Page 110 of The Mastermind
Even if I wasn’t, I couldn’t go back home, and we both knew it. MyRomeo and Julietmusings had come true, but hopefully without all the awful dying. I nodded. ‘I am.’
Silence fell for several awkward seconds before Jacinta reached for the nearest platter. ‘I don’t care what’s in this. It looks too good to waste. I’m eating.’
I side-eyed her. ‘There’s nothing in it. Help yourself.’ I looked at Mom, but she shook her head. Sofiya glared at a square of decadent brownie before snagging it. We ate in silence until Jacinta looked over.
‘So you know we won’t be here for the day, right?’ she said softly.
Suppressing rising dejection, I nodded. ‘Yeah. I understand.’
‘So is it nice playing queen of the castle?’ Sofiya muttered around a bite of brownie.
‘I’m not. I don’t want to be.’
‘You’re marrying the heir. You might not have a choice.’
It was one more thing I didn’t want to think about. Hell, I hadn’t even spoken to Orazio since I arrived. Deliberate planning on Cesare’s part, I guessed. ‘What’s the temperature like at home?’ I asked nervously, changing the subject.
‘What do you think?’ Sofiya tossed back.
‘Armageddon had a baby with Dante’s seventh circle of hell?’
‘You said it,’ Jacinta said. ‘It’s Eggshell Central, so I guess, thanks?’
I examined her face for signs of more. But if there was, she was hiding it well. ‘Cesare said you’ve had to leave your apartment? Take a leave of absence from work? I never meant for any of this to happen.’
Sofiya dumped her half-eaten brownie and wiped her hand on a pristine napkin. ‘Mads, whatever the heir said to Nonno or threatened him with… he’s pissed. Worse than I’ve ever seen him. And it’s the cornered, burn-it-all-down type of pissed.’
Terror squeezed my throat. ‘Has he hurt you?’
Mom paled. Jacinta avoided my gaze.Oh God.
‘He acted out a couple of times,’ Sofiya confirmed, and my heart dropped through the floor. They were suffering while I was tucked away, approving candle stands and flower arrangements. ‘I’m sure as hell not going to let Mom or the rest of us be caught in the shitstorm, but you need to understand there’s only so much I can do.’
I cupped a hand over my mouth to stop the sob forming, and when I managed to swallow it down, I said, ‘I’m sorry. And thank you.’
Silence stretched before she exhaled. ‘We kinda get why you did what you had to do. But you also need to know that your rebellion won’t come without a price.’
Ominous words that grew heavier and heavier, staying with me long after I’d given in to Jacinta’s coaxing to see my wedding dress, and I showed it to them with a quiet excitement I’d buried deep. Afterwards, Mom, on learning I was getting married at the private chapel on the grounds, asked to see it, so we’d walked over, and she’d stood at the altar, staring up at the man-sized crucifix with tears in her eyes.
The heavy feeling was there, long after Cesare arrived with a trio of SUVs to drive them back to the City. Long after my heart broke when I hugged Jacinta tight and she flinched and I saw both Cesare and Sofiya look furious, confirming my worst fear that my father or grandfather had doled out physical abuse.
I was waiting up in bed, reading Sofiya’s text when Cesare walked in just after midnight.
‘What’s up,bedda?’ he asked evenly, although his eyes bore hard into me. ‘I thought you’d be asleep.’ I knew him well enough now to spot the wariness buried deep beneath his casual tone.
‘I wanted to thank you again for today.’
He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it on the armchair. ‘Anything for you,bedda. You know that.’
I nodded, then waved my phone. ‘Got a text from Sofiya.’
He stiffened, ever so slightly. ‘Oh yeah? Anything interesting?’
I tossed the phone aside, rose to my knees. His gaze instantly rushed all over me. ‘Hmm. She says six of Bonafacio’s warehouses in White Plains and New Rochelle were hit this afternoon. Bonafacio is now over twenty-five million in the hole with the Russians.’
He fought hard to hide the triumph that ghosted over his face and shrugged. ‘I’m sorry, baby. I want to say it sucks but I can’t.’
I nodded solemnly, crawling towards the end of the bed on my hands and knees. His breathing grew choppy, the bulge in his pants growing with every feverish second. ‘She also says they were expecting him home, but my father just told them Bonafacio will be away for a while. That he’s gone into hiding?’
