King of Stars (The Next Generation #2)

14. Matteo

Chapter 14

Matteo

I t had been a week since Stella opened her eyes, and even though she still had a rough road ahead, the doctors gave her a promising prognosis.

At first, I thought they were just wary of me, afraid of what I’d do if they gave me anything but good news. Then mamma reminded me that Uncle Tito had appointed these doctors in his retirement, and he wouldn’t have given us anyone who couldn’t deal with delivering bad news to the Fausti family, especially when it came to health. They might be more delicate about it, but they weren’t scared.

Her main doctor, Dr. Casella, was fierce. She’d given me a stern look while holding Stella’s hand when one of her team said Stella would need surgery. She read the violence in my eyes at this news. Stella seemed to like her, though, and that was all that was important to me. Even though it had only been a week, I knew Stella somehow. I knew her in a way that was indescribable, impossible to put into words. This theory was put to the test because Stella hadn’t spoken a word since she opened her eyes.

The doctors were stumped, but mamma said when she was ready, she’d talk. She’d been through hell and back, and mamma could feel her trepidation, how overwhelmed she was. However, whenever I stood to stretch or went to use the bathroom, she snatched my hand, like I was her anchor in this world. I had to constantly remind her that I would never leave her. Not on purpose. Her eyes bore into mine when I said these words. She always seemed to be searching for a lie, but she couldn’t find one.

She’d never find one. Not with me. Those sacred words I’d spoken to her the night in Sub Rosa would die with me.

La mia parola è buona come il mio sangue.

My word is as good as my blood.

My blood was hers, and it would always run true through my heart. And looking at this woman, like I was looking at her for the first time, the millionth time, my heart belonged to her.

In so many ways, this made my heart hit a huge fucking dip. She wanted me close. She refused to let my hand go, and I refused to let her go. She needed to be as close to me as skin, and I needed her there. It seemed like we were both coming to terms with whatever this was between us. How powerful it was. How it would forever link us together. I couldn’t survive without her. And fuck me, the way she’d just gaze into my eyes. It brought me to places I’d never been before. Her light lit up my darkness, all the places no one else was ever allowed to go.

I had no fucking clue how I was going to survive this. The intensity of her. My heart was already turned to mush. I’d do anything she ever asked me to do.

I was where most of the men in my family had dared to go before—in love. The wildest lands a man like me could venture onto.

I’d known it the moment my eyes locked on her that night in Sub Rosa. That moment would always stand out to me as a fire. Something that would always burn bright and out of control in my memories. But the feeling paled in comparison to where I sat. Being this close to her. Knowing she was next to me and her hand was in mine. It brought my life to…life. And for the first time in my life, I could understand why Brando Fausti refused to live without Scarlett Rose Fausti.

What was the point if we weren’t together?

I wasn’t understating it when I said she needed to be underneath my skin. I had to carry her everywhere, or a vital part of me would be missing. A part I refused to live without. As if she could read my mind, her hand squeezed mine while her eyes were closed. I lifted her fingers to my mouth and set my lips over them, breathing her in. She sighed, low and soft. I trembled from the sweet sound of it, from the feel of her cool breath washing over my overheated skin. My temperature always ran hot. Mamma said I was just like my father in that way—in so many ways. Never more so than in this moment. I got him. Truly got him. His love for mamma knew no bounds. I found myself of the same heart.

A light knock came at the door. Mamma peeked her head in. Stella looked at her and gave a small smile. I motioned for her to come in. She quietly shut the door behind her, and I stood for her to take my seat.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, rubbing a delicate hand down my arm. “I’m fine on my feet right now. Everything okay?” She knew Stella wasn’t ready to talk, so she asked me while looking at her.

I nodded. “All’s good here.”

“ Bene, ” she said, still whispering. “Saverio is out in the hall. If Stella doesn’t mind, he’d like to talk to you.”

Stella’s eyes widened for a second, and then she seemed to force herself to relax. I fucking hated to leave her, but we had unfinished business to discuss. I made my way around the bed and took her hand.

“I’ll be right out in the hall. I need to talk to my sister’s husband.”

Mia had been in to see Stella, and so had mamma and Magpie, but we didn’t want to overwhelm her with more people. As soon as she was out of this place, there would be plenty of introductions, and an entirely new world to get used to.

Mamma took my seat and Stella’s other hand. When Stella looked at her, mamma nodded and smiled, trying to encourage her. It took a second, but Stella finally nodded.

I took a deep breath and stepped outside. Saverio was waiting with his back against the wall, arms crossed. He scanned me from head to toe and shook his head. “You look like you belong here too.”

“I do.”

He nodded and said in Italian, “Love makes a mirror out of you, doesn’t it? You reflect whatever she’s feeling.”

“Yeah,” I said, my voice gruff.

He squeezed my shoulder. “I am happy for you, my brother. She is yours.”

I squeezed his shoulder back. “You helped me save her. You did things that I would have forced myself to do, but I did not have to. For that, I owe you.”

“You owe me nothing. You are one of my brothers. My blood.” He hit his heart.

We squeezed hands at the same time and then broke apart.

