Page 42 of The Mastermind (Mafia Rivals #1)

CESARE

‘Is she here? I want to talk to her.’ Rafaelle stalked down the entryway to my Lower Manhattan condo, his icily furious eyes searching.

‘Yes, she is. And no, you will not.’

His eyes narrowed to murderous slits. ‘You planning on denying me?’

My heart twisted with anguish for him. ‘That’s not what’s happening here and you know it.’

‘I know nothing of the sort. Do not stand in my way, Cesare.’ His gaze sliced to the hallway leading to my bedroom, and his mouth twisted. ‘Let me guess – you have Fist guarding her? Does he even know who he’s guarding?’ he taunted.

I stepped up to him until our noses were an inch apart. ‘This is where I pull rank, soldier. Fall in line or I will fucking make you.’

He stared at me for an eternity, emotions cycling through his eyes. Disappointment. Shock. Deadly malice. An ocean of pain. The last one wrecked me but I had to stand my ground. I looked over to my father and grandfather, and they were equally tense.

‘Are you really doing this, son?’ my father murmured. ‘Have you lost your fucking mind?’

Orazio glared at me. ‘Bring her out. I want to hear what she has to say.’

‘I will, after we’ve had a conversation.’

‘What’s there to talk about?’ Rafa asked, one brow raised. ‘Unless it’s to discuss getting you help for this cesspool of stupidity you seem to have fallen into. She must have a gold-plated?—’

‘Finish that sentence and I will cut out your tongue.’ The vicious intent in my voice made him catch his breath.

For the first time in our lives, my brother stared at me like he didn’t know who I was. I prayed he would eventually. That the love he had for our mother would pave the way to him understanding a fraction of what I felt for Maddelena.

And if not? What then?

I shook my head, refusing to believe there was no way through this. There had to be.

His laughter was frozen acid rain filled with spikes. ‘You really have lost your fucking mind.’

‘Maybe I have. But this is where we are right now.’ I looked each of them in the eye. ‘This is what I want, and I need you to accept it. I’ll bring her out but not a single hair on her head will be harmed. By your hand or anyone else’s. Agreed?’

My father shook his head, bewildered, as my grandfather watched me with furious eyes. ‘Give me a good reason why we should agree.’

‘Because she’s the means by which we have leverage.’

‘What, a granddaughter who’s as good as dead if she even thinks about stepping foot back in Bonafacio’s house?’ Rafa taunted.

Last fucking straw , my gaze warned him.

‘Leverage in that El Topo has known all along that it was his granddaughter who had something to do with Mama’s death, but he sat back and let Ivanovski take all the damage.

Sure he lost some men, but we know that the beating Ivanovski took he’s still recovering from.

How do you think he’ll react if we let slip that it was the granddaughter who did it? ’

Orazio’s head tilted. ‘And you’ll do that? Burn her to that Russian fucker?’

He wanted me to say yes. I could see it in his eyes. But he also knew I couldn’t. Maddelena would never forgive me if I endangered her sister, and until I knew the full truth it wasn’t a risk I was prepared to take. ‘The threat of it will be enough,’ I said.

‘You can’t hide her forever, nupito . Bring her out here. I want to look her in the eye and hear what she’s got to say.’

My heart pounded so hard in my ears I was hard pressed to hear my footsteps on the wooden floor as I walked down the hall to my bedroom.

Fist stood at attention, his eyes holding the same flat, dead stare. If he’d overheard anything we talked about, he gave no indication.

I owed him an explanation. At some point.

Once I dealt with this powder keg rolling towards the fucking bonfire in my living room. Sucking in a breath, I pushed the door open.

Her off-white power suit screamed sexy and in control. But the saucer-wide blue eyes that met mine, holding equal parts fear and trust, slashed up my heart. Shutting the door, I caught her in my arms, tilting her face up to mine. I kissed her until a layer of tension eased out of her.

‘It’s going that bad, huh?’ she half joked, her eyes searching mine.

‘It went… about as well as I expected.’

She went a shade paler, but she managed a brisk nod. ‘So what now?’

I gripped her elbows, infusing as much strength as I could. I’d taken my stance and laid down the law, but I still couldn’t predict the final outcome of this. ‘My grandfather wants to see you.’

She swallowed audibly and her shoulders trembled beneath my hands.

‘Hey? No one is fucking touching you. You hear me?’

Her nostrils fluttered delicately. Her gentle stare said they were my family. That she wouldn’t blame me if I was blowing smoke up her ass. For that, I would probably take that ass tonight, remind her who owned her, body and soul. For now though… ‘Do you trust me?’

She nodded. More tension eased from her. ‘Yes. I do.’

My heart jumped. I held out my hand.

She took it, and we walked out to face the firing squad.

Three sets of eyes swivelled our way on our return.

