Page 17 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

EZIO

Past

“Ezio?”

I slowly open my eyes, lost in the bliss of my dreams. My arm is lying over Arturo and I immediately use it to draw him close. “Good morning, my treasure.”

“It’s definitely like six in the evening,” he says with a grin.

I glance at the window. “So it is.” My hand slides up his bare back as I find myself loving the feeling of him pressed against me.

I really can’t get enough of him. His hand reaches up and brushes my hair back before he kisses my cheek and then beside my eye and up to my forehead.

I close my eyes, prepared to fall back into bliss while he showers me with kisses.

“I really need to go,” he whispers between kisses.

“But I want you to stay.”

“I know, but I shouldn’t have stayed this long. I should have been back well before now,” he says as he starts to slide over me so he can get out of bed.

Before he can go, I wrap my arms around him and squeeze him to me. It takes pretty much no effort to get him to sink down on me.

“Ezio… I want to stay.”

“Run away with me.”

A look of pain crosses his face, making me hesitate. I never want to cause him pain.

“I would… I would in a heartbeat, but I know that I can’t escape him.”

“I’d make sure he’d never find us.”

Arturo frowns and I can tell I’m upsetting him more, so I stop. “I wish I could. I really wish I could, but no matter how hard I run… I can’t seem to outrun Louis. And he promised me that the next time I tried… he’d make sure I could never try again.”

I hesitate as this sinks in. “What the hell? Arturo… he can’t hurt you like that.”

“He won’t if I’m good. So I have to be good,” he says as he gives me one more kiss before jumping up and pulling on clothes. “Have a good night, Ezio. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

How does he expect me to have a good night now that he’s gone? I feel like my entire night is ruined the moment he leaves. The perfect world I build up when he’s by my side cracks and shatters, and all that’s left is a man who is slowly falling apart.

My hand slides across the bed to the spot where the warmth from his body is slowly fading.

I’m furious this man is keeping such a precious person from me. He’s going to take everything from me… and there’s not much left.

Could I kill him? There’s never been a man I couldn’t kill.

I’ve never wished to kill one before, yet I find myself fantasizing about his death.

He likely has guards with how rich he is, but I bet I could sneak into that estate and finish him in the night.

Then I’d draw Arturo away from that darkness.

What the hell am I thinking about? Slaughtering some man I don’t even know? What if he’s a good person? What if the only reason I think he’s a monster is because he has what I want?

“Ezio, what the hell are you doing? Get out here,” Lorenzo shouts as he hammers on the door.

Quickly, I get out of bed and dress before stepping outside to face my brother.

“You don’t get to slip out of your duties.”

“I was working the entire night while the rest of the army slept… I’m not allowed to sleep?”

“Don’t talk back to me,” he says. “Clearly, I’ve been letting you get away with too much shit. Come on. We have a job. Pack your bags, we’ll be away for a week or two.”

I hesitate. “What do you mean?”

“You do realize we’re not going to be stationed here forever, right?”

“Obviously, I know that,” I say. I just don’t want to face it. I was just moving through life before Arturo came into it six months ago. But now… could I deal with a life without him? I’d suffocate.

“Stop just standing there. We’re moving out shortly.”

I head back into my room and look back when I realize Lorenzo is following me.

“I’ve heard some pretty bad shit about the man who owns that guy you’re obsessed with. I think it’d be best if you use this as an opportunity to cut ties with him.”

How could he possibly think I’d just… cut ties? What if someone told him that about his wife? “If he’s not a good man, maybe we should do something about him.”

Lorenzo laughs. “He owns many trading ships that supply the government with money. You really think they’re going to agree to killing him?”

“If he’s not a good person, why should it matter what he does?”

“You want him dead so you can take that man. And what then? Are you just going to stuff him in your pocket and haul him all around while you’re in the military? You know we’re not allowed to involve our partners. Your life is with us.”

“As soon as I’ve done my term ? —”

“Your life is with us. Do you understand?”

“This is your life and our father’s life. It isn’t my fucking life,” I snap. “When the term is over, I’m done.”

