“There’s a war coming, Bella. We don’t know with whom. The
Mal
would be the easy answer but nothing’s ever easy, is it? This conflict is going to be bloody and it’s going to require sacrifice. We need to be ready.”
Ice coated her spine and Bella shivered. Serena’s expression and her tone frankly scared the crap out of her. The woman utterly believed. But why Serena felt the need to tell Bella this in a private meeting, she didn’t know. “And what does that have to do with me?”
Serena gaze skipped to Furia for a brief second. “As you know, we are missing three members. Two of them held nails. We’re here to talk about your future.”
* * *
Diego couldn’t take this anymore.
He and Marco had to settle this old fight before their poison affected Amy Jo. They had been living with it for years, but Diego didn’t want her caught in the middle.
He aimed for the shoulder of the road then turned into the first break in the trees he found. A rutted lane led to a long-neglected picnic area, a moldy-looking table and benches sitting in a small clearing overgrown with weeds.
Slamming on the breaks, he threw out one arm to stop Amy Jo’s forward motion then pushed out of the car. Marco slammed the back door at almost the same moment.
Diego let Marco spin him around and get in the first punch. His brother had a hell of a strong arm and Diego rocked back on his heels with the force of it. He figured he owed Marco at least that much.
Then he put up his fists. “You want to go a few rounds with me, Marco? Fine. It doesn’t change the fact that our father was an arrogant asshole!”
Marco’s expression pulled into a savage grimace as he threw a roundhouse at Dieg’s head that would have flattened him if he hadn’t dodged it. Diego followed with a jab in Marco’s ribs. Diego didn’t want to hurt his brother but he wasn’t going to take a beating just because Marco needed to punch something.
Marco feinted to the left and caught him with an uppercut in the jaw that rattled his teeth. Adrenaline flooded his system until he felt it zinging through his veins. Diego battled back his anger, barely restraining the urge to throw another punch.
“You didn’t really know our father, Marco. You weren’t the one he’d starve for days because you failed to address an elder by his proper name. You weren’t the one he beat if your mother dared speak her mind in front of him. You weren’t the one he set the guard dogs on to help with his so-called training.”
His father had been a mean son of a bitch who had treated his wife like a possession and his son —at least one of his sons—like a slave.
Marco’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t lower his fists. “That’s not the man I knew.”
“The man you knew was a lie. He had a purpose for everything he did. You were his way of controlling me after his death. Why the hell do you think he never told us about each other?”
“Because he knew you’d try to poison my mind—”
“Fucking hell, Marco. Get a grip. You were just another tool in my education. Call it Family 101.”
Diego’s fists clenched so hard, his knuckles cracked. He wanted to shake some sense into his thick-headed brother but refused to stoop to his father’s level and beat the shit out of Marco. Their father had used his fists to beat a backbone into Diego.
He was not his father, the bastard who had aligned brothers against one another.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Marco demanded.
“You were my final lesson, Marco. He spoiled you. He told you he loved you, that you were his favorite. And he knew, when we met, that I’d see that. And hate it. Because I spent years wanting him to love
me
.”
Marco’s mouth parted in shock and his fists lowered several inches. “What—”
“But by the time I was ten, I knew it would never happen. He was a sadistic prick who considered emotion a weakness no leader could afford. He assumed I’d be jealous when I found out he had another son, a son who thought he walked on water. Well, he fucked up. Because when I saw you, Marco, I saw
family
. And I knew I could never follow his will and cut you and your mother off completely.”
He heard Amy Jo’s quiet gasp behind him but it was the shock in Marco’s eyes that held his gaze. “That’s bullshit. We never—”
“—went without a goddamn thing,” Diego finished for him. “At the will reading, I watched your mother’s face across the table as the lawyer told her my father hadn’t left her or you anything. She looked like she’d been gut-shot. Our bastard father had told her she’d be taken care of. That you would finally be acknowledged as a legitimate heir. Instead, you were left with nothing and I was forbidden to help you in any way.”
Diego shook his head, his mouth firm but his eyes… “No.”
