“Dante is serving his punishment,” my father said from between clenched teeth.
“So I’ve been told. Where is Maricella?”
My father fixed a bored expression on his face. “I don’t have a clue where his beta slut is, nor do I care.”
He was lying. I could read it in his fucked up gray eyes that were exactly like mine.
I let the slut comment pass this time, picking and choosing which war I wanted to escalate. “Dante cares.”
He moved back around his desk, putting the solid piece of furniture between us as if that would protect him. “Dante doesn’t give a shit about anything right now, trust me. He’s refused to answer anything related to his crime. He knows he’s guilty.”
A rage I hadn’t known was still in me gathered in the depth of my soul and rolled to the surface of my control. “If you think you can murder your own flesh and blood and get away with it—”
“Murder?” My father slapped his hands on the desk and glared at me. “If Dante is sentenced to death, the order will come from the Knights, not from me. But, yes, I will oversee the punishment as is my duty by the laws of our House, because he’s too cowardly to open his damn mouth. And you will not interfere, because you have no power over any ruling that comes from the Thirteen.”
He had me there. But I had rights as a member of the accused’s family. “I want to see him.”
My father huffed and pushed away from the desk.
“By the laws of our House, I can demand to see him, and you know that.”
“It will do you no good. He refuses to see anyone.”
I didn’t buy that for a second. I was sure the only person who’d demanded to see him was Ariana, and my father would never let her witness any evidence of his evildoings. He kept her blind and stupid. That was how he liked all his women.
“Either approve my visitation or not. But if you don’t, I’ll take the story to the tabloids. I’m sure there are plenty of reporters who’d love to run with a Salvatici scandal like this. They wouldn’t even have to verify the facts, just let word spread to the leaders of the other Houses.”
My father’s eyes grew darker and more infuriated. “You would bring them into our family business?” he asked quietly.
“To save my brother? You bet your ass I would.”
My father’s jaw clenched so hard, I thought it would snap in two. “Fine.” He dropped into his seat. “Visit him. But it’ll do you no good. He refuses to speak.”
We’d see about that.
I turned for the door. Marco shot me a holy fuck look, then turned out of the room.
“Luciano.”
My feet paused seconds to freedom. I glanced over my shoulder toward my father.
“I will be meeting with the Grande Cavaliere to discuss your marriage.”
That was not going to go over well. While I was confident they couldn’t touch Natalie now that she was my wife, they could come up with all kinds of punishments for me because I’d broken a House rule by marrying her without permission.
I nodded once, letting him know I heard, but I kept my mouth shut. I’d already antagonized my father enough for one day.
I took another step toward the hall.
“There’s a masquerade at the Favero villa tomorrow night,” he called out. “You will attend, end of argument.”
My stomach twisted into a hard knot, but I nodded again in acquiescence and moved out into the hall.
“Cazzo,” Marco muttered as we hustled down the curved stairs toward the lobby. “I thought I was going to have to break up a bloody fistfight in there.”
I didn’t answer. Just pushed the doors open and moved out into the sunlight. But the fresh air didn’t help me breathe any easier. My lungs were squeezed tight as shit with the knowledge I had to attend another one of those fucking parties.
A party Natalie was never going to forgive me for attending without her, and one I would never take her to even if my life depended on it.
The Tomb where Dante was being held was housed in the catacombs of the ancient chapel that sat on my parents’ property. As I followed Marco into the small sanctuary, I tried to keep the sickness at bay.
I’d been here before. It had been twelve years, but the images suddenly flashing behind my eyes were as fresh as the day I’d awoken chained to a chair in that cold dark space, surrounded by screams I couldn’t help.
I averted my eyes from the altar as Marco led me through a door to our right and down a narrow set of curved stone stairs. Irony struck me hard. I was sure my father took great pleasure knowing the Tomb was here, hidden beneath the church where my mother prayed daily for their sins to be forgiven. He was fucked in the head like that. And she was just as fucked for enabling him all these years. If there was a hell, I hoped those two suffered in it for all eternity for the things they’d done.
Two guards met us at the bottom of the staircase. I shivered beneath my jacket as Marco spoke to them in the dim light, the air down here cold and damp. The walls were made of stone, the floor dirt, and eerie orange lights were spaced unevenly across the ceiling of the corridor, making the place look even creepier. As one guard turned to lead the way to Dante’s cell, I noticed a thin river of liquid running down the center of the uneven floor. Liquid I hoped was water and not fresh blood.
Nausea swirled in my stomach. I breathed through my mouth, trying not to smell the dirt and mold and suffering. But the closer we drew to the room where Vittoria had been murdered, my breaths grew faster, and I had trouble putting one foot in front of the other.
I held my breath as we eased closer, but to my relief, the guard moved past that vile room without so much as a glance. He finally came to a stop at the last steel door on the right and pulled out an ancient set of iron keys.
The lock turned with a clank, and the old hinges creaked as he pushed the door open. Stepping back, he said, “Bang on the door when you’re done.”