A peculiar look momentarily filled my grandfather’s eyes.

It wasn’t hate, for which I was thankful. And then it occurred to me that this was the first time he was meeting the progeny of El Topo – the man who had once been his best friend – in the flesh. However he felt about that, he controlled it very quickly, his eyes hardening.

‘I hear you have something important to tell us, young lady.’

She stiffened. To her credit, she didn’t drop her head or lower her gaze. Hell, she lifted it the tiniest notch.

Pride mingled with apprehension as I watched three of the most important men closest to my heart like a hawk, ready to inflict damage should they harm my woman.

‘Yes. I… was there… in the church the day your… Isabella?—’

‘Do. Not. Fucking. Speak her name.’

She flinched.

‘Rafa.’

‘Why were you there? To kill her?’ This came from my father, his eyes sharper than I’d seen in years.

‘No! Of course not,’ replied Maddelena, horrified.

‘Then why?’ he pressed.

She swallowed, years of sadness pinching her face. ‘It was a stupid, horrible coincidence. My mom wanted to go. She’d heard her childhood priest was visiting from Napoli.’

Orazio smirked. ‘Ah, yes, your mama. A pious little thing, afraid of her own shadow. It’s a miracle she birthed someone like you with a little spirit. And the other odd one, what’s her name?’ He snapped his fingers.

‘Sofiya,’ Rafaelle supplied, a weird little glint lighting his eyes before they turned that deadly shade of unhinged fury again.

‘Yeah. I don’t know much about the other two but?—’

‘Nonno…’

The old man glanced at Rafaelle, then nodded and waved for her to continue.

She cleared her throat. ‘Anyway, she wanted to see him, ask him to hear her confession. And she brought me and Giada with her.’

‘Why?’

Her gaze darted to me, pained embarrassment in her eyes. She saw her sleepwalking as a flaw. Probably even more than the dangerous sleep talking.

‘It’s not important why,’ I answered for her. ‘It was just one of El Topo’s bullshit rules to make the women in his house fall in line that they couldn’t confess to anyone he didn’t approve of.’

Orazio’s eyes narrowed. ‘And this priest wasn’t one of them?’

She shook her head. ‘He wasn’t on the top of his list, no.’

‘What was his name?’ my father asked.

Her gaze swung to him. ‘Father Calogero.’

We all locked the name tight in our memory banks.

‘So she went for confession, then what?’

‘It was my turn. Mom and Giada were waiting in the vestibule when I heard the gunshots… and the screaming.’ Her beautiful face twisted with the memory.

‘Father Calogero asked me to stay in the booth, and I did at first, but I was scared something would happen to Mom and Giada. So I went looking for them.’ She sucked in a shaky breath. ‘That’s when I saw… them.’

‘Them who?’ Rafa barked.

She jumped. I squeezed her hand while glaring ineffectually at my brother. His entire focus was pinned on Maddelena.

‘My mom and Giada were kneeling over… over your mom. I thought Giada had been shot. She had so much blood…’ She shook her head. ‘But it was your mom who’d been shot.’

‘By your sister?’

Maddelena paled, and I growled under my breath. This was fucking torture. For her. For me. But she had to get through it. Once. I was never putting her through this again.

‘I… don’t know. She was holding a gun. Another of my grandfather’s rules is that we weren’t allowed to leave home without security or our own guns. We learned to shoot when we were thirteen.’

Orazio’s eyebrow went up at that. Then he scowled.

Rafa stepped closer. ‘Did your sister shoot my mother. Or not?’

‘I don’t know,’ she answered. ‘And that’s the truth. I took the gun from her and told her and Mom to run because I was terrified of… of…’

She didn’t need to say it.

‘If she didn’t shoot, what the fuck was she doing next to her?’ Rafa gritted out. He was moments away from losing it.

‘I think your mother was saying something to her, or Giada was trying to stop the bleeding.’

‘You think? All this bullshit guessing is to cover your sister’s ass?—’

‘You’re saying your sister heard my wife’s last words?’ my father asked through lips gone white with tension and renewed grief.

A horrifying sound leapt from Rafa’s throat, and he turned abruptly, striding over to the kitchen island. From the corner of my eye, I watched him hunch over, breathing through his mouth.

‘Y-yes. Maybe,’ Maddelena replied.

‘What did she say?’ Papa pressed.

Misery etched deeper into her face and every bone in my body wanted to pull her close. But I couldn’t risk it with the tension in the room. ‘I don’t know. Giada never said. She hasn’t spoken a single word since the shooting.’

‘Where is she? Where’s your sister?’ Rafa demanded, voice as deadly as a viper’s venom.

She shifted her attention to him, eyes bold despite the pulse racing at her throat. I stabbed another warning look at him, but he ignored me.