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Sistine

I had never heard two bodies sound that way when they collided. As if two boulders crashed into each other. My husband was fast, and he was strong, and he seemed to hit Remo into next week. Both men went to the ground, the fighting beginning right away.

Dust rose around them, and then it began to rain, coating them in mud.

Marciano deftly moved me out of the way as my husband and his cousin fought. “You don’t need to be close to what’s going on,” he said. “You might get trampled on accident. You know how lions can be when they get hot under the mane.”

The men watching the brawl began to create a circle around the two on the ground, keeping them almost contained. Almost. They were wild, like two animals attempting to rip the other’s jugular out.

Brando had stepped in front of Scarlett, but I noticed the way he was looking at Remo’s father, Vincenzo.

With a dare. Step into that ring, and it will be the two of us fighting it out.

It was as if Brando Fausti had a history with Vincenzo, and there was unresolved tension still lingering.

I was not sure, but I wanted this to stop.

My husband and his cousin were attempting to kill each other.

My temper had taken hold of me when Remo told me the news.

He had gotten my sister pregnant. Of all the women in the world, it would be the hellion of the century.

I had noticed he was attracted to a certain type of woman in Wyoming—Willa—and I would have rather he gotten her pregnant ten times over than my sister.

This meant she was still going to be a part of my life. I could not escape her reach.

I was not sure whether I could deal with that. If I couldn’t, the next time Remo showed up someplace with her, it would be she and I rolling around in the mud, my sister the big sow I would have to wrangle.

I did not even attempt to make sense of the type of woman Remo was attracted to, either, since it seemed he had been attracted to me.

It also dawned on me why Remo had made that noise in his throat when my sister had insinuated that she had slept with my husband, and the blood on her chest was from a blood vow made between the two of them.

That was not possible. My sister was no longer a virgin when she attempted to seduce my husband in Grosseto.

Remo had already taken that honor for himself. She no longer had virginal blood to offer. He said as much to me. He also said he did it, in simple terms, to protect me from her. If she was busy with him, she would leave me alone.

I had scoffed at this, but I believed him. In some delusional attempt at honor, he had kept her busy to keep her away from me.

I did not care who Remo slept with, or impregnated, or even married. I was being honest when I said I considered him family. It was the fact that the woman was my sister, and this meant that I would have to suffer her for the rest of my life.

When I had cut ties with my family, I thought I would only see her from time to time, perhaps whenever we were in Venice. I did not know where she would be from then on, since she would be with her husband—Remo Fausti, who was around quite a bit at the beginning of my relationship with Mariano.

Stella stepped out of the villa, a piece of bread in her hand. She lifted her eyebrows at me as her husband came to stand in front of her, crossing his arms, his eyes never leaving the fight. It was hard not to notice how the men were almost salivating at the violence.

Pazzo!

Completely pazzo !

“Hey! Hey!” I slapped my hands together, attempting to get around Marciano, Matteo, and Papà Brando.

I was going to call this fight—put an end to the madness.

“Both of you, stop this at once!” I slapped my hands together again, attempting to wedge myself between two mountains—my husband’s two brothers.

His father was keeping guard as well. This made three.

“From experience—” Scarlett was suddenly there, taking me by the hand “—the only thing that’ll stop this is you getting trampled.

That’s not going to happen with all the security around.

So, unless one of the older men stop it…

” Her eyes rose to her husband’s. He was in enough control of himself to look at her.

He nodded. The gesture seemed to say: I will, but not now.

I wondered if it was his own need to live vicariously through Mariano urging him to keep the fight going. Although my husband was on the ground with his cousin, I still caught the older two cousins, my father-in-law and his cousin, connecting eyes, as if they were reliving another time.

I would remember to ask Scarlett if that was the truth. She squeezed my hand, like she felt my curiosity. We glanced at each other. She nodded.

The snap of a male’s voice rang through the air as if it was the blast of a gun, although he was not loud about it, only commanding.

Nonno.

He had walked up with Donato, who seemed to head the family’s security, along with Mac and Rio, Mia’s father-in-law and her husband.

My husband and his cousin snapped apart.

Both men rose to their feet, standing side by side, eyes forward.

My husband’s back was straight, almost tight. His cousin had adopted the same stance.

As soldiers would.

Nonno walked straight to them, as if he was the highest-ranking commander, and began to berate them. I knew there would be some kind of punishment for the fight. I wanted to whip my husband’s culo for it!

Scarlett seemed to freeze next to me. Her face became pale.

Her feline eyes seemed almost exaggerated in contrast to the lifelessness of her expression.

It was as if she was someplace else, but her body was still next to mine.

I thought she was going to pass out. Her husband had sensed it before it even happened. He had his hand on her.

“Baby,” he said, his eyes taking in her face as if he was searching for a way to save her from it.

She lifted a trembling hand, and her eyes met his.

I was not sure what she had told him with the look. He did not seem to like it. Their eyes were locked. I was not sure whether they were speaking in their own language or he was making sure she did not mentally—emotionally—leave him again, and she was holding on.

“Mamma.”

Mia’s voice seemed to come out of the blue—I was not sure whether the sound of it brought relief or the drowning. I could not tell by the tone of her voice if she had come to help with the situation or add to it.

Scarlett slowly turned toward her.

Mia lifted her phone. “ Babica —she’s been trying to call. Gramps. He’s in the hospital. Babica thinks you should get home right away.”

When I turned back to my husband, his eyes were on me, and the entire world seemed as if it had gone silent. All the men had turned toward Scarlett and seemed to be waiting for her to speak.

Papà Brando still had his hand on her arm. After he made eye contact with Nonno, Nonno nodded, and then it seemed as if time moved at lightning speed, and we were back on a plane headed to Louisiana.