“One, half-sister.”
“Not the same and I’m guessing you don’t like her very much,” I shot back quickly. “So you have idea what you are about to face, my family doesn’t handle goodbyes well.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “I hardly believe your brothers are so attached that they’re going to lose their minds because you are getting married. Speaking of marriage… They’ll be at the wedding, so it isn’t a goodbye.”
I looked his guards. “You all do have wills prepared, correct?”
“Sebastian,” Gabriel said as if he was bored. “Let’s go before she claims they breathe fire, too.”
I shrugged, saying, “Foretold our fate but, by the gods’ decree, all heard, and none believed the prophecy.”
Gabriel looked over to me. “Homer's Iliad? You’re Cassandra of Troy now?”
“You’re one-eighth Greek. I was speaking in a language I thought you would understand.” I winked, stepping onto the elevator once it arrived and spinning back on my heels to face him.
He grinned, shaking his head and stepping in beside me. “Forgive me, Madame, I’ll heed your warning. Happy?”
I pointed the space over my head. “Not until there is something expensive and sparkly sitting right here.”
He sighed deeply. “What is the life expectancy in Monaco now?”
“Ninety-one point two-one years, Sir,” Sebastian replied. “It’s still the highest in the world.”
“Brilliant,” Gabriel muttered. “Only sixty-one point two-one years of life with a mad woman to go…”
“Not if I don’t kill you earlier,” I muttered back. I felt everyone around me, with the exception of Gabriel, tense. He didn’t say anything more.
“Donatella,” Amelia whispered right behind me in my ear.
“Drop it,” Gabriel ordered coldly. She didn’t say anything, just moved back as the doors opened.
I now regretted not getting further information on him last night. After reaching out to Jackal and having her confirm he was who he claimed to be, I told her to gather as much information on him as she could and to bring it to me later. She’d been unable find anything the first time around but now, after our little hostage situation, she was able to confirm who he was. I had feeling he’d done something, liked stopped doing whatever he’d been doing to block information about himself from getting out. Then I had more personal things to arrange. Without the information I needed, I was lost at the conversation and mood change. That needed to change quickly.
“Have a good day,” the valets said we walked outside.
There, three black range rovers were waiting. It was only when I was inside sitting next to Gabriel did I ask.
“What was that about?”
“Right now, according to you, I needed to survive your brothers before we get into anything else,” he responded, adjusting his watch. “Any idea how to do that?”
&
nbsp; “I’m not picking sides—”
“Wrong,” He cut me off. We were back to that bullshit again. “You picked my side Donatella, or at least, I thought you did. I truly hope I’m not wrong and that you aren’t secretly hoping your brother’s wishes top yours.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, glaring at him.
“You’ve been here at the edge of everything you’ve always wanted be,” he said, looking out the window as we drove through the city. “And recently, you held back. You convinced yourself it was to save your family or something of that sort…either way, you stepped away from power, not towards it. Which means you didn’t really want it, or were too scared to take it. Right now, you might be in that same position, pretending you want power and pretending you are strong, but hoping your brothers will give you an out. Hoping that they’ll fight hard enough to stop you, allowing you to keep pretending you’re sacrificing but in reality, you’re too scared to go—”
“Keep talking and I will personally skin you alive, you motherfucking asshole. Here’s a tip if you want to make it the next sixty-one point two-one years. Don’t speak about things you don’t know; you could lose your goddamn tongue!” I sneered at him, clenching my fist at the very familiar rage building up in me.
“What don’t I know?” he asked coldly, looking over to me, all traces of humor gone from his eyes. “What it must be like to contemplate killing your siblings? Love, there is no monarchy on Earth that did not commit fratricide. Killing our own is what we are good at. And for the record, the reason I came to you now, and not weeks earlier, was because of rumors that you were going to kill them. I had to wait for you to choose. While I’m grateful you didn’t kill them, because then leaving Chicago would have no longer been an option for you, I am left to wonder if you truly want what you say you want.”
Kill him. I should have fucking killed him. “I’m in the fuckin’ car, aren’t I?”
“Then you’ll fuckin’ help with your brothers, won’t you,” he questioned back.