“The Nemours,” I said, picking up my drink and downing it. The fire in the drink burned my throat, but it only made me feel like a fire-breathing monster. “They looking to sell someone?”
Padrino breathed out, and I smelled the fire on his breath. “That is why we are meeting with Moro. If anyone would know, it would be him.”
I pulled in my lips and rolled them, before I reached for my father’s glass and downed it. He wasn’t touching it. “Is that the word on the street? The Nemours are looking to sell a dancer?”
“Could be a trap,” my father said. “They know we’re willing to fight for her.”
His answer was simple, which told me a lot. We knew enough, but not nearly a fucking enough. The Nemours family was not to be slept on. My parents had fought them for years, with the backing of some of the Faustis, and the Nemours still ruled the streets of Paris. Even though their fall guy was Olivier Nemours. But where the Faustis worked in the light, no one powerful enough to stop them, the Nemours worked in the darkness. They might have been powerful, but they got there by hiding out in sewers and living like rats.
“When we want something, or something as important assomeone, the world knows what ourfamigliawill do to claim what or who belongs to us. Stella is one of us—she is yours. We will fight the devil in hell to get her back.”
My father wanted to guffaw at his brother’s words, but he held his tongue. Some of the Faustifamigliahad supported the war between our family and the Nemours when Olivier was after my mamma, but not all of them. The man copiloting this plane, Nazzareno, his father had underhandedly tried to get my parents killed because he wanted to rule. That was how things rolled in our family, and it was an acceptable way of conducting things. All but the underhandedly. The men in this family were not cowards. It was the reason we didn’t lie. To lie meant being afraid of the truth.
Who did we have to fear?
No one on this earth.
My father had enough respect for my uncle not to point out the truth, though. We knew Padrino wasn’t speaking on our family as a whole, but our close circle. Our close circle had traveled to hell and back with my parents to make sure my mamma stayed safe, and my father kept his heart in his chest.
The heart was a man’s prized possession in our family, and mine felt like it was near beating out of my chest.
My Stella.
My Light.
The Nemours were going to try to sell her or use her to lure us closer.
Auggie’s voice came over the speakers and announced that we were about to land. The plane trembled, and the lights flickered. From the weather outside, or the power of the storm inside of my heart, I had no fucking clue.
Chapter 5
Matteo
In the bowels of darkness was where men like Bertrand Moro felt more comfortable doing business, but since Nonno said that the Faustis didn’t need to cower from the light, the meeting was postponed by a day. That meant another day in Venice. Another day where my feet were stalled. And they seemed directly connected to my heart. The vital organ felt like it had stopped in my chest, and it wouldn’t start again until I was in the same room with her. Each second felt like another breath lost.
Marciano squeezed my shoulder, nodding toward the outside cafe where we were meeting with Saverio. He and my sister couldn’t meet us the night before. The weather had kept them from arriving when we had. We were seated right away, and before Saverio arrived, a breakfast spread was laid out before us, cappuccino included. Maestro was going to meet us later and so was Massimo, since we were going to the Fausti’s jeweler.
The crowd seemed to naturally part for Rio and my sister as they walked toward us. He held her hand in a way that told the world—mine, period.Fuck with her and you fuck with me.That was why I was okay with Saverio marrying her. I knew that, besides my family, Saverio was the only man I’d trust with her. It didn’t hurt that we all knew they were destined to be together.It just hit me sometimes, out of the blue, that my sister and best friend had sons, and those sons would one day call me Padrino when they could speak. Another baby was on the way. Saverio and Mia had just told us a day or so ago. It was so early, though, that only our immediate circle knew. No one could keep secrets from mamma. She just knew things.
We all stood when they approached the table, and my brothers and I took turns kissing Mia before we shook Saverio’s hand and squeezed his shoulder. Once my sister and my brother-in-law had enjoyed their breakfast, we got down to the reason why we were there.
Stella.
Saverio took a drink of his cappuccino and then looked around. His sister, Evelina, also known as his partner in crime, broke through the crowd and rushed toward us. She was dragging behind her what looked like a suitcase on wheels. Again, all the men stood when she approached the table, and we each greeted her before Mariano pulled her chair out for her. We all sat after she did.
Saverio and Evelina took after their old man, Mac, when it came to how smart they were. “Clever” would be a good word to add to “smart.” Either way, if someone wanted to disappear, or find a needle in a haystack, the Macchiavello family seemed more powerful than any government that existed. Sometimes it was scary how fucking good they were.
Over the years, our families had connected in powerful ways, including the time—before any of us were born—that Mari, Saverio and Evelina’s mamma, was stolen by a crazed man who wanted her dead. He’d dumped her in the Hudson, in New York, and my old man saved her. She was pregnant with Saverio at the time, and if it wasn’t for Brando Fausti, my sister’s husband wouldn’t exist.
Besides Saverio’s love for my sister, I knew that was a reason why Saverio was so loyal to us. Not only did my old man save his mamma, but he’d saved him. Saverio said he’d always existed to love my sister. I’d always thought that was something a lame romantic would feel, but after meeting Stella…everything I felt became twisted and lost among new feelings.
“Oh!” Evelina brightened, reaching for the cappuccino the waiter set down for her. “Don’t mind if I do.Grazie mille!” She didn’t even care that she had a foam mustache as she closed her eyes and moaned at the taste of it.
Evelina Macchiavello was a special girl, and no doubt, she was beautiful. I’d been interested in her, as were my brothers. Massimo too. Evelina and Mia were tight, though, and I knew the situation had unnerved my sister. Mia didn’t want any of us fighting over Evelina. The only two who had some leftover interest in her were Mariano and Marciano, but Evelina had found something in one of Lev’s men, a man who we all called Wolf. He was like a stone, but with hungry eyes. An enormous black wolf followed him around like a fucking puppy. Wolf, the man, was probably somewhere close, but he hid himself well. We all got the feeling that he wasn’t a people-person in general. He existed to hunt for the Russian government.
Mia laughed at Evelina’s foam mustache and handed her a napkin, her tanzanite wedding ring catching the light and throwing a purple spark. Evelina waved the cloth, not bothering to use it, as she used her tongue to clean it up. Before, that would have turned me the fuck on, but all I could think about was what Saverio, Mia, and Evelina had learned about Stella’s past—before she was taken to Paris and left with the Nemours.
We had some of the story, as much as Saverio and his family could find, but there were too many gaps, and I wanted them filled in. I wanted to know exactly what Stella had been through, then I needed to talk to her myself. Even though her historywould be mine, as well as her now and future, I wanted her to confide in me about her life. I needed her to trust me. I needed her to want me as much as I fucking wanted her. Heryesfelt as vital as my next breath.
