Page 60

“Yep, you can say that again. At your age, you’re kind of damaged goods,” he said with a chuckle that showed the food in his mouth that he hadn’t quite yet finished chewing.
“Apologize,” Dario said softly.
Matteo looked at him and blinked slowly, “What? What’d I say?”
He tried to act indifferent when he looked at Dario, but it was clear who was in charge.
“Jeez, sorry,” he mumbled in my direction. “Everyone’s so sensitive nowadays.”
He shrugged and wiped his hands on a napkin. “It was just a joke.”
He adjusted his shoulders and stretched his arms out across the back of the booth. “I got to give it to you little brother, you really know how to live. I didn’t find out about the boat until recently. I would have gotten a yacht myself but you know I like to be discrete.”
I could practically feel Dario rolling his eyes next to me.
“You know this dude has an obsession with water,” Matteo went on, gesturing with the chicken wing in his hand at Dario. “Loves to be surrounded by it, like he’s a fish or something. You know, he fell in the pool once before he knew how to swim and I rescued him, saved his life.”
“Our father fished me out.”
“I didn’t know you sucked at swimming?”
Dario picked up a drink and took a sip before saying softly, “You were a murderous bastard then and you still are. So was Dad. He’s the one who threw me in.”
“Bastard?” he snorted. “Last time I checked Dad only married one of our moms and as luck would have it, it wasn’t yours.”
“She would have rather died than marry that piece of shit.”
“And she did, right?”
Before I knew it, Dario had Matteo by his neck. The muscles in his forearm flexed as he tightened his grip.
Matteo’s eyes began to bulge and he pawed at Dario’s grip on his neck. He was wheezing, trying to bring in air, but nothing was happening.
Was Dario going to kill Matteo, his own brother, right then and there? Horrified, I placed a hand on Dario’s outstretched arm.
“Stop. You’re killing him,” I whispered.
He didn’t even acknowledge me, in fact, he squeezed harder.
I tried again. I couldn’t have him murder his brother in front of me. “You’re making a scene.”
Honestly, I knew Dario had chosen this table for a reason. No one could see around the large booths unless you were directly in front of us.
I touched his shoulder. “Dario. Let him go.”
He turned and looked at me. For a moment, he looked surprised, as if he hadn’t remembered I was there, and then just like that, he let him go.
Matteo slumped backward against the booth, trying to suck in a breath, rubbing his neck. I could see an angry welt began to form where Dario’s fingers had been.
When Dario looked up at Matteo, his eyes were wild, murderous. “You’re going to regret that.”
He went to stand, bracing both hands on the table as he did so. His cheeks burned with rage and humiliation. In his eyes, as he looked at Dario, all I saw was hate.
He slid from the booth and was about to walk away, when he turned and looked at me. “You see the monster you married? You think he’s protecting you? You’re nothing but a pawn in his game. And that’s all you’ll ever be. You think Nico is the villain, but I would look a little closer to home if I were you.”
With that, he walked slowly away, rubbing his neck as he did.
When I looked back at Dario, he was helping himself to a drink like nothing had just happened, as if he hadn’t just tried to kill his own brother, in public, without a second thought.