by Seth Eden
“Speaking of which,” I said, “we have a lot of information about Denise. While all of us were fucking around, Willow was the only Varasso doing any actual work. Can you gather everyone up? We’ll get up and get ready and meet everyone in my office at six.”
Marco nodded. “Fine.” He looked at Willow. “Seriously. I’m sorry.”
Gabriel nodded. “Me too, Willow. I’m sorry.”
Willow waved her hand. “Let’s leave the past behind us. It’s unpleasant.”
They only gave her nods before finally turning to leave. Marco grabbed the broken door and set it against the door frame like he was closing it and then left.
Gabriel laughed. “You’re gonna have to do the same with the front door, too,” his voice gruffed from the other side, and I sighed. Two broken doors, courtesy of Marco’s thor-like strength.
“I suppose we’ll have to have those fixed,” Willow chuckled.
“Well, us or Luca and Molly. Once I hand things back over to him, we’ll have to move out. Sorry about that.”
Willow smiled. “As long as you’re there, I don’t care.”
It was difficult not to pull her against me and either fall back asleep or into other bed-bound activities, but I rode the momentum of being woken up suddenly and climbed out of bed. I walked over to the bathroom door and held it open. “Want to take a shower with me?”
Willow smiled widely at me. “Do I ever.”
She got out of the bed, smiling at her ring before taking it off and setting it on the nightstand next to her side of the bed. I fingered my own rings off, hesitating at the ring that belonged to the head of the family. I snatched it off and set it amongst the array of my dad’s gaudy rings on the bathroom counter.
Willow wrapped her hands around my waist. “You’ll have to return one now.”
“That’s fine. I don’t think I’m putting any of them back on.”
She kissed my back. “None of them?”
“No. I’ll keep them since they’re my dad’s, but they’re too heavy.” I clenched my fingers, ringless for the first time in many years. “Well, I’ll put one back on.” I pulled my wedding band from the collection and set it aside. “The only one I want to wear.”
I leaned down and gave Willow a kiss before releasing her so that she could turn the shower on. As much as the interaction could have turned naughty, Willow and I were happy just to share one another’s space. I curled ribbons of her body soap over her body and smoothed it across her skin. She nibbled at my chin as I washed her body and ran shampoo through her hair while she turned her attention to washing me. I lost count of how many absent-minded kisses we took, but eventually, the water started to cool, even with it on its hottest setting. I turned the water off, and we wrapped ourselves together in towels for another short makeout before finally toweling ourselves off and going to get dressed.
I grabbed a suit from the closet outside the bedroom and pulled it on, and when I turned, Willow was there waiting in a blush-colored sundress, rather unlike the muted blacks and whites she normally wore.
I grinned and pulled her against me. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
I took her hand in mine and led her around the broken suite door. We went together up the back staircase to the third floor. When we were far enough down the hallway that we could see our family, they all started to clap like in a cheesy movie. Willow pulled from me and charged forward, shocking everyone when she threw her arms around Molly.
Molly hugged her back tightly, and when they released, she flicked Willow’s forehead. “Doing better?”
“Thanks to you,” Willow replied.
Luca poked Willow’s shoulder. “Uh, can I get in on that?”
He held his arms open, and Willow smiled before walking into them for a hug. She pulled away, pressing herself back against me. Luca looked at her with remorse. “Willow, I’m—”
“Nope,” Willow said. “It’s behind us.”
Luca nodded. “Thanks.”
I unlocked the door and led everyone into the notably lighter office. Before Luca could get to it, I walked over to the couch across from the desk, and Willow was right behind me. Luca and Molly stopped and looked down at us in confusion. I took my dad’s ring and slammed it on the desk.
“This is yours.” Everyone was silent while Luca considered what I said. He looked at Molly, who looked at Willow, who looked at me, and I looked back at Luca. “You were right. I could barely control myself, let alone carry the family. You’re much more grounded and level-headed.” Luca opened his mouth to protest, but I held up my hand. “Nope. I won’t have it. Dad gave that to you. I had no right to take it.”
