28. Renzo
I climbed up the trellis and vine supports to Giulia’s balcony. It was becoming a habit, but I didn’t care. This would be the last fucking time. The next time I wanted to see her, I’d walk right up to her. No need to be stealthy and sneak close.
She would never come here again. She wouldn’t return to this house ever again. No matter where we decided to live, it would be together, in a home of our choosing.
Fuck Giovanni and Isabella. It was their mistakes and bad choices from long ago that tried to keep us apart. And it was because of their past that people were being killed now.
Giulia would not be the next victim.
As I reached the balcony and waited to pull myself up at the very edge, along the exterior wall of the house, I stayed tucked out of sight. A crevice in the drain system secured to the wall provided me a place to rest my foot, and I stalled there as Isabella continued to speak.
To shout and snarl. Every syllable of her ranting was laced with scorn, dripping with anger. I wasn’t trespassing and breaking in on a safe, calm situation here, but I couldn’t wait too long. If that woman was capable of killing my brother and her own husband, I had to get Giulia to safety now , out of Isabella’s reach.
I’d heard plenty on my climb up here. Curtains flapped and flew back and forth in the breeze, but they served as a block. Vague shapes were visible through the gauzy material. Giulia and Isabella were forms, facing each other off, but they weren’t engaged in any sort of combat.
The angle of one of their arms scared me. Like she was holding up a gun and aiming it at the other. Isabella’s haughty tone and demanding words implied that she was the one threatening her daughter, and I had to be careful not to startle her and risk her pulling the trigger before I could shove Giulia to safety.
“I don’t understand,” Giulia said.
I commended her bravery, speaking loud and clear, but I caught the note of fear in her voice.
“You slept with Giovanni so long ago. It makes no sense to want to kill Cecilia now.”
Isabella chuckled dryly. “Want to kill her? I did. After that fucking Bernardi fool drank her drink by accident, I did see it through and kill her.” She grunted. “I wasn’t going to. After everyone was all up in arms about Luka dying, I thought I’d let her suffer with her status. Marcus could deal with her. She could be a Romano and raise the heir of the Acardi name. But then he just couldn’t fucking let it go. Your father worried about her. He wanted to know she was all right. Because he loved her. Not me. He loved her. He chose her over me.”
“Maybe it was just an affair that would’ve petered out,” Giulia argued gently.
As I readied to climb onto the balcony and lift myself over the ledge, I hesitated. Giulia backed up to the balcony. The nearer the women came, I saw how she was backing up. Her scent grew stronger the closer she got to me. Her hands were raised in a truce-like manner, and she kept her movements steady and slow.
She’s stalling. Trying to get out to the balcony and escape. While I admired her scrappy determination to survive all the odds, I hated the idea of her jumping at the risk of injury or taking her own life. I doubted that was the case, but as she obviously exited toward the balcony I wanted to hide on, I had to bide my time.
“No. It fucking would not, you stupid whore. The second Cecilia screamed that Luka was dead, Rocco rushed up to her at her table to protect her, thinking she could be hurt. Then at Luka’s funeral, Nickolas challenged Rocco with the accusation that he seemed too interested in his sister. All night long, he’d asked about Cecilia and tried to learn where she’d run off to. Rocco loved her, and I refused to let another woman interfere with my man again.”
“Like Arianna did with Giovanni?” Giulia guessed.
“Yes!”
“But he was arranged to marry her. That’s not the same as choosing her.”
“No.” Isabella huffed. “He still didn’t choose me. I offered to be his mistress. I killed her off and hinted that I could be her replacement. And he didn’t want me. Only for a quick fuck. An easy lay, like you’ve been doing with Renzo.”
Giulia’s foot reached back. She was right there, stepping through the billowing curtains. Her body remained inside, but she was nearly to the balcony. The second she was within my reach, I’d jump and knock her to the side. The element of surprise would be in my favor, and I had to pray that Dean was having luck reaching the room from inside the house. He was supposed to be breaking in to reach the door from the hallway, and I refused to give any thought or worry about why he hadn’t shown up yet.
