Page 306 of Valentino

I snap my eyes away, angry with myself for feeling this way. The warden is now standing at the back corner of the room, far enough to not be able to hear us, close enough to move in if something were to happen.

My eyes search his. “Why?”

His eyes well with tears, and I screw up my face.

“Tell. Me. Why,” I spit. “You owe me that fucking much.”

“You know why,” he fires back.

The muscle in his jaw tics as he clenches back and forth, his eyes are cold…and locked on to mine.

I begin to hear my heartbeat in my ears, adrenaline screaming through my blood like poison.

“Speak!” I cry.

Silence.

“After all you’ve done,” I whisper in disgust, “you don’t even have the fucking guts to talk to me?”

We stare at each other, memories flood through me of how big a part of my life is missing without him.

“I loved you like a brother,” I whisper. “I would have done anything for you.”

“Everything…except be my best friend,” he murmurs sadly. “You didn’t think I knew…. Did you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You left me,” he whispers through tears. “When I needed you the most…. You left me.”

“I never left you,” I fire back.

“For him,” he spits. “It was always about Giuliano fucking Ferrara…. Wasn’t it, Val?”

“What. Are. You. Talking about?”

“You were my best friend…until he showed up.”

I sit back in my chair, silenced. The past as he sees it becomes clear.

“No.” I shake my head. “It wasn’t like that. You were my best friend, Carlo, you were always my best friend.”

“Prove it.” His cold eyes hold mine.

“What are you talking about?”

“Come with me. Lead Lombardi for me while I’m in here. We can rule together.” He smiles hopefully. “Yes, we can have it all.” He nods with a twisted smile. “Just like old times.”

He’s lost his fucking mind.

“What?” I screw up my face. “I can’t do that, you know I can’t leave Ferrara.”

“I knew it.” He stares at me and I watch as fury washes over his face and the veins in his forehead begin to pop, I can see something inside him change into something much darker than I’ve ever known.

Sinister and evil.

“Your betrayal is going to cost you…your life, Valentino,” he sneers.

His eyes are dead inside.