“Yes. He made it part of the damn will that I wasn’t allowed to help you or your mother in any way or I would forfeit everything and you would get it. He wanted me to be as ruthless and cruel as he was and he wanted everyone else to know it.”
Diego started to see the cracks in Marco’s façade. His eyes looked bleak, desolate. Diego didn’t want this but Marco had to know. Diego couldn’t keep it to himself anymore.
“Yes, I agreed to the terms of the will. I let everyone believe I cut you off.” Diego shook his head. “But I never would’ve let you and your mother starve. Paloma was…unprepared.” Which was the nicest way of saying she was clueless as Diego could manage. The woman hated him. Always would. “She’d believed that bastard, too. She thought our father would take care of her.”
Marco started to shake his head but Diego pushed on.
“I tried to talk to her after the funeral but she refused to listen. She saw me exactly the way our father taught her to see me. As his clone. But that’s not me.”
“Bullshit. You never gave us—”
“Gods
damn
it, Marco. Shut the
fuck
up and listen.” Diego’s anger started to bubble like hot tar because this was the part that got hairy. This is what he was ashamed of. “Your mother never worked a day in her life. Where do you think the money came from? Not from him.”
“You’re lying.” Marco said the words but there was no heat behind them. He looked…shell-shocked.
“No.” Diego shook his head. “I’m not lying and you know it. He made it impossible for me to care for you and your mother without me losing the ability to care for my mother and the people who depend on me.”
Most specifically, those employed by Falco’s Jewels, a New York City institution for more than a hundred years. Small and exclusive, it sold exotic jewels to some of the richest people in the world. More importantly, the company kept the magical races of the world supplied with the diamonds, rubies, emeralds and all other jewels needed for their magical rituals. The Falco family had a long history as
gemminex
, jewel workers.
“But I didn’t turn my back on you, Marco. Because there were no strictures placed on my mother to stop her from giving you money. Our father thought he’d beaten her into submission. Luckily for you, he’d only taught her to take commands well.”
An old and familiar rage began to simmer but he ruthlessly shoved it back down. He couldn’t deal with that on top of this.
Marco just stared at him, confusion starting to show on his face. “Why the hell should I believe you?”
Diego forced himself to shrug, as if it didn’t matter. “I can show you the will if you want. Or I can tell you what you got for your eighteenth birthday.”
He didn’t wait for Marco to reply. Diego stepped closer and reached out to pull the chain around Marco’s neck from beneath his shirt. A gold medallion hung there. “He specified in his will that he should be buried with this. It’s an exact copy of the ring I took off his hand at the funeral. It belonged to our Uncle Francis.
“I bet you never knew our grandfather had this made for Francis as a charm, protection against our father. No one trusted Gilbert Falco, not even his own father.” Diego dropped the medal but didn’t step away. “And the damn thing didn’t work because, when he was sixteen, Uncle Francis had a mysterious accident and died.
That
,” he pointed to the medal now lying on Marco’s shirt, “is our family coat of arms and
you
are a member of this family. I took it off our father’s neck when I took the ring.”
His brother’s eyes were wide and dazed as he stared up at him. “Why would you do that?”
“Oh, for
fuck’s
sake, Marco!” Diego threw his hands in the air. “You’re my brother! How the hell do you think your mother paid for your flying lessons? Where do you think you got the money to buy your plane?”
He wouldn’t add the rest—his first clients, the loan for his business, the money for his mother’s cancer treatments. Marco didn’t look like he could take any more. He sometimes forgot his brother was seven years younger and a lot less worldly. He’d been pampered , spoiled, protected.
Marco took a step back, shaking his head. “No—”
“Yes,” Diego practically hissed the word. “I wasn’t about to let you or your mother starve just because our father wanted to prove a point about me.”
With a rough growl, Marco turned away and stormed off toward the edge of the wooded area. Diego started after him but a small, warm hand caught his arm.
“Let him go.” Amy Jo’s voice grazed his ear. “I think…he could probably use a few minutes.”
Damn it, he knew she was right. Still…the pain in his brother’s eyes stabbed straight into his gut.