“No. Renzo and I?—”
Isabella cackled. Her immediate laughter was sharp and hysterical. “Do not tell me that you love each other. Do not dare.”
“I do. I do love him,” Giulia admitted.
It was the first time she’d said it, and it wasn’t even for my ears to hear, but she’d put it out there. I felt her affection when we made love. I saw the commitment in her eyes and I heard every ounce of desire and desperation for me when she spoke or cried out in ecstasy.
And I loved her too. I hadn’t had a chance to tell her yet with all this going on. We’d clashed so quickly and our connection built so swiftly, we hadn’t found a moment to have this sort of a conversation. As soon as I killed her mother and secured her elsewhere, we would. I would not let another day go by without her understanding that she and I were breaking the curse of our parents’ issues.
“Love?” Isabella scoffed. “You’re insane if you think he could care for you at all.”
“He does.” Giulia’s voice rose with a little more confidence as she brought her other foot back toward the balcony, measuring her steps and likely trying to avoid looking like she was running or retreating too hastily.
“All the Bernardi men care about is themselves, fucking who they want and doing as they please. And that’s why, Giulia. That’s why this had to all happen now. I couldn’t let that little whore carry my husband’s baby. No other woman would ever bear Rocco a son—even after his death.”
“Fine. If that’s what you’ve decided was necessary, fine.” Giulia cleared her throat. “But it has nothing to do with me.”
“The hell it doesn’t. If you keep fucking Renzo, you’ll get knocked up with a Bernardi baby. If you’re not already.”
That sounded like heaven, the vision of Giulia’s stomach swollen with my baby. It would be a dream come true to start a family with her, and I wouldn’t stop practicing and making love to her until it happened. I wanted her—as my partner, as my wife, and as the mother of my children. I’d never felt more convinced that it was meant to be until hearing this vile woman swear to prevent it.
“And no Acardi woman will have the son in the wrong hands. You will not splinter the Acardi influence further by having a bastard with that man.”
“Then I won’t,” Giulia shouted back. “All right? I won’t. I’m packing up to leave with my sisters. We’ll be gone and no longer your burden. You can do what you want with your power, and I’ll leave you to it. I want nothing to do with this life anymore.”
“Like I’d believe that ! You just said you loved him, that he cared for you. The second you run out of here and try to leave this life, he’d just follow you and still get his way.”
“No, I?—”
“Only I will have the power, Giulia. Me. I will be the matriarch of the Acardis. Even if you fuck up the arrangement to marry Nickolas, this will all still be mine. Now that Dario’s gone, I don’t even have to deal with his interference, either.”
“He’s…” Giulia took another step back. If she moved out here just a little more, she’d be fully past the flowing curtains that gently floated around her from the breeze. “He’s gone? You killed him?”
Isabella huffed. “No. But I led him on to think that you were captive at the Bernardi estate. The guards could take care of his breaking in to try to save you. Not like it’s hard to shoot a slow, weak man like that.”
“You bitch!” Giulia lost her control. She snapped, yelling like that.
Gunshots were fired as she lunged back into her room, and I knew that was my moment to move in.
Gripping the railing firmly, I launched myself up and over the barricade. I landed on the balcony roughly, but I didn’t give myself a chance to gain my feet and stand fully. Jumping up and toward the women in the room, I aimed for Giulia.
She was down, hissing and grimacing in pain with her hand slapped over her upper arm. Blood slid over her skin, and at the sight of her wounded, I lost my temper. Any faint thread of control I had was severed.
With a guttural roar, I dove for her and knocked her back down to the ground, rolling so my body would be between hers and Isabella’s.
Giulia’s lunge at her mother had thrown her off balance. It’d knocked her onto her ass further in the room. Panting and grunting, the Acardi scrambled to rise to her knees, then onto her feet, sticking her gun back up in the air and aiming it at us.
“No! You will not do this!” She screamed it as her rigid face almost broke into a scowl. Even in her deepest rage, at her craziest moment, she looked too smooth and unaffected. She’d altered her face so much that she lacked the ability to truly show us an expression of loathing to match the growl in her words.
