I could walk right into that room and blow up their little family meeting. From what I recalled, Dino and Carlo seemed to have been the more reasonable ones. They cared for Larissa, and I took a wild chance in guessing they’d care to protect her family out of loyalty, too.
Since Larissa married my brother, I guessed that made me family.
The decision made itself. I marched up to the door and threw it open without knocking.
All three men turned to face me, with various degrees of expressions on their faces. Gastone looked like he’d been caught stealing, while Dino and Carlo stared at me with identical expressions of shock.
And from the look on their faces, I knew Gastone hadn’t told them. I might have laughed if I weren't so furious.
“You must be wondering what I’m doing here,” I said to the younger brothers with a false brightness that was laced with fury. “Guess what? I’m wondering the exact same thing.”
“Elena,” Gastone said, his voice low with warning. “This is a private meeting.”
“Oh, is it? Silly me. I thought since we're married now, we should share everything.” I turned to the brothers. “I'd shake your hands and maybe even give you a hug, but I'm still a little raw from the zip ties your brother used on me last night.”
“What?” Both brothers exploded in unison, and I couldn’t help but let out a tiny smile in victory.
Dino looked between me and Gastone with growing alarm.
“What the hell is she talking about?” Dino demanded. “Zip ties?”
“Marriage?” Carlo paled.
I smiled. “Oh, your brother didn't give you the full story? Let me fill in the blanks. I was at Enigma last night, minding my own business, when I spotted Gastone. I thought—naive little me—that I could talk to him about reconnecting with Larissa, since she misses him so much.”
Gastone stood up slowly. “Elena—”
“Let me finish, husband dear,” I cut him off, enjoying the way he flinched at the term. “So I approached him, all good intentions, and do you know what he did? He pretended to listen, lured me out the back door of the club, zip-tied my hands, and forced me into his car.”
Both brothers turned to stare at Gastone, who remained stoically silent, though I could see a muscle jumping in his jaw.
“Then,” I continued, warming to my subject, “he drove me to some dingy little place where a former clerk was waiting with marriage papers. When I refused to sign, your brother—very cleverly, I must admit—pretended to care about an injury I'd gotten, then grabbed my hand and pressed my fingerprint onto the document while I was distracted.”
“Jesus Christ, Gastone,” Carlo muttered, running a hand through his hair.
“It gets better,” I assured them. “After forcing me to 'marry' him, he brought me here, carried me over his shoulder when I wouldn't cooperate, and locked me in a bedroom. And now he's acting like this is all totally normal and not, you know, multiple felonies.”
Dino looked like he might be sick. “Tell me she's making this up,” he said to Gastone.
Gastone's eyes never left mine, and I saw something dangerous flash in their green depths. “She's exaggerating.”
“Am I?” I challenged. “Which part did I get wrong? The kidnapping? The forced marriage? The imprisonment?”
“You came willingly out of that club,” he said quietly.
“Because you lied to me! You said you wanted to talk about Larissa!”
“And you believed me. That's on you.”
I gasped at the audacity. “On me? You're blaming me for trusting you?”
“In our world? Yes. Trusting the enemy is a rookie mistake.”
“I didn't see you as the enemy!” I nearly shouted. “I saw you as my sister-in-law's brother. My sister-in-law, who was hurting because she missed him!”
That shut him up, at least momentarily. In that silence, I noticed Gastone looking irritatingly well-rested and put-together in a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to reveal tattooed forearms. Unfair. I probably looked like something the cat dragged in after my sleepless night.
But, I was forced to look away from Gastone when Carlo hissed, “Gastone, tell us it’s not what she thinks.”