Luca stood in silent consideration. I thought back to the day I demanded control from the family. I barely recognized the man who did that. There was a part of me, like an itch I couldn’t quite reach, that wanted to crawl across the desk and sit myself down in my dad’s old chair. It wanted to maintain control of the family and keep everything under my thumb, but I looked over at Willow, her shining face reminding me of the important things in my life, and it helped me keep it all buried down. I would eventually need professional help keeping the urge to run back to the shadows at bay, but for now, I could do it—for Willow and for my family.
Luca walked over to the ring and picked it up. I took a deep breath while I waited for him to put it on, but instead, he walked around the desk, unlocked the window, opened it, and chucked the ring out into the yard. Gabriel, Marco, and I all let out little gasps. It was like there was an invisible cord that tied all of us to that ring, and when Luca threw it out the window, we were all briefly afraid that we’d go flying with it.
He shut the window, and it snapped those cords. It was freeing, if not a bit nauseating. Luca sat down at the desk, and Molly went and stood next to him. “Dad’s hold on us has kept us shackled for too long. We’ll end this together, and then we’ll walk together into our new life.” We all exchanged looks of relief as we felt the imposing ghost of Angelo Varasso fade from the room, and then all eyes fell back on Luca. “So, I’m told you have information?”
Willow and I took turns explaining what she had learned about Denise, the Binachis, the Costas, and the Carduccis. I expected everyone to come to the same conclusions that we did, but Marco, Luca, and Gabriel all had different theories. In our different interactions with both our father and the Binachis, we’d gotten different views on the business and our alliance with them. The only thing we all agreed on was that Denise wasn’t who she said she was and had been using our family to a selfish end.
“I still don’t get how Anthony factors into it, though,” Gabriel said.
Willow had her brow hunched. “Yeah, that part confuses me, as well, but in a way, I think it actually has something to do with Anthony’s daughter, Callista.”
Luca tilted his head to the side. “I don’t think Callista is Hannah Carducci’s daughter, either.”
Willow’s and my eyes both shot to Luca in shock. “Seriously?” Willow asked.
“Maybe that’s it. Maybe Illiana is pulling some crazy kid scheme, having children with all these different families to try and exercise control, and Denise and Callista realized it,” Marco said.
“That would explain the cease-fire,” Willow said. “If Anthony and Illiana realized that Denise and Callista were working against them, they would turn their attention to dealing with their own families over each other.”
I nodded, feeling it starting to click into place. “And if Denise was remaining in the Binachi’s control for the purposes of taking them down, too, that would explain the sudden alliance between the Carduccis and the Binachis and why dad was trying to get into the Carducci’s pocket.”
“You think dad knew?” Luca asked. “I mean, why would he unless…”
The room went silent as the realization washed over everyone. Slowly, everyone’s heads turned and landed on Gabriel. Gabriel’s eyes were wide, and he was staring off into space. Stacy had a hand over her mouth, and the
sudden tension in the room was palpable. Everyone had to be remembering exactly what I was at that moment—the way Denise turned and looked at Gabriel when she introduced herself to us back in Stacy’s studio.
“Oh my god,” Gabriel whispered.
“You never knew your mom, Gabe?” Willow asked.
“My dad always said she was dead,” Gabriel replied. He looked up at Luca, and suddenly, he was the innocent little kid that my dad had to lord over to protect. “Am I a Costa?”
Luca shook his head. “You’re a Varasso.” He sighed. “It doesn’t do us any good to worry about it. Dad’s dead, and it’s not like we can go ask Illiana Costa for a sonogram.”
Gabriel was visibly shaken. Even as Stacy tried to rub his back and comfort him, his eyes were wide and wavering. “I’m good.” He clearly wasn’t.
