Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 59304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“Don’t sweat it. You need to lie down, that’s all.”
I’m relieved to find that Antonio has already escorted my mother back to her room. As we approach the pier, Father tries to snatch his hand away, but I keep hold of him, not wanting him to fall into the water. Mother rushes down the pier and takes his other side.
“What’s he doing here?” I growl when I see my uncle sitting on my father’s bed.
Eddy springs to his feet, waving a hand at me. “Was this your fucking grand plan?” he snaps. “To humiliate your father? To make him look weak so that–what, Dario? So that you can use the narrative to instill doubt in the men? So you can become Don?”
“I’ll break your fucking jaw if you don’t stop. You seriously think I’d do this?”
“Will you two stop?” Mother snaps. “Your father doesn’t need all this noise.”
“Mother, Edoardo has been acting suspicious as hell—”
“Edoardo was with me when the power went out,” she expresses.
“That doesn’t mean he couldn’t have hired someone to do it.”
“Someone cut the power and spiked my brother’s drink,” Eddy snaps. “Perhaps I’ve got a motive for doing a thing like that, but I know I didn’t do it.”
“I didn’t either,” I snarl. “I’m happy with my position. I’m happy with Father as Don. This has nothing to do with me. You’re the one who’s been ranting about wanting to be Don.”
“I’ve got a drinking problem, for fuck’s sake.” Eddy hangs his head in shame. “That doesn’t mean I really want it. All I’ve ever wanted since we were kids is to support my big brother.”
“He was with me, Dario,” Mother says, looking at me full of conviction. “And think, sweet boy. This is your uncle.”
“He’s been skimming,” I snap.
“Your father knows about the skimming,” my mother tells me.
It’s not like I can ask my father if that’s true. He’s already passed out on the bed, snoring heavily.
“He does?” I say.
“For political reasons, we couldn’t make it public,” Eddy says.
“What political reasons?”
“Some of the other men’d get jealous, so we found a workaround. Vittorio knows. You think I’d go behind my brother’s back? Are you sick in the head?”
I spring at him, grab his shirt, and haul him almost off his feet. “I’d die before I betrayed my father. Die. And I’d kill–remember that.”
“Whatever you think about me, this wasn’t me. I was with your mother.”
“I was in the middle of the dance floor, and yet you still seem to think I was behind this.”
“You could’ve hired—”
“So that excuse works for you, but not for me?”
Mother swipes her arm between us, leaving me no choice but to let him go. “Will you two stop arguing? If you think someone spiked my husband’s drink and sabotaged this party, find out who did it!”
“I’m not leaving Father with you, Uncle.”
“I’m not leaving my brother.”
I groan, then step outside. “Antonio–I need you to stay here. Call me if anything happens. Anything at all, understand?”
“Understood.”
I return to the room. “Antonio is going to stay here with you. Remember, Uncle, he’s half your age and twice as strong.”
I leave the hut, walk down the pier, and head back toward the party.
I need to get to the bottom of this. But, more importantly, I need to make sure Siena is safe.
CHAPTER 27
SIENA
The music has started again, and people are trying to go on as though everything is normal, but it isn’t. I catch snippets of their conversations. “The Don shouldn’t…” Then they see me and go quiet, but that’s all I need.
As I put the pieces together, looking around at these slick men in their fine suits with gold jewelry gleaming everywhere, it seems obvious. It feels like I should’ve guessed this much sooner.
I finally find Rosy near the waterfall. She’s got her arms wrapped across her middle, and she’s staring into the water. Normally, she’s a figure who holds herself with pride, at least as long as I’ve known her. That’s not the case now.
She frowns at the men behind me, two mobbed-up bodyguards hovering like the angel and the devil on my shoulders. Though I suppose they’d both be the devil.
“Can you wait here?” I say to them. “I need to speak with Rosy alone.”
“Stay in our sight,” the big one says, staring at me blankly.
They back off a little, then I turn back to Rosy. She looks at the water, not at me, as though she doesn’t want to meet my gaze.
“Rosy, how did the power go out?”
“I don’t know,” she mutters, but I can tell she’s lying.
“Look at me and say that again.”
She won’t. She keeps staring into the water.
I take a step forward. “Rosy, I think you’re scared, and you know something. I can help you.”
“How?” she whispers.
“I’ve got a… friend who can help you. Dario–you know him, Vittorio’s son? He’s going to sort this out, okay? He’s going to make this right.”