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CHAPTER TWENTY

Dario

When I had my hands wrapped around Matteo’s neck, and I could feel his life force draining from his body, I had looked into his eyes. I had found myself going back all those years ago to the moment by the pool.

He had laughed at me for not being able to swim. He had watched our father almost drown me and he had laughed.

Then, he had been almost kind to me. He had invited me to go fishing. I loved fishing.

I had trusted him. I’d never had a big brother before.

Going fishing with him had seemed like a cool and fun activity. Mom was gone, and I felt as if there was a hole in my heart that was killing me each day.

I had needed someone to cling to, someone to let me know it was okay. I had thought I had found that person in Matteo.

My father, I already knew, was an abusive prick. Mom had told me so, but had used stronger words than that.

I remembered she had called him a violent, abusive asshole. I remembered her shouting the words at his face. I also remembered her body hitting the floor after he punched her in the face.

I remembered running over to defend her and him picking me up like I weighed nothing. He had thrown me against the wall.

I remember her screaming, roaring like a fierce lioness, and springing toward him, yelling obscenities as she clawed at his face.

And I remember him throwing her off of him, and the sickening sound of her skull hitting the wall hard.

Her body had crumpled then, hitting the floor with a thud. Someone was screaming, crying out, and that someone had been me.

I tried to get to her, but my legs wouldn’t cooperate. I screamed for my body to move, but it didn’t. Every fiber of my being wanted to rush to her to make sure she was okay, but nothing happened.

I watched, almost catatonic, as he stood over her. He treated her as if she was a dog, nudging her with his foot. When she didn’t move, he nudged her again harder.

She shifted, painfully, but she was alive. And like the monster he was, he walked away, leaving her there, crumpled and in pain.

My legs seemed to work again abruptly, and I felt like a ghost drifting across the room as I crossed the room and kneeled by her side.

“Mom,” I said, unable to think of anything else to say. “Mom…Mom?” I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

Her face began to blur, and I realized there were tears in my eyes.

I blinked them away and squeezed her hand harder.

“Mom?” Her lips moved and she softly said my name, as if it was a struggle to just breathe.

“I’m okay,” she said, opening her eyes slowly and trying to sit up.

I helped her as best as I could, and together, we sat up against the wall.

“We have to get out of here, Mom. We have to run, somewhere far, somewhere he can’t find us.”

I remember a tear escaping and falling down her cheek. I watched it, my heart in my throat.

“Maybe, son. Maybe. But right now, I’m just really tired.” She closed her eyes then.

A few months after that, they found her body at the bottom of the cliffs. Suicide, they had said. To this day, I wasn’t sure what I believed.

My mind focused on Matteo again. His betrayal that day—I hadn’t seen coming. He knew the rocks were unstable, he knew the river current was strong, that one wrong step would send me crashing into the river below, and yet, he encouraged me to get closer.

I saw his face. He hadn’t been surprised when I lost my footing due to the unstable rocks beneath me and found myself in a river unable to tell if I were swimming up or down. The current kept dragging me under.

It was the monster, my father, who had pulled me out.

I would never forget the look of hate that Matteo had in his eyes when our father dropped me on the shore. I was gasping for breath, angry. I leaped onto Matteo, bloodying his nose, screaming in blind rage.

My father had pulled me off of him and had only laughed. “Save that rage for another day, Dario. You’re family.”

He was okay with us beating each other to a bloody pulp when he wanted to be entertained. That was my father—a psychopath with whims no one could explain.

I learned a lot that day. I learned that my brother hated me. I learned that I was my father’s pawn. And I learned what it felt like to know only hate.

That feeling was my companion as I slid out of the car and approached my brother, who waited for me, one man on each side of him.

I was sure there were others around, but I just couldn’t see them. We were out in an old factory yard far outside the city, and not too far from my yacht.

There were snipers, I would guess, positioned strategically around the area. I wasn’t too concerned about them. I also hadn’t come alone.

