Page 95 of Bitter Poetry

“What the fuck, Dante? Why are you marrying that bitch?” His chest is heaving, and his nostrils are flared. The way he’s eyeballing me says he’s thinking of thumping me again.

I don’t give him a chance. Fisting his collar, I slam him up against the wall. My jaw is throbbing. How did he not break every bone in his hand? “It was Leon’s idea.”

“Well, it’s a stupid fucking idea. Do you realize what it will do to Carmela?”

“Trust me, having Helena’s hands on me all evening is not something I do for fun… Besides, I thought you hated Carmela. Something changed that I should know about?”

“He’s good with her… in his own unique way. Gives her an outlet,”Cedro said.

His face shifts just a fraction before he shuts it down. If I wasn’t so hyper-focused, I might have missed it. Seems I was right to question Christian’s closeness to Carmela.

“Fuck you, Dante.”

He didn’t answer my question. But whatever is or isn’t happening between them takes a backseat to the current cause of my burning rage. “You didn’t tell me Ettore was hurting her.”

His belligerence drains. He unpeels my fingers and pushes me back. I let him. My throbbing jaw helps to center me, stopping me from slugging him back.

He roughly tugs his collar straight and then gestures between us. “This right here is why I didn’t tell you. What were you going to do about it? Not a fucking thing, that’s what.”

He has a point.

“What’s the play here?” he continues. “I’m assuming you have a plan, and returning here is part of it?”

I go over to the bar and pour myself a whiskey.

“You change your mind, Dante?” he goads when I don’t answer straight away. “Going for the easy life instead of screwing Ettore over?”

“Marrying Helena is not an easy life. Her child is a budding Satanist, and her mother is only interested in my bank balance.” I grimace. “Among other things. She doesn’t realize it yet, but I will be keeping her well away from me and my assets… of all kinds. Fucking her, even to consummate my marriage, is not going to happen.”

“What if she tells Ettore?”

I drain the measure of whiskey I just poured, letting it burn a path down my throat, and pour another. “She won’t. Whether she likes it or not, her fate will be tied to mine the moment the ink hits the marriage register. I will make sure she understands the parameters. There are no prisoners in this war. And make no mistakes, this is a war… Some evidence has come to light.”

“What kind of evidence?”

“Game-changing evidence. But it needs to be handled carefully, given Ettore has half his family in positions of power. I need to update Leon. But my feeling is it will facilitate our plans.”

“Leon’s not just a club manager, is he?”

“No… I want to see Carmela alone. Can you make that happen?”

His grin turns calculating. “I’ll work something out.”

“By the way, what happened to your face?”

There’s a delay. His expression does that emptying thing it sometimes does. “Carmela bitched on me to her husband. He took exception. Wanted me to remember my place.”

The warning bells are going off again. I take a smaller sip of whiskey this time and ask myself if I want to go there.Too much time has passed. They’re together several times a week. All this aside, things are about to heat up. I need my brother on my side.

“You didn’t answer my question. Do you still hate her, Christian?”

He looks me dead in the eye and smiles. “Yeah, I really do.”

CHAPTER 30

CHRISTIAN

Ipark up and walk around the back toward the kitchen. Carmela is going out with her sister today, and I get the pleasure (cue sarcasm) of driving them around. Her sister is verbal menace who sometimes makes me laugh and sometimes give me shit like Ettore is my fucking fault. I never know which way the coin is going to fall.