Page 56 of Blood and Lies (A Twisted Duet 1)

Silently cursing myself and buttoning my suit jacket, I walked out and closed the door before locking it with the code. When I turned around, Vico was smiling from ear to ear.

“What the fuck are you smiling about?”

“This shit is about to get real, bro.”

Having it up to my eyeballs with Vico’s arrogance and lack of understanding exactly how fucking serious this all was, I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the wall.

“What the fuck, man?”

“You listen to me, and you listen fucking good. There is nothing about any of this to smile about. Our brother is dead. Our father is dead. That woman in there”—I pushed him harder—“is going to die along with her father because of the goddamn faith that’s been shoved down our throats all these years teaching us that bullshit of an eye for an eye. So you wipe that smug smile off your motherfucking face before I wipe it off for you.”

With a final shove against his chest, I let go. Vico didn’t take his eyes off me, his face red with what I could only assume was anger.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” He stepped away from the wall.

I lifted my hand and pointed at him, fighting the urge to take out every ounce of pent-up fury I had surging through my veins. “You and that entourage of fuck-faces think this is all a game, some fucking power trip. You’re right, this shit is real. This shit is more real than your tiny little brain will ever be able to understand. So why don’t you just go and follow Nicollo around like he’s the goddamn Antichrist and leave the adulting to me?”

Vico stepped up, straightening his shoulders, the challenge between us hanging like thick smoke. “I don’t know what the fuck happened to you, but do not think for one second that I’m going to just be a goddamn spectator when it comes to all of this. My brother died too, and so did my father. You think you’re the only one who’s suffering because you now have the responsibility of making this all right?” His dark eyes bored into mine. “You act like you’ve been cursed, burdened with all of this. I would sell my fucking soul to be able to do this, to be able to avenge Carlo and Dad, to show the world that no one fucks with a Fattore and gets away with it.”

I snorted, glancing to the floor before looking back up at him. “Believe me, brother, I’ve sold my soul, and from where I’m standing, it’s not fucking worth it.”

I turned my back on him and walked down the hall.

“You’re turning into a coward,” Vico yelled after me. “Nicollo was right. You’ll never be the leader Dad was.”

I let his words wash off me like oil on feathers. Nothing he said could make me feel worse than I already did. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was drowning. I was drowning in responsibilities I didn’t want, that I hadn’t been prepared for like Carlo had been. Our father had taught him, primed him, groomed him for this role, but not me. I was never more than just another son, a son who would always follow and never lead. And I was totally okay with that—unlike Vico. I never wanted this. I’d never felt like I wanted tosell my soulto lead—yet that was exactly what I ended up doing.

Images of Tatum’s naked body, sounds of her panting breaths, haunted my mind while I walked toward the office. It had been months, yet I still couldn’t refer to it as my office. That was the room I hated the most in this house.

With a heavy sigh, I opened the door and walked in, not in the least surprised to find my mother already there, waiting for me. What did surprise me was seeing Uncle Gino there, and by the way he stood with his back toward my mother, pretending to stare out the window, it was clear these two had nothing to say to each other.

“Madre,” I greeted when I closed the door behind me.

She got up from her seat. “Everything is going according to plan?”

“It seems so, yes.” I made my way to the desk, opening my laptop. If William Linscott was following my instructions, there should be an email in a fake account I set up for exactly this purpose.

My mother stood at the other side of the desk. “What is our next move?”

I glanced up at her from under my lashes before returning my focus on the laptop. “Let’s just see if the Linscotts will play along.”

“I have no doubt they will. Their daughter’s life is at stake. If that man has an honorable bone in his body, he would give up his life for his daughter.”

“So that is the plan?”

Both my mother and I looked at Uncle Gino.

“The plan is to trade her life for his? Set her free once he hands himself over to us?”

My mother snorted, rolling her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous, Gino. Of course not.”

“But that’s what you just said, that he would give up his life for his daughter?” He narrowed his eyes at her, his suspicion shown in the way he frowned.

My mother walked over to the couch and took a seat. “That’s what we want him to think.”

“So what happens with the girl?”

“She dies along with her father.”

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