Remo regarded me as if he, too, was wondering the same thing, and his silence told me that my guess had been right; this was indeed the Falcone mansion. It surprised me that he would risk bringing me into his family’s home.
“Like you said, I will be the one to make you scream and no one else.” He closed the door.
I shut my eyes and pulled the covers tighter around myself.
A power play. A twisted game of chess.
I wasn’t going to be a pawn or a queen, and Remo wouldn’t be the king.
CHAPTER 5
REMO
I grabbed sweatpants to put on before I headed downstairs into our gaming room, where Savio, Nino, and Adamo were sitting. Since Kiara had joined our family, my days of walking through the house naked when I pleased were fucking over. My brothers regarded me as if I was a bomb about to detonate.
I flashed them a smile.
Adamo shook his head but didn’t say anything. He didn’t try to hide his aversion toward me or his reluctance about becoming a Camorrista.
Nino rose slowly. “You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
I grabbed the pizza menu. “Savio, order pizza for us and an extra one for Serafina.”
Nino came around the sofa. My eyes flickered over the tension in his limbs. “Remo, take her somewhere else.”
“No,” I said. “She will stay here, under this roof, where I can keep a fucking eye on her.”
My brother stopped in front of me, a deep frown pulling his brows together. That was the equivalent of an angry outburst from him. “This situation might cause another one of Kiara’s episodes.”
“Kiara is your wife, not mine. Make sure she doesn’t see anything that she isn’t supposed to see. Where is she anyway?”
“In our wing. The moment Savio told me you were bringing Serafina, I told her to stay there.”
“See? No problem.” I moved past him toward the bar and grabbed a beer. Nino followed as Savio ordered pizza in the background.
“It is a huge problem. Your captive is upstairs, free to roam the place as she sees fit. She could walk around the house and cross Kiara.”
“I doubt Serafina will do that right now. She’s too shaken and probably taking a beauty sleep as we speak. She can’t escape from the premises, and one of you will have to guard her to make sure she doesn’t do something stupid.”
Nino assessed me. “I really hope you know what you’re doing. This is supposed to bring the Outfit down. Don’t forget that, Remo.”
My mouth pulled wide. “It will crush them. They will bleed out slowly, painfully, without ever feeling my blade. This will destroy them.”
Nino gave a nod because even if emotions were still hard to grasp for him, he knew the effect mind games had in a war.
“You disgust me,” Adamo muttered.
“Four days,” I reminded him.
He stood, jutting his chin out. “What if I say no?”
Savio shoved him. “You’d be a fucking disgrace, a traitor. What would you do? Where would you go?”
Adamo shoved him back. “I don’t give a fuck. Anything is better than becoming like you.”
I stalked toward him. He lifted his chin. “You say this because from the day of your birth you’ve been protected. You’ve never been subjected to true cruelty. You are a Falcone, Adamo, and one day you will be proud to be one.”
“I wish I wasn’t a Falcone. I wish you weren’t my brother.”
“Adamo,” Nino warned, looking at my face.
“Fuck you!” Adamo shouted and ran off upstairs.
“He’ll come around, eventually,” Nino drawled.
“How much time until the pizza arrives?” I asked Savio.
He exchanged a look with Nino before replying, “Twenty minutes.”
“Time for a phone call,” I said, nodding at Nino, who hesitated briefly but then took out his mobile and scrolled through it.
Nino handed me the phone with the number I didn’t recognize. “That’s Dante’s number if he hasn’t changed it from our last call years ago.”
“Good. Get some of Kiara’s clothes. A white nightgown if she has one.”
Nino frowned deeply but walked past me and disappeared into his wing.
“How are you going to keep her in check? Make sure she doesn’t try to run or kill herself?”
“She’s been sheltered all her life. She’s far from home, far from the men who’ve protected her. Freedom scares her more than captivity.”
Savio laughed. “You sound awfully sure of it.”
I grinned. Nino returned, looking as close to pissed as he ever did. He held the clothes out to me. Among them a silvery satin nightgown. Perfect. “Kiara suspects something’s the matter.”
I took the clothes, not bothering to comment, and walked past him toward my wing where I barged into Serafina’s room without knocking. My eyes wandered from the empty bed toward the wall behind it, where Serafina tried opening the window, which she couldn’t do without the necessary keys.
She whirled around, the blood-red sheets wrapped around her body, her blond hair a wild mane slithering down her shoulders. Her skin glowed so innocently white against the red of the covers. I wanted to run my tongue over it to see if it would taste as pure as she looked.