I breathed hard, staying positioned in front of Giulia as she leaned back, cowering behind me. She reached low to the carpet, making herself small as I braced for impact.
Isabella bared her teeth as she pointed the gun straight at my head. I stared at her, determined to let her see that I would never back down.
In this moment, everything else faded.
I was going to die. Right here, right now. This vindictive bitch lusted for my father and couldn’t accept defeat. She’d murdered my mother and accidentally poisoned my brother. And worst of all, she'd dared to harm the woman I loved.
I saw nothing but the darkness of her evil stare. My skin went numb, and I gave up on the fury that I’d lost my gun in climbing up here. I heard nothing but the thunder of my pulse in my ears, waving back and forth as I waited for my last moment to come. Zoned out, with tunnel vision, I focused on letting her see the rage that I would always hold for her alone.
Fuck. You.
A dark hole appeared between her eyebrows. Her forehead remained unlined as her eyes went vacant, glossy as death struck.
I blinked, belatedly realizing that as I locked into the realization that I would die, a gun had been fired. But it wasn’t hers. Her arms lowered and the gun tilted within her grip, aiming at the floor.
The low angle saved me. She pulled the trigger now, perhaps as a knee-jerk reflex, and I tensed at the searing slice of the bullet against my leg. The report of her gun prompted a follow-up.
Another shot rang out loudly.
Her torso flinched as another bullet sank into her chest, rocking her backward.
Again. Another shot.
The third hit pierced her heart and tipped her body to fling toward her left.
More sounds filtered through my mind past the ringing of the gunshots so near my head. I snapped out of the trance, hearing Giulia breathing hard right behind me. She panted, sucking in deep breaths before audibly swallowing. As I turned, broken from the reverie as Isabella’s gun thudded to the carpet, I noticed the gun Giulia had pointed at her mother. She held it firmly, her arm raised so she could fire over my shoulder at the woman. Her fingers trembled, though, and as she stared, wide-eyed with shock that she’d killed her, her arm began to waver.
“Giulia.”
I spun around, not needing to see Isabella fall to the floor. I felt the vibration of her impact, and as I twisted to haul Giulia into my arms, I finally exhaled the breath I held when I looked death in the face. Holding her shaking body reassured me. The panic receded. Peace would be a long time coming after the suspense of facing off with that psychotic woman, but with Giulia in my arms, alive and clinging to me fiercely, I knew that all would be right once more.
“Renzo, I…” She sniffled, worked up and near tears as she smashed her mouth to mine. Her kiss kickstarted me back to normalcy, to the overwhelming heat of love that consumed me from the inside out.
“I was so scared she’d?—”
Now I silenced her frantic words. Kissing her again, I shifted to block her view from the dead woman on the floor.
“I’ve got you.” I cupped her face and rested my brow against hers, staring into her eyes as our breaths mixed between our lips. “I’ve got you.”
She nodded, leaning in to kiss me again. I tasted the salt of her tears, and I dove in to kiss her harder, needing every bit of this connection that we could lean on to reclaim stability after the storm.
“And I got you,” she whispered.
The door smacked against the wall, and men rushed in. We both turned in unison, sucking in a breath at the sudden noise.
“Renzo?”
Dean staggered inside, his gun at the ready. His right side was bloody, but he stood.
“Giulia?” An Acardi guard entered beside Dean, and the man helped my guard stand steady as he wavered in his steps.
“Francis.” Giulia lifted her hand. “We’re here. It’s done.”
Before fully acknowledging what Giulia said, the Acardi man locked his focus on Isabella slumped lifeless on the floor. With a nod at her words and a deep sigh of relief, he lowered his gun. Then he nudged for Dean to lower his. “I told you she knew how to shoot.”
Dean nodded, cringing in pain. “I see that now.”
Witnessing my right-hand man and this Acardi guard not trying to kill each other should’ve amused me. As I stood with Giulia, careful with her wounded arm, I realized this would be the new norm.
The Acardi and Bernardi rivalry was over. The cause of it all was dead.
As soon as I saw to my bride’s injuries, I would be celebrating that fact with her. All night long.