But that wasn’t even the kicker. The kicker was that my wife—who’d been in such emotional turmoil the last few weeks that she’d barely been able to eat—had devoured nearly everything on her plate. Every course. After weeks of watching the woman push food around like just the sight repulsed her, tonight I’d just witnessed her act as if nothing had happened.
My mother, who had called Natalie a slut the last time I’d been in this house, scowled in disapproval when I didn’t answer my wife. Lifting her own cup without so much as a thank-you to Rosabel when she sat it in front of her, she said, “I see you’ve finally grown accustomed to how late Europeans dine as well.”
“I have,” Natalie answered. “I’ve grown accustomed and accepting of many things I wasn’t before. I guess I just needed time to get used to it all.”
“Hm.” My mother sipped her coffee with a satisfied smirk. Glancing toward my father at the far end of the table, she said, “It seems the honeymoon we sent them on was indeed a good decision.”
Shock rippled through me. I stared at Natalie, but she showed absolutely no reaction to the bombshell my mother had just dropped, all but announcing to everyone at the table that raping and beating me in front of my wife had been a good idea.
My father muttered, “So it seems.” Something else Natalie showed no reaction to.
“You and Papà sent them to Scotland for their honeymoon?” Ariana asked at my side. “I didn’t realize that. How sweet!”
Unable to handle this farce of a dinner one second more, I pushed back from the table. “I need some air.”
Natalie’s gaze lifted to me, but her suddenly worried expression only made the disgust inside me churn faster.
“You haven’t had your dessert yet, Luciano,” my mother said.
“The one Rosabel made? Like the rest of the meal?”
My mother’s lips flattened.
Rising, I tossed my napkin on the table and glared at my wife. “I’ve lost my appetite.”
“Luc,” Ariana called at my back as I headed out of the dining room. “Wai—“
“Let him go,” my father snapped. “There’s no sense in letting him ruin yet another dinner. Natalie, tell us about Scotland.”
I couldn’t breathe. Freeing another button on my shirt, I moved out onto the loggia and sucked in the cool night air. Down the dark hillside, lights twinkled in homes and the small villages scattered throughout the rolling countryside, but all I could see was Natalie in there schmoozing with my parents as if they were long lost friends, then her standing beside them on that balcony during that fucked-up ritual.
I braced my hands against the stone balustrade and dropped my head, focusing on the breathing techniques Abigail had taught me to keep myself centered so I wouldn’t give in to the memories.
Footsteps sounded at my back. My head came up. I was just about to turn, knowing it was Natalie coming to check on me, when I heard Gio’s slimy voice say, “My older brother married. Now there’s something I thought I’d never see.”
Every muscle in my body grew tense and rigid. Slowly, I shifted around to face him. He was leaning back against a column on the loggia, his hands in the pockets of his slacks, his posture relaxed, but there was a fire in his light eyes I recognized well. One that told me he was just waiting for me to make the first move.
I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “You’re supposed to be on assignment for Covet.”
“My schedule changed. And you haven’t heard the news? You’re no longer in charge at Covet. Ilario Lorenzo’s been named CEO by Father. Guess Father figured you were too busy falling in love to execute your duties.”
I sensed his words weren’t a lie. I’d yet to talk business with my father, but I knew Lorenzo had been gunning to head Covet for years, even before I’d been sent there. And I’d been gone a long time. But this meant all my hope of taking Natalie back to New York had just crashed and burned.
My mood dropped even lower.
“Gotta say, fratello.” Gio tugged one hand from his pockets and curled his fingers inward to study his nails. “She must have one hell of a magic cunt to get you to abandon all kinds of common sense.”
My temper shot right to the brink of my control. Gio was baiting me. He was waiting for me to lunge so my father would be forced to intervene and undoubtedly punish me again, but all I wanted to do was slam my fist through his face.
“That’s my wife you’re talking about. You’ll show her the respect she deserves.”
A depraved smile curled his lips. “Oh, I remember well what she deserves.”
My vision turned red. I didn’t even feel myself move. One second, I was across the loggia, and the next, I was in front of Gio, my hand at his throat, pinning him to the column at his back.
“Do it,” he growled, his eyes widening and glinting with a sinister light. “You’ve wanted to be rid of me my whole life. Finish this once and for all. Or don’t you have the balls to go through with it? No, you don’t, do you? Because Luciano always has to be the fucking hero.”
My hand tightened around his neck. I saw myself squeezing tighter, choking the life out of him. He deserved it after all the shit he’d done. The world would be a better place without him. But just as my fingers curled against his skin, I thought of Natalie.
Of what my House would do to me if I gave in to the rage and killed my brother. How she’d be left all alone to fend for herself in a world she still didn’t understand.
I released him even though all I wanted to do was finish him for good. “You’re not worth it.”
Giovanni rolled his shoulders with a self-satisfied smirk. “You think you’re all high and mighty, but you’re not. The same blood flows in your veins as in mine, as in Father’s. The same urges. The same needs. I’ve seen your tastes, Luciano. You might hide them from your pretty little wife in there, but we both know the truth. You gave in before. You’ll do so again. And do you know why?” He stepped close and dropped his voice to a poisonous whisper. “Because deep inside, you’re exactly like me.”
His words rang with a truth I didn’t want to face. There was a part of me that craved the depraved, the wicked, the deviant things my House encouraged. A dark part of me that fed off control and was drawn to temptation. I’d been fighting it my whole life, and as Giovanni taunted me with his words, I realized that was what scared me the most about being here—it was why I’d really run twelve years before.
I didn’t trust myself in this world. I didn’t trust myself not to cave to all the immoral enticements floating around me.
Sickness rolled through my gut, and I shoved hard against his chest, knocking him back several steps. “Get the fuck away from me. And don’t go anywhere near my wife.”
Giovanni only grinned wider. “Oh, I wouldn’t think of it. Though, if she comes to me...” He clucked his tongue, slid his hands into his pockets again, and moved toward the doorway back into the house. “You and that pretty wife of yours have a good night.”
He disappeared into the house, but I didn’t follow. I didn’t trust myself not to slam him against a wall.
Hands shaking, I turned back toward the dark view and braced my palms on the stone balustrade once more, running through those breathing exercises that did shit to calm me down.