The Asante brand, burned into her fucking skin. The promise I made.
And as our eyes meet, I know he’s thinking the same.
The brandy burns, and I welcome it, that little bite of pain. I take a second swig, and then a third, until Gio curses fluidly. “Steady, Dom.”
Ignoring him, I pin my eyes on Stefano. “Why are you here, Asante?”
The tension jumps. Dante straightens in his seat, his eyes also landing on Stefano, even as Gio shifts his eyes between us.
Stefano doesn’t look away. He meets my stare, his shoulders straightening. “Because where she goes, I follow.”
Red.
The mist swoops, threatening to descend over my eyes, and I fight it, fight it with every inch of me. “You’re a dead man fucking walking if you think I’m going to let you anywhere near her. Begrateful you’re still alive, Asante, and that’s only because you gotthemin.”
I gesture to Gio and Dante as he stiffens. “Don’t call me Asante.”
“You’re the heir now,” Gio points out with a frown. “No getting away from it.”
But Stefano only stares at me, dark eyes unblinking. “I don’t want any fucking part of that inheritance. It can burn to the fucking ground for all I care. Have it. Take it, pick over whatever scraps are left. Ineverwanted it.”
I take another swig as I survey him. I’ve never heard him speak so much at once, let alone with so much vehemence in his tone - have never seen his face flood with color as it does now.
“So fucking loyal,” I mutter, and this time, rage crosses his face as he steps closer. Rage that almost – almost – matches what bubbles away beneath my own skin as he leans down.
“Iamloyal to those I care about, Rossi. Caterina asked me to come, so I’m here. And the only way you’ll get me to leave her side is if you put a gun to my head and pull the fucking trigger. Want to get it over with now?”
My temper erupts. “Don’t fuckingtemptme—,”
I’m out of my seat, both of us squaring off against each other. Gio jumps up as well, pushing between us with a snarled curse. “Basta! Enough.We have enough fucking battles. Shechosehim, Dom. Get your head around it, and quickly.”
I snap my head to him, the anger rising in sweeping waves that make my hands shake as I clench them into tight fists. “She was fuckingforcedinto it. Where’s the choice in that?”
Whatever Caterina was forced to do to stay alive while she was buried in that fucking hellhole - whatever she felt she had to do, tosay,to survive it – I’ll be fuckingdamnedif I let him hold her hostage over it for a moment longer.
Not when I have failed her so badly already.
But Gio shakes his head at me, and there’s something in his expression - something like pain, that makes me pause.
“Stefanogot her out,” he says quietly. His hand is on my shoulder, squeezing, gripping as if he would hold me in place in case I go for the asshole’s jugular. “I wasthere, outside the walls, waiting for her. I saw her, spoke to her. But she wouldn’t –she wouldn’t leave. She went back, Dom. There was no coercion. She chose to walk back inside the Asante compound, and nobody forced her.”
My eyes dart to his. Shewouldn’t—
“She went back.” Gio hesitates, then. “Forhim.”
My eyes slide to Stefano’s face. And it’s twisted, twisted in something that looks remarkably like the agony lacing my own chest.
“I wish she had left,” he rasps, his eyes on mine. And there’s disbelief there, as he shakes his head. “But he’s right. She came back. She would not leave me, and she wouldn’t risk Alessia. And thecost—,”
A hole opens up in my chest as his voice stutters over that word.
His voice hardens. “I will not leave her now. Whatever follows.”
I have to close my eyes.
She went back.
“So,” Dante says quietly. “Then there were six.”
