She looked like she wanted to say more, but I bent down and kissed her mouth quickly. I wished I could kiss her deeply, revel in her taste one last time, but I didn’t want to draw attention. She let her fingers trail down my arm as I stepped back from her and went in search of Romano.
I’d suppressed the memories of what Romano had done to me for so long I barely remembered anything save the driving need for revenge. But now as I walked toward him, they began bubbling up to the surface. The smell of the cell he’d kept me in, the freezing cold stone floor against my bare skin. The hours of starvation and sleep deprivation. Being held down as he flayed the skin from my body, little bit by little bit. Death was too good for this man, but it was all I had.
I leaned in as I approached him. “I need to speak with you privately.”
He turned, his brows drawing together. “Why?”
“Aurelio and Sienna…I have some…concerns,” I said. “But I want to handle it between the two of us. There’s no need to drag them into it.”
Romano narrowed his eyes as they fixed on his son across the room. “Of course. Let’s go and get it done.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said, falling into step with him.
We headed toward the back of the house, but instead of taking the stairs, Romano turned and opened the door to his little used back office. We hadn’t planned for this because most of the time, it sat empty. I hesitated and then stepped through, keeping my body relaxed.
“You don’t use this office much,” I remarked. I heard Duran swear quietly in my earpiece.
“My other office is being renovated. I’m having the fireplace removed,” said Romano, taking a seat across the dark oak desk. “Old houses have their charm, but they’re damn hard to take care of. I sometimes think I should get a penthouse in the city and be done with the mansion.”
“Tradition is important,” I said, removing my coat and taking a seat in one of the velvet armchairs. “This office isn’t so bad. It’s got a nice view of the north corner.”
I heard a series of unintelligible instructions as the men adjusted their positions. The only thing it really affected was the men assigned to cover me. They would have to adjust their equipment so, if need be, they could enter a level lower than anticipated.
And the back door wouldn’t be covered. A twinge of worry went through me, but I ignored it. I was trained for this, I could handle whatever happened.
“Drink?”
I nodded and Romano leaned forward to fill two crystal glasses with bourbon. Taking one, I settled back and rested my chin on my fingers.
“I hate to even bring this up,” I said carefully. “But I heard something the other day and it bothered me.”
Romano’s sharp face tightened for a moment and he cocked his head. “Well, out with it.”
“I can’t hand Sienna over to Aurelio now that I know he forced a girl at one of your parties,” I said, keeping my tone cool and unemotional. “I can’t be assured he won’t treat her the same.”
Romano leaned back and crossed an ankle over his knee. His dark eyes narrowed and his mouth thinned, anger surging through his body.
“How dare you speak like that,” he snapped. “You agreed to give her to my son. What he does with her is non of anyone’s business.”
“She was placed under my care by her parents. I’m doing my duty.”
“She is awomanunder your care. Are you going soft, Lucien?”
“I don’t think there’s anything left in me to go soft. Not after what you did.”
The silence was deafening. I had never before brought up what Romano had done to me because doing so meant bringing down his wrath. His shoulders tensed and he leaned forward, his lean body unfurling as he got to his feet.
“Do we have a problem, Lucien?” he asked quietly.
I rose and looked him in the eye. “Yes, we have a problem. Did you honestly think you would get away with what you did to me? And are you stupid enough to think I wouldn’t retaliate when you touched my wife?”
Romano’s hand moved across his chest and began sliding beneath his coat, but I moved faster. My pistol was in my hand and trained on my capo. Every trace of unease drained from me and I swore I felt an icy draft flood through my body, freezing everything inside me. All that was left was a dark, pure drive to kill, to end the man standing before me.
“You would kill your capo?” Romano said, his body tense.
“I killed my father,” I said. “I know you suspected it for years. I killed him because he was a goddamn abusive asshole. Because he beat and raped my mother and terrorized his family and he deserved it. Because he was as cruel as you are.”
“I admired your father,” said Romano. “He did what needed done. Unlike his son.”