, and we all had so much fun.”
“You did?”
“We did.” She nods, her forehead scrunched as those thick brows rise to her hairline. “She’s pretty, Uncle Gio.” Her lips twine up. “You should marry her.”
“Don’t tell anyone,” I whisper, leaning in closer, and she concentrates all her attention on me. “But that’s what I’m trying to do.”
“Really?” She grows all giddy.
“Yeah.” I give her a secret wink.
If the woman doesn’t kill me first, that is.
“If you think I’d allow you to go and confront the Russians, you’re out of your goddamn mind!” Michael’s fist slams on his desk. “You don’t think we’ve had enough fighting with our father and the Irish? And now, when things are actually good, you want to bring the fucking Russians to our doorstep?”
Yeah, I mean, I figured he wouldn’t be too thrilled to learn what I was planning to do. I didn’t exactly mean to tell my brothers, but sometimes I get too worked up and can’t keep my mouth shut.
But when Michael questioned why I was in such a hurry to end our meeting, I blurted it out like an idiot.
Which led to me telling Raph and Michael that Sergey had hurt Iseult and that I needed to find him to make him pay. I didn’t give them details—that’s not their business—but it was enough for them to know he harmed her.
In our world, if someone hurts the ones we care about, especially our women, then there’s no conversation unless it’s done with weapons or our fists.
And Red is every bit mine.
“Listen to me, Michael.” I get to my feet and drop my palms across the edge of his cherrywood desk. “If you think I’d sit idly by after finding out someone hurt her and is still alive to tell about it, then you don’t know me.”
“That’s the problem,” he snickers. “I know you too well. You’d have shown up unannounced and gotten your head blown off. And if I send the men with you, Konstantin will take it as a show of force, and then we will have to go to war.”
“So what do you fucking suggest I do?” I glare with indignation.
“I’ll go with him,” Raph offers.
I turn to my left to find his stare filled with understanding.
“Call Konstantin,” he tells Michael. “Tell him we’ll be arriving today to have a sit-down.”
“And if he turns it down?” I challenge.
“He won’t.” Michael blows out a breath. “He knows keeping things peaceful between us is wise. He isn’t his father.
He’s much smarter than that. But going there is still dangerous.
And the way you planned to show up…” He shakes his head.
“I swear, if you weren’t my brother, I’d have killed you by now for your recklessness. ”
I admit my plan wasn’t very thought out. I was going to drive up to his complex and shoot my way through if he refused to see me.
I chuckle. “It’s a good thing we’re family, then.” I step back and head for the leather sofa, settling into it. “Call the son of a bitch. The drive to Jersey is probably going to be a pain, so I want to head out there ASAP.”
He removes his cell from his pocket and looks pointedly at me. “You know you’ll probably get us into war with the Irish and the Russians, right?”
“I’ll find a way,” I tell him. “Patrick will let me marry Iseult instead.”
“Or he’ll kill you.” Raph shrugs, chuckling.
“He might.” I smirk. “Would be worth it, though.” I extend both arms across the back of the sofa. “At least Iseult will finally realize I’d rather die than marry anyone else.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Michael grumbles, staring at the ceiling and shaking his head before he stares my way again. “If Konstantin tells you he doesn’t know where his father is, you leave it at that. Do you understand me?”
I mutter a response, which almost sounds like, “Okay.”
He grits his teeth.
“You have my permission to shoot him in the leg if he acts out of hand,” he tells Raph.
With one look at me, Raph laughs. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he behaves himself.”
Michael glares at me, because he knows me well enough to know I won’t.