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“I saw your text. Sorry, I was out on the estate. Bad signal out there. What’s going on?”
“Igor met with Masseo.”
“What?” I sink down on the bed, running a hand through my wet hair. “How long ago?”
“This morning.”
“And you’re just now calling me?”
“I’ve been trying to get in touch with you. Service must be shit on a lot of the property out there. I also wanted to make sure I had all the information before I called. The don was at the meeting, as well.”
“And?” I have to make an effort not to snap at him. Usually, Gio’s methodical way of delivering information is useful. Admirable. Right now, in my current mood, it makes me want to reach through the phone and throttle him.
“And I’m told they came to terms. One of Masseo’s men who still works for him and is in a lot of his meetings reported to me. They wanted an end to the conflict. They told Igor that he never had any official claim on Bella—well, the don said most of this,” Gio clarifies. “Masseo, unsurprisingly, didn’t have a lot to say.”
“I wouldn’t have expected more from him.” I press my lips together tightly. “Go on.”
“The don’s position is that Bella was promised to Pyotr Lasilov, not Igor. Igor committed an act of war that should preclude any terms between the families, by what he did during that wedding. The don made it clear that the violence he inflicted on Bella, as well as everyone else there, should mean Igor’s life, if not the life of everyone connected to him.”
I’m inclined to agree, but I can tell that’s not where this is headed. “But?”
“But Salvatore wants peace. He always has—he feels a need for it, because of what the don before him wanted. His best friend. I personally think Salvatore would have more violence in him, if not for that, especially considering the fact that his own wife was caught up in all of this. But he wanted a truce. An agreement.”
I grit my teeth. It’s the opposite of what I want. I’ve never wanted any man dead until Igor Lasilov, but I want him gone. Erased from the earth, so that Bella never has any reason to fear him again. So that she can feel safe. So my family can feel safe. I don’t trust the truces of these families to hold, and I don’t trust Igor to abide by them. The only thing that could make me feel, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we’re all safe is his blood.
Unfortunately, it’s not my decision to make. Not if the don says otherwise. I might not be one of the families that belong to the Family as a whole, but I’m married to Bella, and my dealings with the mafia mean that I have to play by their rules, more often than not. Even without the marriage, taking matters into my own hands would mean putting myself at odds with the most dangerous men in New York.
I’ve never wanted to kill anyone until now. I’ve never felt this sort of all-consuming rage—not at a person, anyway. Not at someone who could be a victim of it.
“And I’m guessing, from the tone of your voice, that they made an agreement.”
“They did,” Gio says heavily. “Igor insisted that Bella was going to be his wife, that you stole her from him. But since there was no formal arrangement made, no betrothal contract, nothing binding of any sort, the don said that there was no engagement. And, since Bella is now your wife, a proper marriage, both in the eyes of the Church and the law, there is no insult to Igor. She was never his in any official way, and nothing was stolen. So the don said that Igor could either come to terms with him and Bella’s father, or he would martial his considerable allies to prevent Igor from committing any further atrocities on this matter.”
“So that’s it?” I run my hand through my hair again. There’s no part of me that believes it will be this simple. That Igor will just walk away.
“I suppose so. Salvatore is calling his men back. With a truce agreed to, he says there’s no need for them to remain in Italy, and not where he needs them.”
“Shit.” A jolt of fear rattles through me. Salvatore has every right to do just that. As far as he’s concerned, a truce has been called, and his support here is no longer needed. It doesn’t matter that I don’t believe for a second that I don’t still need them to protect Bella. I feel that, considering what happened after the last time he made a truce with Igor, Salvatore should have the same hesitations. Clearly, he doesn’t.
“Agreed.” The heaviness in Gio’s voice tells me he’s thinking the same thing. “I’ll call in a few favors of my own and be on the next flight out, Gabriel. You need the backup.”
“I do.” I glance towards the door, glad that Bella hasn’t come into the room. I need some time to get my thoughts straight before I tell her all of this. “I’d appreciate you getting here as soon as possible.”
“Will do.”
The moment I hang up the phone, I see that I have an email. It’s from one of the potential buyers for the estate, telling me that he wants to go through with the sale. I scroll through it, and as I read, it becomes apparent that this buyer wants all of it. Not just the property, vineyard, and villa, but the remaining horses and livestock—everything that I had thought I might have to offload separately. A package deal, for my asking price. I couldn’t have hoped for better.
I look at it for a long time, reading and re-reading the offer. I think of the disappointment in Bella’s voice when I told her I was selling, of her saying today, on the ride home, that when we return to New York, our marriage will end.
If I have any chance of a different outcome with her, it’s here. Selling the estate, going back to New York—it means the end of my relationship with Bella, the end of a marriage that I’m afraid to admit aloud that I want.
As for myself—I’m no longer sure if I want to go back there. There’s no excitement in me for starting over with a new house, a new chapter when the old one will barely have closed. A home that I’ll move into without Bella, where the first memories I’ll have will be of a new, fresh loss.
I’m not sure about anything, any longer. The only thing I know is the plan I’ve set, the decision I made before any of this even happened. Before Bella, before Igor, before we had to leave—I had decided to sell the estate, and close the door on my family’s legacy here in Italy. That choice was made before all of it.
It feels like the only thing I can lean on right now, when everything else feels so uncertain. So I respond the only way that I feel I can, when I don’t know any of the other answers.
I tell the buyer yes.
