DANTE
The drive home was silent. I could feel the tension between us like a solid wall of ice. Sienna was pulling away from me, and I knew it. I could understand why. Her father was just murdered. Sienna’s entire family was at the precipice of disaster right now. None of us knew who was actually behind it all. If I had been in her position, I would have still suspected my family and me.
Hell, it could definitely still be my dad. He might have found out that Giovanni was still alive somehow and just finished the job, letting everyone believe it was the Snake out of convenience. He had the scapegoat to blame it on. So why wouldn’t he do it?
That thought alone made my hands tighten on the wheel, though Sienna didn’t notice. She stared straight ahead, looking downright exhausted. As she should have. She’d been through a lot in the past twelve hours. I wanted to do something, anything to make her feel better, but I knew if I reached out now, she’d just pull away even more. Sienna didn’t want to seem weak, even if she wasn’t anyway.
As soon as I pulled up to the apartment, she turned to me, confused. “Why aren’t you going into the garage?”
I let the car idle. “I’m going to my father to see if I can get any…resources. Contacts. Anything that could help us.”
Sienna just nods. Her hand hesitated just above the door handle, but whatever she’d thought to say, she didn’t. Instead, Sienna closed the door softly behind her.
I stared after her as she made her way up the stairs. I hadn’t wanted to marry her at first. Hell, we’d been enemies for a long time, even if she hadn’t known I’d existed. This whole plot was done by our fathers, thinking they could destroy each other. But Sienna was growing on me and—not that I would ever admit this—but I was starting to respect her a lot more than the flimsy pageant queen I’d thought she was.
But none of that mattered. She was still a Rosania. Sienna had refused to change her name after the marriage. Not that I had expected her to. Even if her father was gone, mine wasn’t. And, if I wanted to save her life, I needed to get home as quickly as possible.
With Giovanni dead and the Rosania family in tatters at the moment, my father could just decide that this marriage was pointless and attack them. Because, if the Don was gone, why not just take what he wanted rather than stick to a sham of a marriage? Sienna had probably come to that conclusion faster than I had if her distant behavior was anything to go off of.
I had been blinded by this lust to claim her that I hadn’t even realized what a fucking mess it might turn out to be. I still had a duty to my family, to my father. And, if I didn’t do as I was told, I know my father wouldn’t hesitate to punish me. Or even kill me. It didn’t matter that he’d invested over twenty years into his heir. He’d have me taken out and replaced with someone he knew would be able to lead this family to the greatness he’d always envisioned—whether they were related to him or not.
If he thought it would make his job easier, my father would have us both killed.
I knew returning to take my rightful place would be a dangerous game, but it was even more so now. Both mine and Sienna’s lives now hung in the balance, and it would depend on how well I could play. My father had to believe that I was like him—willing to do whatever it took to keep our family safe and secure, and Sienna needed to believe that I was hers. If I could play both right, then all of us might just make it out of this alive.
The drive to my parent’s estate seemed longer than normal. It’s not that I didn’t want to see my parents; it’s just that I knew exactly how my father would react to the news that Giovanni Rosania was dead for real this time. Now more than ever, he’d believe that it was my time to take over Sienna’s family and inherit not one, but two Italian mafia families. It had always been the plan for us to absorb the Rosania family into our own, expanding our empire to the size it should have been so long ago.
And I had to make him believe that’s what I wanted as well.
Parking the car in the drive, I slowly got out, trying to delay the inevitable. The lights were on throughout the house, from my father’s study to the kitchen. It looked like everyone was home tonight, even my brother. Tommaso opened the door, looking surprised to see me.
“Sir, I didn’t know you would be home tonight,” he said, brows furrowed. “Is everything alright?”
“Not exactly.” I brushed past him, already heading up the stairs.
I knocked on my father’s study, my knuckles beating on the door in time with my racing heart. His voice was muffled beyond the heavy wooden door. As I pushed my way inside, I saw him sitting at his desk. He didn’t look the least surprised to see me here, which meant he already knew. And he did not look happy, which meant he knew I must have known Giovanni wasn’t actually dead and gone the first time.
“You knew.” There was no accusation in his voice.
I slowly closed the door behind me. “I knew Giovanni wasn’t dead, yes. But now…”
“Now he is.” His face gave me no indication of his thoughts, though I could guess.
I just had to play the game right.
“Now would be the time to take over,” I said slowly, “but it could fail. The Rosanias are still strong, even without their Don. If we try and take over now, it would be messy. Too messy.”
My father nodded, his eyes far away. “You’re right. It would.” Those eyes—mirrors of my own—snapped to me. “So, what do you suggest?”
This was a test. Another move on the game board. “You wanted me to either seduce Sienna into falling in line or attack the Rosania from the inside. I’ve been working on Sienna since we married, staying by her side to gain her trust, and it’s working. With a little more time—”
“You don’t have time. The Commission meets in a week.”
“A week?” I froze. “But, the next one isn’t for a few more months.”
“Considering the circumstances, they’ve moved it up. I received word right before you knocked on my door.”
There was something in the tone of his voice that told me he already had a plan. “So, then what?”