by Mariano, Sam
Once we’re alone in the hallway, Mateo releases my arm and moves to stand in front of me. “Now, what was that all about?”
“There’s something going on between her and Dante,” I state.
“There isn’t,” Mateo replies without even a trace of doubt.
“Then there was. Maybe while I was away, but there’s… there’s still something.”
“Nothing happened between them while you were away, and nothing is happening now. Mia never even formally met Dante until he brought you to dinner. He doesn’t socialize with us much anymore.”
“You’re wrong. I can feel it. And there’s this little stuff, these little instincts. Like, I don’t know, I had this thought when I opened my walk-in closet at Dante’s house and saw the clothes and shoes he bought for me. You know Dante, he doesn’t know shit about women’s fashion, but there were these stylish outfits in the closet and I just had this feeling that he had some girlfriend to waste time with while I was gone, and he must have made her pick out some things for me so I would have some stuff to wear when I first got there.” Jabbing an accusing finger back toward the drawing room, I tell him, “And they’re her style.”
Smiling faintly, Mateo tucks his hands into his pockets. “Colette, Mia makes $8 an hour. Her style is whatever happens to be on sale at Target.”
Frowning at the mental image of the expensive outfits I’ve seen her in, I open my mouth to object, but he speaks again before I can.
“Anything Mia has that’s high-quality, I bought for her. The reason the clothes in your closet were the same style as Mia’s is because my personal shopper is the one who picked them out for you. As you said, Dante can’t shop for shit. I already had someone trained to shop for Mia and Meg. I remembered you wearing the same style of outfits before you left, so I told her to pick out a few things for you and then Dante bought them.”
My temper falls a few notches. “You…?”
“Me,” he verifies.
Well, okay, that explains that. “There’s other stuff, too,” I tell him, shaking my head. “It’s not just that, it was… Like, she made a point to come over when I was sleeping one day to visit Dante when she had to drop things off for me.”
“You’re attributing false motives to Mia’s actions based on your own insecurities. It’s not true,” Mateo states. “Mia did bring your medication over because Vince asked her to, but she was simply doing her boyfriend a favor. She’d never even been to Dante’s house before that; she had to call me to ask for directions.”
That knocks more wind out of my sails. “She did?”
He nods his head. “This great love affair is all in your head. You’re inventing reasons to believe it and you have to stop. Mia hasn’t done anything to you, and you would like her if you got to know her. That will never happen if you keep casting her in this role she doesn’t deserve. Mia has nothing to do with Dante. Any interaction they have had hasn’t been because she was initiating it.”
Because I’m so deep inside my cocoon of crazy, all I process is the last part. “You’re saying he’s initiating?”
Mateo pauses briefly, like he needs to figure out which path to take through the maze of my irrationality. “No, I’m saying there is no interaction between them—not enough to remark on, anyway.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I tell him, “You’re wrong. Right before you intervened, the whole reason I pulled her aside was because I saw them walk out of the bathroom together. Why are two people who have nothing to do with each other locked inside a bathroom together?”
Mateo is a tall man and he always uses that height to his advantage, but as he receives this new information, he puffs up and seems to grow even larger. He doesn’t have an immediate response for that one, so rather than answer me, he takes me by the arm again and proceeds to lead me down the hall away from the drawing room.
“I’m not sure about that one, but I’ll find out. The point is, I’m not guessing or assuming or giving the benefit of the doubt here. I am telling you, without question, there is nothing between Mia and Dante; there never has been, and obviously there never will be. He hasn’t gone to all this trouble to get you back so he can pursue someone else. Think it over, Colette. That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Coming back hasn’t been easy,” I tell him. “Maybe… I don’t know. Maybe Dante’s tired of fighting for me. Maybe he can’t get over the fact that I almost married someone else and some part of him wants to get back at me. Maybe whatever new thing he feels for her is easier than fixing things with me. You said he only really met her after I came back, so maybe his attraction to her is new.”
