Page 42 of Unrelenting
“Olivia!” I warn her. With that tone, she’s going to push Piotr too far. She won’t like the consequences.
“Lorenzo,” she whines. “He can’t talk to me like that.”
Since I didn’t catch what Piotr said to her, I can’t comment.
“Just behave,” I snap, sick of the circus that surrounds my cousins.
Huffing loudly, Olivia gets up and goes to the liquor cabinet. She opens a bottle of eighteen-year-old Scotch. I don’t care if she drinks the house dry, but Piotr objects.
“You sure you should be drinking that?” It’s a rebuke rather than a question.
“Why not?” Olivia demands. “I’ve had a shock.”
“Then make some sweet tea,” I suggest. “And get a fucking grip. It’s not like you’ve never seen violence before.”
Olivia is a Mafia princess, part of the Volante family. Violence follows us all like a foul smell. Even our women are not entirely safe from it.
As a kid, she was almost kidnapped. Her bodyguard had acid thrown in his face. It was traumatising for Olivia and I know that’s not the only brutality she’s witnessed.
“What violence have you seen?” Piotr asks.
That sets Olivia off. She storms from the room, and Piotr goes after her, giving me some much-needed peace.
I close my eyes again and think about Lucia. I can’t wait to see her again, but I need to wait until the thudding in my head stops. She doesn’t need to see me in this state.
The blissful silence doesn’t last long. I’ve barely begun to relax when the front door slams.
“Giulia!” Matteo bellows.
He storms into the room with Damiano close behind.
“Where is she?” Matteo demands. He spins around as Olivia rushes into the room. “Where’s Giulia?”
Olivia looks like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Where is my wife, Livvy?” Matteo takes a step toward her and Piotr moves to stand between them.
Like me, he can tell how close to the edge my cousin is right now.
Normally, I’d say he poses no threat to his sister, but right now Matteo is buzzing with adrenaline after torturing our enemies and he’s looking for an outlet.
Fucking his wife would calm him but since he can’t do that, release may come through lashing out.
I silently observe as they continue arguing. When Matteo lunges for Piotr, who’s trying to justify sending Giulia away, I sit up.
My intervention isn’t needed. Damiano grabs Matteo and hauls him out of the room. It’s pretty badass, considering he can only use one arm at the moment.
“Well, that was fun,” I drawl.
“Asshole!” Olivia snaps at me. “That was horrible. Poor Matteo.”
“Oh, it’spoorMatteonow?” I arch an eyebrow as I mimic her tone. “You weren’t so concerned for him when you were helping his bride to flee from their wedding night. I thought you didn’t even like the girl.”
“She’s not all bad,” Olivia retorts. “And she was really upset about what happened.”
“You don’t think being with the man who loves her would have helped her get over it?” I ask.
To her credit, Olivia looks a little sheepish. Perhaps she realizes she fucked up.
