Still, it was a big fucking secret, and Lothario seemed to have the answer to it. Whatever he knew about Giulio Cesare, we had a feeling he had used it to point him in my direction, getting him to side with him in this war. And again, the timing.
Why fucking now? Right as it was rumored that Luca was going to be released.
Somehow, I knew, unless the lion got to Cesare, he was going to make a comeback. And I knew Lothario, like countless men before him, would tell him to go after my wife. It was the only thing that could provoke me, and they knew it. Then it became more than a game to them. It waswhy?Why was this woman so special to this giant of a family?If they will fight to keep her this hard, then she must have something no one else does.
It was her truth, which led to the fact that if she was somehow destroyed, the powerful Fausti Family would never be the same. It would tear us apart from the inside until the outside no longer existed.
Because I’d tear them apart, my own family, limb from limb, until I got to the heart, if anything happened to her while we were under their protection. We’d been double-crossed before, by my own blood, and it nearly killed us both.
I could tell by the look in Giulio Cesare’s eyes that he thought he could win. He thought he could steal the heart from my chest.
No, they never went after me directly, but the heart that was worth more than my own.
My wife’s.
There are some things worse than death. For me, that was one of them.
My brothers followed me as we made our way to the seats of the colosseum. None of us looked for our appointed places. We stood next to each other in a section with no men, looking over the arena. It was traditional looking, round, and packed with dirt.
None of us said anything as a cage on wheels was pushed out from underneath. Cesare stood in the center of it, looking around.
The crowd had quieted down when he was rolled out, but they were even quieter now, anticipation flowing through the air like smoke from all of the mouths.
A few seconds later, the lion was freed from the holding cell underneath the circle. He ran out, making a few rounds, sniffing around the cage, and then he stood in the middle of the circle, his watchful eyes searching the crowd.
“Back in the day, as punishment, they would stake people and allow starving animals to eat them,” Romeo whispered.
“Shh,” Dario said to Romeo.
The lion’s eyes moved our way, but he didn’t move. Not until Naomi came to stand closer to the edge of the aisle she was on. He watched her, like he wanted to see what she was going to do first, before he ran toward her.
A few seconds more and the gate to the cage was silently opened. Unless Cesare wanted to get trapped inside with the lion, he had to step out. There was plenty of room for a man and a beast inside.
Cesare took advantage of Naomi’s distraction, stepping down from the cage as quietly as he could. It almost seemed like I could hear the wheels turning in his head, and the heart beating overtime in his chest. He hurriedly wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, almost tiptoeing toward an area close enough that he could make a run for it.
One touch and the gates would open.
The lion still hadn’t looked away from Naomi, but then a sharp wind blew, and his nostrils scented the air. His head turned a fraction, mane rustling in the wind, and when he noticed the man trying to get past him, he took off.
It wasn’t much of a contest. The lion reached Cesare before he could make it two steps, pummeling him from behind, knocking him to the ground. Before the wind was knocked from his lungs, I heard him scream, “CURSE YOU AL—!” Then everything went silent.
The lion had two paws on Cesare’s back as he searched for Naomi again. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to show her what he’d done or was just checking to make sure she was still there.
Then, in the space of a few heartbeats, everything changed.
The lion went off again.
His paws were still on Cesare’s back, but he kept throwing his mane around, roaring. He pounced off, heading closer to where Naomi was, and like those big cats in captivity do at zoos, he kept pacing back and forth, trying to figure out a way to get to her.
Or not her. The man suddenly standing next to her.
Valerio.
They were turned toward each other, arguing, like the lion was a kid who was throwing a tantrum and needed to be ignored for a minute or two.
Cesare was still down, but his breath must have returned, because he shook his head and slowly turned it to where the lion paced back and forth. Men were running toward where Valerio and Naomi were standing, maybe to break it up so thelodicould continue.
Though blood had leaked through Cesare’s shirt, and there was no doubt he probably had a few broken ribs from the impact, he forced himself up with strength straight from adrenaline and hightailed it to the gate. Both of his hands slapped against it, and they opened up to let him in.
