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When I open the door, cradling her, the hounds and Lorenzo are still waiting quietly.
“Clean it up,” is all I say as I walk up the stairs and to the room I very rarely stayed in at the mansion. My brother catches sight of us but says nothing.
The more I tortured Ivan before Ara’s arrival, more truths bubbled to the surface. Ivan had in many ways facilitated Dario’s drug addiction over the years. He had been Dario’s caretaker after my father’s death because he’d become so out of control. Ivan bragged about all the times he slipped him drugs in rehab, facilitated parties immediately when he’d return home to enable his downfall once again.
Ivan had been seeking his own revenge with the knowledge of my father’s death and felt no loyalty toward the “pups” that were left behind. I respected it to a degree. Even though he thought waiting all these years and gaining our loyalty would make him an oversight in such an instance. The avalanche effect he was hoping for only crashed on his own demise.
I could’ve murdered Ivan ten times over but for the first time, I found restraint- for her sake.
She’s curled in my arms, wet tears still under thick eyelashes as I step into the immaculately maintained room with wooden textures and dark green hues. I hadn’t changed the pallet since my mother had carefully picked out the furniture for its original purpose as a guest room. Ironic, in some ways how Ara and I both clung to the few things that remained of the only nurturing influence that was stolen from us.
As I move us to the bed she begins to stir. This precious and dangerous creature in my clutches. Her thick eyelashes burst open and she looks up at me.
Her eyes are a dark green wild storm and in it I see the resignation and defeat.
It might take me some time, but I’d have to bring this one back to life.
She doesn’t go to move as I stretch my legs out on the bed, my back to the headboard still holding her.
“When did you figure it out?” she asks as she rubs her eyes.
Part of me still thinks she wants to be let go of, so she doesn’t have to fight another day.
However, my little viper did not come this far to only come this far.
I want to shake the life back into her but right now she’s so fragile that a rattle too intense will break her all over again.
“Probably around the same time you thought burning one of my clubs to the ground was a good idea. If you were willing to go to this extreme in the name of your mother, I knew there must’ve been something else you were after, besides a historic contract. Your arson stunt was a desperate move, but that’s when I realized the game piece you were after was no longer on the board. That you’d been after him all along.”
She doesn’t so much as look in my direction. Time and pressure had broken my little viper. At the very least she was willing to die for what she believed in.
Quietly she says, “I don’t regret what I have done, but I’m sorry for causing a further rift between you and your brother.”
My jaw tics. I’d reacted exactly how she thought I would. To Ara, I’d become predictable. However, it’s the sincerity of her apology that catches me by surprise. She could wish me complete and utter ruin and I would still stand by my proposal. There was no one better matched to be my partner in crime. A sentiment I never thought possible for me. I’ve never had a yearning for a wife or family.
I couldn’t live without her. It’d drive me insane, more than it already had.
“Is revenge what you thought it would be, sweetheart?”
I half expect her to divert her gaze in shame but she just quietly watches me before answering. “No. It’s lonelier than I imagined. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Ara shuffles from my lap and stands to take her jacket off.
“Why did you ask me to wear black?” she asks in a raspy cried out voice.
“It’s not as obvious when blood gets onto it,” I say matter of fact.
“I should’ve known,” she says as she takes a seat beside me. She’s defeated and almost looks a little lost. “What happens now?”
“Whatever you want. It’s yours,” I answer honestly.
She gives me an effective look. “No more bullshit, Luca. I can’t do this song and dance anymore.”
I offer an arrogant smile. “No song and dance, sweetheart. I meant what I said in that room. If you’ll have me. I want you to become my wife.”
“And my freedom?” she rasps. I’m surprised by how quickly she comes around to the idea. I expected more fight, but she’s already been doing that for years. I have no doubt that the sharp tongue of hers will be back before she knows it.
“I can try to play nice.”
