I let Sante know that I’m sticking around and wait until the others have left so I can get a word alone with my brother.
“I’d like you to consider letting me be a part of the call with him if he accepts.” I infuse confidence in my voice—an essential component in any conversation with Renzo.
“It’s a call. No reason for you to be there.”
I tell myself not to assume it’s a brush-off and try again. “Yes, there is. What if something’s said that only I have the context to understand? You said it yourself that I’m the one in the middle of this.”
“Exactly, and you’ve got too much at stake—too many emotions wrapped up in this outcome. I can’t risk you saying something that pisses him off.”
His words are so infuriating that I struggle to reply. When I do finally speak, my words are clipped and thin. “You really aren’t interested in ever giving me a chance, are you? From the minute Dad died and you got to take over his empire, you were only too happy to see me leave. I bet you wish I’d never come back from Sicily.”
Renzo grabs my shirt in his fists and brings his face inches from mine. “I never wanted you to leave. Don’t you make up fucking stories about me.”
“If you want me here so goddamn bad, why pretend I don’t exist?” I spit at him angrily. “You’ve kept me on the sidelines since the minute I got back.”
“Only because Dad made me promise—” Renzo stops himself, eyes spitting fire before he shoves me away and turns his back on me.
“Oh, fuck no.” I grab his shoulder and spin him back around to face me. “You can’t stop there. Tell me what you promised him.”
Renzo’s jaw flexes, and his lips thin before he loses whatever internal battle he’s fighting. “He made me promise to keep you safe.”
I physically recoil because it’s confirmation of what I’ve always suspected. My family truly does think I’m broken. That I’m some sort of invalid in need of coddling.
Renzo releases a weary exhale. “Listen, Tommy. You were still a boy when he died. He didn’t get to see how different you are now.”
I raise my hand to silence him. “I was the same person then as I am now—all the same struggles and all the same abilities. If you two think that makes me incapable, then fuck you.”
I walk away. Renzo calls after me, but I ignore him.
I’ve had enough. Of him. Of the doubts. All of it.
CHAPTER 33
DANIKA
Tommy’s textletting me know he’s coming home is a welcome embrace that goes cold the second he arrives and I see how upset he is.
“What happened?” I ask while trying to give him the space he obviously craves.
“Renzo is setting up a meeting with Biba. We’re going to try to negotiate a truce.” He continues past me to the primary suite and goes right for the shower. I follow but am not going to chase him into the shower, so I wait on the bed until he’s done. It doesn’t take long. Once he’s out and toweled off, I try again.
“Is this truce a bad thing?”
“It is when my brother doesn’t trust me to be a part of it.”
“Did you guys argue?” I ask hesitantly, already sensing the answer.
“You could say that.”
I bite at the inside of my cheek, feeling horrible for the conflict I’m causing. “So what are you doing now?”
He’s dressed in record time and arming himself with a small arsenal of weapons—even more than normal. Alarm bells blare in my mind as fear sends a cascade of tingles to my fingers and toes.
“I’m not going to just sit on my ass and do nothing.”
“What does that mean, Tommy? I don’t like it. Please, don’t leave.”
He levels me with a glare. “Why? Why shouldn’t I go?” Each word feels like the pull of a rope suspending a guillotine above me. My answer will determine my sentence, and I have no idea why or what the right words will be.