“He is not attracted to her,” Mateo states, but so firmly, I don’t think it’s for me as much as for him. He wants to believe that as much as I do, maybe more.
“I think he is,” I tell him, miserably.
Mateo’s gaze is sharp, sharper than I’ve seen it in a long time. “What’s going on with you two? You seemed cozy at the gravesite. I thought everything was moving along nicely.”
“It… it is, but it’s far from perfect. I have these blocks that I can’t seem to get past, and sometimes I can tell Dante is tired of trying to push past them. Sometimes I make him so mad, he doesn’t even come home because he doesn’t want to be around me.”
Stopping short, Mateo whips around to shoot me a dirty look. “Well, why the fuck are you doing that?”
“Because he’s a terrible person! And he won’t let me ignore it like he did before. He took me to Luca’s house, Mateo. Do you know what that was like?”
Mateo stops walking, so I slow to a stop behind him. He runs a hand through his hair and appears to be grabbing for patience he can’t find. “Why the fuck would he do that?”
“I don’t know. That’s what I’m saying, what if he’s testing me like that to try to push me away? He may not even realize it’s what he’s doing, but… why else show me something so ugly? I can’t forget it now. I can’t go to sleep at night and not know… he’s out there every day doing horrifying things, things more horrifying than I ever imagined. And I feel awful loving someone who is out there doing that kind of thing to people—and he’s not just capable of it, he’s remorseless about it.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he mutters under his breath. He’s only exasperated for a second or two, then he collects himself and looks back at me. “All right. Look, I’m going to tell you something to help you, but this is for your ears only. You can’t tell Dante. I will tell him when the time is right, but it has to come from me. You can’t squeal on me if I tell you first.”
“I won’t,” I promise.
“Luca won’t be working for us much longer. That whole operation, everything you saw there, that’s going away. We’re getting out of that business entirely. We won’t be doing anything that dirty anymore; we’re in the process of shutting it all down right now.”
I don’t even realize we have stopped walking just outside Mateo’s study until the door drifts open and Dante leans against the door frame, holding a glass of amber-colored alcohol and staring intently at his brother.
“Is that so?” Dante asks, cocking his head. “Well, that’s news to me.”
Mateo cuts a look at Dante. Without looking back in my direction, he orders, “Go back to the drawing room, Colette. My brother and I need to have a little talk.”
“Damn right we do,” Dante agrees. “But I don’t think it’s your place to order around my woman.”
“I don’t think you want to talk to me about that right now,” Mateo informs him, his dark eyes flashing with annoyance.
Holding up my hand to intervene, I inform them, “I’m going back to the drawing room. Should I send Adrian to play mediator?”
“No,” Mateo says, still holding Dante’s gaze. “I’ve got it under control.”
I’m not entirely sure that’s true, but after a moment’s hesitation, I turn around and leave them to it.
31
Dante
Colette is
n’t even out of sight yet, but I can’t hold back. “We’re in the process of shutting down the entire trafficking operation, huh? When did that happen?”
Instead of answering my question, Mateo brushes past me and walks deeper into the study, approaching his alcohol cart and pouring himself a stiff drink. Once he’s taken a couple sips, he turns around, meets my gaze, and asks, “What exactly were you doing locked inside a bathroom with Mia?”
“Playing truth or dare,” I deadpan. “What the fuck are you thinking, Mateo? I know the investigation into Rob’s house is bullshit. I talked to my contact at the police department and she said there’s no fucking investigation and you’re just full of shit.”
“It doesn’t matter if there’s an investigation or not,” he snaps. “There could be, easily, and it’s not a risk we need to take anymore. I’m the head of this family now, I make the decisions about the kinds of business we do, and I have decided we’re going to pull out of trafficking. End of fucking story.”
“The fuck it is,” I argue, slamming his study door shut and stalking across the room toward him. “That is my main fucking revenue stream, Mateo. You shut that down, you cost me literally millions each fucking year.”
