I step closer to him. “We need to be honest with each other if we’re gonna do this.”
He eyes me. “Do what? Fuck?”
I shove my hands into the pockets of my jeans. “That, and figure this whole problem out.”
“You’re the one with the problem. Your uncle is the problem. Not mine. I’m willing to strike a deal still. Maybe not as good as it was given your family tried to fucking kill me, but it’s better than killing all of them, isn’t it?”
I stiffen. “Is that the other option?” I ask him. “Either we take a lesser deal or we all die?”
“I didn’t say that,” he insists.
I shake my head and turn away from him, folding my arms. “I thought you understood the situation I’m in.” I look around the room. Ornate art hangs on the walls. A painting of a woman lying naked surrounded by grapes and citrus fruit. Another of a man holding a small child on his shoulders while walking through an apple orchard. I find these things far less interesting than the bed in the middle of the room. Queen sized and draped in a lavish golden silk duvet with white pillows sitting just on top at the head of the bed.
I wonder how the sheets would feel against my skin. Against Carmine’s.
It’s strange being in a room like this and not immediately crushing my lips against his.
“From my side, your situation is that your family wants to kill mine. How can I possibly understand that?” he asks in return.
I shake my head. “Like your family doesn’t want to kill mine?”
“We don’t,” he insists. “Killing people isn’t our neutral setting, Soren. Why do you think we even have these allies in Greece? We don’t need to kill; we make deals, and when we can’t…well, sometimes it ends in death when we’re put in danger, when we need to teach a lesson, send a message, but believe it or not, it’s not the only thing we do.”
“And it’s the only thing my family does,” I mumble.
“I didn’t say—” he starts but I cut him off.
I turn around to look at him again. “It wasn’t a question,” I say. “It’s true. You Dresvannis got on top by making deals and shooting the messenger occasionally. Us…the Fiorellis, we got on top by killing every single messenger and their entire family and all their friends. Eivor doesn’t wanna make a deal, Carm. I don’t think he’ll ever make one.”
Carmine stares at me for a moment. “Is that what you want for the future of your family?” he asks me.
“No,” I admit. “I don’t want to kill you. Not really. There’s some sick part of me that wants to mow your entire family down, because that’s how I was raised. I was raised to take down, not settle, not deal—but Eivor didn’t raise me my entire life. So, there’s some part of me—buried, at least it used to be—that wants to see us thrive on allyship, not blood and death.”
Carmine steps closer to me and I watch as he licks his lips. It makes my pulse quicken. I want to take that tongue against mine so badly. Dominate his mouth until he is moaning and whimpering against me. Sounds muffled into my mouth, into the kiss that I’ve been desperate for, for days.
Yet I don’t. I know I can’t. Not yet. Or I shouldn’t.
“Maybe you can be the change,” he said, and then cringed. “Ignore how fucking corny that sounded.”
I shake my head. “How do you expect me to do that?” I ask.
He stares at me for a second. “Kill Eivor.”
I stare back at him. “You’re asking me to kill my uncle?” I blink at him.
“It’s the only logical way to end this. You get rid of Eivor, it puts you in charge. You’ll be able to stop all this nonsense and we can make a deal.”
My heart is pounding in my chest for another reason and my eyes burn.
“Look, he’s not the best man, but I can’t just fucking kill him. He’s my family.”
Carmine sighs. “He’s a menace. He’s causing more problems than he’s solving and if we don’t get this figured out soon, more than him could die. No, they will die.”
“Like your father was a fucking saint,” I blurt out in frustration.
He looks at me taken aback. “Leave him out of this. He’s gone.”
“No. If you’re gonna accuse Eivor of being a menace, let’s talk about your father. I know he did something to you. Your family. I know there’s something you’re keeping from me.”
