Page 61 of Twisted Obsession

‘I know,’ I guiltily replied. ‘And I will embrace it all once I’m married, but for now I just need…’

‘Stop!’ Serafina demanded. ‘I think I know where this is all going.’

‘You do?’ Mia looked at her. No words were exchanged between them before she fell in and turned back to look at me.

‘Oh,’ she muttered as the realisation hit her.

‘Please… I need to do this. I need to try to put my past to rest before I move forward.’ It was the only explanation I had, and I hoped it would be enough.

Silence filled the void between the three of us and I knew, in those few seconds, that all of us had only one man on our minds.

A man that we all missed.

Their brother and my first love.

Dante.

Yet not one of us spoke his name out loud.

‘Don’t say anymore, Gi,’ Sera rallied herself. ‘I will talk to Salvatore about your mama. I think it would be fantastic if you two could mend the bridge between the two of you. He will never accept her back into the family, but when a woman marries, her mum’s support can be irreplaceable.’

‘Thank you,’ I whispered, before lifting my hand so my fingers could touch the screen.

‘And a few weeks holiday with her would be a good time to see if you can create the bond you should always have had—and I hear Malta is a wonderful place, if you get the chance to visit,’ Mia added.

They both stretched out their hands to virtually touch my own.

Chapter Five

Dante

‘How much longer?’ I’d watched from the position I’d sat in at the head of the table, as Marco had stood up and walked around a few times stretching his legs, before clasping a hand to my shoulder and whispering in my ear.

I shook my head in reply.

‘Boss.’ Marco showed no other response to my answer and immediately complied with my wishes and sat back down on his chair.

We had been seated out on the veranda that surrounded Ricco’s expansive property, underneath a vine covered pergola, which was sheltering us from the early afternoon sun. A lot of wine, as well as food, had been consumed, making the others around me begin to relax. I had deliberately sat myself with my back to the fields of grapes in a show of defiance, after being offered a seat with its back to the wall of the house, and it was then I understood.

Ricco thought I was stupid. And maybe I had been. But no longer.

And it was understanding these facts that showed me the truth and made me stronger.

Holding a finger to my lips, I smiled behind it as I took in the scene in front of me. The day was getting on my last nerve, but it had proved to be enlightening. Twelve people were sat at the table altogether, in what he thought was a show of his strength. He was a man who had always obeyed orders and had done so extremely well, but this move upwards to place himself in charge of others, and to lead them, was going to be his downfall.

After spending the late afternoon out on the water a few weeks before, Marco had met me at the harbour in the early hours of the morning with his findings. It hadn’t been conclusive proof then, but the three managers that were seated here with us today had all been present in the casinos he’d visited under my instructions. From the surface, they were all operating above board. The places were clean, looked well run and presentable and each of them appeared to comply with the Maltese laws. Marco had been recognised and looked after accordingly. In each casino he had been met by the manager and shown the books Marco was convinced Ricco was also falsifying, as though they had nothing to hide. So, on the surface, everything looked as it should. But after a couple of my most trusted men had deliberately entered the third casino on their own and pulled out cash to buy Charlie, they’d been taken out the back. They swore blind that the way it was being cut and weighed was where Ricco was making his money, by cutting the mainly drunk customers short and skimming off the top. Without orders to take anything further, Marco’s men had all left the casinos separately over a long period of time. Even when Marco had given me the full extent of his report, we hadn’t made a move, but had carried on with our weekend like normal. A few days later, Marco’s men had gone in again and found the same. Each casino repeated the same process. As the cocaine was being sold, they undercut the weight and sold on the rest at a cheaper price to some Maltese crooks, which not only went against how I wanted the cocainesold, but also made the demand for it less inside the casinos. If he was ripping off the Charlie, then I had absolutely no doubt he was doing something similar with the alcohol. Then, the day before, I’d had the roulette tables subtly checked. When a set of magnets were found in one, I knew the table was rigged.

I was convinced that Ricco had nothing to do with the table, it was small compared to what I was convinced he was up to. But him operating outside of my instructions and going against the boss, would give out an open invite and corruption would spread like wildfire.

I was all for corruption, it’s how my family made their wealth, but not when it wasn’t in my favour.

With just this proof alone, had I been in London or Calabria, I could have stood up right then and shot him dead in front of his trophy wife. The woman I was convinced he cared absolutely nothing about, and the so-called pawns who were operating outside of our families’ unspoken law. What made no sense to me yet, was why he was doing it. Until I’d gained that knowledge, I refused to make a move. Instead, I was going to make him sweat.

Once again, our host Ricco showed us his hospitality by summoning up yet another dish his personal chief had created, and here we were sharing a meal with the three casino managers and their wives. Gerit, Ricco’s wife, was sat next to me, with her hand running annoyingly up and down my thigh as though she owned me, but for now I didn’t push her away. For now, I sat, I ate, drank a little and played along with whatever the hell game Ricco was playing.

Marco, me and two of my bodyguards, Valentine and Zeren, had flown by helicopter and landed on the edge of one of Ricco’s vineyards, completely taking our host by surprise. That was the way I wanted the whole of the lunch to go. Landing there had not only made him ill at ease, because we’d been expected by road,but it had also confirmed to me what I already knew. He was renovating the house he lived in and throwing money around to cover his newly found lifestyle, and there was no way his dried-up vineyard and substantial wages were enough to cover it all.

‘That was amazing,’ I exclaimed, before patting the corners of my mouth with a napkin. ‘Gerit, perhaps you could show me around your home?’ I stood, making the rest of the table stand.

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