“Damn,” Mateo states, like he doesn’t give a single fuck.
My temper stirs. “Are you fucking shitting me right now? Damn? As much as I put into this fucking family, ‘damn’ is all you have to say?”
“All you put into this family? What about what I put into this family? I’ve invested and sacrificed more than any-fucking-body else, Dante. I’ve bled for this family, same as you. Just because I’m at the top now doesn’t mean you get to forget that.”
“You’re the one who seems to be forgetting that,” I tell him. “I’m not a fucking idiot, Mateo. I know exactly why you want to shut this arm of operations down all of a sudden, and it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the kind of heat it could bring down on us. It has everything to do with Vince’s fucking do-gooder girlfriend. You didn’t have any moral qualms about it until that fucking girl crashed our business meeting and told you to read some bullshit ‘stop the trafficking’ book. Are you the boss of this family now, or is she?”
“Maybe instead of worrying about my love life, you should focus on your own,” he shoots back. “You have a second chance with Colette and you’re blowing it.”
“Oh, fuck you,” I fling back. “You’re the last person alive I’m gonna go to for relationship advice right now. You’re shacked up with one bitch, half in love with another. Get your own fucking house in order before you start talking to me about mine.”
The accusation that he doesn’t have his personal life together doesn’t infuriate him like I hoped it might, but it does remind him that I never gave him a real answer to his question.
“You never explained why you were locked inside a bathroom with Mia,” he states.
“I’m not going to, either. Fuck you. I’d say you can ask her, but she won’t tell you.” Meeting his gaze, I offer a dark smile and something I know will bait him. “Know why she won’t tell you, Mateo? Because I told her not to.”
His hands clench into fists. His nostrils flare as he breathes, his body’s natural instincts preparing him to engage in a physical altercation. He makes no attempt whatsoever to mask his fury with a poker face, and that… I haven’t seen that since we were kids.
If his openly emotional response hadn’t been enough of a warning, the loathing in his gaze would tip me off that I might’ve pushed him too far. After a couple of seconds, his next words obliterate any doubt. “I’m giving Luca to Salvatore as a wedding present.”
All the satisfaction I felt over getting a good dig in drains right out of me. My face falls since he caught me off-guard and I stare at him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Luca abused our sister. We were assholes to let it slide. He’s gone, as soon as all the houses are shut down.”
Rage explodes inside my chest. I feel like I should burst open and kill my bastard brother with all the shrapnel. “Bullshit. Bull-fucking-shit this is about Francesca.”
“Believe me or don’t. Doesn’t matter.” Mateo smiles slightly, but there’s still nothing but aggression in his eyes. “I’d tell you to say your goodbyes, but obviously you can’t do that. Besides me, you and Colette are the only two people who know he’s on his way out—Salvatore doesn’t even know yet. Obviously your loyalty can’t be questioned and you’re not going to say anything, so if it somehow gets back to Luca and he runs before Sal can get to him, I’ll have to kill Colette for ratting me out.”
So much rage fills my body, everything locks up and I can’t even move. “So it’s like that.”
Nodding once, he says, “It’s like that.”
I can’t fucking believe he’s putting me in this position. It’s bad enough he’s going to feed my only friend to the fucking wolves, but to tell me beforehand and then tie my hands like this… it’s fucking cruel. “He’s my best friend, Mateo.”
“Guess you’ll need to find a new one,” he tells me, calmly.
Slowly, I shake my head. “You son of a bitch.”
“Son of a sadistic monster, actually,” he corrects. “And thankfully, he’s fucking dead.”
I guess he’s twisted enough knives in my chest for the moment, because after refreshing his drink, Mateo walks past me without another word, leaving me to rage alone in his study while he returns to the party.
---
It takes a while before I’m civil enough to walk back to the drawing room. I put a good dent in the best Scotch Mateo’s alcohol cart has to offer and try to think of some way to get Luca out of Mateo’s crosshairs, but I think it’s too late.
