Page 129 of Bitter Poetry

The long game we have been playing is coming to a head. Only the future I wanted is becoming murky.

My cell buzzes in my pocket.

Leon: Need to speak urgently. Coming up.

Brows pulling together, I tap out my acknowledgement. My mind flashes through a dozen scenarios. None of them are good. Leon arrives a few minutes later. His grim expression sets pinpricks across my skin.

“Something is going down at Ettore’s home,” he says. “He’s called a bunch of soldiers in.”

“Do we know why?”

He shakes his head. “Perhaps now would be a good time to tell me what happened with you, Carmela, and your maniac brother, so I can get ahead of the curve on this.”

What happened is none of Leon’s business, but, in light of whatever might be going down, it also is. Ettore might have surveillance that Christian doesn’t know about… Someone might have seen me or my brother going to or from her room… Ettore stumbled upon Christian and me having more than words. That’s got to pique his interest.

Jesus fucking Christ.

I still hesitate.

“Dante?” There is a warning in Leon’s voice, one that is rarely directed at me.

“I fucked her. On her marital bed. Christian came into the room while I was—preoccupied. He didn’t get involved, if you’re wondering.”Fuck my life.“But he has been with her—a lot.”

“Fuck,” he mutters. “He was supposed to be watching your back. Took the assignment a little too literally. If someone sawyou—” He breaks off, takes out his cell phone and lifts it to his ear. “Increase security, discreetly… Have all other teams put on standby, also discreetly. Let someone overhear you mentioning it’s to do with Dante’s marriage to Helena, and their child arriving tomorrow. How he doesn’t want to fuck up and disappoint Gallo… Good.”

He slips the cell phone back into his pocket—no one would even question that the orders come from him and not me anymore.

How often has he been fucking her? How reckless have the two of them been?There is a faint tremble in my fingers as I draw them across my jaw. “You think this is to do with me?”

“Do you?” His eyes drill into me.

“I don’t fucking know. If I’ve put her in danger, I’ll lose my fucking mind.”

He offers no words of comfort. I don’t deserve them. While he was definitely aware I was going to speak with her, he would be right to be pissed. I’m pretty fucking pissed at myself for taking such a stupid risk. I might have fucked up everything: I might have put her in the crosshairs.

“And what about this little ménage you have going on with Christian? Is that going to present a different problem.?”

“You’re just going to go there? Right now?” I trust this man with my life and my darkest secrets, but I could happily beat his head into the nearest wall for asking that question.

“There’s no good time for the question, and I still need to know what I’m dealing with. I’ll ask you once more: is this going to be a problem?”

“No.” It’s not a lie, more a statement of intention not to let this be a problem.

“Good; make sure that doesn’t change.”

We wait.

And wait.

In the early hours of the morning, as light invades the city skyline, we get word that Cosmo is dead.

I wasn’t expecting that.

Three hours later, Christian turns up. There’s blood on his shirt, his face is busted up, and his knuckles are split and swollen. His eyes are wild.

Leon and I are both on our feet, watching him as he paces back and forth. The urge to strangle him is gone; I’m just freaking out for whatever happened to him… and her. “Christian?”

“You need to move your plans forward,” he says.