‘Are you going to get to a point anytime soon? You’re harshing my vibe. And in case you haven’t forgotten, my kind isn’t supposed to mix with yours. Somebody might just tattle to your preciousNonno. Then where will you be?’
Anger flashed across his face, but he throttled it almost immediately. ‘Anywhere I fucking want. I’m a grown man. And leave my grandfather out of this.’
A flash of bleached-blond hair darted across my vision and I almost groaned when its owner cut through the crowd, making a beeline for me.
‘Come to offer your congrats? Only I don’t think I heard you give it over the sound of thetifosiroaring my name,’ Narciso said with a full smirk and twinkling eyes, right before throwing his arm around my shoulders. ‘Is he bothering you?’ He didn’t bother to keep his voice down. A few heads turned our way, tension rising.
Under normal circumstances, I would’ve welcomed my baby brother interrupting an unwanted conversation. But my heart lurched with fear for him beneath the livid gaze Cesare slanted him.
‘Fuck off,picciruddu,’ he growled. ‘The grown-ups are talking.’
Ciso’s face reddened. He was about to lose his shit. Unfortunately, the Salvatores weren’t the only ones cursed with violent tempers. Another reason I needed to end this conversation asap.
Besides, while I was sure I could talk myself out of confrontation with my father and grandfather, especially if I exaggerated how sorely the Salvatores were taking their loss today, a prolonged conversation with the enemy wouldn’t be as easy to explain away.
I held out my glass to Ciso. ‘Get me another one, please? This one’s gone warm.’
I was his big sister and if nothing else, respect had been bred into us, so he didn’t tell me to piss off to my face, but his eyes said so loud and clear. Snatching the glass from my hand, he stalked to the other end of the bar.
‘You let him disrespect you like that?’ Cesare snapped, narrowed eyes trailing Ciso.
I stepped in front of him, visibly blocking his ferocious gaze. ‘You leave him the fuck alone, Cesare. I mean it.’ As the oldest, I was a mama bear when it came to my siblings, especially since our mother had become a husk of herself for reasons shrouded in family secrets. As lethally dangerous as Cesare was, I wouldn’t hesitate to take him on if he threatened my loved ones.
His head snapped back to me, nostrils flared and eyes darkened dramatically. ‘I don’t remember giving you permission to use my name,’ he said, his voice low and infinitely lethal.
I hadn’t used it since that night almost a decade and a half ago. Except in my helpless dreams when my traitorous hand snuck between my legs and I woke in a sweat, poised on the precipice of yet another thwarted climax. ‘This isn’t the Dark Ages. If you don’t want to be addressed when we’re speaking, feel free to stick to your side of the room.’
‘You’re playing a very dangerous game, sweetheart.’
A shiver sizzled through me. ‘Now who’s taking liberties?’
His mouth twitched again but his eyes remained lava hot, smouldering with their promise to devastate. ‘You have thenerve to talk to me about taking liberties when you’re playing dirty?’
A cool breeze washed over my neck. Sore loser or not, the look in his eyes was deadly serious. Cesare Salvatore hadn’t spoken directly to me in years. That he’d crossed the room to do so tonight, in full view of his family and mine, with Vesuvius-hot feuds and bodyguards who even now watched us with hands hovering near their weapons, was gravely significant. ‘I’ll say it again. I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
A muscle ticked in his jaw. ‘You have until the next race in Azerbaijan. Hand over the mole and stand down whichever official you’ve got in your pocket tossing penalties my way and I may consider drawing a line under your little shitshow.’ He stepped forward and leaned close. His breath washed over my ear and the most vigorous shiver yet juddered through me. This close, I know he didn’t miss it. That he didn’t really care about his effect on me. Yet my belly clenched in shame as he continued. ‘Don’t, and I’ll make your life hell for the rest of the season. Andthatwill be just the start.’
Shock replaced the lustful shiver as I watched him wander back to where he’d come from. He jerked his head at Rafaelle, the other terrifying Salvatore.
With the same height and build and only eleven months separating them, people often wondered if the brothers were fraternal twins. Granted, they were thick as thieves and often one was never far behind the other, Rafaelle tending to trail his brother in his rightful place as Cesare’s second.
Together they turned heads, in fear and the kind of morbid fascination reserved for ruthless, beautiful predators. But somehow, my eyes always skidded past Rafaelle to his brother, my breath always catching at the first sight of the heir.
‘What the fuck did he want?’ Ciso grumbled, returning with my champagne. ‘And why the hell did you send me away?’
I didn’t want to hurt his pride by telling him Cesare would eat him for breakfast and barely remember the meal afterward, so I took the drink and took an unwanted sip to buy myself time to digest what Cesare had said.
A mole.
Bribing race officials?
What the fuck?
‘Maddie?’
I pinned a smile on my face. ‘We’re having a great night. I didn’t want him to ruin it.’
Scepticism narrowed his eyes. ‘Then why tolerate him in the first place? I came over because it didn’t seem like you were in a hurry to tell him to fuck off,’ he said, suspicion joining the scepticism.
