Page 24 of Lines Drawn
“Caro?”
I drag my mind away from my spiraling thoughts as I stare at Master. He’s sitting calmly behind the desk, and the realization hits me that some things are worth the rebellion. My best friend? He’s been through enough. Fuck this. The gloves are off…
Leaning against the dresser in the room Cristian and I have been assigned, I feel…as if I’m looking at a stranger. Even when he was threatening my life and giving me what I rightfully deserved, I never felt so disconnected from him.
The man sitting on the bed opposite me isn’t my husband. He’s the Head of the Amato Family. He is everything his uncle turned him into.
“I did what I had to do, Caro.”
I shake my head. “Don’t… Just don’t. You didn’t have to do anything at all.”
“He touched what he shouldn’t have,” he says calmly.
“He didn’t do anything to Roman that the boy didn’t ask for. I’m sure Leandro can pull up the tapes if you want to see them!” I hiss. “You know our son, he’d never allow anyone to touchhim unless he wanted it. This is worse than what you did to Tennant!”
Cristian shakes his head. “You’re not ignorant, Carter. You know how this works. It’s not just because he touched Roman, which is bad enough considering he didn’t have the decency to go to you afterwards. No, Roman was the Amato Boss at the time. Did he talk to his own Boss about it first? Considering he didn’t say a damn word to you, Roman’s father, I highly doubt it. No, he went after the Boss of a Family he doesn’t belong to, and trampled over every single piece of etiquette there is.”
I stare at my husband, disbelief running through me. “You can’t be fucking serious right now.”
“I am very serious, Carter. If Roman was just my heir, it would have been different. Maybe just a little extra stabbing, considering he waited so long to come to me, but it would have been just like when Tennant and Hollis claimed Roman. They touched him, I stabbed Ten, then we all talked afterwards. While I didn’t touch Jude when he came in—since Hollis did it for me—he and I still talked, and he understood what would happen should he hurt Roman. Ignacio? He didn’t just miss that step, he trampled all over it.”
“Not everyone was raised like Roman was!” I shout. “Not everyone had loving parents who helped them understand how this works. I sure as fuck didn’t. You think Georgio took the time to explain shit to me? All I know comes from you and Roman. And I’m the fucking bastard son of a mafia Head. How do you think Ignacio feels? He sure as fuck didn’t come from that.”
“Even more reason why he should have come forward, so he could learn. He needed to prove he was capable of taking care of my son.”
“And now you may have robbedourson of the man he loves! How is that fair?” Before he can respond, I continue, “And Roman talked to me. Maybe Ignacio should have, too, butRoman didn’t hesitate to tell me the truth right away. I knew he didn’t want to… Who wants to admit that shit to their parents? But he was honest, and you should have seen him, Cris. He was in awe that someone could look at him and touch him with such care.”
He narrows his eyes. “If you’re trying to say Ten and Hollis don’t care about Roman…”
I shake my head and hug myself, my eyes burning with unshed tears, my heart feeling heavy for my son. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. You know I’d be the first one in line should they hurt Roman. No, what I mean is…what he gets from them and Jude isn’t what he gets from Ignacio. He needs them all. I wish you had time to see how intricate and interwoven all the relationships are. Too much has happened that I don’t think you or Il Padrone have really understood how things changed while you were gone. The Martellis are Amatos and the Amatos are Martellis. This…” I shake my head again, taking a shuddering breath. “It could change everything for the worse. It’s not just Roman and Ignacio that you fucked up, but the rest of us, too.”
He glares. “Us? I thought you only connected with Cole?”
I clench my teeth. “I did. And that relationship is important to me. I swear to fuck, Cristian, if you have fucked things up for me with him, I will never forgive you.”
He stands and crosses the space between us. I don’t flinch when he gets close. His onyx eyes are like twin voids that hold nothing I’m used to seeing in them. “I had to prove I am the Amato Boss, Caro. I couldn’t be soft, no matter how much I care about my son and Il Padrone.”
I swallow around the lump in my throat. “He has a right to retaliate against you, Cristian. And I wouldn’t blame him if he did.”
He smiles, that fucking twisted smirk he learned from Tennant. “If he didn’t know something was going to come out of Chaos and Italking, he’s not as smart as he claims.”
I hit him. My palm connecting with his flesh is loud in the otherwise quiet room. “You always say you don’t want to be your uncle, but I'm sorry to say, Amore, you’ve failed. I’ll find somewhere else to sleep for a few days.”
“Carter.” He tries to grab me when I move to the side to get away from him.
“No.” Pulling my knife, I point it at him. “I will put you in a bed next to our son and his lover if you dare try to stop me. I am usually on the same page as you, Cris. I can usually make sense of your logic, but with this? We will never agree.
“I don’t know if it’s because of the stress of what you’ve been through, what we just went through not even two full days ago, seeing our son hurt, or something else. But until you can come up with something better than ‘it’s what you had to do’, I don’t want to hear it.
“There are always other ways, Cristian. We’ve built our entire lives on that philosophy. Ofnotbecoming the people who raised us.”
I don’t look back as I leave the room, my heart cracking with each step I take, but I can’t back down. Not on this. Maybe that makes me weak, but there’s a reason I never wanted to take the De Luca Family in hand. Ifthisis what it means to be a Boss? I want no part of it. And I thought Cristian didn’t either.
In the hall, I run into Tennant. The look on his face... It reminds me of the first time we came face to face after my true identity was revealed.Good.A pissed off and apathetic Tennant is the least Cristian deserves.
I blink back more tears at that thought, knowing he brought this upon himself.
"Have fun," I tell him as our eyes meet when I pass by him.
