Tacked in with the fact that I was dying without her, Iggy was of great concern.
Iggy was one of the main reasons I refused to let the meeting end. Security measures had to be put into place to keep my wife safe. I didn’t trust her family enough to do it. Saverio had found some interesting history on the Capella/Cappello family, and history that had not grown cold yet. Sistine’s father had been married before he wed Aurora. According to what Rio had found, the first wife ofFlavio had died in a boating accident.
However, a man who worked for the family said he didn’t believe it. He was like the town crier, going around telling anyone who would listen that the woman had been murdered.
Apparently, the first wife was having an affair on Flavio, and she was going to leave Flavio for the man. The man she was having an affair with was the owner of another well-known jewelry store in Italy. If the Cappello Jewelry store had competition, it would have been the affair guy’s jewelry business.
Rio told me that back in the day, the other family was competing with the Cappellos for who was going to exclusivelydesign and create Fausti jewelry. But the Capella/Cappello daughter had fallen in love with a Fausti. The two families came together to form a union. Then shit went down with the couple and it almost cost both families the agreement between them.
That must’ve been intolerable for Flavio, seeing as he was sore about his wife leaving him for the competition, and suddenly, the first wife dies. So does the town crier, who was found a few days later, his lifeless, bloated body in the canal. And by all accounts, Sistine’s mamma hadn’t been the way she was until after marrying into the family.
The sister.
I made a whirling motion around my temple, whistling low.
Capri was the equivalent of mamma’s sister. I knew it the moment I met her.
All this to say, even if my wife had agreed to the separation, she wasn’t going to be left alone to defend herself against her family. Before Sistine had met me, they might have treated her differently, but she was no longer taking their shit. They were on the verge of losing her, losing their most talented designer and creator, and her father seemed to have a fucking thing about control. The entire time, I kept imagining him lying in bed at night, thinking of ways to kill me.
He knew the only way to get to me, truly, was through my heart, who happened to be his daughter.
My wife.
That was why Remo and Oscar were left behind. Remo, Oscar, and a bunch of Fausti men who were not allowed inside of the palazzo but surrounded it for protection. Flavio claimed he had his own men, the Cappello family having an army of their own—this army was created to keep our jewelry safe—but I didn’t buy what he was fucking selling. The family did have their own protection, but it wasn’t good enough for me. I wouldn’thave doubted if the army he had at his disposal would try to hide my wife away from me if he ordered them to.
Yeah, all that and Iggy.
“My wife,” I said, taking a step toward Lev.
“When you are mad,” Lev said, holding his ground, “your eyes almost glow in the darkness.”
My eyes. Eyes that mamma told me reminded her of thebutteri. She had said the peridot color was like liquid and almost translucent, as if frozen in ice. A black ring encircled the irises, which made them seem to glow at times, especially against the tan of my skin and jet black of my hair.
“Your wife is still with her parents,” Lev said, probably sensing that I was about to fucking lose it.
Maybe Lev was an assassin, but when a man has something he’d die without, he’ll kill for it. Lev knew this.
I was that man.
“She has not broken the sequester,” he continued. “I am not here to discuss your wife, per se, but the man you call Iggy. One of my people has been keeping an eye on him and his brothers.”
He paused there, then nodded again to the stool.
“It’s clotted,” I said. I hadn’t felt my blood run in a while. The cool air had helped it stop bleeding, though whenever the wind blew, I felt the thick liquid harden against my skin. “Mamma won’t hold you accountable for me bleeding to death.”
“This is all I am concerned about,” he said.
My eyes narrowed against his. That frame of mind was why my father wanted to kill the man on numerous occasions, but he didn’t because,one,he knew it would piss mamma off, andtwo, the man had showed up to help them one glaring time—a time when Papà had traded his life for Mamma’s, and he was taken as a prisoner. Lev helped mamma get Papà back.
Lev was also there for my sister when her husband was taken. Then there was the marriage arrangement between my youngestbrother, Maestro, and a Russian woman. None of us had any information on her, except for a picture, but my youngest brother had agreed to the marriage after he was able to write a song for her. Still. The woman in question was a mystery. A mystery Lev was keeping close to his heart.
“Mamma aside,” I said. “Iggy.”
He sighed, walking to a stall, setting his hand on one of the Maremmano. A mare who enjoyed his attention. He turned toward a barrel and grabbed for an apple. He took a bite before feeding her one.
“Iggy, as you call him, is in love with your wife,” he said.
“A man like him can fucking love.” I scoffed.