I had Mya safely set up at the yacht with guards. She had been sleeping when I left, apparently just as exhausted as I was from the ordeal.

I had called Matteo, told him I wanted to consider his offer, and he had been elated to meet with me.

“So, you finally came to your senses,” Matteo said. He tried to feign nonchalance, but I could see by the way he flexed and unflexed his fingers, that he wanted to wrap his hands around my throat. This time, our father wouldn’t be there to save me when he tried to snuff the life out of me.

I wouldn’t give him the pleasure.

“I came to talk. Listen to your demands. And then make a reasonable and informed decision.”

“Reasonable?” he laughed dryly. “I can do reasonable, I guess. So, this is what I want. The whole operation and all the minutiae that goes along with it. You can keep your houses, your cars, but the entire business, all your suppliers, your contacts, they belong to me.”

He wanted everything. Why was I not surprised?

“You’ll be over your head by the end of the week. You can barely find your way out of a paper bag and yet you want to take everything away from me? That’s stupid, even for you, Matteo.”

I was bored already and just wanted to be done with him. I could be sleeping right now, curled around Mya, listening to her breathe, running my hand down her generous hips, and then up her leg, pulling at the hem of her nightgown, listening to her sigh of pleasure when I finally found what I was looking for.

Instead, I had to deal with this creep. I’d made a mistake coming here.

“You know what, talk is overrated. I’m done with you and done with this.” I waved haphazardly at the scene around me and walked away.

As I did, two men carrying rifles blocked my path.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I mumbled under my breath.

“You think you can just walk away from me?” Matteo said, looking self-satisfied. “I’m not some powerless little worm who’s just going to bow down and do your bidding anymore. You think you’re better than me? You think you can put your hands on me and get away with it?”

The fury in his voice echoed in the silent yard, and spittle flew out his mouth.

His eyes were large now, huge with his rage.

“Careful, you’re going to give yourself a heart attack.” And for good measure, I said, “Just like your old man.”

He lunged for me then, and even though I had expected it, it still surprised me that he had bothered to try.

The force of his stocky body sent me flying backward, and I hit the ground hard. He was already swinging punches, landing them on my face and my body.

I flipped him off of me, gaining my footing, and before he could get up, I punched him in his face, sending his head flying back.

It wasn’t enough. I grabbed him by his shirt, keeping him upright, and punched him over and over again until he looked like a bobblehead, unable to control his movements.

He scrambled to get out of my grasp.

I let him go, out of breath. I was covered in dust and grime.

He staggered to his feet and said, “You’re going to give me back what’s mine.”

“You can’t fucking have it.”

“It’s my legacy!” he screamed, looking woozy. He hit his chest in emphasis, “Mine! Not yours! You don’t deserve it! You didn’t earn it! You’re fucking illegitimate. Dad’s little bastard with a dead mom.”

This time, I didn’t take the bait. He wanted a reason to shoot me dead right then and there, but I wasn’t going to give him one.

“You can’t have it. It’s mine. All of it. I built it. I made it what it is and you’re the last person that will reap the benefits. I kept my part of the bargain. I kept the family business alive. Me! Not you! I was more than generous. I took care of you and Nico?—”

“Took care of us? You made us secondhand citizens, and I’m not playing second fiddle to anyone. I’m a di Cecco. You’re just a whore’s son.”

“Call my mother a whore again and I’ll slit your throat from ear to ear.”

It was a standoff then. I looked at him and he stared back at me. Maybe he was right. Maybe my mother had been a whore. I couldn’t confirm or deny that.

I didn’t know how she met and got tangled up with my dad. It hadn’t mattered, because she had loved me and I had loved her.

Matteo took a deep breath then and smiled. I wasn’t expecting that. Something was up.

Did he send those men to kill me the other night? I had thought that, but…no…he wouldn’t have put a hit out on me? Right?

“Did you send them, Matteo? To kill me? To burn down my house?”