I fucked up letting my temper get the best of me. I shouldn’t have baited him with the girl. I know she makes him fucking crazy. He’s already completely destroyed his relationship with Vince over her, and since Beth died, he and I aren’t much closer. Mateo might still care more about Adrian than Mia, but not me.
And if he did go back to the party and press her about what happened in that bathroom, it’s a lose-lose for me. If she obeys me and keeps her mouth shut, there won’t be words for how pissed he’ll be. If she spills her guts and tells him everything I said to her, all she’ll have to repeat is the empty threat I made about feeding her to Luca—he’ll know who I meant, based on what I said to her—and I may as well be the one loading Salvatore’s fucking gun myself.
Fucking Salvatore Castellanos.
He’s not the most accurate target for my anger, but he is the only one I can shoot at right now. It hits me how much of that Scotch I’ve consumed when I stand up and I’m unsteady on my feet. I shake it off, pull my shit together, and head back to the drawing room.
As soon as I get there, I search the room for Castellanos. I find him camped out in a corner looking cozy with Francesca. Seeing her even pisses me off, since she’s the reason Mateo gave for deciding to kill Luca. I don’t fucking believe that he’s ready to kill Luca now over shit that happened years ago, but regardless of his real reasons, the result will be the same.
Salvatore catches my eye as I head in their direction. He must be able to tell I’m not coming over for anything pleasant, because he tugs away from my sister and pulls himself to his full height—still significantly shorter than me, the little fucker.
I’m just about to them when Mateo’s words from the study break through the alcohol fog and I remember that he said Salvatore doesn’t even know about Luca yet. I can’t be the one to tell him. Mateo lies when he needs to, but he sure as shit doesn’t bluff. He knows I’d never let him harm Colette, but that only means if he went after her to punish me for standing up to him, he’d kill me, too.
He might be willing to rip our fucking world apart over that girl, but I’m not.
By the time I stop in front of Salvatore, he’s already sending my sister off to fetch him a drink. I can tell he anticipates this isn’t gonna be a friendly, “welcome to the family
” type interaction.
Francesca looks between us uncertainly, but she heads off anyway.
“Dante,” Salvatore acknowledges with a nod once she’s gone.
“Fancy seeing you here, at my father’s funeral,” I say, my words barbed.
Nodding once more, he says, “I’d invite you to my father’s funeral, but we ran out of My Little Pony invitations. I know you were looking forward to it,” he adds, slapping me on the arm. “Sorry, bud.”
“Don’t touch me,” I tell him. “Mateo may welcome an alliance with your family, but me? I’m not convinced it’s such a good idea.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not up to you, is it?” he tosses back rather casually, for such an irking fucking remark.
“Your boss is dead. Your family’s weak,” I state.
“Well, with me in charge and your sister by my side, I have a hunch we’ll strengthen right back up,” he tells me, mistakenly thinking I might be protective of my little sister.
Shrugging noncommittally, I toss back, “Oh, I don’t know about that. Francesca’s not that strong.”
Up until I said that, he seemed unconcerned, like we were exchanging friendly barbs. Now his gray-eyed gaze turns icy and he takes a step closer to me. “Don’t fucking talk about your sister that way. She’s stronger than you’ll ever be, you sick, selfish fuck.”
Seeing that I’ve hit my mark, I offer him a dark smile. “Funny, Luca didn’t think so.”
Fury leaps beneath the surface of his icy gaze. I can feel the rage coming off him like it was coming off me just a few minutes ago. “I think you need to get the fuck away from me before I make my first Morelli family event a little too memorable and punch you right in the fucking face.”
Turning my cheek, I point right to it. “Go ahead. First one’s free.”
I can tell he wants to. He takes another step toward me, his fists clenched so tightly, his knuckles are white. Rather than throw the punch he’s dying to throw, though, he looks around the room and sees my sister walking back in our direction already. She must have been really worried about this talk to have retrieved the drinks so hastily.
