“Not possible,” he says, watching as I stride across the room, dropping down into the seat at the head of the table, the seat that used to belong to Giovanni. I pick at a bowl of grapes and lean back in my chair, kicking my feet up on the very edge of the table and allowing the silk to slip open, revealing more of my thigh than I would have ever been comfortable with before meeting the boys.
Marcus’ gaze lingers on my thigh but seeing the savage way I inhale the grapes, he pulls back on his wicked thoughts and starts loading up a plate of food. “How are you feeling?” he questions, placing the plate down in front of me. “You were asleep for a while.”
I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know,” I tell him. “I haven’t really had a chance to think about it, and honestly, I don’t want to. I’m just … I’m angry, and every time the slightest memory flashes inside my head, I’m left with this overwhelming need to viciously slaughter your father like a fucking wild animal.”
He presses a hand down on my shoulder and I wait for him to tell me to breathe, to be patient and let the boys handle it, but that’s not even close to what comes pouring out of his mouth. “Good,” he tells me, his obsidian eyes darkening with venom. “Hold onto that feeling. Let it burn deep inside you like a fucking inferno and build up like cancer growing inside of you. You will get what’s owed to you. I promise you, babe. You will get your chance with him, and when you do, I want you to bring up those flames and extinguish them against him. It’s going to be a fucking bloody masterpiece. Brutal and vicious, and you’re going to look like a fucking avenging angel doing it. Vengeance will be yours.”
I swallow hard, his determination and excitement at the very thought of me getting my hands on their father making something burn deep within me, and not the kind of burning that Giovanni’s wicked games invoke in me, a very different kind of burn that has me ready to throw Marcus down on the table and fuck him until I scream. “What about you guys?” I ask, keeping my filthy mind on track. “You’ve all been tortured at your father’s hands for years, and I know you would give me anything I wanted, but you guys deserve to be the ones to tear his flesh from his body.”
“Don’t be fooled, my sweet girl. Just because we will allow you to end him in the most priceless way imaginable, doesn’t mean that he will be given to you in one piece. We will get our own. We have years of bullshit to make up for. You’ll be lucky if you get to play with him long before he finally gives out.”
That familiar burn intensifies, and as I remember Levi ready and waiting for me upstairs, that need pulses erratically through me. I wonder if they’d be down for a three-way.
My eyes blaze with excitement as I take a cherry off my plate and pop it into my mouth. My fingers trail up the side of Marcus’ leg as I close my mouth over the cherry and tear the stem from between my lips. Marcus watches me with desire, and I slowly spread my legs, letting my other hand fall to my thigh.
Marcus pulls my chair back from the table and positions me so that I face him directly. He stands over me and grips my chin, forcing my heated stare to his dark eyes, and while he doesn’t say a damn word, the desire is clear in his eyes, along with a million other silent thoughts passing between us, most of them thoughts that I’m not ready to hear just yet.
Marcus begins to lean down, and I tilt my chin up higher, ready to capture his lips in mine when I hear the front door slam before the sound of heavy boots thumping through the foyer.
My back stiffens and it’s like having a bucket of ice water tipped over my head. “Don’t move,” Marcus murmurs, straightening and gliding across the dining room to discreetly peer out into the foyer. Nerves crash through my body. The only time we ever had to deal with intruders at the prison castle was when Giovanni showed up, or bitches stormed my room with a gun. I’m sure had the home not been locked up like Fort Knox, there would have been more enemies barging through the doors, but here in Giovanni’s mansion, his doors are open, and anyone could walk through at any moment. The thought makes it difficult to sleep at night, especially with Giovanni on the rampage, determined to get his home and empire back under his hold.
Marcus pauses a moment, his hand falling to the small of his back where he pulls a gun from the waistband of his pants. My breath catches in my throat, and while I know Marcus could take down an intruder in a matter of seconds, I still hate the thought of him putting himself in danger, especially when his brothers aren’t at his back. Though I don’t doubt the sound of the front door slamming has Levi slowly creeping toward the top of the stairs.
Marcus slips through the opening, and just as I expect to hear a gunshot ring loudly through the foyer, Marcus lets out an irritated sigh. “Fuck’s sake,” he mutters before calling back through to the dining room. “It’s just Roman.”
I let out a relieved breath as Roman’s loud stomping continues through the mansion and toward the dining room. “Where the fuck have you been?” I hear Marcus’ low murmurs as he berates his brother for disappearing on us. “Shayne is in there shitting herself because she thinks someone was trying to break in.”
Roman doesn’t respond as he flies through the entrance of the dining room and storms right over to the open bar. He pours himself a glass of whiskey and throws it back before immediately pouring another. Marcus stops in the doorway and watches him with a frown as a heaviness comes down over my shoulders.
Roman’s eyes are hard, and the sharp set of his jaw has me pushing up out of my chair. I cross the room and sense him watching me from the corner of his eye. He pours another drink before pulling the cap off a bottle of vodka and pouring one for me. He silently slides it across the bar, putting it right in front of me as I step in beside him.
“What’s going on?” I question as Marcus remains by the door, silently listening.
Roman indicates the shot of vodka as he throws back another glass of whiskey. Realizing that I won’t get any answers until I give him what he wants, I pick up the small glass and revel in the burn as the vodka makes its way down my throat.
Slamming the glass back down on the bar, I release it before reaching up and taking his chin. I force his stare to mine, knowing that I’m probably the last person he wants to see after I allowed his father to walk out with his newborn baby. “What is it?”
Roman’s lips press into a hard line as he reaches up and grips my hand, releasing it from his chin. He doesn’t let go and holds onto my hand as though it’s his only lifeline. His dark gaze meets mine and there’s something so devastating about it. It’s filled with pain and grief, and it’s almost impossible to hold his stare for a second longer.
Roman lets out a breath, and as his shoulders sink, the words come falling from his lips. “I buried Felicity.”
Pain shoots through my chest and I’m completely lost for words, so instead of struggling to say the right thing, I step into him and wrap my arms around his strong body, holding him tight. Roman sinks into me and curls his arms around me as I distantly notice Marcus slipping out of the dining room to give Roman some privacy, despite the pain he must be feeling in his own heart. Marcus was close with Felicity, but his emotions have been a mess after she stormed into my bedroom and shot him. We’ve all been a mess since then.