I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of being locked in that cell, and if I was alone, I’d never agree, but I knew there was no way they’d lock Marco in this place. His uncle—as depraved as the man was—would never stand by while his blood was punished because of me.
I followed Marco into the cell. One lone orange light shone down from above, casting a cone of illumination over the central part of the room. The place smelled like death and misery. But it was the figure on a shadowed pile of blankets in the corner that drew my attention. The figure shivering in the cold in nothing but jeans and a filthy thin blue T-shirt.
“Porca puttana.” I crossed the floor in three steps and whipped off my jacket. “Marco, help me.”
“Mio Dio.” Marco dropped to his knees on the blankets near Dante’s head and lifted my brother’s torso from the ground so I could wrap my jacket around him. “What the hell did they do to him?”
“I don’t know.”
One whole side of his face was swollen and black and blue. His eyes were only half-open, his pupils dilated in a way that told me he was drugged, and his arms were clutched to his waist, protecting what I suspected were more bruises to his ribs.
He mumbled something under his breath that was incoherent and sounded like gibberish.
“Fucking monsters.” I wrapped my coat around him as best I could, then helped Marco lay him back on the thin blanket.
My suit jacket wasn’t going to keep him warm. Reading my mind, Marco shimmied out of his own coat and laid it over the top of Dante as my brother closed his eyes and tossed his head, continuing to mumble in that incoherent voice that sounded nothing like him.
“Cazzo.” On my knees, my palms on my thighs, I stared down at my brother, disbelief roaring inside me.
My father had ordered this. To his own flesh and blood. All because Dante had dared to fall in love with someone my father disapproved of.
“You gotta keep it together, man,” Marco said in a low voice beside me. “He let you come down here because he wants you to react to this. The second you go after him, he’
ll throw your ass in one of these cells and do the same thing to you. That won’t help Dante. And it sure as hell won’t help your woman.”
I knew that. But my jaw clenched so hard with a need to retaliate that I feared I nearly cracked the bone. “He did this as a warning to me.”
“Damn right he did.” Marco looked down at my brother. “Which is why you can’t let him win now. Too much is riding on you.”
I heard the hidden meaning in Marco’s words, but I refused to be swayed by them. It was the same damn argument he’d used on me for years, only he didn’t realize it would never work. I didn’t give a fuck about this House or where it was heading. All I cared about was getting my brother out of this hellhole. And keeping Natalie safe.
“Cella,” Dante muttered, tossing his head from side to side. “Mar-cella. Have to...find...her.”
“We’ll find her, fratello.” Marco smoothed the hair back from Dante’s damp forehead. “Don’t worry about Maricella. We’ll take care of her.”
To me, Marco whispered, “He’s got a fever. Probably from infection. No wonder he hasn’t filed a plea. If we don’t get this infection down before Saturday...”
Then he’d be dead one way or another.
My jaw clenched even harder as I pushed to my feet. “Stay with him while I get the guards.”
“Don’t antagonize them, Luc.”
Fuck that. I’d antagonize whoever the hell I wanted in this shithole.
I banged my fist against the door. Bootsteps echoed down the corridor, followed by the rusted hinges squealing as the guard opened the door. One look at my face, and he drew back a step. “Done already?”
“No, I’m not done. And neither are you. He’s on fire. You’re going to take me to get some fucking antibiotics or I’ll make sure the Grand Duke knows you let his son die of infection on your watch.”
The guard’s face paled. He peered past me into the room where Marco was still sitting with Dante, then looked quickly down the hall to the other guard stationed at the entrance to the Tomb. “Quickly. Come.”
“Smart move.” Temper barely contained, I moved out of the cell and stepped around the second guard, rushing to keep an eye on Dante while the first followed me toward the exit. “You may get to keep your life.”
The guard cast a worried glance my way.
“For now,” I muttered as we reached the steps. “But the Grand Duke’s not going to live forever.”
The words felt foreign and revolting on my tongue, but for the first time in my life, I relished where my destiny was ultimately leading, because this was a promise I knew I could absolutely keep.
“And if my brother dies, you bet your ass I’m going to remember who you are when I inherit my title.”
Chapter Fifteen
Natalie
I was in a dismal mood.
After Luc had left, I’d soaked in the clawfoot bathtub big enough for two for over an hour, but the hot water hadn’t done a thing to help me relax. Feeling boxed in, I’d dressed and headed out to explore, thinking fresh air would do the trick, but it hadn’t.
Marco’s property was big, and I didn’t once come near any kind of wall or fence, but I felt trapped just the same. Hoping to distract myself, I’d picked wildflowers as I’d walked around the picturesque lake, but even the cheery blooms didn’t lift my spirits, and I had a helpless feeling nothing would until Luc returned from his parents’ home and I saw for myself that he was all right.
I dropped to a bench near the water’s edge with a huff, part of me irritated I was worried about the man when he was being so distant, another part of me disgusted he seemed resigned to go along with whatever his family wanted him to do.
He was going back to Covet after things with Dante were settled? Just like that? I understood the power his House wielded, but at some point, he had to stand up them.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Startled by the voice to my left, I jerked around to see Felicity standing several feet away.
