Page 7
CHAPTER 6
M atteo
As I pull the car off the main road, the enormous iron gates to the property swing open, activated automatically using license plate recognition. Antonio needs to get a similar system installed at some of our properties. It would cut down on the number of men needed to guard the gates. Their services could be used elsewhere. Perhaps I’ll suggest it to Leo. He’ll be more receptive than our oldest brother, who doesn’t take much interest in technology.
A sense of peace washes over me as I drive along the avenue of cypress trees leading toward the house. This place is my sanctuary from the outside world. It’s what I need right now, but I doubt I could ever really call it home. My life, the people I care about, are in New York. Despite what my brother thinks, I haven’t forgotten that.
Giulia is noticeably less relaxed than me. Her posture is so stiff that if we hit a slight bump in the road, she might shatter into pieces. I don’t try to make her feel more comfortable. She deserves to squirm after that bullshit remark about letting Gabriele fuck her. My cousin would chew her up and spit her out, leaving her a complete wreck. He used to be a real ladies’ man, but these days he’s too consumed by self-pity and rage to treat a woman right. I, on the other hand, intend to worship Giulia. Once she accepts she’s mine, she’ll want for nothing.
I should have pulled her over my knee and spanked her for even thinking about letting another man touch her, but the Bugatti Veyron I borrowed from Damiano isn’t exactly spacious and a man my size needs room to maneuver. Perhaps I’ll redden her cute little ass as foreplay before I fuck her again.
That enticing thought gets shelved a minute later. The beautiful nineteenth-century villa I’ve stayed at for more than a month comes into view and my heart sinks. We have company. Three black Audi SUVs sit on the gravel driveway by the front door. Damiano must be here. It’s unusual for him to have brought an entourage, though. Unless there’s an elevated safety risk, he doesn’t travel with an escort. I’m guessing the presence of his guards means he’s brought my sister with him. She’s not in any particular danger, but Damiano knows Antonio will have his balls if anything happens to Livvy while she’s under his protection, so he doesn’t take any chances.
“Is that Damiano’s car?” Giulia sounds hopeful. I guess she isn’t keen to be alone with me right now, since things are strained between us.
“It is.”
“Were you expecting him?”
“No. I suspect Livvy heard you were here and persuaded him to drop by.”
A smile spreads across Giulia’s face. “Oh, I hope so. It’s been ages since I saw Livvy.”
Her enthusiasm has fuck all to do with her wanting to spend time with my sister and everything to do with needing a buffer between us until she sorts her head out. Giulia has known my sister since she was a toddler and they’re not bosom buddies. They’ve attended a lot of the same social events and Giulia has come on family vacations with us, but the two women have never really warmed to each other.
Giulia sees Livvy as my annoying kid sister, the brat who used to interrupt us when we were trying to get our homework done or watch a movie. Livvy, for her part, has always resented the time I spent with Giulia, and to a lesser extent, Isabella. My sister likes to be the focus of my attention.
Apart from Gio, who’s gradually drifting away from all of us, I’m the only one of her brothers who really gives a shit about her. The others want to protect her, of course, but that doesn’t translate to wanting to have an actual relationship with Livvy. They treat her with indifference or, worse, as if she’s a pain in the ass. She’s desperate for approval that she must know she’ll never receive. It’s no wonder she acts out sometimes.
I pull the car up behind the last Audi in the row and switch off the engine before turning to Giulia. If my sister is with Damiano, Giulia needs to be forewarned that Livvy might try to draw her into our family drama.
“There’s something you should know before we go inside.” I consider how much to share with her and decide that, despite the gulf between us, Giulia can be trusted with the truth. “My sister isn’t here willingly.”
Giulia tenses. “What do you mean?”
“Antonio sent her here as punishment.”
Giulia rolls her eyes. “What supposed crime did she commit this time?”
I understand the sarcasm in her tone. Where my oldest brother is concerned, breathing too loudly is a punishable offense for Livvy. This time is different. She did something incredibly stupid and almost cost Antonio his marriage. Knowing how much our brother loves his wife, Livvy was lucky to get away so lightly.
“She took some photos.”
“Of?”
I rub the back of my neck as Giulia looks expectantly at me. I hate to even think about the mess Livvy got herself in. “Herself. She took nude photos, you know, in suggestive poses.”
Giulia huffs out a disbelieving laugh. “So she got exiled. Why not go all out and send the girl to a convent?”
Her judgmental tone rubs me the wrong way. I honestly didn’t expect Giulia to take Livvy’s side. “She fucked up. This is for her own good.”
“You believe that?”
