Gianna slanted a look at me. “You are very quiet.”
I sighed. “I’m worried about Fabi. Now that I can’t talk to Val anymore, we have no way of finding out how he’s doing.”
“Val said they believed his story and won’t punish him. He’ll be fine,” Gianna said firmly. I wondered if she really believed what she said.
“We don’t know that. That was more than a month ago. I hate that he’ll have to celebrate Christmas without us. In the past we could at least visit him in Chicago, but this year he’ll be all alone with Father and his new wife.”
Father had never been kind to Fabi and now that he had a new wife, a young wife that could give birth to more heirs, I worried he’d be even less inclined to go gentle on my little brother.
“Fabi is on the verge of becoming inducted into the Outfit; celebrating Christmas without us is the least of his problems,” Gianna said. She sounded so…blasé about the entire thing. Perhaps because Fabi was a boy. She thought men in our world were born with blood on their hands.
“He’s still only a boy. And we couldn’t even congratulate him on his birthday.” He had turned thirteen a couple of weeks ago, and I hadn’t been allowed to talk to him or send him a present. My heart ached just thinking about it.
Lily didn’t say anything. She still blamed herself for everything. I knew she was happy as Romero’s wife. It became obvious whenever she looked at him, but sometimes she tried to hide her happiness from us as if that would make our situation better.
Gianna shook her head. “Aria, you have to accept what you can’t change. You have to stop—and I can’t believe I’m actually saying it—you have to stop going against Luca’s orders.”
I blinked at her. “You say that? You ran, and I helped you.”
“I know. But now I’m here married to Matteo, part of the Vitiello clan, and unlike you, I know exactly what kind of man my husband is. But you keep forgetting what Luca is.”
“What is he?” I challenged, turning to face her with narrowed eyes. It had been a while since Gianna and I had had a fight, but we’d all been on edge these last few weeks.
“A Capo. A monster. A killer.”
“So is Matteo,” I interrupted her. “And you keep ignoring his orders. You keep provoking him.”
“It’s a game between us, Aria. But Luca doesn’t play games. He is the Capo of the East. And because of you his territory is threatened. He will do anything to stay Capo. It’s in his blood. Ultimately if he has to choose between you and power, he will choose power.”
The air left my lungs. Angry tears gathered in my eyes. Lily stepped between us. “Hey, stop it.”
I sidestepped Lily and moved closer to Gianna, meeting her gaze straight on.
I heard the men enter, but I didn’t pay them any attention.LUCA“Dante will take his time before he’ll attack. He is a man of plans,” Matteo said again, as if I didn’t know that. The problem was I didn’t know when he’d attack. I could only hope Orazio as Dante’s brother-in-law would be involved in any plans from the very start and warn us soon enough.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, don’t look at me like that!” Gianna screamed.
My eyes found Aria and Gianna facing each other as if they were about to attack any moment.
“We can’t all be as selfish as you, Gianna,” Aria hissed.
Matteo shot me a look as if I knew what was going on. Usually they were inseparable. And I had never heard Aria talk to her sister like that.
Gianna laughed. “At least I’m not being stupid or suicidal.”
“No, suicidal—that’s not you. You always make sure to have your back covered even if it means others get hurt.”
Gianna paled. I wasn’t sure if Aria was referring to Matteo’s car crash or something else but whatever it was, she hit home. “At least I fought against this lifestyle, while you were happy being sold off to Luca like a fucking whore.”
Silence.
Aria stormed off and I followed after her. Matteo would take care of his own wife. I found Aria in our bedroom, looking out of the window, body shaking. I put my hands down on her shoulders. “What’s the matter with you and Gianna?”
“She’s being a bitch,” Aria said in a trembling voice.
“That’s her natural disposition.”
Aria let out a choked laugh and turned around to me. I ran my hands through her hair and she leaned in to the touch. “If anyone’s a whore, it’s her.”
Aria pursed her lips. “She didn’t mean it.”
I chuckled. “Already back to defending her?”
Aria’s eyes flickered with need and her hands slid down my chest to my belt. Her gaze locked on mine, she began unbuckling my belt. “I need you,” she whispered. I didn’t have to be told twice. I pulled her dress over her head as Aria fumbled with my pants. When my cock finally sprang free, I wrapped one arm around her back and gripped her thigh with the other, then hoisted her up. She gasped as I lowered her on my dick, her muscles tight around me. Propping her back up against the wall, I kissed her hard until she loosened around me before I began slamming into her.