Page 89 of Twisted Oath

I’d distinguished a long time ago, that I wasn’t like most people. I wasn’t convinced I had more to give. I was however convinced that I didn’t know how to love like others seemed to naturally be able to do.

I stopped turning and looked directly out to sea, attracted by the waves that were lapping at my feet.

‘So, maybe the nightmare was a premonition? If I’m not able to love her, she’ll leave.’

I heard myself speak what I knew was my greatest fear out on the soft summer breeze and for a few minutes, I heard my own words travelling back to me as the air swirled around me.

The sound of clapping unexpectedly reached my ears, and I knew I wasn’t alone.

My pain and my susceptibility had been exposed to another. Fleetingly, I closed my eyes and inhaled a calming breath.

Immediately, I changed my stance.

I stiffened my posture and let all the feelings I’d been trying to sift through leave me. After removing my hands from my head, I rolled my head around my shoulders, feeling and hearing the satisfying clicks it made. Without turning, I concentrated on who I knew without a doubt had to be one of Serafina’s brothers.

‘Well, well… brother-in-law.’ The condescending tone in the voice I heard behind me told me all I needed to know.

‘Dante.’ I spoke his name like a curse.

‘You look troubled,’ he carried on.

‘I’ve been running.’ I offered what I knew was a poor excuse.

‘Shame… I was hoping you were in pain.’

‘Of course, you were,’ I agreed.

‘So, running from something or someone?’

Fuck, he was as knowing as his sister.

‘And you would care, because?’ Unable to hold myself any longer, I allowed myself to turn slowly, but purposefully, around on the spot and came face to face with a grown-up version of the boy I’d last seen. The boy with anger and hatred etched over his handsome features as he’d watched me hang the sheet with Serafina’s virgin blood over the balcony. I’d heard he’d gone back to England periodically to be coached in business by his maternal family. I’d always thought it was just an excuse for the Giordanos to keep at least one of their sons out of reach.

But I could see it had been a good plan, he’d grown stronger and surer of himself.

‘It’s a someone,’ I answered and winked at him hoping to either throw him off centre or rile the fuck out of him.

Without giving away too much, I sized him up. He was broader than I remembered and taller than the adolescent I had last seen. What was he now? Twenty-two? However old he was, for the first time I saw a man inside him. Not an ally though, but a foe. He had the same brilliant blue eyes as his sister, but whereas hers were bright and clear, his were sharp and focussed, with a darkness behind them.

So, it was him.

I saw it so clearly.

Dante would be the one to eventually take up the place at the head of his family. Alessio had done a good job over the past few years, but he matched the template of a consigliere. He was calm and level-headed and although headed up his family in replacement for his accused and debilitated father, I recognised he still let a lot of the decision making come from him.

When Alessandro died, Alessio wouldn’t be strong enough to hold his position.

Who would have thought it of the youngest son, the second spare? But here he was. When the time came, I wondered whether he would stand behind me or in front of me as my adversary. Slowly, I let a grin spread over my face as I looked him very deliberately up and down.

‘I hope she’s giving you hell,’ he spat out in reaction to my amusement.

‘Only in bed, brother,’ I goaded. ‘Only in bed… But then, that’s how she likes it.’

‘You’re disgusting.’ I watched him shake his head from side to side in his aversion.

‘Again…’ I grinned. I moved my head from side to side, enjoying his obvious discomfort and raised my eyebrows at him to goad him on. ‘What goes on between a man and wife is no one else’s affair.’

The man in front of me, reminded me of myself ten years ago. Without a doubt he’d come back stronger, and capable of handling himself. Secretly, I admired him. He knew who I was, what power I wielded, but his love and concern for his sister was first, front, and centre in his mind.

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