“No!” Vienna gasps and grabs the screen door, storming inside, and the other three follow them. I’ve come to learn hell hath no fury like an angry Vienna. I almost want to feel sorry for them, but I can’t. I snicker, thinking about what my brother and his girlfriend are about to encounter.
Chapter Nineteen
“Where are they going?” Addi asks, not moving from Mickey’s lap. He hands her a cookie off the tray sitting on the little table.
“Aunt Casey is here with my brother, Gio,” I tell her, and her eyes widen with delight.
“Your brother is here? Can I see him?” She scrambles off my uncle’s lap and follows the others, grabbing Sage by the hand and tugging him with her. “Come on, Sagey, I want to meet G man.”
Sage looks at me with wide-eyed surprise but follows meekly after her without any argument. Mickey chuckles, and Maeve slaps his arm.
“You’re having entirely too much fun at Tori’s expense.”
He shakes his head. “It isn’t often I see a look of panic on her face. This has made my fucking week.”
I flip him off and help myself to one of the clean cups, pouring some coffee from the carafe.
“Well, all the secrets are out now. The only thing left to do is kill that motherfucker, and we can get back to our lives,” Mickey says happily, and Maeve rolls her eyes.
“Oh, is that all? Sure, no problems then.”
I hide my wince behind my cup as I take a sip.Not all secrets, but soon, I silently promise him. I hear some shouts and screams from upstairs and chuckle. At least I’m not the only one facing Vienna’s wrath. It sounds like Casey may be receiving her own fair share for deceiving them.
I think back to the conversation I had with Gio the night of Sage’s death. In the uproar and confusion, I managed to drag him into the library safe room and have a come to Jesus talk with him.
“What the fuck, Gio?” I whirl on him as soon as the door clicks behind him. He sighs, and I see exhaustion, regret, and worry in the dark circles under his eyes that I hadn’t noticed.
He sits on the bed with his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking. “Fuck, I’m so sorry, Tori, for everything. I shouldn’t have hidden my relationship with Casey from you. I should have done so many things differently. If I had, maybe we wouldn’t be here.” He sounds broken, and I almost feel sorry for him until I remember everything that has happened to get us here. I grit my teeth to stop myself from pulling out my knife and gutting him.
“You fucked up so badly,” I growl at him as I pace back and forth. “I’m so fucking mad that if she wasn’t pregnant, I’d probably kill you both.”
This gets a reaction. He stands up, his fists clenched. “Over my dead body,” he growls.
“That can be arranged,” I snap as we face off, but then I see his eyes. He isn’t just mad, he’s terrified, and some of the anger washes away. I step back, some of the tension draining from my body as I sit down on the bed, and I rub a hand over my face.
“Can you forgive me? You don’t get to choose who you love, you know that,” he asks quietly.
“I don’t know,” I reply honestly, looking at him. “Look, there is only one way I can come up with for us to survive this.”
I see realization dawn in his eyes.
“I need to take the two of you out of the picture. Without you to control, he has no leverage,” I explain, and he nods slowly.
“So what’s the plan?” I hear resignation in his voice.
“Well, as much as I’ve wanted to put a bullet in your brain over the last few months, I never would have been able to,” I say lightly, and he scoffs.
“I’m kind of glad to hear that.”
“But we need to make it look like you both died. I’m thinking a car accident. I can have Mickey set it up, maybe on the way home from Sage’s funeral.”
“Speaking of Sage’s funeral, is he going to secretly attend? I bet he would love to hang in the shadows and watch people cry over him,” he asks, raising an eyebrow. I’m not surprised that Gio worked out the truth.
“You can’t tell Casey. Everyone needs to believe he’s dead too. I’m taking everyone who can be used against me off the board. You know Mario would have used him too.”
“I won’t, and yes, he would have. I overheard them talking about it. What are you going to do about the others? I know you six have some kind of thing going on.” He sounds confused, but Gio is very traditional. He believes in one true love, like what Mom and Dad had. I guess nobody has told him what Dad’s life was like before Mom came into the picture. She died when we were both young, so who knows if Mom and Dad would have gone the distance? I hope they would have, but now knowing what it’s like to be in a multi-person relationship, I’m not sure if they would have. Dad gave up a lot to be with her, but I guess that’s what you do when you love someone.
I growl in response. “You know how I feel about betrayal, Gio. They will pay the price for theirs.”
