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“I guess I better pack,” I sigh sadly before kissing his cheek and making my way upstairs.
DARIO
“Apussy right up to the end.” I snarl at the piece of shit on the floor as I turn around the old, rusty chair and straddle it. Looking down at Silvano Fabriano, he doesn’t look nearly as confident as he did ten minutes ago. The plastic sheet on the floor is turning redder by the second as his blood continues to seep from the slit I’ve made in his throat and I wonder why I even bothered trying to interrogate him.
“Are you sure you got the right guy? He was pretty adamant it wasn’t him.” Cassio opens up his jacket and hands me his hip flask.
“The evidence was stacked up against him.” I knock back the flask and then hand it back to him. Looking at the tray on the table beside me I see all the items I didn’t use on him.
“It’s a shame really, he would have been working on the order of his father,” my brother reminds me.
“Perhaps that's why he insisted this was not his fault until the end.” Cassio looks down at the Fabriano boy with his own look of distaste.
“Yes, well, the skid marks from the motorcycle wheels at the crash site matched his perfectly, and he had no alibi. Hedidn’t have to say anything, I saw it in his eyes.” I take a cigarette out of my pocket and light it up. I stopped smoking the day I married Madalina, apparently, it can affect your sperm count, and I also know it’s bad for pregnant women to be around. But being apart from her feels like torture, and I’ll try all I can to take the edge off. Neither nicotine nor alcohol seem to be working.
Scarily enough, neither is killing the fucker who tried to hurt her.
“I take it you’ll be bringing your girl home, now this is dealt with?” Cassio smirks at me as he takes a hit from his flask and tucks it away again.
It surprises me that I haven’t found it awkward spending time with him. After years of being treated like an outcast, my father has finally given him his own district. Of course, I’ve been enlisted to steer him on the right path and show him the ropes. I’m just hoping his newfound appreciation for his son will take some of the pressure off me. Especially now that the babies are getting closer to arriving. Madalina is going to need me in the last few weeks of her pregnancy and I’ve already decided I want to be a hands-on father, unlike my own.
“That’s the first place I’m heading,” I tell him, unable to hide the smile from my face. It’s taken way longer than I thought to get to the truth and, although I’ve spoken to her every night on the phone, nothing compares to holding her in my arms. There’s just one more thing I have to try and make right before I pick her up.
“Have you heard anything from Nicolas?” I check. It appears no one’s seen him since Vito dropped him home the night of Madalina’s birthday party. There was no sign of him at the Queens mansion when Cassio arrived to claim it.
“Nothing, he’s gone completely off the radar.I’m still waiting for him to stab me in my sleep.” Cassio knocks back another drink. “I didn’t even get the chance to make him the offer you suggested.” He shrugs.
I may not have spent much time around my brother growing up, my father always made sure of that, but in these short, few weeks he’s spent learning from me, I’ve learned a lot about him, and I can tell that he’s keeping something from me.
“What’s on your mind?” I cut to the fucking chase.
“You’re still going with the assumption that because Fabriano shot Lucian, he killed Conte too? What if that’s not true?”
“Are you saying that you think Nicolas killed his own father?” I frown back at him.
“He wanted to run this district, Dario. You know that. He thought he was going to inherit it, right? I can’t think of anyone else who would want Conte dead. He was a good man from what I hear.”
“And what about your Fabriano theory?” I look down at the man I’ve just killed.
“Yes, well, we kind of have to move on from that now.” He scratches the back of his head nervously.
“What do you mean, ‘move on’?” I narrow my eyes as I stand up from the chair.
“I agreed to marry Gabriella.” He hangs his head so he can avoid my reaction
“You'regetting married to this guy's sister?” I check, looking between him and the dead man on the floor.
“Father calls itfixing the mess you made.” He cocks his brow at me before lighting up a cigarette, and when he offers me another one I shake my head. “I’m not happy about it, but I had to do something to make the old man trust me,” he admits, looking defeated.
“You just watched me kill her brother. Hardly a good basisto start a marriage.” I shake my head, unnerved by the fact this is the first I’m hearing about this.
“Not all of us have the balls to stand up to Daddy the way you do. And the Fabrianos are never going to find this fucker’s body.” He kicks Silvano in his ribs. “Gabriella Fabriano is so far up her own ass I doubt she’ll even notice him missing.” He makes a valid point.
“I feel bad leaving you with this but?—”
“Just go get your wife, tell her I said hi.” He gestures his eyes to the door and I slap him on the back before I leave.
As expected, it's calm and peaceful when I pull up outside the lake house. The guards were made aware that I was coming but they’ve been sworn to secrecy. I want to surprise Madalina, I want to see the smile on her face when she realizes I’ve come to take her home.
