“So, Rome is back,” Caelian says, taking a sip of his drink and pulling his lips in a thin line as he swallows. “I have to admit. I didn’t think he’d ever come back.”
“Neither did I. He took the first opportunity he got to leave this family, his father, only to come back now.”
“Why did he leave in the first place?”
I walk over to the fireplace, staring into the flames. “He was there with Roberto when I overheard our uncle say how he wants to kill Dad, wipe out the Del Rossa bloodline. “
Caelian shifts to the edge of the seat. “Roberto wanted him in on it.”
“I suppose so. Rome would have been the heir to this empire if Roberto succeeded in killing Dad. It only makes sense that Roberto would want him in on family business as soon as possible.”
“Is that why Rome left?”
I turn to face him. “I’ve always suspected it. But I don’t know for sure. Who knows what went on behind closed doors in the Savelli house? All I know is Roberto had to pull a huge motherfucking unicorn out of his ass to get Rome to come back.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Caelian mumbles, staring out in front of him as he shakes his head.
“It doesn’t matter whether it makes sense or not. He’s here, and he’s taken Roberto’s place in the Dark Sovereign.”
“You’re not going to fight it?” Caelian stands, placing a hand in his gray suit pants pocket. “You’re going to accept it? Just like that?”
I pull a hand through my hair. “What would you have me do? It’s his right to take his father’s place. I had what I needed to get rid of Roberto, but I have nothing on Rome.”
“Do we really need something?” Caelian challenges. “The Dark Sovereign is ours, and we can do whatever the fuck we want.”
“That’s not how it works, and you know that.”
He gulps down the last of his drink and slams the glass on the table, visibly on edge. “We don’t have any alliances to placate. We can do whatever the fuck we want because all this,” he holds his arms out wide, “is ours.”
“We might not have alliances, Caelian, but we have a reputation to uphold. If we cause civil unrest between our two families, we’ll lose the trust of our business partners. We can’t bend the rules simply because it suits us.”
“That seat is Isaia’s. You know that as well as I do. He deserves to be in that room with us, Alexius.”
I throw my head back and groan, knowing all too well what this is really about. “Listen, if Isaia has something to say about the new turn of events, he can come say it to my face and not bitch to you about it.”
“On the contrary,” Caelian says, crossing his arms, “Isaia didn’t say shit. He left after the meeting this morning without saying a single fucking word. He’s too proud to make a scene even though Rome’s unexpected arrival robbed him of something we promised to give him.”
“Do you think I’m happy about this?” I shoot back. “Do you think I wanted Rome to waltz in here and fuck up our plans? No. But he did, and now we need to regroup. Figure out where we go from here.”
Caelian throws his hands in the air, his frustration rippling from his tense shoulders, cursing as he starts to pace. “We’re going to lose him, Alexius.”
“Who? Isaia?”
“Yeah.” Caelian stills, his face nothing but hard lines. “Things are already tense between the two of you. He buried his girlfriend—”
“Melanie was not his girlfriend.” I roll my eyes.
“It doesn’t matter what she was. The point is she was something to him. He lost her. He lost Leandra.”
“He never had Leandra,” I growl, instant anger bursting through my veins, clawing at every muscle. “You can’t lose something you never had, and he sure as fuck didn’t have my wife.”
Caelian holds up his hands, sighing. “Wrong choice of words. But what I’m saying is Isaia needs this. He needs to be a part of this with us. He’s been an outsider long enough, and if we don’t do something to include him, we’re going to lose him, and I don’t want to see that happen.”
Caelian’s eyes resemble my dad’s—gentle green hues peeking from behind hazel swirls. When he’s angry or annoyed, it’s more brown than green. Mother always joked about his eyes being the transition color, from Nicoli’s and my blue eyes to Isaia’s dark brown. Isaia has our grandfather’s eyes. He has our grandfather’s silent and aloof personality too. No one can figure him out. Well, my wife seems to be the one who’s come the closest to uncovering that my little brother does, in fact, have a beating heart hidden inside his chest.
I take off my jacket and toss it onto the couch, loosening my tie. “What do you want me to do, Caelian? It’s not like I invited Rome to join this fucking shitstorm just to complicate the matter even further. Roberto found a fucking loophole, one we could never have predicted because our cousin coming home seemed highly un-fucking-likely. Now all we can do is stay one step ahead of him. The man already wants my head on a stake ever since I told him about the recording of him plotting to murder our father. And after Micah’s anonymous letter to him about Jimmy, the man wants blood.”
“You know how this is going to end, right?” Caelian’s eyes narrow as he studies me. “In the end, it’s going to be you or Roberto, one killing the other. That’s the only way this war with our uncle will stop. But think about it, Alexius.” He inches closer, and his jaw tics. “If Roberto lays a motherfucking finger on you, Nicoli, Isaia, me, we’ll hunt him down and tear his spine out. But if you kill him, Rome won’t let you get away with it. So, no matter what we do, a civil war is inevitable.”