“Sandro—”
“Go.”
I take Alessandro’s hand and finally he looks away from Julian to me. “He didn’t kill me,” I remind him softly. “He could have, and he didn’t.”
“Wait here,” Alessandro says to the other two, without taking his eyes off of me, and then he leads me out of the security room to the landing outside.
He takes me by the shoulders. “Are you asking me to show mercy to someone who has harmed you?” He shakes his head. “There are few things in this world I wouldn’t do for you, but I can’t show mercy where I have none to offer. Julian is playing some game. He always is.”
“Maybe,” I say, “but he was right about one thing, wasn’t he? You do share blood.”
Alessandro’s face twists. “It’s the only reason he’s not a corpse already.”
I put a hand on his chest, feeling the warmth of his skin bloom through the expensive shirt. “Listen to what he has to tell you. That’s all I’m saying. I know he’s—he’s not a good guy. But heisa Castellani. And he’s your brother.”
“Half-brother,” he corrects me. “Go with Jack. I will come back to you shortly.”
CHAPTER49
SANDRO
When we reachthe study again, I don’t sit behind my father’s desk. I stand in the bay window instead, looking out over the gardens. “Come here.”
Julian comes willingly, standing an arm’s length from me, so that we are both looking out over the view, each with folded arms, breathing almost in synchronicity.
“Ciro liked this view,” Julian observes. “I think he enjoyed looking out over his kingdom.”
“You didn’t kill him. Do you know who did?”
“No. I have my suspicions, of course. I think you must, too, by now.”
I turn to face him. “Before I decide what to do with you, I want to understand you,” I tell him. “You and I, we never got on—”
“It was jealousy.”
Here, between the two of us, I can admit it. “Yes. I was jealous of how much he loved you.”
“No.Iwas jealous ofyou.”
I almost laugh. “It’s true I have an ego, but you can’t think blind flattery will be effective on me.”
“You had a mother who loved you, and a father whorespectedyou. He may have loved me in his way, Sandro, but…” He turns from the view. “What use is love, really? All it does is weaken people. You see that yourself now, with Teddy. And Ciro certainly never respected me.”
I’m struck by how casually he mentions my feelings for Teddy. But after all, down in the cells, I offered this whole kingdom for Teddy’s life.
And I meant it.
So I consider what Julian is saying about our father, instead. “If he respected me, he would never have sent me away.”
Julian tips his head to one side with a curious smile. “He sent you away because hefearedyou, Sandro. Even at ten years old, he knew he’d never be able to control you. You were much too headstrong. And with your mother’s influence, too—he worried he would be usurped. That’s also why he asked Renny Caruso to kill you.”
It’s a gut punch, taking the breath out of me. I turn away, manage to make it to the desk, where I sit heavily in my father’s chair. Julian sits opposite.
“Heasked…Renato to kill me?” I say, and somehow my voice sounds normal.
“Of course. Unfortunately for him, Jack was a little too quick on the uptake. But he had a backup plan. He’d asked Aldo Bernardi to make sure you didn’t leave that meeting, if Caruso failed. And yet Jack stymied him again.” Julian laughs. “Good man in a tight spot, our Jack. Ciro wasfurious. And too cowardly to try again, after that.”
It’s almost too much to take in. “Why not ask you?” I say at last.
