“I’m only going for the satisfaction of seeing the fucker get caught at his own game. Much like you did with Caroline, my savage little thing.”
Finally, a grin that warmed her entire face. She rocked to her tiptoes and cupped the back of my neck with one hand, tracing my scar with the thumb of her other hand. “This is the last of it, okay? No more scars, no more battles, no more heartache. I’m going to give you the happily-ever-after you deserve.”
“Happiness isn’t free, Bianca. It demands payment and I’m willing to pay whatever toll it demands in order to be with you. In order to keep you safe,” I told her and the words were harsh, but my tone was gentle because she was still young, still pure even after being exposed to the filth of Bishop’s Landing. Pure in a way I knew she’d stay pure forever.
Bianca kissed me in response, as if I was a sailor going off to sea for God only knew how long. As if she was willing to live and die spending the rest of her life in that single kiss.
My heart ached and thumped, stretching and growing and warming like a struggling bloom under the sunlight of her love.
I left after that, not turning back even when Brando called goodbye again because I didn’t want to think about what would happen if we failed in our plan. What would happen if Bryant ever got his filthy fucking hands on my sweet Belcantes.
I got into Lucian’s car, slamming the door behind me, a scowl affixed to my face that I knew wouldn’t dissipate until I returned home to Lion Court. Ezra got into the back on the other side, the only man I was taking with me because he was the best man I had in any dangerous situation.
And we were off.
“I wasn’t expecting you,” I told my eldest brother. “I don’t expect you to fight my battles for me. I’m not a kid.”
“No,” Lucian agreed. “God knows I’ve got my own shit to deal with, but if I’ve learned a goddamn thing over the last few years, it’s that family matters. So, here I am.”
I caught his eye in the rearview mirror. “I’ll be there when you need me.”
He shrugged as if he didn’t give a fuck either way, but the fact he was helping me at all spoke volumes.
“I know he deserves jail. Or worse. But it would harm the family irreparably for him to be publicly punished that way,” Lucian informed me as he raced through the icy streets, the wiper blade’s working hard to clear the windshield of thickly falling snow. They made a whomp-whomp sound that mimicked the brutal beating of my heart. “That would harm everyone. Morelli Holdings. Mom. Our sisters. So we’ll back this house arrest.”
“Not to mention the tell-all book he would probably write if we didn’t have him under our control. We’ll keep the entire thing under wraps. It’s strictly need-to-know. And no one but us brothers need to know about it.” I produced the cuff Henrik had secured and programmed for us from the leather satchel I carried. “I’ve got the tracking device.”
Lucian looked in the rearview mirror at the large device. “That’s fucking massive.”
My grin was twisted like heated metal as I raised it to my throat. “I had Henrik order a large one instead. It seemed fitting for an animal like Bryant.”
My brother chuckled sinisterly, the sound linking between us like a tangible display of our bond. It was a bond built on more than just revenge, though. We were brothers in arms against a tyrannical dictator who had brutalized us for years. We were forged from the same fire, honed to sharp points by the very same man.
And together, we would bring him to his motherfucking knees.
The rest of the drive was silent, a mounting tension seeping throughout the car until Ezra had to crack a window so we could breathe easier. We parked around the corner from the Morelli Mansion in Mr. Andrew Gibson’s driveaway, a friend of Carter’s who’d agreed to hide the car. From there, we collected our gear and tromped through the crunch of snow to the back gate of our family estate.
To our collective surprise, our mother was the one to great us at the gate. She was bundled up in a huge cream suede coat with the fur-lined hood pulled up over her auburn hair, only her mercury grey eyes bright in her flushed face. Her silly dog, Sheba, was curled against her chest, but she still stepped forward to embrace me in a hug that was edgy with even more desperation than usual.
“Tiernan,” she said, turning her face into my chest, closing her eyes. “You’ve been neglecting to visit.”
“I’ve been busy,” I murmured, but I hugged her back. Even though my mother was weak-spirited, nothing like my sweet Bianca with her sharp claws, she was the only member of my immediate family who had loved me consistently my entire life.