For the first time, probably ever, Luca, Marco, and I were on the same page about Gabriel. He’d been bullied by Luca and Marco coming up, and it was always difficult for him to feel like part of our family. Our mom wasn’t good to him, and we never understood why my dad stepped out on my mom. Why would he do that and then bring the product of that illegitimate affair back to our house? I fought to have Gabriel considered one of us, and my dad was always resolved in saying that he was. He was a Varasso, and we never knew who the woman was that he’d cheated with. For our entire lives, Gabriel felt like this added facet to our family. It was like trying to fit a triangle piece into a square hole, but at that moment, our overprotectiveness of our family kicked into overdrive. Whatever happened to get him there didn’t matter to us anymore. Gabriel was a Varasso, our brother. That was it.
Fuck you, Angelo Varasso.
We believed that his alleged stealing of money from the Binachis was the biggest of our concerns, but our dad had left eggs in several spider’s nests and didn’t prepare us for the hellstorm that would create. The more I learned about him and the way he conducted business, the more I felt like it should have been obvious that someone would show up and put a bullet in him one day. Leaving us in the dark on so much was flat out reckless disregard for his kids.
I was starting to feel how Luca and Marco felt about him.
“We have to end this.” I stared directly into Luca’s eyes as I said it. “All of this.”
Luca nodded. “We aren’t letting these people run our family into the ground anymore.” His eyes were blazing with an anger that the rest of the people in the room shared unanimously. “I’ve had enough of the Binachis trying to take my family from me, so we’re not waiting anymore. I’m taking a page out of my brother’s book.”
His lips curved into an evil grin as he stared back at me. “It’s time to get a little ruthless.”
26
Willow
The tension in the room would require a sharpened butcher knife to get through. We all remained silent as we pulled on bulletproof vests and laced our waists and chests with different types of firearms. Everyone’s arms were different. Luca and Marco both had big guns, with long barrels and scopes. Those had to be carried, and Molly tucked different sized pistols around their waistbands and in the holsters around their chests. Luca tried to force a big gun on Molly, but she refused. She was stashing knives over her person instead. At her husband’s insistence, she finally tucked a single gun against the small of her back, but Molly wasn’t a shooter. If she could handle situations with her fists, that was her preference, even if her circumstances had begged for something other than that in the past.
Alessandro armed himself with his personal weapons, those he’d gotten from his dad. He lifted a twelve-gauge shotgun from the arms closet in Luca’s office and felt it over in his hands. It was the same gun that he’d used when he’d gone rogue and stormed the Binachi’s hideout in California when they were threatening Marco and Kelly. It was a nasty weapon, and I could see him considering that fact as he rolled it over in his hands. He looked up at me, and there was conflict in his eyes. He didn’t want to do anything that he thought would upset me, but now wasn’t the time for those considerations.
“One last time,” I huffed to him. “After this, never again.”
He nodded before turning his attention to loading shells into the gun. When he was done, he pulled out a couple of lighter, smaller guns and handed them over to me. He hesitated, but I reached forward and grabbed them, arming myself the same way as the others. I was going to march into the Binachis territory at their side, and I wasn’t going to do it unarmed, and I certainly wasn’t going to be the weak link.
Stacy grinned at me as she saw me getting myself weaponized. “That logical brain will be good for good aim.” She winked, and I smiled. Somehow, having her support gave me an incredible amount of confidence.
She turned her attention back to getting her own guns situated on her person before she started to aid her husband. Unfortunately, Gabriel still seemed to be a little out of sorts. He also wasn’t much for guns and had managed to avoid taking any kills himself until the Binachis kidnapped us. He always kept pistols on him, and those were his weapons of choice going into our final duel, but he did everything with an air of distraction.
“Gabe.” Stacy was the first one to say anything in about forty minutes. Gabriel looked up at her, and she put her hands on either side of his face. “Are you okay? We don’t even know that it’s true.”
Gabriel’s jaw flexed before he replied. “It’s true. I don’t have any proof, but it just all makes sense. It explains so much.” The other Varasso brothers had to be thinking the same thing because they avoided their brother’s gaze as he spoke. “I didn’t think my mom was out there. That’s just sort of fucking me up right now.”
