He comes into the room and starts walking toward me. Orlando is bewildered, looking from me to Romeo and back again
“Brother.” Orlando’s hands are in his pockets, but as Romeo gets closer to me, Orlando’s face looks concerned. He steps quickly between me and Romeo. “Why are you here? She’s exhausted.”
Romeo’s eyes are thin like slits, his face a mask of fury. Behind him in the doorway, Tavi and Mario linger. All of them look at me as if I’m the enemy.
I guess in their eyes I am.
Romeo’s hard voice fills the room, like the edict of a god from Mount Olympus. I shiver at the icy tone. “We need to talk.”
“What’s this all about?” Orlando says. “And back the fuck off, brother.”
Romeo’s only paces away from me now. He swings his gaze to mine. “Will you tell him, or will I?”
I open my mouth and will the words to come out. It seems as if my voice is caught, trapped in the tangle of lies, and as soon as one of them escapes, they’ll flutter heavenward like a swarm of butterflies, all of them.
“I will.” My voice isn’t my own, as if I’m somehow possessed or enchanted. “I will,” I whisper.
The look of fear that crosses Orlando’s face makes fresh tears fall down my cheeks. “What is it?” he says.
I gather every ounce of courage I have and face him, bracing myself on the other side of the bed.
“My name is not Elise.”
Romeo’s face registers only fury, not a trace of surprise. He knows. They all do. And now my beloved husband does, too.
Orlando blinks, not processing any of this. “What?”
But now that I’ve shed the first layer of lies, it feels easier to speak, even if I face imminent punishment or exile. “I’m not Elise. I was in Tuscany when Elise was called by her bodyguard to catch a plane.” I want to bury my face in the blanket so I don’t have to face him, this fierce, loyal, bear of a man who’s given me everything I needed and never knew that I did. “Elise Regazza is my best friend. We grew up together. That night, when you accused me of trying to escape? I was never meant to marry you. I—I was supposed to escape. You were supposed to think I was killed.”
The silence in the room is deafening, along with the pounding of blood rushing in my ears.
I saw that dungeon. He fucked me in front of a prisoner before he killed him.
What will he do to me?
“You lied to me,” he whispers. “It was all a lie. All of it.”
I swipe at my eyes. “Not all of it.”
“You betrayed me.”
“I had to!”
It all happens so quickly I can hardly process any of it. Romeo steps toward me, his hand raised as if to strike me. Orlando’s growl of fury as he stays his brother’s hand. The next moment, Orlando tackles Romeo to the floor.
I scream, covering my mouth with my hands, when Romeo attacks. The two of them roll on the floor, hitting each other with such forceful blows it makes me sick. Orlando hits Romeo’s jaw, snapping his neck back. Blood spurts from his mouth but it only makes Romeo angrier as he fights back. But Orlando’s much bigger than Romeo. He’s bigger than everyone.
“Orlando! No!”
The cold sound of several guns being cocked at once makes both of them freeze.
I can’t breathe. I can’t move. Mario and Tavi hold their guns to Orlando’s temples, one on either side of him.
“Don’t fucking make me,” Tavi growls. “You know our code. You know our oaths. You know you’ve earned death by striking the Don. Get on your fucking feet and step away from him. Now.”
Romeo shakes Orlando off. Mario keeps his gun trained on Orlando. I watch it all play out like a horror movie.
Orlando puts his hands in the air, palms out, in the universal gesture of surrender.
“She’s pregnant, man,” he says, his voice choked. “You can’t hurt her.” His eyes cut to me. “Leave that to me.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Orlando
Romeo brushes his fingers along his jaw and shakes his head. “Jesus, man, you hit fucking good. Didn’t waste any time in the big house, did you?”
The anger he showed just moments ago seems to have gone after a good hard fight. It’s how we always settled shit as kids.
But that was before he was Don.
I feel sick to my stomach because I know the code. Right up with the Vow of Omertà is the vow we take to protect our Don, to defer to him in all circumstances, and to never, ever even speak disrespectfully to him. Before I went to prison, I gave a new soldier the beating of his life for talking back to Romeo. Even his wife speaks to him with nothing but respect, our own mother as well.