Page 108 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet

I straightened gradually before turning to stare down the few inches into my cousin’s face. We weren’t blood relations, but I’d always treated him like a brother, a close confidant. Sometimes, it meant he wasn’t as respectful as he damn well should have been.

“I have my reasons,” I said opaquely even though I knew it would frustrate him.

Life itself seemed to frustrate Jaco, which was why everyone called him Grouch. It irritated me that he was always the victim, whining about his lot in life when he’d been born with a silver fucking mafia spoon in his mouth. His father had loved him before he was killed by the Ventura Mexican cartel for attempting a side hustle outside of the family’s schemes on their territory.

We hadn’t gone to war with them over it.

Emiliano had made his bed when he went against the family interests, and he had to lie in it, six feet beneath the ground.

Jaco hadn’t liked it, but then, I couldn’t blame him.

If anyone hurt Tore, I’d rip him apart with my bare hands. But the difference was, Tore would never be so stupid as to act against the borgata.

So, I put up with Jaco’s surliness and his need to badger me about every single fucking thing I did because his parent had been killed, and that was a wound that didn’t heal.

I knew from experience.

“I wanna know them,” he pressed, pushing his overlong black hair behind his ears. “Those are fucking rival capos, Dante. Maybe this house arrest has made youpazzo….maybe that woman has.”

“That woman?” I asked quietly, my entire body coiled.

He didn’t sense the threat I posed, as always, too riled up by his own antics. “Si, quella donna. You’ve been goin’ crazy for her since the first. She’s a goddamn lawyer, D. They’re one step up from scumbag cops. You can’t trust the bitch, and I’ve stayed quiet about it long enough. She’s fucking living in your place? Where the magic happens? You’re asking to be put away for life and then this stunt with Accardi’s reject son and the Santobarstardo?”

He was shaking his head so he didn’t notice me lash out at him, grabbing the thick column of his neck in the palm of my hand and squeezing as I lifted him to his toes. His eyes bugged out with shock, hands flying to scratch at my grip, mouth flapping like a dying fish.

None of the other men in the station made a single move to stop me.

I brought Jaco’s face to mine so I could sneer softly, just for him. “You call Elena a bitch ever again, Jaco, I’ll carve the word into your forehead with my blade,capisci?”

I dropped him unceremoniously, turning my back to finish my inventory of the guns.

Behind me, he choked and sucked in breath. “What the fuck, Dante? I’m yourcugino. We’re fuckingblood. Yet you treat me like this for calling it like it is? You’ve gone mad.”

“You’ve gone mad if you think you can talk to me like this,” I informed him coldly as I replaced the lid on the trunk and turned to face him again. “You forget I amcapo dei capiof this outfit. Not you. I’m open to hearing what you’ve got to say, Jaco, but only if you can say it like a man and not a whinytroia.”

“Vaffanlo,” he cursed, gesturing rudely with his hand as he told me to fuck myself. “I’m just trying to look out foryou. For this family. It’s all I got left, and I want to protect it.”

I softened just slightly, stepping forward to clasp him a little too hard on the shoulder. “I get it,cugino. You just have to remember, all I do, I do for this family.”

He deflated a fraction, but a petulant frown still dented his brow. “Not her.”

“No,” I agreed because that was true. “Elena is just for me.”

“’S stupid, D,” he argued again, but he knew he’d lost the fight.

“Forse,” I allowed that maybe it was. “But our biggest successes have come from my most daring gambles. I’m willing to stake a lot on this one.”

“You always said women ruin a man,” he reminded me perniciously. “They make them weak.”

I cocked my head, my hand squeezing his neck painfully. “Did I? I think you misunderstood. Maybe it was my accent, hmm? What I said was that a man in love has one weakness, his woman. It’s his Achilles’ heel. But that same love makes the rest of him impenetrable, strong as a god.” I clapped my free hand to the other side of his throat and strangled his neck for one brief moment so he could feel my strength. “What do you think, Jaco? Do I seem weak?”

His pale brown eyes swarmed like the surface of a swamp with mixed emotions, his pride tangling with his love and loyalty. Finally, he reached up and planted his own hands on my shoulders in a show of brotherhood and dipped his head slightly. I bent forward to kiss his head and let go of my hold on him.

“Va bene,” I told him, dismissing both our argument and his presence. “Go pick up my niece and Bambi. Give them my love.”

He nodded almost to himself, then shot me a sheepish grin. “Grazie,D.”

I lifted my chin at him. “Vattene.”