“I will not waste your time,” he continued in Italian. “I will make this brief. Régine’s mansion has been on lockdown since the night we went in and brought Stella home. Lev is ready to move on, says there isn’t a reason to keep his men there. Nonno agrees, unless you have use for it. Lev is waiting for my word to call his men. However. You should see a few things before we move on.”

It took me a second to make the decision. If Saverio thought I should see this place, I knew I needed to. “A second,” I said.

Stella was still holding mamma’s hand. The scene warmed my heart. I looked at mamma and she seemed to know what I was about to do. She didn’t nod or shake her head. This was up to me. Mamma might have been able to feel things most people didn’t, but that didn’t stop her, most of the time, from allowing us to make our own mistakes. If it was something that would get us killed, then yeah, she’d step in. But it wasn’t unlike what any parent would do.

“Magpie is on her way,” mamma said, her voice softer than usual. “We can stay with Stella. If that’s all right with Stella?” She looked over at her.

Stella looked at me, the set of her eyes narrowed, almost out of suspicion.

“I have some business,” I said as gently as I could. “It won’t take too long.”

“Trust me,” mamma said to Stella, a playful tone to her voice. “Magpie will keep you entertained.”

I gave mamma a look. Magpie would keep Stella entertained, but who the fuck, besides mamma and Magpie, knew how Magpie would do it. She might hide inside of a cake and jump out of it as a surprise. Mamma wiggled her eyebrows and grinned at me. Mamma had told me before that she felt Stella would connect with Magpie more than anyone else besides me. Something about Magpie’s spirit would remind Stella of her mamma, she had told me.

Mamma gracefully stood from her chair, like a swan, and moved toward me. She gave me a peck on the cheek before she left the room, giving us some privacy.

Sitting on the side of Stella’s bed, I sighed. “I won’t ever leave you and not come back, Stella.” I picked up her hand, bringing it to my mouth. I turned it over and spoke to her pulse. “As long as life allows it, I’ll always come back to you. I vow this to you.”

“How long?” she barely whispered. It was more of a rasp.

I blinked at her a few times, containing my excitement over her talking to me. The sound of her sweet voice made my heart almost burst in my chest. I smiled at her, and this time, she was the one who blinked.

“A few hours.”

She looked away from me, and I used my bent pointer finger to turn her face back to mine. Inching as slowly as I could, keeping eye contact, I pressed my lips to hers. My stomach filled up with heat. My veins rushed with it. And the down shirt I was wearing felt like it had shrunk, the shoulders suddenly too tight. Her lips were soft, and her mouth tasted like sweet peppermint candy.

It was a chaste kiss, our lips barely touching, but it sent goosebumps spreading on my arms. She shivered. When we separated, her eyes were closed, and I watched her until she opened them.

“You are so beautiful, Stella,” I whispered.

She turned her face away from mine. “I look like a science project,” she whispered back.

Using my pointer finger again, I turned her face back to mine. I waited until she looked at me. “Those words are a lie, and I don’t do lies. You are beautiful. The most beautiful woman to me .” I repeated the same words but in Italian, pointing to my chest.

She sighed. “I don’t know why, Matteo Fausti, but I believe you mean what you say. I do.”

“ Bene ,” I whispered. I stood, then leaned down and kissed her forehead before I left the room, my heart staggering behind me.

It was the first time I’d seen my brothers since that night. Again, we didn’t want to overwhelm Stella with our family. It was large, and so was all the men. So, when I entered the car and noticed my brothers in the backseat, we all shook hands and pulled each other in the best we could. Saverio drove us to the private airport. After Stella had been stabilized, she’d been airlifted to a hospital in Tuscany.

We talked about that night some on the short plane ride. It seemed like we all had made enemies. The conversation continued after we landed in Paris and were in route to the French chateau. Marciano punched the back of my seat some.

“You’re braver than I could ever imagine, Teo.”

“We all went in that night,” I said.

“No, not because of the rescue mission. Because you left Stella behind with mamma and Magpie. You know how those two can be together.”

My face pinched, almost a flinch, and everyone laughed. It felt like the first time everyone felt free enough to. Stella was with us, and it was us against the world. We’d take it on for her, just like we did that night we waged war on Sub Rosa. A surge of pride swelled in my chest. I thanked my brothers, including Saverio, for having my back that night.

They all nodded, probably too choked up to speak. The ride was quiet the rest of the way, but we all seemed to sit up straighter when we came to the gates of the grand French chateau. The land seemed to go on for miles with manicured lawns and even a helicopter landing.

“Papà has been here before with mamma.” Mariano sat up some, fixing his suit. “When he came back for her after his stint in the Coast Guard, and when she moved to Paris to dance, she was invited to a party here.”

“And since mamma was invited,” Marciano said, “so was papà.”

“ Naturalmente ,” I said.

Maestro repeated naturally in sign language. Most of the time mamma and papà kept him out of the action, since he was much younger than us, but sometimes he’d come along. If he wanted to go, papà never kept him from going. He wanted Maestro to be included, and not feel like he was outside of our bond because he was younger.

