He smirked at me and twirled his fork again. “Maybe. Maybe not. It’s not important yet.”
I nodded. I’d accept that.
“Klaus has a very different destiny than you do. It’s quite incredible, really.”
I raised my brows at him.
“It’s a story for another time.” He got to his feet. “I assume Evan is alone and waiting?”
“He is.” I gestured for him to leave. He did so, walking to the door. He paused when he got there and looked over his shoulder at me.
“Matteo?”
“Yes?”
“When he tells his truth, be kind and gentle. Take things slow and let the smoke settle. For he will be punished in pain and solace. But that’s the price to pay for being so… lawless. You’ll know what I speak of soon enough. Have a good day, cousin.”
And with those words, he opened the door and left me sitting there, feeling just as lost as I was before he came into the room.
16
ALESSIO
“Who is the girl?” I asked Klaus as we waited for someone named David, who owed Matteo money, to come out of the bar. We’d agreed to give him one hour before we went in and got him ourselves. We had men waiting at the back in case he tried to slink out that way.
Matteo had gotten weird after Sylar left a few days ago, but lately, weird had become an everyday occurrence, so we let it slide. If Matteo trusted, then we had to as well.
It didn’t help that Sylar had come back for a meeting we’d had to endure sitting through with him and his random ramblings.
“Simply a woman,” Klaus said, looking around outside.
“Simply? If so simple, then why have you been rushing off to her every night and neglecting your brothers?”
“No offense, Sio, but she’s prettier than you and Teo.”
I chuckled at that. “I’ll let you have that one. Teo says she cooks. Is she better than Teo?”
He fidgeted for a moment in his seat in the SUV. “She is better.”
“Does he know that?” I laughed again. Matteo was fairly uptight about his cooking.
“Not in so many words,” Klaus muttered.
I shook my head. “What else? Give me something to go on here. You’ve been starstruck by her for weeks now.”
“I have nothing else to say. She is a beautiful, intelligent woman who seems to like me back. That is all.”
“Care to share her?” I asked, studying him for his response. We often shared women. He’d never said no before. This would help me figure out where his head and heart really were.
His hands tightened into fists. That’s all it took for me to know my friend wasn’t falling for a girl. He’d already fallen.
“No. Not this time,” he answered in a soft voice. “She is… mine.”
I raised my brows at his proclamation. I’d never heard or seen him this way before. I found it… intriguing. And oddly terrifying. Klaus didn’t love. He fucked. We all did. It was an unspoken pact. We’d lost the women we loved, at least Matteo and I had. Klaus loved his wife in his own way, I was sure, but it wasn’t true love. It was a duty. In the end, it didn’t matter because all we had was each other.
Knowing Klaus had developed real feelings for someone scared me. I didn’t want to lose my brother. I didn’t want to see him get his heart crushed.
“When will we meet her?” I asked.
