And violence was all these people knew.
I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes again. I conjured Julia’s sweet face. Her dazzling eyes and her beautiful hair and her perfectly-packaged body that shivered against mine. I could still feel her lips against my neck. Her hands rushing to my hair. Her legs locked around me and her lips begging me for more. Her hands were so small, they fit into the palms of mine. And her fingers were delicate. Soft. Warm.
They made the giant in me melt every time she ran them up my neck.
My priority was my family. But which family? The family that had raised me? Expected me to take this seat? Looked to me for guidance and advice? Or the family I’d created?
Where was my loyalty supposed to lie?
I thought it was with both. I dreamed it could be with both. But the deeper I got into everything, the more I felt forced to choose. Like I felt forced to choose when I was a teenager. Julia had been ripped from me by her father, but now her father was dead. Nothing was standing in the way of me whisking us away and never looking back.
Except that my family would hunt me down and kill me if I ever left this seat. If I ever gave it up to anyone who didn’t deserve it.
I’d made them a promise, and I couldn’t go back on it. But I’d also made myself a promise. From the moment I figured out Matteo existed, I promised to be the man he needed. The father he needed. The father I never had. I promised Julia I wanted peace with the families and to somehow merge all of us, but I was getting buried underneath promises and words that clashed more than they meshed.
I needed to find a way out of this with both of my families intact. And that was going to take a fucking miracle.
CHAPTER 12
JULIA
I stomped into Uncle
Stefano’s house and charged up to my room. I didn’t even bother shutting the damn door behind me. I took the steps two-by-two and raced straight for Matteo’s room.
I needed to be around him.
I opened his door and saw him sleeping in his bed and tears welled in my eyes. He even looked like his father when he slept. His disgusting father who was turning into nothing more than his grandfather he would never know.
I closed Matteo’s door and whipped around on my heels, making my way to my own room.
I was shaking. Trembling. It was hard to breathe. Hard to think. I couldn't believe I’d had sex with Romeo again. He’d lied straight to my face. Told me he wanted peace before dodging my question about the gun runners. He was guilty. I knew he was. His lack of an answer told me everything I needed to know.
Romeo was responsible for those killings.
“Julia.”
“Get the fuck out, Enrico.”
I heard my bedroom door shut before he made his way toward me.
“Get out,” I said breathlessly.
“What happened?” Enrico asked.
I grimaced as images flashed through my mind. How I begged him for more. How I pulled him closer to me. How my lips swelled against Romeo’s and how his cock filled me so perfectly. We fit together like puzzle pieces. Two parts of a whole that were made to be together. But he was shrouded in darkness, and I couldn't see his jagged edges. Every time I got close enough to see the boy I left behind, something would snag me.
Make me bleed.
“You were right,” I said breathlessly. “Romeo did it.”
I felt Enrico’s hand come down onto my back, and I flinched. I pressed my head into the wall and tried to hold back most of my tears. I didn’t want to feel this weak any longer. I didn't want to become that woman again. That meek, mild, tender-hearted woman who wanted to see the best in everyone. I had to see people for what they were. I had a son I needed to protect, and it required me to always see through the bullshit.
But I wanted so desperately to believe Romeo. Maybe I should have let him explain.
“Tigers can rarely change their stripes, Julia.”
“That wasn’t the Romeo I remembered,” I said.