Actually, I have my doubts. I suspect Livvy would be better off in New York under my mother’s guidance, but Antonio preferred to send her away. It’s what he does when the women in our lives become a problem. He tries to pretend the issue doesn’t exist. Unfortunately out of sight, out of mind doesn’t work for him. He’ll worry over our sister more while she’s here than he would if she was at home where he can keep an eye on her.
Though I disagree with my brother on this occasion, I won’t express my thoughts on the matter to anyone outside of the family, not even Giulia. Unity and loyalty are the keys to our success. If I have something to say, Antonio is the only one who’ll hear it.
“I do.”
Giulia shakes her head disapprovingly. “Fucking prehistoric assholes, the lot of you.”
“I wouldn’t be so quick to hurl insults, sweetheart. You don’t know the whole story yet.”
“I don’t need the whole story to think you’re a bunch of medieval dinosaurs.”
The corners of my lips lift. “Medieval dinosaurs? I think you’re getting your time periods confused.”
Giulia scowls. “You know what I mean. So what’s the rest of the story?”
“Joey Gallo got hold of the photos.”
Her lips pull back as she hisses through her teeth. She knows as well as I do the Gallos are all snakes. “How?”
“No fucking clue.” So far, my sister has refused to go into detail about who took the photos and how they got passed to our enemies. “Joey used the photos to blackmail Isabella into letting him and his cousin Vito into their house.”
“Antonio’s house?” Giulia clarifies.
“Yeah, there was a tussle and Antonio got shot.”
“Fuck!” Giulia takes a moment to process what I’ve told her. “What happened to Joey and Vito?”
“Leo took care of them.”
Though Alessandro and I were present during their torture and execution, my second oldest brother did most of the work. He’s closest to Antonio and took the attack on our brother as a personal insult. We barely convinced him not to shoot Isabella too.
“Is that why Antonio sent Izzy away?”
“Yes.” My brother sending his wife to live in his beach house in the aftermath of the shooting is another shining example of how he deals with women who disappoint him. “She covered for Livvy.”
Giulia’s jaw clenches. I knew she’d be pissed when she found out my sister was to blame for our friend being punished.
“I assume Livvy finally told Antonio the truth, since Izzy’s home now.”
“She did, but that’s not why he brought her home.” I rub my chin as I weigh up whether to tell her the rest of the story. It’s probably better coming from me rather than Livvy blurting something out if she gets upset. “There was an incident with Rico Mancini.”
Giulia purses her lips. “Does this incident have something to do with the entire Mancini family disappearing off the face of the earth?”
“Rico tried to assault Isabella. She split his head open with a frying pan.”
“She killed him?”
The surprise in Giulia’s voice echoes the shock I’d felt when I saw Rico’s body. Isabella’s always been a gentle soul, but when she needed to protect herself, she became a savage.
“Yeah. His family came after her. They drove Dante off the road when he was giving her a ride.” I omit telling her that Isabella was only in a car with my brother’s closest friend because Antonio was banishing her again. He wasn’t pleased when Livvy told the truth and took it out on his wife. “Dante ended up in the hospital and…”
“Dante?” Giulia scrunches up her nose as she interrupts me. “He drove me to the airport before I flew over here. He didn’t mention being in an accident.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Does Dante usually share things with you?”
“No,” Giulia snaps. “So what happened with the Mancinis?”
“They got what was coming to them.”
Giulia stews on that for a minute or two. I can sense the annoyance rolling off her. “And Olivia gets off lightly, as usual.”
It’s not a great sign that she’s using my sister’s full name. “Livvy’s being punished.”
“How is spending time in this beautiful place a punishment?”
“Well, she’s not allowed unsupervised access to her phone or the internet. She can’t go out without a guard. She isn’t receiving her usual allowance, and she has to work to earn her keep.”
Giulia casts a skeptical glare in my direction. I know it doesn’t sound as if my sister is being punished, but she’s not having a good time over here.
“Oh, really? How is she earning her keep? Is she scrubbing floors, polishing silverware? Please tell me she’s cleaning the toilets.”
“I don’t know. Damiano has her in his office doing…” Shit, I have no idea what he’s got her working on. “Stuff.”
“Stuff?” Giulia’s lips thin. “Let me get this straight. She fucks with our best friend’s marriage and her punishment is running errands?”
I shrug and then try to lighten the tone. “I guess that’s what passes for hard labor for our women.”
Giulia glowers at me. She glances down and examines her nails, which, I notice for the first time, are a bit ragged, like she’s been doing a lot of manual work lately. I heard she was setting up some sort of community center and that she’d been hands on with the remodeling. It makes me feel like a complete asshole for my comment about what the women in our world consider work.
