Page 9 of The Sicilian Heir
Something about him was just off, so I slowly reached for my butterfly knife. I would stab him first before I allowed him to hurt me. His eyes had a manic look to them, and he was on edge. I wouldn't provoke him, but I damn sure would defend myself.
"I was told to be here," I whispered and hung my head just like at the Romano estate.
It didn't take me long to figure out what mannerisms to take on to make sure I wasn't hurt more than necessary.
"By whom?" he barked. His booming voice shook the china that was on display as he strode toward me and towered over me.
I hunched my shoulders forward as if cowed by his size. I wasn't. I just wanted him to think that. "A servant woman told me she was sent to escort me down here." I peeked up at him and noticed he was tensing up.
He reached his hand toward me and I took my chance. I lunged at him and held my knife to his jugular. I panted from the exertion but refused to move an inch. I looked up into his eyes, so he knew I was serious and not to be fucked with. What I saw there chilled my down to my core. His eyes held desire. I could feel him growing hard against my belly. I held back the sickness inside me and contemplated my options. We were at a standstill. I wasn't going to move even if I threw up on him. Not until he did.
"What the fuck is going on in here?" Vito snapped from the doorway.
We had been staring at each other for so long that neither of us had heard him arrive.
"Back away, Luciano," Vito growled and pulled me back against his body, away from his brother.
Luciano grinned and danced backward, his eyes alight with mischief and mirth. "She's a feisty one,fratello,why don't you give her to me?"
I shook with disgust. "I'd rather kill myself first." I tilted my head and then smiled sweetly. "Or I could kill you first."
There was a pause of silence and then Luciano threw his head back and laughed. It was a crazy sounding laugh that made me question his sanity. "Oh, the games we could play, little one."
I shivered from the insinuation. He was clearly insane, and I shouldn't want to poke him. I held my ground and stared up into his eyes with no fear. He was scary, but I would never let him know it.
"Yes, I accept her as yours." Luciano turned his back on us and left the dining room.
I was confused. What did he mean by that? I wasn't Vito's.
"Well, let's eat, little lotus." Vito chuckled in my ear and I grew aware that his firm body was pressed against me.
I pushed away from him and sat down. The food was served almost as if the servants had been waiting for Luciano to leave. Or the situation to calm down. If so, they were smart. Smarter than I, who decided to tango with someone who literally gave off serial killer vibes.
I shuddered thinking about being at Luciano's mercy. Not if I could help it. I dug into my food, putting the incident out of my mind for the time being.
Chapter 6
Vito
The weeks flew by, and before I knew it, we had to travel for the funerals. The first funeral we were going to was back in New York. Nicolo Falcone had lost his mother to stab wounds at the reception. A few of the assailants dragged her body away from the main room and defiled her. Not only did they hack her up and spit on her, but they also used her. I hoped she was long dead before they had done anything to her. I shuddered, just thinking about the trauma she would have felt if she were awake and alive while they assaulted her.
It brought me back to the chilling time when I rescued Rose and Eunji. When I first laid eyes on Eunji, she was a shell of herself. Her eyes were haunted. She had seen some shit. She was meek and quiet. She didn't question anyone or anything. It took months for her true self to emerge. I hungrily lapped up any of her real self.
Nicolo had been in a rough state. Rosalina told me that she was pregnant, but the stress of what happened at their reception and the fallout wasn't helping the pregnancy at all. I felt like a snarling bear. My baby sister was having trouble and I couldn't be there for her. I wished I had other sisters because they would be able to help Rose through this time. Luckily, I had Eunji. She was helping Rose and trying to keep as much stress off my sister as she could. It wasn't easy.
Don Falcone was out of commission. His body collapsed after what happened to his wife. He'd been holed up in the compound this entire time, not taking any visitors. It was why arranging the funerals took so long.
Not only were the leaders dead, my father included, but there were many soldiers who had been at the hotel who were killed before the massacre at the reception. I'm only one person; I can't attend to every funeral. I had my brothers pick up the slack of arrangements, except Luciano, who had been trying to track down the bastards who did this.
"Are you ready for this, little lotus?" I was holding Eunji's hand on the flight.
She was going to have a hard time being at the Falcone compound because it was bound to bring some terrible memories up. She shook her head and squeezed my hand. I puffed my chest in pride. Eunji might be sassy and prickly, but these past few weeks I'd like to believe we had grown closer.
"Yeah, I know it's going to be hard on Rose so I'm happy that I can be there for her." Eunji let her head fall back with a sigh.
I knew she had been stressed as well, but she played it off a lot more casually than the rest of us. Maybe that was because she wasn't mafia. Then, again, she had a huge dog in this fight so I knew she was biding her time until she could exact revenge for the wrongs done to her.
"So, I know that we have been skirting around this issue for weeks, but I need to know what happened the night of the massacre? Did that bastard say anything to you? Did he do anything else?" I had been putting this off because I didn't want to trigger my little lotus, but with the funerals all done, I could no longer wait. We needed the information. Luciano had been chomping at the bit to get to Eunji because she was the only person left who hadn't been interrogated.
