Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 95013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
I was on my phone when Elio’s text popped up.
Rocco is at the gate. Shall I let him in?
I read the message three times before I reacted to it, before I felt my heart drop into my stomach with the weight of a brick. When Aurelia and I spoke about the wedding, his name popped up, and I knew his sudden appearance after that couldn’t be a coincidence. Aurelia must have said something to him. Must have asked him to come.
I just couldn’t believe he’d actually done it.
I sat there for a moment and looked at the sea view before I typed a reply. Yes. Bring him to the terrace.
Of course, sir.
I pocketed my phone, then stood up, forcing Medusa to move aside. I was suddenly warm and needed space, suddenly anxious when I never felt anxious. My heart raced a million miles an hour, and it thumped in my chest like a bass drum. I felt like I was about to face off with Darius . . . not my friend.
Or someone I used to know.
Elio appeared in the glass doorway and opened the door so Rocco knew where to find me. He was in his usual attire, black jeans and a black T-shirt, his dark hair a little longer than it’d been before, the shadow on his jawline darkening into a full beard.
Medusa immediately jumped up when she saw him and ran straight over.
Rocco’s serious face softened at the sight of her, and like they were still on good terms, he kneeled down and gave her a rubdown before he patted her on the flank. “Glad you’re doing well, Medusa.” He rose to his full height again, his expression directly in the sunlight, and he was hard and serious once more. His eyes looked at mine for the first time, and a beat of heavy silence followed.
He crossed the terrace and joined me under the shade of the massive umbrella, his hands sliding into his front pockets.
A silent stare-down ensued.
Medusa joined us, but she picked up on the tension and moved to another couch in the shade, staying out of our way.
The silence continued for a while, like Rocco had made the effort to come all the way here but now didn’t have a clue what to say.
To be fair, I didn’t know what to say either. I felt a lot of different things at once. I was still mad about the bullshit he’d said to me, but a part of me felt whole in his presence, like the piece of me that had been missing had somehow returned.
“President Barsetti told me he stopped by.”
Now I knew the purpose of his visit. “Yeah.”
“So you’re aware that Rome burns from the flames of our enemies—and you do nothing.”
So this was basically round two of our verbal fistfight. “I’m putting my family first—and that’s not nothing.”
“I thought I was your family.”
That stung like a hundred wasps attacking me at once.
“You called me your brother. And yet you abandon me and all your other men while you hide away in your fairy-tale storybook.”
“You seriously came all the way here to start shit?”
“I came here to finish it, Constantine. To make sure you’re painfully aware of the consequences of your cowardice—”
“You think I won’t throw you off this fucking balcony?”
Medusa straightened on the couch and issued a low growl.
I didn’t look at her when I addressed her. “Heel, Medusa.” I stepped closer to Rocco. “You have no idea how hard it was for me to walk away. The depression that drowned me every fucking day and I couldn’t catch a single breath. When you love a woman someday, you will understand. You will watch yourself burn the fucking world with your own goddamn matches. I’m not sorry for turning my back on you or Rome—and I’d fucking do it again.”
He watched me with his ice-cold eyes.
“But I wish it hadn’t come to this. I wish I hadn’t let Darius outsmart me. That regret will haunt me for the rest of my life. I failed everyone I care about, and that will always make me feel like shit. Is that what you want to hear? That I hate myself for letting you and everyone down? That I see the way you look at me right now, and it kills me a little more than it did before. Because yeah, I fucking hate myself.”
His eyes shifted back and forth between mine as he listened. “Then come back. Outsmart him. Avenge your brother and save our city. I’m with you in this. I agreed with you from the beginning that Darius needed to be handled, but everyone was too much of a pussy to face him. Let’s fucking finish him.”
For a brief second, I wanted to do it. Take his offer and return to Rome with guns blazing. Wanted to rip Darius apart with my bare hands for touching my woman and shooting Medusa. Wanted to break open that oil barrel and finally align my brother’s headstone with his remains. Finally unleash this rage that had simmered below the surface every fucking day these last seven years.