Carlo stared at me, almost dreamlike. “She’s a very special woman.”
“I don’t fucking see why.” Vico rubbed his neck. The sight of him made my stomach turn, every hair on my body standing up. He was still every ounce of evil I remembered him to be. He was shorter than Carlo, than Castello…oh God, Carlo was still alive.
“How are you still—”
“Alive?” He smiled then looked at Vico. “Should we tell her?”
“Sure. Why not? It’s not like she’s going to live long enough for her to wrap her head around what’s really happening.”
Carlo shrugged, and all I could do was stand as silent as a mouse, staring at the two men in front of me.
Carlo gestured toward the bed. “Sit down, Tatum.”
“I prefer to stay right here.”
“You sure? It’s a long story. I wouldn’t want you to exert yourself, you know, in your current condition.”
“Condition?” Vico looked at Carlo questioningly, and then my heart tried to make its way up my throat.
Carlo waved his hand in my direction as if what he was about to say was no big deal. “The cunt, as you so eloquently called her, is in fact…pregnant.”
My survival instinct started to kick in as I watched Vico’s expression turn from stoic to feral.
“Pregnant?” His voice boomed through the room, and I closed my eyes as fear erupted inside me. “The bitch is pregnant?”
“She says so.” Carlo smiled, and I hated it. I hated the look on his face, the way he stared at me. It was hard to believe that I walked around for months with a broken heart because of him. I couldn’t see it then, but I saw it now…the look of deception, lies, and pure malice. It was easy to believe he and Vico were brothers. That the same blood ran through their veins.
I wrapped my arms around my belly, and Vico glared at me. “Castello knows this?”
I refused to answer him, my glower the only kind of response he would get from me.
Vico snorted. “And I bet the fucker is real glad about it too.”
“Now, now.” Carlo walked up to Vico. “He’s still our brother, Vico.”
“Who betrayed his own fucking family. Who shot his own goddamn mother!”
Carlo remained eerily calm, as if nothing could rattle him. “That’s true.”
“Where is he?” My voice quivered. “Where is Castello?”
Oh God, they did something to him. How else would they have managed to get to me if they didn’t take Castello out first?
“Truth is we don’t actually know where he is.” Carlo walked closer, stopping a few feet away from me. I could not believe he had me fooled earlier. Now that I looked at him,really lookedat him, I saw the difference. Besides the fact that he lacked the very prominent scar, his face was a little longer, his eyes slightly more apart than Castello’s. Amazing how I didn’t spot the difference when I first saw Castello, but now that I knew Castello’s face better than the back of my hand, I could see the man in front of me was not the man I had fallen in love with.
He slanted his head to the side, staring at me, his gaze studying my face. “Last night when I entered my dear uncle’s estate, pretending to be my brother—which was incredibly easy, by the way—the security guard at the gate seemed quite surprised to see me…well, him. My brother. He said something about me being back so soon, asking if I forgot something.” His lips curved up at the sides. “I have to admit, I couldn’t have asked for it to go any better. Even though I had my brother’s head of security, what’s his name?”
I gasped. “Giovanni?”
“That’s the name, yes. Giovanni. Even though I had him on my payroll, I didn’t need him actually. Although he did come in handy by giving most of the security guards the night off.”
Betrayal stung my insides. “Giovanni helped you?”
He reached out and traced his finger down my face. “Ah, my dear, innocent little Tatum. You still have no idea how things work in our world, do you? Money talks, baby. In our world, money can buy anything, even loyalty.”
I jerked my face away from his touch, and for a moment, it seemed like he was hurt by it. But I didn’t care. “Does Giovanni not know where Castello is? Where he went?”
“Don’t tell me you’re worried about my twin brother.”