Page 29 of Dominance

And the twins never wanted anything else. Me?

Whatever I wanted has never mattered. And I’ve accepted that.

“He’s gonna die for this,” Ciro says softly, his lip quivering slightly.

“We’ll make him pay. In due time.”

Ero’s silence is expected, but I know him. The pressure, the hatred, and the absolute cold coming off him is palpable.

“Why would he fuckling do this, Adri?”

“I’ve asked myself that over and over and over again. He could have just moved. Taken the house. He lived here too, for years. I think he just wanted to hurt us. See if we’d react. See if we would lose our shit.”

“And what does it say that you didn’t?” I can see it in his eyes, contemplating violence, even now.

“It says that we are playing a long game. Just like him. Which is why I can’t let my guard down. He wanted us to lash out, to make our move. Now that we haven’t, it gets complicated.” I lead the way through the broken gates and onto the grounds.

“Where are we going?” Ciro asks, following me through the rubble.

“I need to show you something.”

We make our way around the property, sneaking in through one of the crumbling sidewalls of a building and making our way around to the backyard, through the remains of the garden. It feels like so recently that we were all just here, that I watched Isabella meet Angelica and Gigi, her long lost sister-in-law and niece. It sends my thoughts to all three of them, and my brother, back in Italy.

I wish I was there, at the lodge in the mountains with them.

We reach the charred remains of the gazebo and I stop, crouching to sweep away some debris.

“What the fuck are we doing back here? You feeling nostalgic?”

“Yeah, something like that,” I say, reaching under what’s left of the bench and pulling a lever. A loud, metallic clunk shakes the floorboards, right before a door pops open in the center.

“Whoa, secret bunker?” Ciro’s smile returns, that childlike wonder he’s never managed to leave behind.

“Secret bunker.” I nod.

Climbing down the ladder, I thump the button to turn on the lights and the backup generators buried deep under the foundation of the Diamante Estate. It’s a secret that Uncle Gio shared with us years ago, and one that Alessandro and I kept, and added to when we could.

“No fucking way we had a panic shelter down here our entire lives and none of us knew about it.”

“Some of us knew about it,” Ero mumbles and I flash him a look.

“What? You and Aless weren’t that careful.”

Meaning that Ero’s unnatural instincts told him we were up to something and he followed us. And when Ero doesn’t want to be seen, he’s a fucking ghost.

“Well, we thought we kept it a secret. Alessandro and I refurbished it. Added to it when we fumigated the property to cover the construction.”

“Awesome!” Ciro marvels, stepping off the ladder and looking around at the modern, sleek lighting running along the top of the walls. “Classic Diamante legacy shit right here. This is the kind of under-the-radar movie shit that we always dreamed up as kids!’

“You should have seen it before. Looked like something out of a World War II movie.” I smile, waving for them to take a look around. The conference room centers the hallways, leading to various features. Sleeping quarters, armory, storage.

I continue talking as I head toward the main room.

“It’s actually a throwback to when the original mansion was here in the thirties. Our great-great-grandfather built it to hide out during the prohibition. Crazy, huh?”

“For once, your nerdy historical heritage mob shit is, in fact, interesting, Adri.” Ciro huffs, genuinely impressed.

“I’ll have to show you what we found back then. There are bottles in there from a hundred years ago that I know you’ll want to try.”

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