He strikes me across the face, the wedding ring he wears cutting into me—the ring a promise to a woman he’s barely seen. “Do not disappoint this family.”

“It’s shocking how much you hated Father every time he hit you and yet you’re slowly turning out more and more like him. I truly hope the child your wife carries isn’t a son or the cycle will start all over again,” I say, wiping blood from my lip.

Lorenzo freezes, eyes fixated on me as I turn from him and pack my bag. Then, knowing he’ll yell if I take too long, I write the simplest note to Arturo.

Called away for a couple of weeks. I’ll be back soon. I love you, my treasure.

Then I fold it and leave it on my bed. When I turn back, Lorenzo still hasn’t said anything. He’s just standing in the doorway, a strange look on his face. At first, I’m unsure whether he’s going to hit me again and then tear up my note or what he plans to do.

“I can’t leave the room with you in the doorway,” I say, voice cold.

“I’m nothing like Father,” he whispers.

“Are you not?”

“I’m nothing like him,” he snarls. “I’m nothing like him!” This time, it sounds like he’s begging me. Like he can persuade me into believing him even as my face stings.

He grabs my face and uses his sleeve to wipe away the blood. “I’m not going to fuck my child up.”

“Will your child even know your face?” I ask. “We’re caught in this hell because that’s what Father has beaten into us. But if we get away from him, we can get away from this.”

Lorenzo lowers his hand. “Let’s go. We need to get moving.”

I follow his broad back, a back I’ve followed most of my life.

It was a back that shielded me when we were children but as we grew older, I think something broke inside of him, just the way Father wanted it to.

He started to become more and more like him.

Lorenzo would eat up his praise, but Father only praised for shit I never wanted to be a part of.

The two weeks become three before we finally return. The thought of coming back to Arturo is the only thing that keeps me moving. And with it, I realize that when we leave for good… will I be able to keep going? Years of living with my father before years in the army seem to have torn me apart.

I’m the first one to have my horse unsaddled, and instead of going to my room to rest as everyone else does, I rush to the tree I always meet Arturo at.

I would assume he’d have heard I returned.

Maybe not today but tomorrow for sure. He told me never to seek him out at the estate, that when he’s there, he should be working.

So I wait patiently as day turns to night and with night, dawn comes.

I return to my room to sleep, well aware he knows how to find his way to my bed. I dream that he slips in through the window and slides under the sheets with me but when I wake, I find my bed empty and cold.

Today is a day of rest, so I head back out to the tree and wait before I wander over to a baker I know he often visits.

“Good evening. Do you know if Arturo has been in lately?” I ask.

“Not for a few days now. Someone else has been picking up the food,” he explains.

“Did they already come for today?”

“Yes. If I see them tomorrow, I’ll let them know that you’re hoping to speak to Arturo.”

“Thank you,” I say, nerves eating at my stomach.

As I start back toward the tree, I see Lorenzo and a few fellow soldiers making their way toward me. Lorenzo says something to them before breaking off and stopping in front of me.

“People are noticing your obsession with this tree.”

“Arturo hasn’t shown up and the baker said someone else has been coming in to collect what he usually does,” I say, trying not to reveal how anxious I really am.

“I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe he’s sick or busy with something else.”

“Everyone has told me how cruel this man is, yet you say that you’re sure Arturo’s fine.”

“Brother, you cannot charge into that estate and demand to see a slave you have no control over. Keep your head about you.”

I nod and head over to the tree. “I’m simply reading.”

“Good,” Lorenzo says as he stops and leans against the tree. “My child should have been born by now.”

“No news?”

“No.”

“You know news is slow to come. I could very well see Father intercepting it to keep something so ‘unimportant’ in his eyes from distracting you.”

“You’re quite right. I’ll send an inquiry to Father and hope this time I see a response.”

“Say something stupid about how you wish to know the gender so you can prepare for their future.”

“Sadly, a good idea.”

“You say it like I generally have bad ideas,” I joke.

“You have questionable ideas,” he says as he sits down next to me. He pushes my bag open and grabs a book I have in it.

“Do you even know how to read?” I tease, well aware that reading is one of his least favorite activities.

“Of course I do… I just don’t understand the joy of it.”