Gavino watches her go with a deep, distasteful frown. “I wish she’d stay in Tuscany.”
“And yet she keeps coming back to make our lives harder.”
Gavino shuts the door and stands toward the middle of my room with his hands shoved in his pockets. His anger evaporates as he looks at me.
“You okay?”
“As okay as I can be, thanks to Nico.”
Gavino grunts. “Fynn feels like a piece of shit. He let you go there this morning.”
I groan and shake my head. “Tell him not to. It’s not his fault.”
“I did, but still. You know Fynn. He’s going to beat himself up over this for a while.”
“He’ll have to get over it. He’s not the one that got assaulted.”
“That’s true.” Gavino glares at the floor. “I’m gonna kill him, Kar. I’m gonna hunt him down and kill him.”
“Nico’s already on it.”
“Then I’ll kill him a second time. He hurt my sister.”
I let out a long sigh. “Gavino, please. I don’t need your macho bullshit and I don’t want to talk about this. I have other problems right now that I need your help with.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “Other problems? What are you talking about?”
“The Russian.”
He gapes at me. “The Russian? You’re still thinking about that after what happened this morning?”
“Papa’s going to make me marry him. Now more than ever he’ll use this as an excuse to send me away. He’s going to say I’m not safe here.”
Gavino shakes his head and paces across the room. “He wouldn’t do that.”
“Are we talking about the same man?”
“Kar, there’s no way.”
“He’s going to say I’m safer in Dallas and use Rinaldo as an excuse to send me away. Tell me I’m wrong.”
He glares at me for several heartbeats and throws his hands up. “Fine, it does sound like him. But where does that get us, huh?”
“It gets me nowhere, that’s for damn sure. I wanted to marry Rinaldo to avoid all this, but now that decision’s blowing up in my face. What am I going to do?”
Gavino runs his hand through his hair several times, messing it up and scratching his scalp. “You need someone else and you need them fast.”
“Who else is there?” I gesture at my throat. “Who the hell’s going to say they’ll marry me right now when I’m looking like this?”
“God, Kar, that’s so grim.”
“But it’s the truth.”
“I’ll talk to Papa. I’ll convince him to give you another week. You got attacked, Kar. He’s not a monster.”
All the men around here are monsters, sweetie. Elise’s word echo in my head.
“You’re not listening. He’ll use the attack as an excuse to send me away. He wants to do it and the only reason he gave me this chance to find a replacement—” I stop myself and look away. The dream comes back again. Papa’s wild eyes. His hands around a faceless person’s throat.
“Why did he make this deal with you?” Gavino asks, coming closer and watching me carefully. “He didn’t have a reason to do that. If he wants you married to that Russian then all he needs to do is make it happen.”
“I don’t know why.” Which is a lie. I do know why, only I can’t tell my brother why.
I can’t tell anyone why.
I can barely understand it myself.
The reason boils inside of me, deep, deep down in my guts. It’s a scar and a break in my life. There’s the before and the after. Happy and ruined.
The memory is an itch that won’t release.
Like this attack, it’s a part of me and will never go away.
Gavino narrows his eyes. He knows I’m lying, but what can he do? I stare him down and he shakes his head.
“Let’s say you’re right—”
“I am right.”
“—Then you need to find a replacement for Rinaldo right now. There’s got to be someone.”
“There’s nobody unless you’re hiding someone in the Famiglia that would meet Papa’s high standards.”
Gavino begins to pace again, his face screwed up. I think he’s about to give up when he looks at me with a massive grin.
“I’ve got it,” he says.
“No, you don’t.”
“Hear me out. He’s perfect, Kar. Absolutely perfect.”
I rub my face. “There’s nobody. Just face it, okay?”
“Nico. You should marry Nico.”
My mouth falls open.
“Are you fucking crazy?” I say, not really thinking about it, and Gavino only laughs.
Because he knows how stupid that is.
Nico will never do it. Despite what happened today and his attempts at warning me away from Rinaldo, he hates my guts.
He didn’t deny it when I asked him why, he only turned and walked away with that neutral glare on his face.
I don’t know why, but that man can’t stand me. He lives for torturing and teasing me, and I despise him right back—although admittedly I’m feeling a little bit conflicted about that at the moment, considering.
“He’s perfect. Papa loves him, Casso loves him. Everyone respects him, and we all know he’s going to be a Capo soon. He’s still young and he’s single. Papa will say yes to Nico and you know it.”