“Gee,” Amy Jo continued, “and here I thought my family was dysfunctional.”
He actually laughed, just a short exhalation of air, at the dry humor in her tone. But he couldn’t look at her. “Yeah, we’re definitely the poster children for fucked-up families.” He closed his eyes against the memories that tried to creep in. Memories he’d thought long buried. “Sorry you’re caught in the middle of all this. You certainly don’t need our shit on top of everything else.”
Opening his eyes, he watched Marco stop at one of the draping trees, grab an overhanging branch in both hands and let the limb take his weight, stretching like a cat in the sun.
“Actually, it’s kind of taking my mind off everything else.” Her hand started a slow caress along his arm, soothing and erotic at the same time.
He tore his gaze away from Marco and got caught in her blue eyes, filled with so much compassion he had his hand on her cheek before he realized he was going to do it.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he vowed. Just as he would always take care of Marco. “No matter what.”
Her flash of a smile was bittersweet but her voice held conviction. “I truly do believe that.”
Her complete and utter trust dumbfounded him.
Just a few days ago, she’d been unwilling to accept her fate, distraught because she wasn’t going to be able to reverse the curse and would remain a monster. Last night, she’d slept with him, gave him her body for the first time since she’d been raped and today she was looking at him with a boatload of trust in her eyes.
Christ, didn’t she have any sense at all? Yes, he wanted her. Yes, he’d protect her to the best of his ability, but did she have to trust him on top of that? Didn’t she know she shouldn’t trust anyone, least of all him?
He didn’t deserve her trust. He was a bastard. Maybe not by birth, but he’d been brain-fucked by his father for years. His only family hated him and he didn’t have a clue how to fix that. He was good at one thing—killing.
He’d been born
grigorio
, a rare honor that he made sure never to take for granted. Yet, even among that elite group, he was an anomaly. His mother was the great-granddaughter of Amalia, one of the cursed
streghe
who’d disappeared a couple of centuries ago. His birth as a
grigorio
had been unexpected and, surprisingly, a great source of pride for his prick of a father. Diego had never been able to figure that one out.
Just as he couldn’t figure out why this woman trusted him. He scowled at her and her smile faded.
Immediately, he wanted it back.
Gods damn it. She was screwing with his head and he couldn’t deal with that. Not now.
“We’d better get going,” he said. “I want to get to New Orleans before tomorrow.”
She nodded slowly and withdrew her hand from his arm. “Sure. I’ll just…um… I guess I’ll—”
“Get back to the car.” His voice held more than a hint of his frustration and she blinked and stepped back. “
Shit
. Amy Jo, look—”
“No.” She slashed a hand in front of her as she shook her head, her mouth drawing into a straight line. “Just…don’t. I’ll wait in the car.”
He sighed as she spun on her heel and walked away, her perfect ass a perfect torment in those tight denim shorts.
How the hell could he fuck this up even worse?
His gaze fell on Marco, still contemplating trees.
Well, hell. There was a good start.
Chapter Thirteen
Steven sat in the lobby, watching the
lucani
go out of their way to avoid him.
It shouldn’t matter. He’d been an outcast for so long, the opinions of these people shouldn’t matter.
They didn’t matter.
Only Bella and Cole mattered. And they were nowhere to be found.
Before he’d come down, he’d knocked on their doors but got no answer. Not seeing anyone he cared to talk to in the lobby, he’d asked at the front desk and been told, by a female desk clerk who let her gaze wander just over his shoulder, that Cole and Bella were in a meeting and couldn’t be disturbed.
So he sat in the lobby and waited. And watched.
And wondered.
Who were they meeting? Why? And why hadn’t they told him?
He tried not to let that last one bother him too much. Bella and Cole were the sole remaining royalty of the
lucani
. Cole was
legatus
not to mention king. Logically Steven knew Cole had responsibilities that didn’t—couldn’t—include him.
Still, it sucked to be an outsider. Which was mostly his fault. And he couldn’t see a way to fix it.
He was what he was.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement.