She laughed, then told me all about her trip. Where Mariano lived (Grosseto).She described his villa. (Such a nice place! So rugged. He even has an outside alcove with a pool in front of it!)She told me his dogs’ names(Zeus and Apollo). She described the look of them (white fur balls,Maremmanothe breed)— and how friendly they were (so friendly!).His horse, the black one, she stayed away from because he liked to show his teeth and stomp his foot. (The same as his rider!)She tittered at that.
“Ah, he is gorgeous! He had just finished a ride on that massive black beast.” She sucked in a breath. “His shirt was off, and he was in his riding pants and boots. His hair was wild, and so were those green eyes. He is built.” She closed her eyes, then opened them with a pop. A girlish, high-pitched sound came from her dirty mouth. “The stallion on his chest…the lion on his back…outlaw.” She winked at me.
How would she know these things? Mariano had never taken his shirt off when she was around. She was not even there the day I shot at Iggy when Mariano had been bleeding.
“Ah,” she continued. “He does enjoy to bite! Nibble, at first, then…” She opened her dress and showed me her chest. It was smeared with dried blood. She had bruises. “My…I mean your—” she coughed sarcastically “—man enjoys marking himself and his woman with her own blood.”
The blood vow.
Mariano had done that after we made love for the first time.
Perhaps he had never made love to me. Perhaps the entire time he had been fucking me.
No.I refused to believe it. He could not tell a lie. I paused at that. Not that he could not, but it was beneath him to do so.
A little irritating voice inside of my head reminded me of the situation I’d chosen for us, planting a dark seed of doubt.
Was Mariano so disgusted with my decision to honor the rules that he would be with…?I made a gagging noise, and the sarcastic smile my sister wore tipped me over.
I went for her.
The surprise only lasted a second.
We were not slapping each other, we were punching.
“Do not be mad.” She had me pinned for a second. “I cannot help it if the entire situation with you was a ruse! This is my virginal blood on my chest. It smeared from his chest.”
I could have sworn I heard a cough, but I was too incensed to truly register it or care. With a sound a fighting animal would make, I flung her off me. I was on top, and I did not care to talk, only release the aggression that had been stewing inside of me since I could recognize it for what it was: toxic waste that was only poisoning me.
I was someone I did not recognize, and for the first time in that rich palazzo, I was the one on top of Capri Capella. Blind rage spurred me on.
Until I was being lifted. My arms were still swiping at air until I realized I was no longer punching something solid.
My sister wailed into my father’s chest, and he was looking at me as if I was the devil incarnate. I did not care. No matter what I did, I was going to be treated as the one who did not belong.The other Cappello woman.I finally figured out why with the sketch. My father eyed me and saw my great-grandmother.
“Bitch!” my sister screeched at me. “Youtried to killmewhen I was a baby!”
I called her stupid in Italian, rolling my eyes. “I am the baby. You tried to killme.” I went for her again.
My father pushed Capri to the side, coming at me, his hand raised. Remo set me behind him and crossed his arms, his muscles flexing.
He said two words. “Do it.”
My father glared at me, not him, and then, taking my sister by the arm, left us in the hallway.
Remo did not move for a second, as if he had to catch his breath or control his temper. Then he turned to me and said, “Let us eat.”
Chapter 38
Sistine
Iwas stewing in my own madness. Something dark clung to me after the fight with Capri. I could not seem to dispel it, and I wondered if the light of day could ever reach me again.
I kept going back to her words.
“He lives in Grosseto, and he has such a nice place! It is rugged. He even has an outside alcove with a pool in front of it. Zeus and Apollo, his two dogs, Maremmano by the looks of them, were there to greet me, the white fur balls! I kept away from the massive black horse. He shows his teeth and stomps his foot. The same as his rider!”
Her echoing laughter made the bars inside of my head rattle.
