All I knew, though, was that my husband’s back was turned to us, and when he finally turned fully and caught the way Luca was looking at me, because no doubt he would…I didn’t want any trouble.
I stood abruptly and whispered, “If you want to speak to me, let’s do it privately.”
It wasn’t shock in his eyes, but I’d caught him off guard with my offer. Maybe he thought I was going to cower and not ask him directly. Maybe he was impressed, and in his opinion, his respect for me went up a notch.
Before he could offer me his arm, the entire celebration seemed to go quiet at a figure who appeared out of the fog. Healmost seemed like a ghost created out of it. Or created from this family. But before the man could fully uncloak himself, he turned and left in a cloud of what seemed like smoke.
Chapter 17
Not All Ghosts are Quiet
Aria Amora
Either my eyes were deceiving me, or the man who appeared out of the fog was Massimo Fausti, my husband’s oldest son. My “gift” wasn't as powerful as Eva’s or Scarlett’s, but if the fog would’ve been smoke, Massimo would’ve created it from the chill he seemed to carry around.
I knew all about the situation between him and the woman named Chloe. I also knew about their son, who was being raised by Brando and Scarlett’s son and his wife—Matteo and Stella.
The last I’d heard was that Massimo was still imprisoned in Louisiana, the same prison Luca had been incarcerated in, and he would be there for quite some time, since he killed the man Chloe had attempted to marry out of…spite? The specifics on that area of the situation were vague. But I knew that not even guards, iron bars, or barbed wire could keep a Faust locked up if they wanted out.
Only Luca could have done that.
Massimo refused to see anyone while he was in jail. He refused to speak to his father or any of the men in the family. What I didn’t know was whether he had the right to refuse his grandfather. I also knew Luca had the power to free him. Itseemed the Fausti family had an understanding with the rest of the world.
Faustis dealt with Faustis.
The law probably didn’t even want to deal with Massimo because of his connection to one of Italy’s most dangerous families. But it seemed like Massimo had made the choice to follow in Luca’s footsteps. From what I’d heard, the situation between Luca and Maggie Beautiful hadn’t always been what it was in present time.
From what I’d gathered and pieced together, Luca had fallen for Maggie Beautiful when he was still married to someone else—an arranged marriage like Rocco’s. Except Luca’s ex-wife couldn’t produce heirs, so Marzio had found women for this purpose. While all of this was going on, Luca had been ordered to deliver a special pear to Scarlett’s grandmother, the famous ballerina Maja Resnik, while she was in Natchitoches visiting her daughter and son-in-law. This was how Maggie Beautiful and Luca had first come to be.
Then when Brando was…a young man, Luca killed the sheriff’s wife, who was pregnant at the time. By all accounts, Luca had always been in control of himself, but the story went that Luca had been drunk and driving.
Call it a hunch, but I didn’t believe it. Something about the situation didn’t sit right with me. When I’d brought it up to Rocco, he stared at me for a moment, then nodded.
“You are perceptive, my wife.” He said there was more to the story, but unless his father and Maggie Beautiful decided to tell the entire story, all that was left was pieces of the truth.
I had a feeling Massimo had self-sentenced himself for the same reasons. But if I was right about the mysterious man in the fog being my husband’s oldest son, then he’d gotten a pass and was out of jail.
Why so suddenly? And why hadn’t Rocco known? He wasn’t the leader of the family yet, but he was close to it, and since I’d known him, all matters usually went through him before they reached Luca. I was told news, or permission for anything the separate branches needed it for, always went up. It started at the bottom of the “tree” until it reached the top. Meaning…all Fausti family issues, personal or not, made it to my father-in-law at some point.
My eyes went to Rocco. He was staring at the spot where his oldest son (I assumed) had been standing. Maggie Beautiful was looking at Rocco with troubled eyes. My eyes found his other sons next. Amadeo and Ludovico. There had been another son, Marzio, who everyone renamed Tiziano. The name meant the man was a traitor to the Fausti family. A Judas. He wasn’t Rocco’s biological son.
Rosaria had gotten pregnant from one of her affairs, but she didn’t tell Rocco the son wasn’t his until she wrote him a letter to be delivered posthumously. Rocco always knew the son wasn’t his, but he felt for him, since he had a hard time accepting the circumstances of his own birth. How he felt he had been conceived to be a soldier, then one day king. Tiziano had turned on Rocco, though, and had been part of a group that tried to kill Rocco on the island. Mac blew up their ship, and Tiziano was on it.
But Amadeo and Ludovico were staring at Rocco too. So were Brando, Dario, and Romeo.
None of these men seemed to know Massimo would be here, except for the man next to me, staring at Rocco. Maybe the guards Luca chose to confide in knew as well. Men swarmed this property from day to night, had their own quarters, and were sworn to protect the future king of Italy. But if the current king ordered, no one questioned, only obeyed.
Rocco’s eyes finally moved to his father. A look passed between them, and I didn’t exactly understand it.
All I could feel was anger from my husband and acceptance of the situation from my father-in-law. No one seemed to have the answer but the man next to me, who was accustomed to not being surprised.
My husband and his father were still staring at each other, and their eyes held as Rocco came to stand before Luca. Luca said something to him in Italian, and I thought it was an order for a private meeting.
Rocco barely nodded in response, then he nodded at one of the top men in charge ofNel Cielo’ssafety, before he leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. He stood straighter as Mac came to his side, then he and Mac followed behind Luca and Donato. Brando, Dario, and Romeo followed right after. After them, a few more men, Guido included.
I noticed it was the higher positioned men who were welcome to the meetings with Luca. I was thinking it wasn’t a good sign if a lower man was ordered to a meeting. Seemed like if he was, Luca had a personal problem with the guy, and he probably wouldn’t be walking out.
Scarlett squeezed my arm, and our eyes communicated so much with just a glance. A lot was happening, and even if I couldn’t feel like she could, I could feel the wheels of the family turning. We were headed in a different direction than we were before.