She clenches her fists. Then she abruptly unfastens her seatbelt, gets out of the car, and storms toward the house. I catch up with her just as she reaches the door. Grabbing her elbow, I swing her toward me, not caring that several of Damiano’s men are watching us from their cars.
“Giulia, what are you doing?”
“I’m going to kick the shit out of your fucking spoiled brat of a sister.”
I should chastise her for threatening Livvy, but I don’t think Giulia will actually hurt her. She might be fired up, but she has a right to be after what I told her. What I can’t let slide, however, is the cursing. It just sounds wrong coming from her. “Watch your mouth.”
“Or what?” Giulia raises herself up on her tiptoes, getting right in my face.
“Or I’ll spank your insolent ass.”
She smiles at me, a forced grin that lacks warmth. “Not before I’ve shown your sister what a real punishment is.”
Giulia tugs her arm out of my grip and marches into the house. This behavior is so unlike her. Although she has a temper, she’s slow to anger, but today she’s seemed different. She’s on edge, spoiling for a fight. I doubt she even knows why.
I follow her into the house, intending to intervene if she does lash out at my sister. She charges along the corridor and comes to an abrupt halt as Livvy appears in view. Usually my sister looks like she’s ready to strut along a runway at some fashion show, but today she’s disheveled. She’s wearing skinny jeans and a white t-shirt. Her face is streaked with tears that have washed away some of her signature makeup. Her hair is a mess. It’s not like Livvy at all.
Giulia casts a querying glance at me. Her anger seems to have been replaced by concern. She rushes up to Livvy and pulls her into a hug. Immediately, my sister collapses in her arms, sobbing.
“I don’t know what to do,” Livvy says through anguished wails.
“Come with me.” Giulia puts an arm around her shoulder. She gives me a warning look and I step aside to let them go into the living room together.
“What is that all about?” I ask Damiano, as Giulia closes the door behind her.
Damiano blows out a breath. “Let’s get a drink.”
That’s not reassuring. I follow him into the office and sit on one of the leather armchairs at the window while he pours himself a Scotch and me some vodka. He passes me a glass and sits on the other armchair.
“I wasn’t expecting you to be out,” he says.
What am I, some sort of shut-in? I guess I was turning into a bit of a recluse, but it’s not as if I haven’t left the house.
“Giulia wanted to go to the city.” I take a sip of my drink and shudder at the harsh burn. “Did you piss off a meter maid?”
“What?”
“I got a ticket on your Bugatti.”
Damiano shrugs. “It’s nothing. Fifty euro, maybe.”
“You intend to pay it?”
“Yeah, it’s not worth the hassle to contest it.”
Things are obviously different here. Back in New York, no member of the Volante organization would pay a ticket. It would give the authorities the wrong idea about who runs the city. But how Damiano handles things here is none of my business.
“So, what’s wrong with my sister?”
“Piotr Reznov came to see her.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rise. Piotr’s uncle, the current head of the Reznov Bratva, is marrying my mother. The Reznovs are longtime allies of ours, but I can’t see why he would want to speak to my sister.
“Why?”
Damiano arches an eyebrow and waits for me to join the dots.
“He wants to marry her?”
“They had a discussion about it.”
“That’s why she’s such a mess? She doesn’t want him?”
“I don’t know what Olivia feels about him. They had a heated discussion, and she threw him out.”
I raise an eyebrow. I didn’t think Piotr Reznov could have heated discussions. Even when he’s in the midst of a fight, he appears unnervingly cold.
“It wasn’t Reznov who upset her,” Damiano says. “She called Antonio, and then the meltdown commenced. I brought her here because she wanted to speak to Giulia.”
It stings a little that she didn’t want to confide in me about how she feels, but I guess Giulia knows more about what it’s like to be a woman in our world than I do. While I can sympathize with the way our girls are bartered off in marriage deals, it’s not something I’ll ever experience.
“Yes, about Giulia.” I knock back the rest of the vodka. “Why didn’t you warn me she was coming?”
“Antonio wanted it to be a surprise. She’s a friend, no? There was no security risk.”
“That’s not the point. I wasn’t expecting company last night.”
Something must show on my face, because Damiano smirks knowingly. “What did you do?”
“Something that can’t be undone.”
My cousin swirls the amber liquid around his glass. “Do you want to undo it?”
“No.” My tone is firm, my mind already made up. I wouldn’t change what’s been set in motion between me and Giulia. Now all I have to do is make sure she understands her new reality.