Page 23 of Kiss of Ruin (Brutal Empire)

This is the Pedro Acosta that I know. The one who made sure we followed manners and behaved properly. The man I walked into doting over Scarlett last night was new to me. The fact that he cares about her makes me happy if only I could get her to speak to me.

Camila scurries back into the kitchen. She’s always been very cautious around me. Apparently, she didn’t have the same reservations around my parents. Rosa had finished her breakfast and retreated back to her room, long before Scarlett came in for breakfast, which left me and my parents at the table.

“Want to tell me why you’re cursing and slamming your fists on my table.” My mother’s gaze, when she deigned to, could stop you in your tracks. She phrases it as a question, not that it is. She expects an answer.

I close my eyes. Time isn’t on my side. I took the opportunity I had after we had done a significant amount of damage to the DeLuca’s resources. It’ll slow them done for now, not forever.

Living without Scarlett has been miserable, and I took my chance to come and apologize. I need her in my life. And I don’t give a good goddamn what Carlos and Andreas want.

I open my eyes and look at both my parents. At thirty-nine years old, I shouldn’t be afraid of them. That’s not the reality I was raised in. You respect your elders and I respect the hell out of my parents. The took Scarlett in without question and obviously made her as comfortable and welcome as possible.

“I can’t get her to talk to me.”

Dad smirks. “And you’re used to people doing what you want when you tell them to.” He looks over at Mom and chuckles. “Good luck with that. I run the business here and there is one person, besides Carlos and Andreas, that I answer to no matter the circumstances and that’stu madre.”

“Why don’t you start from the beginning since it appears that we are starting in the middle of the story.” My mom suggests. Knowing it has to do with Scarlett softens her approach. “She’s Luis’ widow?”

We’d all known each other since childhood, yet our parents? They were never spoken about. We kept our family business to ourselves. This was the first time I’d ever actually talked about any of it out loud.

I scoff. “If you want to call what they had a marriage.”

My mom narrows her eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

I look around the room and know there are too many ears for this conversation. There are only two, well three, people that I explicitly trust with this information. I’m also not enough of an asshole to shatter the vision Rosa has of her only son and show him how much of a dirty bastard he really was.

“Can we go to Dad’s office for this conversation?”

The two of them exchange a brief look before Dad nods and stands. “Lead the way.” He gestures toward the hall.

I don’t waste a second and leave the room. If I don’t get out of there and get this off my chest, I’m not sure what might be broken in the process. Then I don’t have to worry about the DeLuca’s killing me, my mother will.

Dad shuts the door behind us. I don’t give a shit that its 9 am, I walk right to his liquor cabinet and pour a glass of bourbon. I take a sip, then take a seat on the couch on the side of the room.

“I take it, whatever you’re about to tell us, is why you looked like hell when you walked in last night?”

“Yes.” And the fact that I’ve been surviving on alcohol and hastily constructed sandwiches, if I ate anything at all, but I didn’t say that out loud.

“Tell us.” My mom takes the seat next to me. My father settles across from us in one of the leather wing backed chairs.

“Let’s just say, Luis wasn’t exactly faithful to his wife. He was sleeping with Elena DeLuca long before he married Scarlett.”

Dad practically leaps from his chair. “DeLuca?” He runs a hand through his hair. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Now I know why you needed the drink.” He walks over to the liquor cabinet and I wait to continue until he’s poured himself a drink and taken his seat again.

“What was Luis thinking?” My mom asks. Her eyes are wide like she can’t believe what she is being told.

“Hell if I know.” I take a sip of my drink. “In his sheer stupidity, he got her pregnant.”

“Jesus fuck,” Dad swears. “So, you’re telling me there’s child out there that’s half DeLuca and half Romero. What’s to keep him from taking over both families?”

“The fact that he’s eleven. Which is why I have to stop this bitch before she can groom him to lead the family. But that’s not the reason I’m here.”

Dad leans forward on his knees, holding the glass between his hands and rolling it back and forth. The same thing he always did when facing tough information.

“What does any of this have to do you?”

“After Scarlett found out about the boy and his parentage she lost it. I was trying to run a business with a woman full of rage. I took her to bed.” No need to hide things from my parents. They know the life I live. “But it wasn’t only that one time and the feelings I had for her before Luis married her came to the surface. I love her.”

Mom’s hand, that had been lightly caressing my arm in comfort stilled. I glance over at her and it’s the exact look I expect. “How does the man I raised leave the woman he loves to suffer on her own? I can tell you right now that the woman that arrived here was broken. Absolutely devasted. I never asked. I thought she was still grieving for Luis, then being shot, and put in the position of never being able to walk again was taking its toll on her.”

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