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Mattia’s amusement faded too. “And all I want is to save my mother, and reclaim my father’s legacy, and in little over an hour, your brother will be calling with proof of my mother’s freedom and will speak to you for proof that I haven’t put a bullet in your brain.”
Her stare held his with such intensity it was as if she were trying to read his mind. “Even if everything goes exactly as you plan, you must know things will only escalate when it’s all over.”
“That’s for your brother to decide. The shadowed world will remain yours. My men are yours now, but the Esposito Group is mine.”
“But you know Elio will never accept that – the monopoly the group holds over our country’s media will give you too much power. In any case, he’s making plans to sell it.”
“I am well aware of that,” he said, his chest tightening. “To trample my father’s name into dust and erase him from the history books, your brother is prepared to throw away the main means of laundering the riches the shadowed world brings. That alone is the definition of madness.”
“He’s keeping the casinos and will invest any money made from the sale of the group into new businesses we can clean the money through.”
“No, Elvira, he isn’t. The Esposito Group is my father’s legacy, and I’m taking it back. Whether I live or die, my mother will be free, the Esposito Group will be back where it belongs, and my father’s name will live on. You and your brothers will have to work out new means to launder all the filthy money the shadowed world brings you.” He smiled cruelly. “If I die, maybe you can come to a deal with my siblings – I’ve written my will and left them everything, which means the Esposito Group will be theirs. That would be something, wouldn’t it? Espositos and Ranieris working together?”
“That will never happen.”
“No,” he agreed. Venom laced his voice. “It won’t. And if your brother hadn’t been so greedy in wanting it all, he wouldn’t be on the verge of losing everything he thought he’d won.”
Her hand whipped through the air, would have connected to his cheek if his razor-sharp reflexes hadn’t caught her wrist in time.
Holding her wrist firmly, he leant into her suddenly furious face. “That’s better,” he stated calmly. “Just because you and I have fucked doesn’t mean anything has changed. Never forget who I am or who you are.”
That needed to be made clear. To both of them.
“My brother isn’t greedy,” she stated starkly, her outburst of anger morphing into a different emotion he couldn’t read. “Your father was the greedy one. He massacred my family and built his empire on their spilt blood.”
“And your brother made the fatal error of not spilling blood. I might have despised my father, but I’m still his son and his blood still flows through my veins, and I will gladly die to see his legacy restored.”
“But… why?”
He brushed his thumb over her cheekbone. “Because I’m Mattia Esposito.”
* * *
Elvira, dressed in the black T-shirt Mattia had pulled out for her all those long hours ago, sat on the sofa holding her gun tightly. She wished she could change into her own clothes, but they’d soaked up so much water from the bathroom floor that they were too damp to wear. She’d hung them up on the shower rail and hoped they would be dry for the morning.
She’d had another shower, piling her hair on the top of her head to keep it dry. She’d run her fingers through it as best she could, but the humidity of the shower had made it frizz even more, so she kept tucking it behind her ears in the hope it would look a little tamer than it really was.
Mattia had cooked a pizza for them to share, but her stomach had been too tight to eat more than a slice of it. It had been too tight to even comment on the man who’d grown up with personal chefs heating food for her.
Those long days he’d spent alone in that shitty apartment, she’d watched him attempt to cook for himself. It had made her chest feel so weird and tight that she’d had to stop. She’d felt a similar way watching him sleep, but had had less success in tearing her eyes from him. Sometimes she’d had to restrain herself from zooming the camera onto his sleeping face.
She was glad he’d put them back on the solid ground of enemies by reminding her of their diametrically opposed loyalties that nothing could compromise. It pained her that she’d needed him to say it; needed the reminder that they were on separate sides of a chasm so deep and wide nothing could cross it. Not that she’d ever admit that to him.
But he knew it, or he wouldn’t have felt compelled to say it. She sensed he’d said it for his own sake too, and she didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse.
She could hear his voice, coming from the bedroom. He was speaking to her brother. Making sure the first of his demands had been carried out.
She could have insisted she be there for the call, but a bitter, acidic feeling in her stomach had held her back.
She had no wish to watch Mattia gloat about the release of the woman Elvira had spent close to two decades dreaming of killing. It was hard enough comprehending that she couldn’t stop herself from having sex with the bitch’s son.
But it wasn’t so hard to comprehend, was it, she thought wearily. Mattia Esposito had become an obsession to her in recent months, ever since their eyes had locked in the chapel when her brother had married his sister.
His voice came closer. Became clearer.
She swallowed a breath and adopted a nonchalant stance.
He appeared at the living room threshold, phone and gun both in hand.
