“Don’t act like it was anything more than a stroke of dumb luck,” he told her. “You came to me after that fight or don’t you remember?”
“Does anything not end up in sex with the both of you?” I asked. It was hard to miss the hickey Luc wore, barely hidden by his shirt collar. I quickly dodged a cushion that Mia threw my way from the couch. The sound of someone hammering on the front door sounded from the house, causing Cerb to start barking. “Hush, boy,” I said and jumped up, seeing an escape. “I’ll get it.”
As I left the room, Cerb following me out, I heard Luc say to Mia, “You were the one who wanted to give him a key and make him godfather. We’re never going to get rid of him.”
I chuckled as the hammering on the door continued. Cerb left me and trotted up the stairs to find his peace with Link.
“I’m coming. Fucking hell, where’s the fire?” I asked as I pulled it open, and Vittoria stepped over the threshold without invitation. “Tori?” She was the last person I expected to be on the doorstep.
“I assume they’re both home since you’re here,” she said, looking ready for a fight. “Do you want to tell me what Angelo’s doing at yours?”
“Fuck,” I uttered the word. I knew I should have caved my skull in when I had the chance. Tori knowing that Angelo was around did not bode well for our plans.
Luc’s voice rang out clearly into the hallway. “Who is it?”
Tori turned on her heel and stalked through the house, following his voice and I trailed her. By the time she walked into the living room, I saw Luc shoot up so quickly that he almost knocked Mia out with his fat head.
“To what do we owe the pleasure, Vittoria?” he asked her, but it was tight, and I supressed the urge to pull her back and away from him. Tori didn’t need protecting. She never had.
“I want to know what you two are up to, Lucas. She turns up to Silas’s funeral like she’s a member of the family when Gabe wasn’t even allowed to be there. Chas told me. I want to know what the hell you’re both playing at.”
He rose to his feet and Mia followed, standing beside him. “I have no idea what you mean,” he answered her smoothly, but a vein throbbed at his temple. He was about to get into an argument with Mia, so Luc was anything but calm.
“You can cut the bullshit,” Tori told him. “I’ve just seen Angelo and there’s no way you didn’t know he was around. Especially after she asks for help to find Dad.”
“A request that you declined,” Luc reminded her. “And no one was more surprised than I was when your brother decided to help out instead.”
“Luc,” I said, watching the shock hit Vittoria at the revelation.
“Oh, didn’t he tell you?” Luc asked, cottoning on. Tori had come in prepared for war, but she was completely unarmed. “Looks like Gabe’s shaken up his priority list. We told him who went for Chas and he gave us some information in return.”
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Vittoria said, recovering. Sometimes I wished she would stay put when she was knocked off the high horse, but this woman never knew when to quit. “Whatever vendetta you have against Dad after everything he’s done for you.”
“Vittoria, maybe we should save this conversation for another day,” I said, trying my best to avoid an argument. This fight had been brewing between them from the moment Luc had accused Gabe after the shooting. They just hadn’t had the chance to be in the room together long enough to hash it out.
“My vendetta against your dad is because of everything he’s done to me and my family.”
“We’ve known you for years, Luc! We were your family first!”
“More than you know!”
My jaw dropped and Mia’s eyes widened. It was an unspoken rule that Luc was the only one to share the truth of his paternity. Although it had affected us all, it was Luc’s secret, and we wouldn’t run our mouths. We hadn’t banked on him spilling his guts because he was trying to score points. I should have seen it coming. How long could we keep the hothead locked in a box?
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tori asked narrowing her eyes.
“You really want to know what your dad is capable of?” Luc asked, seething. He couldn’t fight her the same way he could Gabe, but he still knew how to make it sting.
“Don’t,” Mia warned him, putting a hand on his arm and moving to stand in front of him. We could still salvage this but Luc was already on the edge. He’d been there for a while. Every step was dangerously unstable, and no one could talk him down these days. Mia’s recent meddling meant that even she’d lost the small voice of reason that usually grounded him.
“Go ahead and ask him,sis.”
Tori’s face fell. All of the self-assuredness drained away into the floor as she absorbed the blow that Luc sent her way.
Infidelity was what split us apart the first time. Vittoria Moretti had strict ideas on how the men in her life should behave and loyalty and commitment to women was a cardinal rule in her world. She may not have idolised Xavier, but she assumed they preached from the hymn book as far as that was concerned.
“You’re lying,” she spat, but there was a waver.
“Why would I?” Luc asked in return. “Why would I want to lie about being a bastard?”