“You gonna cry? If I wanted to hurt you, trust me, I would hit a lot closer to home. Like your wife, for example. You think your crew is thrilled that you married that dead cop’s wife? You’re out here making emotional moves instead of strategic ones. And look where it’s gotten you…on the run…struggling to figure out your next move. Everyone sees it. You’re off your game. You married that woman, and now you can’t function. You can’t take care of business or do what needs to be done. Face it, Dario. You barely know what’s going on anymore. You aren’t the leader you thought you were.”

Normally, I would have dismissed his blustering as just that—random words from a nobody trying to scare me into giving up what was rightfully mine, but now I wasn’t too sure.

Had my obsession and marriage to Mya led to this? I knew that rival gangs were trying to encroach on my turf, and that someone close to me was likely betraying me, but had I dropped the ball somewhere along the way? Was my destabilized empire my own fault?

I didn’t think so, but Matteo was a gifted manipulator. Had he used my marriage to Mya to sow seeds of discontent within my own organization? As I looked at him, I had a feeling that he had.

I didn’t know yet how I would fix the damage he’d caused, but I would, and then I would make him pay.

“I know what you’re trying to do and it’s not going to work.”

I turned to walk away when I saw Matteo snap his fingers. One of his men came up and handed me something. A thin file.

I looked at Matteo, who had a Cheshire Cat smile on his face. I pulled the papers from the file and realized they were photos.

Photos of Mya. My stomach turned. When I told Mya that I hadn’t been the only one following her or the only one to know that she had tried to kill Nico, I had thought I was lying…just telling her something that would keep her scared enough to cling on to me, but these pictures were evidence that I had been right after all.

I wished now that I had just been bluffing. I hated that it was actually true.

I opened my mouth to tell him to stay away from Mya, when I noticed something odd in the pictures. One picture was taken of her going into a store. I flipped through the images and found one that had been taken of her inside the store. I squinted to see what she was pulling off a shelf.

Pregnancy tests. A whole box of them.

I stared at them, the wind knocked from my body.

I pulled out the last photo. It was a picture of medical records. Mya’s records. She was pregnant.

Dr. Kali’s name was on the files.

I felt rage wash over me in a wave of cold. Had they hurt the doctor? Why hadn’t he told me? Why hadn’t she told me?

I thought of her watching me at work, thought of her pleading with me to choose her over this life. I thought of her begging me not to kill my brother.

Of course she hadn’t told me. She was scared of me.

I felt sick, but I also finally understood how she felt. I knew now why she didn’t love me and couldn’t trust me.

“I’m so excited to be an uncle,” Matteo said in a sing-song voice as I looked up and he smiled at me knowingly.

The mocking tone made me tense my jaw in rage. I wanted to put a bullet through his brain. Instead, I tucked the photos back into the envelope under my arm.

“If you ever come even within a foot of Mya again, I’ll kill you. Is that clear?”

I walked away, not waiting for an answer. Mya was pregnant. I almost stumbled over my own feet as my brain repeated those words again and again. Pregnant.

For how long? Judging from the photos, she had already known before we got married.

I balled my hand into a fist and then slowly released it as logic dawned on me. That first time on the balcony. We hadn’t used protection. I never did with her. I just assumed she was on birth control like all the other women I’d been with.

Her pregnancy changed everything. Everything. She was having my child.

She was bound to me now, more than when we were just husband and wife. She was carrying my child. A child I would give my life for a million times over.

Matteo didn’t understand what he had just done. If he had thought I was a threat before, that I was ruthless and cold, he had no idea what I’d just become.

No one, and I meant no one, would pose a threat to my unborn child or Mya and get away with it.

I knew what I needed to do. She wouldn’t approve, and she would probably end up hating me. My jaw clenched, not wanting to see her look at me like that, but I thought to myself, that it didn’t matter.

My feelings didn’t matter. My emotions had already clouded my judgment.

I had to protect her at all costs, no matter the collateral damage.

I had to let logic guide my hand now, not emotion.