Page 46 of Unrestricted
I refill his glass and mine and set the wine bottle down.
"Well, what?"
"The girl. She's the one you've been chasing all over the world, right? The one connected to Gabriele."
My half-brother has barely started to probe and already I'm starting to regret that I ever confided in him about what I was doing. Though I didn't tell him the whole truth he knows I've been looking for Eliza as a favor to Gabriele. He isn't dumb and I'm sure he's put two and two together but he'll still want to hear it from me.
"She is."
He's quiet for a moment. He sips his wine. Usually when he's got someone tied to a chair, he takes his time.
He roughs them up a little, then adjusts his cufflinks or takes off his tie. It's a performance that unsettles people because he maintains an air of calm the entire time.
His tactics with me are somewhat softer but the routine is the same. Jab. Retreat. Jab again. I'd like to think it won't work on me but, fuck, I need someone to talk to about the situation I've got myself into.
"What was she to him?" He says was because he knows as well as I do that the minute Katya Kuznetova entered his life any other women he'd been involved with were relegated to the past.
"They were…" Lovers isn't quite right. Gabriele told me they hadn't fucked. Or maybe lovers is what they were because they didn't fuck. I'm not too sure on that. "Together."
"When?"
"Three years ago."
Benito nods. "So right around the time he got his face carved up."
He makes it sound like that was something Gabriele chose to do. "Yes, around that time."
Benito stands. He removes his jacket, drapes it over the back of the chair and then sits. I could point out that this can be a normal conversation but if he wants to act like he's dragging the truth out of me, so be it.
There may be things he will have to press me on. I'm not sure yet how much I'm willing to share.
"So after that happened she disappeared." Benito starts to roll up his cuffs.
"Planning on hitting me, Fratello?" I ask.
He looks down at his sleeves and huffs out a laugh as he realizes what he's doing. "Not unless you deserve it."
"I'll try not to deserve it."
Against most men I can hold my own but Benito is on a whole other level. His combination of aggression and skill makes himhard to beat. He spends time in the fight cage. That's not a sport I've ever participated in. I do box but I doubt my brother's heard of the Marquis of Queensbury rules.
"She disappeared after Gabriele was hit." Benito picks up the thread. That's the other thing about him. Once he's on the right track there's no distracting him until he gets to what he wants to know. "So she either panicked and ran in case they came after her, or she had something to do with it. Tell me it's not that."
"She had something to do with it."
Benito pinches his nostrils closed then drops his hand to the table, making the plates clatter.
"What did she do?"
I want to tell him everything but before I go on there's something I need to be sure of. "Swear to me that you'll not share what I tell you. Gabriele doesn't want it known."
"Who am I going to tell?" Benito says with a shrug.
"Uh, Lorenzo."
My half-brother is close with our cousin Lorenzo in the same way I'm close with Gabriele. We spent time with each other as kids. Gabriele's calm was a good complement to the abundant energy I had when I was a boy and Lorenzo's easy going charm helped balance out Benito's intensity. Somewhere between the four of us we would have made a half decent human being.
"I won't tell Lorenzo," he vows.