“Sorry.” She smiled beneath a wide-brimmed straw hat. “Didn’t mean to startle you.” She wore denim shorts, a loose-fitting T-shirt, and white sneakers, and in her hand she lifted a basket filled with apples in a variety of colors. “I was down in the orchard and saw you sitting here on my way back to the house. Up for some company?”
“Uh. Sure.” I scooted down the bench to make room for her.
Sighing, she sat beside me and set the basket on the ground near her feet. “I should have picked apples earlier in the day. It’s too damn hot to be out in the sun.” She lowered the hat to her lap and swiped at her damp forehead. “Nice and cool here by the lake, though. One of my favorite spots. Did you go all the way around?”
“Yes. It’s a nice walk.”
She smiled again. “I think so too. Marco prefers to hike in the mountains, but give me a relaxing lake path any day.”
“The property’s really amazing. How many acres do you have?”
“Roughly six hundred. Though most of it’s not developed. But we like it that way. More private.”
It was definitely private. Which was a plus for me in my current situation, even if I didn’t particularly like it. “How long have you lived here?”
“About three years. Marco inherited the property from his grandfather when he was a teenager, but the buildings were so old, they needed major renovations to be inhabitable. We’ve been working on them slowly. The main house was first. We just finished the guesthouse where you’re staying last spring.”
“It’s really pretty inside. I love the way you’ve decorated.”
“Thanks. Hobby of mine, I must admit.”
I nodded and looked out at the water. Silence settled between us. Unable to stand it in my current mood, I glanced up the hill toward the main house. “No sign of them yet, huh?”
“Not yet. I wouldn’t worry, though. They’re not going to do anything to Luc. He’s too important to them.”
I rubbed my aching temple. “Yeah, so I’ve heard. Being the heir and all.”
Felicity was silent again, but I could tell she was watching me, something I found unnerving.
“Luc told me you volunteered to come along on this trip,” she said several minutes later.
“I did.”
“Why? You could have stayed in the tropics where you didn’t have to be near any of this.”
“I don’t know.” I dropped my hand to my lap and stared out at the rippling water. “I guess I thought he might need me.”
“He does.”
“For what? He’s going to make whatever decisions he wants to make on his own. Clearly, women have no say in this world. I can’t even leave this property.” I stared back out at the lake. “I don’t know how you can live like this.”
“From the outside, I’m sure it seems quite archaic.”
“And misogynistic, and oppressive as hell, and—”
Felicity laughed. “Yes, all those things. But that’s not my life. That’s not Marco’s life either.”
It seemed like every other marriage I’d encountered in this damn House. I couldn’t help but think of Luc’s mother, doing whatever Luc’s father told her to do. “Is that why you won’t marry him? Because you won’t give him that kind of power over you?”
“No. Marco isn’t like the other men in his House. We’re equals. Our reasons for not getting married have nothing to do with my trust in him. It has to do with my family and different laws in the different Houses.”
“Laws that oppress women.”
“Partly.”
She was purposely being vague, which I did not like. “How can you even stay with him, knowing the things the Salvatici House does?”
She sighed. “When I first met Marco, I didn’t know he was a member of the Salvatici House.” She waved a hand. “It’s a long story I won’t bore you with, but I didn’t discover his allegiance until long after we were involved. And, believe me, I was horrified by it. I’ve known about the Salvaticis and what they’re cap
able of for quite some time. I never wanted to be part of that. I even left him because of it. But...” A dreamy look filled her eyes as she stared across the water. “I eventually came back.”
“Why?”
“Because life without him no longer made sense.” When I only stared at her in disbelief, she met my gaze with a gentle smile. “I didn’t know what love was before Marco. I didn’t know how it changes your priorities and the way you see the world. I just knew that he was not what they were, and I was not the person I was supposed to be without him.”
My heart picked up speed as I held her gaze, and deep down, I recognized the same feelings inside me. I was just afraid to face them head-on, because...what if I made the wrong choice?
“Marco is trying to instill change, but change in a House as old as the Salvaticis’ takes time. And until he’s elected as a Knight, he’ll have no formal say in the way his House is run. It’s not easy to sit back and watch the ancient rules and rites carried out, but he stays because he has hope he can make things better in the long run. And I stay with him because I can’t fault him for that. This is not the life I planned for, but it’s the life I have. And it’s the one I’m meant for.”
My mind drifted to Luc telling me he’d been planning to make changes at Covet before I’d distracted him in New York. Then to our conversation this morning and hearing him say he’d learned long ago not to want things, because wanting invariably made everything turn to shit.
I knew his life had been hard. I knew it hadn’t turned out in any of the ways he’d probably wanted. I also knew he had a good heart and that he didn’t view women as property as so many of the men in his house did. But I hated what his House stood for. I hated the things they made him participate in. And I didn’t know how to get past that hatred and disgust and accept it all the way Felicity obviously had.
“How...?” I pursed my lips, not sure if I should ask, unable to sit back and ignore the obvious. “How do you deal with it, then? When he has to leave like this for House business and you don’t know what’s going to happen?”