Narrowing my eyes, I shot Luca a look. He ignored this, and the two cousins began to speak in Sicilian, a language my father-in-law knew I didn’t have. In his defense, though, Ercole had started it.
In response to whatever Ercole had said in the romantic language, Luca shook his head, smiling at me. Not in a braggadocio way, but in a way that told me he was proud.
“You are beautiful, Ercole says.” Luca smiled even wider. “However, you are even more dangerous.”
“Ah, he has spoken to either Lothario or Ettore about me.” I cleared my throat, attempting to cover up the mention of Ettore, but couldn’t find anything else to say.
“I tell him, daughter, that a beautiful woman cannot be benign. She is either beautiful and dangerous, or plain and safe. You take an ugly woman as your wife, you will have a calm life, ah?”
The two men laughed at this, their booming humor sending hidden birds zooming up through the shrubs at the unexpected sound.
“You should know,” I said almost sweetly. “Since you’re the expert on women.”
He ignored this jab, and my tone, instead turning his attention back to Ercole. He had brought me here to discuss Maggie Beautiful and whatever else fired him up, but another reason came into focus in light of Ercole’s timely appearance.
Luca wanted me to feel the man out. He wanted me to be his personal lie detector.
Ercole knew about me, and though he became a bit more comfortable, he was still out of his comfort zone. Which meant one thing—he was hiding something, and he knew damn well I could dig it out.
After a few minutes of casual talk, it was no surprise when Luca brought up his brother, Lothario.
“You have delivered my message,” Luca said to him in Italian.
“Yes, yes.” Ercole waved a hand. “He will be there.”
“Good,” Luca answered, a hard look coming over his face. “What about you, cousin? Tell me if your alliance is still with him.”
Ercole had noticed the hard look and had taken a step in the other direction—he didn’t want to be close to either of us. At Luca’s words, though, he turned his stare on me.
If I was making sense out of this conversation, Luca had asked this question before, and hadn’t believed the answer.
I doubted that Ercole had lied to him, but he hadn’t given him the entire truth. If he were the messenger between the two brothers, his allegiance was to one of them, or maybe neither.
From the feel of him, it wasn’t Luca. No man comes into another’s den sweating if his loyalty was for that lion.
After a few moments’ deliberation, he stood taller, squared his shoulders, and that Fausti strength rushed forward.
“I mean no disrespect, cousin,” Ercole answered in an even tone, “but I cannot support a man who takes his father’s murderer under his roof and protects him. Accident or not.”
Luca stared at the ground for a moment. He seemed to be thinking over Ercole’s blatant statement. Then as quickly as a striking paw, turned on his cousin and lifted him by the shirt, slamming him into the shrubbery.
Ercole’s body made a dent, but it seemed like the strong branches were jabbing him in the back. It had to be uncomfortable.
I stood still, not sure what to do. My heart pounded like a bass drum, echoing fast and hard in my ears.
“You disrespect me, cousin,” Luca almost sneered, “by insinuating that I would ever forgive him of this grave sin. He paid his penance, did he not? Did he not rot before my eyes? Did he not have to live with my son breathing in the same world, though he blamed him for all the sins put upon this family? Greed. Greed has caused this. Not my son. Not my daughter. The woman is a woman of great faith. My father recognized it. He gave his life for it. My brothers, both of them, chose roads I would not. Both for the sake of rapacity.”
“You tried to kill my son!” Ercole said, almost strangled by his own emotions and Luca’s hand. “You sent a lion to devour him!”
Oh, so this was the father of the man who had come to our bathroom window and written me the freaky-ass note. Whoever his son was, he was a cousin who had been in cahoots with supporting Lothario. Perhaps they figured killing me and Brando would prove something—that they were strong enough to do it, weakening any claims Luca had to the “throne.”
Ercole had forged an alliance with Lothario, and apparently killers who tried to take out their own blood.
Which told me one powerful truth—Lothario had been feeling the heat of Luca’s return, but he would fight to the end to keep his position.
Luca’s release was not public news, not yet, but word still got around. In the way of powerful men who are feared, even the rumors were controlled by him. No one could say for certain if he was out of prison or not.
“Tried.” Luca laughed, but it wasn’t friendly. “By his blood alone does he still live. However, shared blood will only go so far.”
