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I went to fix myself another drink, even though I hadn’t gotten around to touching the first one, and stopped in my tracks. I felt like I was being watched.
A man on the dock nearby raised his hand and waved to me. I stared at him.
What the fuck was he doing here?
“So, how are things going with the missus?” Matteo said as he climbed onto the deck of the yacht.
He was wearing black pants and a black shirt that somehow showed his sweat-stained pits. He had on a baseball cap. Was he trying to be incognito?
“What are you doing here?”
“I thought you might need my help.”
I laughed dryly. “What do you want Matteo?”
How had he found me? I wondered then if he had eyes on my homes and business properties. If so, that didn’t sit well with me.
Perhaps I didn’t give my brother enough credit. He’d found me. He was smarter than he looked.
He stuck a finger in his ear, pulled it out, and wiped it on his shirt.
Sighing, I thought to myself,how could this stupid, gross, motherfucker find me?
“Let me repeat, why are you here?”
“Just wanted to let you know the island compound was burned to the ground.”
My jaw twitched. “Did you send those guys after me?”
Matteo pretended to look shocked. “What makes you think I want you dead?”
“You tried to kill me when we were kids. Why would I think you would stop now?”
He laughed dryly and pointed at me. “Touche!”
When we were younger, he had led me to a river with the promise of fishing. I had been excited to spend time with my big brother who I didn’t quite know yet.
My mother had just died. And I had no one but him and a father who I despised. Nico had been born later.
When Matteo first saw me, he’d walked away without a word. I remembered that day like it was yesterday. Our father had dragged me kicking and screaming to the pool. He had found out I didn’t know how to swim. He had told me he was going to teach me.
I fought like a wild animal as he literally dragged me toward the pool, my elbows bleeding and my hands raw and cut up by the cement patio
“Get it together,” he had said, setting me on my feet and slapping me hard across my face. My lip had started to swell immediately. I had been in shock. My mouth filled with blood.
I remembered spitting it out and growling, “I’ll kill you one day.”
He had looked at me with surprise and then he had laughed. He had embraced me and said, “Yeah, you’re definitely a son of mine.”
Then he had pushed me into the pool. Matteo had laughed and laughed. I had managed not to drown, glaring at them with hatred, fury and pain.
That day had set the pattern for our relationship. Nothing had changed.
I turned my attention back to Matteo, shaking off the past. “Whatever you’re planning, it’s not going to work. You can’t win, Matteo. You never have and you never will.”
I was taunting him. He had lost every fistfight against me. Dad had called him weak.
Matteo had responded by hating me even more. As Nico grew older, he had treated Matteo like the most amazing person on earth, following him around, trailing after him. Matteo had made Nico his little crony, icing me out completely.