Rosaria…she was beautiful, no doubt, but Tigran’s blood seemed to smear my opinion of her. I wasn’t sure what they had going, whether the love he died for was reciprocated, but I couldn’t seem to see where it belonged to her. She looked so…entitled to this moment, with her nose turned up, that it made it hard to believe she cared about anything but status.
Rocco looked our way, acknowledged us, but Rosaria gave her profile only.
Since Luca’s sons and their wives seemed to be entering by birth, which made total sense for this family, Dario and his wife, Carmen, arrived next, followed by Romeo and Juliette. Romeo stopped in front of us, bowed, then winked and laughed as he kept Juliette close. She was smiling, shaking her head at him as the press ate it up.
“How human,” Neil whispered, enchanted.
Neil’s words seemed to come at me from a faraway place and hit me with a sense of the truth. He was right. Up until Romeo made his entrance, it was like observing history, but Romeo gave us a sense of the…present. A reminder that this was happening in real time.
“If his sons made this much of an entrance,” Milo whispered. “I’m eager to see what the head lion is going to do.”
The head lion, Luca Fausti, didn’t arrive until later, but like all meteorites, he came in with a crash that imprinted his profile on coins.
“Showtime,” Neil breathed.
I couldn’t find my breath to answer him. But totally—yes.
It was showtime.
The king lion had arrived, and there was no doubt that the night smelled of blood, and he was on the hunt.
NINE
AVA
The moodof the entire event changed as soon as Luca made his entrance. Next to him was the woman who was being reported as his wife. It was the woman from Louisiana, Margherita Granchio, who was also the mother of his oldest son, Brando.
“Interesting,” Neil murmured from behind me. “That’s not the wife we’ve seen before.”
“No,” I whispered. “I bet he dissolved that marriage.”
“Dissolved?” Milo was being as quiet as we were, but I could hear the laughter in his voice.
“Margherita Granchio was the mistress,” I said, even though they probably both knew this. “It’s been too long to have the first one annulled, so it seems more like a dissolve issue. AnI have made this issue go awaysituation.”
“I guess he wifed Ms. Granchio up,” Neil said. “She’s beautiful, the forever-young type, and she has that special something that comes naturally—aura-wise. You can’t buy that in a bottle and slather it on. The other wife seemed to be all about the bottle.”
“I can’t say for certain, but I don’t think Marzio would have approved of this.” I watched as the couple made their way closer, like royalty greeting commoners at some regal function. “Marzio was the one who had arranged Luca’s first marriage. Things are definitely changing in this family.”
“Not all that much,” Milo said. “Lions will always be lions. They’ll alwaysroar.”
I was clueless as to why—maybe it was the proximity between me and Luca with Milo’s faint roar—but goosebumps puckered my arms when I thought of Luca making the same noise. The man had the spirit of a lion and the body to back it up.
Yeah, maybe his hair had gone mostly all silver, and the lines around his eyes gave him wisdom stripes, but mercy to the world, he was as handsome, maybe even physically stronger, than any of his sons.
I was certain that was why the entire mood of the event had changed as soon as he walked in. No one, outside of his family, had seen him out in the wild since he’d been charged with murder and sentenced to however many years in prison in Louisiana. Then he makes an epic comeback, looking as fine and as fierce as ever, ready to fucking rule.
This man was a dangerous legend.
One who was currently singing an opera classic as he made his way deeper inside, hitting notes high enough to echo in the spacious palazzo, putting a spell on anyone who was susceptible to it.
The three of us included.
I wondered if Neil was still breathing. He was never really interested in the family, but I could tell they had charmed him with both the romantic and ruthless energies they gave off.
“Incoming,” Milo whispered.
Neil held on to me tighter. For his benefit or mine, not sure.
