Page 131 of Luca
I gulped, my eyes darting between the men. Suddenly, I was unsure who would kill who. Would it be Marchetti? Would it be my brother? This was not the way it was supposed to go. It was a rescue. Get in and get the hell out.
Marchetti pulled out his own gun and aimed it at my skull. Somehow, I knew this man didn’t miss. If he wanted me dead, I’d already be dead. If he wanted my daughter dead, she’d be dead. Oh my God, Tyran and Kyran, Penelope. Maybe they were already hurt, waiting for us.
Steeling my spine, I side-stepped Luca and met Marchetti’s dark gaze.
“Aiden, give me your word you won’t do anything rash,” I said, never wavering from the immediate danger. “Especially towards my husband.”
Tense silence followed. This was bad. Suddenly, I knew it’d be bad.
“Aiden,” I pleaded.
“I promise.”
Inhaling a deep breath, I slowly released it. I didn’t want to tell my brother. I didn’t want to tear our family apart more than it already was.
“When I was five, my father and I returned home early from an outing,” I started, my voice unsteady. “Too early. To find my mother with her–” My voice trailed off and I had to swallow a lump in my throat. “With her lover, Benito King. Da ordered me to go outside, but I stayed.” I could feel Aiden’s eyes on me, wondering what my angle was. “Benito had his son as a lookout,” I whispered. “A kid with a gun. That kid shot my father, and his father pinned it on your family.”
The look of betrayal on Aiden’s face splintered me in half. The ghosts and secrets no longer knocked at our door. They were present, filling each corner of this dark and dingy room.
“All this fucking time,” Aiden growled, breaking the silence. “You never said a goddamn thing.” My brother’s hand wrapped around Luca’s throat, but my husband refused to go down without a fight. “And you married him.”
Forgetting Marchetti’s unmoving form, I pushed my body between my brother and my husband. “Stop it, Aiden. Stop it!”
“How could you?” The pain in Aiden’s tone felt like knives carving into my chest.
“I remembered Da being shot in staggered pieces when I first met Luca. Initially, I thought it was Benito who shot him,” I whispered. “But it wasn’t until I heard Mom and Luca in the library that I remembered it all. Ma wanted my daughter dead. She wantedmedead.”
The shock on Aiden’s face was palpable.
Slowly, I returned my attention to Marchetti whose dark eyes remained glued to us. As if he was debating whether to believe me or not.
“I was pissed off Luca made a deal with you and promised you our daughter without talking to me. But it was my mother’s words that had me packing my girl up and leaving it all behind. The fear that you’d make Penelope pay with her life for what Luca’s father did.” Luca’s eyes flashed at me. “The way Benito’s set up cost your brother his life.”
I waited. For what, I was unsure.
Luca pushed me behind him, shielding me with his battered body.
“We’re leaving, Enrico.” It was the first time I heard Luca call him by his first name rather than the last name. “No one has to get hurt. If you want to end me, then end me. But they have nothing to do with it.”
“Funny, because from where I stand, they have everything to do with it.”
Marchetti’s gaze moved from Luca to me, then back to him. Then to my brother. Strangely enough, it was my brother’s face who reflected more rage than Marchetti’s. I feared even if we got out of this, I had lost my brother.
I swallowed the rising emotion.
“Please let us leave,” I addressed Enrico. I’d deal with Aiden’s wrath separately.
“You think after news like that, you get to leave, huh?” he drawled. “Just like that.”
“Yes, just like that.” I let out a shuddering breath. “For our children’s future.”
Marchetti’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “But you told me mere minutes ago that you don’t want your daughter to marry my son.”
Luca’s body slumped barely an inch, but I noticed it. That adrenaline shot wouldn’t last long. God, this wasn’t going very well at all. I closed my eyes, then slowly opened them.
“Do you even want your son married to our daughter? Either way you put it, our families were responsible for your brother’s death.”
“Make it your peace offering.” Enrico’s cold eyes met mine. “The way to bring peace to five families.”
