Page 106 of Bene

“You’re off, though.”

“Because they couldn’t hold me.” Marcus’s gaze swung his way. “A lot like you, it seems.”

“Yeah, well …”

The two quieted.

Where was everyone else?

“Anyone called about Ma?”

“Corrado is flying in—the rest of them, too. She’s staying in their penthouse in the city for now, but I imagine she’ll head back to the mansion once more of us come home.”

“Chris?”

Marcus sighed. “His lawyer is finishing up inside, and he’ll be out soon, too. It was only dad, and a few other men from the family that they’re holding. It’s all about Gian, though, not them. They’re hoping the longer they hold a few made men, the better the chance they’ll start talking. Which is exactly why—”

“We’re out here.”

His brother shrugged. “They’ll never turn a Guzzi son on their father. Ever.”

Wasn’t that the fucking truth?

They’d die first.

Bene shifted on his feet, his next words playing at the tip of his tongue. He had to say them, spit it out because all his suspicions seemed more real by the second, and this was bad. For all of them, so his feelings—that shit he felt for the woman he thought Vanna was—couldn’t factor into this at all.

That hurt in his heart?

The way his soul twisted?

It was love.

Fighting to live.

He choked it out when he said, “I need to find out who she really is.”

Marcus turned to Bene, brow raised. “Who?”

“Vanna Falco. I’m not sure she’s who I thought she was.”

His brother just stared.

Bene explained everything.

“I knew that dress would look good on you.”

Mario’s compliment bounced off Vanna as she continued working at the stove. Stirring the melting chocolate to ready it for a glaze on a cake she made earlier, her work was far more interesting than anything he had to say. Especially now that she could no longer attend classes at the college. Everything was different, now.

And this home didn’t feel like hers.

Even if he said it was.

“Did you hear me?”

His footsteps approached from behind.

Vanna sighed, still refusing to turn away from the stove. She didn’t want to listen to him at all, but she was. She had to, otherwise his moods could shift faster than she blinked, and if she wasn’t ready for the next swing, it might not end well for her. Mario always had a bit of a temper, but it seemed his fuse became far shorter with her.