Page 78 of Cruelest Contract
My eyes immediately shoot to Angelo. He looks as shocked as I feel.
Matthias Grimaldi barrels in here ahead of three scowling members of Sonny’s security team. One of them rubs a puffy jaw and another is limping.
My eldest brother is now a stranger. As a young man, he had our father’s dimpled smile and used to randomly buy me bags ofsaltwater taffy, joking that I was forbidden to share them with Angelo. Now he looks like a dystopian hellraiser packed with muscle, covered in riotous ink, and ready to end mankind.
Matthias abruptly halts and scans the scene. His blue eyes came from our mother but they’ve become cold, unlike hers. They snap from one face to another until they land on me.
“Cici,” he growls and I cringe at both his harsh tone and the use of my childhood nickname.
But I also find my voice and fire back. “What the hell are you doing here, Matthias?”
After all, I didn’t invite him to the wedding. I couldn’t because I don’t even know his phone number. It seems highly unlikely that Julian would have tracked him down as a surprise, especially because Matthias seems more likely to commit a mass casualty event than offer congratulations.
He doesn’t answer my question because he’s just spotted Angelo. The look on his face goes from dangerous to lethal in a heartbeat and he lunges for Angelo’s throat.
“You fucking piece of shit,” Matthias swears while strangling Angelo.
However, it’s been quite some time since they faced off in a physical battle and a few things have changed. Angelo is no longer a scrawny teenager and he’s able to wrestle his way free.
“What the fuck, you psychopath?” he screams and Matthias tackles him to the floor.
The second Matthias erupted, Julian moved in front of me as a shield. Other than that, no one seems to be in a hurry to split my two brothers up.
They roll around on the floor and trade hard punches. Tye watches from his armchair, appearing only mildly interested when their scuffle reaches two feet from where he sits.
Matthias turns Angelo’s nose to pulp. Angelo bludgeons his ribs.
Julian backs away, keeping me behind him. I clutch at his shirt.
“Stop them,” I beg, horrified. “Please!”
No one even hears me but Cass has already decided enough is enough. He also holds a gun in his hand.
I don’t know how my brothers hear the sound of the hammer being cocked over all their thrashing and cursing but they both freeze. Blood pours out of Angelo’s nose. Instant revulsion turns my mouth sour and I bury my face in Julian’s back until it passes.
“Apologize to my wife,” Cass says in a calm pitch that nonetheless sounds deadly. “For behaving like wild animals inside her home.”
I peek around the edge of Julian’s shirt. My brothers are sitting up now. Angelo presses his sleeve to his bleeding nose. They stare at each other, temporarily united by their confusion since everyone knows Cass’s wife has been dead for decades.
Julian clears his throat and discreetly gestures to the wall where Teresa’s painting hangs.
Matthias gets the message first. He climbs to his feet first and Angelo staggers upright next. I hope they have enough sense not to make a rude remark in a room filled with armed men who aren’t too pleased with them.
“I beg your pardon,” says Matthias and just for a moment he sounds like the old Matthias.
Then his jaw hardens and his angry eyes shift to Julian. The ink all over his arms is chaotic and black. The only part I can make any sense of is a scripted word that runs the length of his right forearm.
The word is Daniela. His lost bride.
“Yeah, sorry,” Angelo mutters. He removes his shirt and holds it to his bleeding nose.
Cass is satisfied with their efforts and holsters his gun. I breathe a little easier.
“I’ll be leaving now,” says Matthias, “but I’m taking my sister with me.” He pivots to glower at Angelo. “Did you and that disgusting old man really think you could get away with this?”
Angelo finds it tough to scowl with a broken nose. “None of this was my fucking call,” he complains.
Matthias is still ready to pound him into dust. “And yet here you are, selling our little sister to this pack of deranged maniacs.”
