Romeo entered the room and frowned. He shifted his eyes towards my father, who was clearly aggravated. Neither of us wanted to deal with him. I wanted to leave, but I didn’t want the backlash of getting out of the situation. My father was not the kind of man to forgive, no matter how old we were. We were under his thumb, like all the other grunts.
“Well? Aren’t you going to tell him?”
Romeo rolled his eyes as he turned his head to me. “It’s not that big of a deal. It was just a rumor. Someone said that they saw Gianni.”
A gut-wrenching feeling overcame me, and I thought I might be sick. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. It was Enzo who told me. He said that one of his guys, Oscar Cortez, saw Gianni walking around the pier. He said he looked different, or something like that.”
I understood my father’s reaction. There was no way that he was alive.
“What does this mean?” I asked.
My father stopped pacing and glared at me. “What the fuck do you mean? It means nothing! You know why? Cause it wasn’t fucking him.”
Romeo let out a deep breath. “I don’t think it’s true, either. Rumors are always spread and there’s nothing we could do about it. For all we know, it was spread by Dominic.”
“You’re right. I wouldn’t take it seriously.”
“You won’t take it seriously?” my father asked, shaking his head. “If Dominic is out there running his mouth, it means that he’s trying to take down the work we put into taking over the Bonifacio name. That could hurt us. You know it, and I know it.”
“But we don’t know for sure,” I told him, wanting to pace, just as he had. “We can’t just assume that it was spread by Dominic, either. As long as we keep this between us, it won’t change anything.”
My father laughed sarcastically. “You think that he wouldn’t do that? He absolutely would. I want him taken out.”
Romeo raised his hands. “You can’t just take out Dominic. That would bring down the entire community on us. Maybe even worse. I think you need to relax.”
Romeo shouldn’t have said that. If there was one thing my father hated, it was being told what to do, or how to feel. He loathed people having any sort of power over him. Still, Romeo was the favorite, as he was the heir. If I’d said something like that to my father, I wouldn’t have survived. Romeo, however, had more leverage over him.
But he still reacted poorly.
“You don’t have the right to tell me what the fuck to do, Romeo! Vaffanculo!” he yelled, stomping his way towards my brother. “I lost a goddamn son. And they’re out there starting rumors about him, as though it’s funny. Don’t you dare tell me what the fuck to think. You got that?”
Romeo fell silent, knowing that he shouldn’t say any more. It would only set my father off more and cause a rift between the two of them, which might become irreparable, depending on how deeply my father felt about it. He hadn’t fully come to terms with Gianni’s death, and something like a rumor was enough to throw him into a fit.
I considered it for a moment. What if Gianni was alive? Where would he be? There were a few places I could think of. Not many in our family knew, but Gianni sometimes tested the drugs that we brought in. He wanted to see what kind of high our customers got. He tested the pure version of the drugs, too, before anything was cut, or mixed with anything to gain further profits. He’d dabbled more than any of us.
Then the thought came, but I pushed it aside. There was a cabin. It was stupid to even consider it. Gianni was dead. He’d never been away from home for long. None of us were. We all depended on each other. We weren’t raised to be self-sufficient. We were raised to help the family and to build the empire.
He wouldn’t survive without my father’s money.
My father drew a deep breath, his face becoming less red as he backed away from Romeo. “I’m sorry. I need some time. You’re right.”
Both Romeo and I were at a loss for words. My father was not the kind of man to reprimand his own emotions. He was hardly able to contain his anger. I couldn’t remember a time when he recognized his actions as being antagonistic. He’d always had a temper, even when my mother was alive. She was the only one who was able to calm him. We’d never seen a moment where he calmed himself and apologized.
“I’m going up to my study. Leave me be for a while, and contact Enzo. Tell him that I want this to stay between us. Don’t get your siblings hopes up,” he said and brushed his fingers through his hair. “Gianni is dead, and we just need to accept that.”
My father started towards the entrance to the kitchen, leaving us to a deep silence. We shared a look, unable to fathom what just happened. Neither of us knew what to think about my father walking away from a fight.
“What the hell just happened?” Romeo asked, smiling suddenly.
“You just got away with mouthing off, that’s what just happened.”
He wiped his face. “I’m shocked.”
“Yeah. You’re not the only one.”
He brought his eyes to mine, narrowing them. “So, you and Chiara, huh?”