“Then you should stay back.” We looked over at Luca just in time to see Molly swat his arm. Luca shook his head. “No. I’m not saying it to be mean. I’m saying it because, if you’re that distracted, you’d be putting yourself and all of us at risk if you storm the gates with us. Don’t make an unnecessary risk.”
No one responded to his words, likely because everyone knew he was right. It wasn’t about not wanting Gabriel there. It was about not wanting him to rush in there distracted and die.
Gabriel shook his head. “I’ll be okay.”
“Even if she’s your sister?” Marco asked. “Denise.”
I was surprised and annoyed by the question. Was he trying to make things worse? Stacy must have shared my sentiment because she glared at Marco. Alessandro grabbed my arm, and I could see the frustration in his expression.
He looked at Gabriel, as well, trying his best to seem sympathetic. “The question has to be asked. I can see that you already believe you are Illiana Costa’s. If we’re on the mark with all of this, that would make Denise your sister. If you’re in there, and she points a gun at Willow, what—”
“I’d shoot.” Gabriel didn’t even let Alessandro get the thought all the way out. “Denise isn’t my sister. We may share blood, but she could be a piece of dirt compared to how much Willow means to me.” He looked at Molly. “You too.” He turned his attention back to Luca. “I’m shaken, but I am not going to let any of this affect whether or not I protect my family, my real family, the only one I’ve ever had. You don’t have to worry.”
Luca nodded. “I just had to be sure.”
Gabriel locked eyes with me, and I gave him a nod of affirmation, as well. The resolve in his voice was telling. Gabriel was going to be just fine.
When we were finished arming up, there was a quiet round of hugs, and kisses shared amongst the husbands and wives. Any fear that Marco would feel left out were dashed when we turned around and saw him mock making out with his gun.
We stared at him, and he held out his arms. “What do you want from me? My wife is in Maine.”
We left the office and walked down to the cars. Luca gathered us up and put on a forlorn expression. “I’m sorry. Molly, Willow, Stacy…you are going to see the Varasso brothers at their worst now.”
Molly cracked her knuckles, looking at Stacy
and me. “Uh, I think we’ve long since proved that we’re up to the task.” She looked at her husband. “You four just try and keep up.”
Luca’s eyes flared with an excitement that let me know they would be shattering a few bedsprings of their own later. Molly grinned back before looking at me with pride. I was glad to be in a better place with her again.
I looked around at the Varassos and knew that it wasn’t just Alessandro I was trying to protect—it was all of them. Things got more than a little rough for a second there, but at the end of the day, we were dedicated to each other. Loyalty was the Varassos’ thing. I finally understood what Alessandro had tried to convince me of back when I first left him to go to college. I can see why he chose them, but I was glad fate had brought us back together.
“Marco and Molly will ride with me. Gabriel, you take Stacy, Sandro, and Willow.”
Gabriel nodded. “Yes, b—”
Luca held up a hand. “Nope. None of that.”
Gabriel smiled. “Right. Sorry.”
Marco winced. “Ugh. Please don’t go back to that shitty habit of apologizing for everything.”
Gabriel chuckled nervously. “I won’t. I’m sor—” He dropped his head. “I can’t help it.”
Luca shook his head, annoyed. “We don’t have time for this. Do we all remember the plan?” There was a silent agreement among everyone, and Luca grinned. “Good. Let’s go end this.”
We split up into the two cars and started off for the Binachis hideout. Denise had told us where to find it, and Luca had been able to verify that it was accurate, even if he wasn’t able to validate anything else she’d told us. We had no idea if Denise would be dumb enough to go back to the hideout in the wake of what had happened with me, but Luca was convinced she would. He said she wanted to see Dario dead, and if things had fallen out with us, she was probably trying to figure out how to do it herself. The Varassos weren’t known for being an offensive family. When things went wrong, they were the type to lay lots of rope before igniting one end of it from a distance. Where the Binachis were driving right onto the Varasso’s estate in order to try and kill Marco, the Varassos were more defensive, playing the long game and then finding a perfect time to strike.
