“It’s not about the money, and you know it. He’s our blood. He has to be raised in the family.”
“The family that murdered his father and forged his will?” Her eyes pointed at the duffle bag. I bent and took the piece of paper inside. “The family that wants to kill his mother, too?”
I read the original will. I couldn’t blame her for doubting the Lanzas. The family I’d known had changed since I pulled a gun on my own brother, and part of me was to blame. “You’re not going to die. And whoever forged the will is going to pay for it with their life.”
“How stupid do you think I am? I know it’s you who did it. You’re the only one who suspected the will was my leverage. You didn’t tell anyone and forged it so you’d have everything.”
“Why would I do that? I’m the boss, and you’re my wife, the one I took only to save. If you were the guardian, everything would be mine, too, and no one would dare hurt you. It’d take off the load of constantly looking over my shoulder for your sake. Why the fuck would I put an easy target on your back when I fucking swore to save you?”
She squinted pensively. “Then it’s Marta. You’ll never hurt Marta, not for me or Mario, not for anyone.”
“She didn’t do it.” She wouldn’t.
“You’re the only two in the will. Who else would? And to what end?”
“To make you pull something stupid like running away. To give us a reason to take you for a ride.” I mused. “To distract me from what is really being cooked…just like you’re doing right now.”
Her gaze changed from that of a lost puppy to a hungry wolf bitch. Then I heard a very familiar tick.
Motherfucking cunt.
Before she could move, I pointed my gun at her head. “If you even think about using that gun you’re hiding under my brother’s clothes, you’re dead.”
She pursed her lips. “You know, you don’t smell the same. His scent was beautiful. Yours…is as disgusting as you are, you sick pig.”
The piece of paper fell as both my hands clenched on my gun. The beast inside me rumbled, urging me to silence the bitch once and for all. Only one thing was stopping me. The baby she was hiding behind. My nephew. The son I never had. “You think he’s protecting you, but you’re wrong. You don’t stand a chance against me. Iama sick pig. I won’t think twice before I pull the trigger.”
“You won’t shoot at me. You won’t take that risk when I’m carrying him like that.”
“I have a clear shot of your head.”
She blinked down, and then she shuffled to her feet, clothes falling off her, the gun peaking at me.
“Stay down!” I waved my gun at her.
She shook her head. “Or what? You’ll kill me? I’ll take my chances. I’m dead anyway.”
“You don’t have to be Goddamn it!” My jaws clenched so hard they could shatter. I should just shoot her. Forget everything and shoot her dead. I’d find a better mother for my boy, and Cosimo would have to forgive me for that kill, too.
I aimed at her forehead, a thousand voices roiling inside me at once, nagging me to squeeze the trigger, yet an invisible force crippled my finger. Why the fuck couldn’t I shoot the bitch?
The pistol shook in her hand as she backed away slowly. “You won’t kill me, Enzio. Because you love Mario, and you’ve done enough damage to him. You won’t make him lose his mother, too.”
That was maybe a part of it, but there was something else. Something I hated more than her. Something that didn’t want her to die. Something selfish and dark and obscene. Even for me.
I wanted Bianca Zanetti to live. For no one else but me.
“You won’t kill me either,” I grated.
“I want you dead more than anything. Don’t test me.”
“Then what the hell are you waiting for?”
Her lips trembled along with her hands. Her eyes gleamed with tears. “I just wanna get out of here.”
“Not gonna happen.”
She took another step back, and I moved forward. “Where do you think you’re going? My guards are right outside. I don’t even have to call them in. They’ll capture you the second you leave this room.”