“This time, though,” Saverio said, nodding to one of Lev’s men who had a gun strapped across his chest as he allowed us entry into the gates. “The place is ours.”

I tried to see this place through Stella’s eyes. A lavish French mansion on the outside, but inside, it was nothing but a prison to her. I hadn’t asked her what her time was like with the Nemours yet. I wanted to give her some time to breathe and recover. But soon, I wanted to know all her nightmares. What she’d been through. Who the fuck had hacked her hair off. It stood up in some places, and in others she had close to bald spots. Even though none of us knew all she’d been through, it couldn’t have been good. No one, not one soul, had ever reported being treated well by them once their poisonous claws were locked inside. In the beginning, the Nemours made a lot of sparkling promises, but they were never kept.

“Fucking A,” Marciano said, punching the back of the seat a bit.

Motherfucker could never keep still unless he was sick. And when he was, he turned into a big fucking baby about it. The thought made me grin, and sensing that it was about him, he said, “ Qualsiasi .” Whatever.

“That’s a lazy response, Marci,” Mariano said, prodding him. “You should come up with something better. More elo quent.”

“Call me Marci one more time.”

“ Abbastanza ,” I said, knowing where this was going, and it was enough . My brothers wouldn’t touch each other out in public, but back home, inside the ring, they would come close to killing each other. Marciano loathed being called Marci. Mariano knew it. He was pushing Marciano’s buttons for some fucking reason. He’d been in a mood ever since the visit to the jewelers in Venice. Just like Zio Romeo.

“By the way,” I said, remembering, “what the fuck was up with Zio Romeo during our meeting with the pirate?”

“One Bertrand Moro.” Saverio put the car in park.

“He found a silver hair.” Marciano grinned. “He’s been in a testy mood ever since. He’s challenged Zio Dario to more fights in the boxing ring that I can count. He killed Moro. Said he did it to rid the world of vermin who bought and sold flesh.”

“That’s his story, and I know it’s true,” Mariano said. “However, he stuck a sword through the pirate’s heart and pinned him to the side of his boat. The silver hair has wounded him deeply, and the way he killed Moro proves that. He was channeling his own frustration and making a scene of it.”

“Nonno said it was well done,” Marciano said. “Almost poetic. Skewering him to his own boat that way and then taking it out to sea to see him off.”

“If Nonno approved, that’s all that counts.” I stepped out of the car.

Saverio stepped out at the same time as my two brothers. Maestro was the last out since he was all the way in the back. We all took a second to take in the grandeur of the place. It was a sprawling chateau with antique French touches. The porches looked over the meandering, perfect lawns.

Saverio stood next to me. “You ready for this?”

I looked him in the eye. “You’re preparing me for something.”

He nodded. “You’re not going to like what you see.”

Our eyes held until my grandfather’s car pulled up next to ours. He stepped out before my father and uncles. We all embraced before Lev came out of the chateau like it was his and he was inviting us inside. We all shook his hand before we followed him inside. It was like all mansions—full of priceless relics and expensive furniture. So many gold touches.

Stella’s face came to mind, and I stiffened. For all its richness, it might as well have been a dark cage she was stuck in.

Lev showed us around to all the places he and his men had checked, and then he led me to a plain wooden door. He nodded to it.

“From what we can tell, this is where Stella lived,” he said.

Something touched my hand, and I looked down. A big black wolf was sniffing me. Wolf, Evelina’s man, appeared on the other side of Lev, and he gave his wolf a command in Russian and, after a second, the wolf took his spot next to his master. I was trying to prepare myself for whatever I was going to find, but I knew time would change nothing. I opened the door and followed the dark steps down. It smelled musky, but underneath the stale air, there was an identifiable scent lingering. Woodsmoke.

I stopped when I came to the threshold of the space that Lev thought Stella lived in. It seemed like, once upon a time, it was a maid’s quarter. Or something close to it. It was subpar, with a bed made of straw and a draft I felt past the shield of my expensive coat. The only other furniture in the room, besides the medieval-looking bed, was a makeup vanity like the ones my mamma and sister used.

No words would come to me. All I could do was flex my fingers, ball them, flex them again. Repeat and repeat. The anger was too great in me. I couldn’t move past it. When Lev pointed to a gaping fireplace in the wall, I felt like my entire body had been engulfed in flames. The fireplace looked like a hungry demon ready to devour anyone who came too close.

Leaning down, I noticed odd shapes in the ash. I dug through the it, and that was when I found it. A form of the ring I’d slipped in the pocket of my coat. It had been melted and returned to the state of a hardened gob of gold. I rummaged through the ash some more and came up with a skeleton of a watch face. The watch Stella’s mamma must have sent her with. The one she used to touch to ping her mamma whenever she missed her. Another piece of metal, this one long with the shape of a flower on the end. Maybe a forget me not?

“Matteo,” Saverio said.

I stared at the ashes for a second before I stood and faced him. He held my coat—the one I’d given to Stella the first night I saw her—in his hands.

“In a closet,” he said. “Seems like one of the sisters had it.”

Maybe I nodded. Maybe I didn’t. I pulled out my phone and called mamma. She answered on the second ring.

“Put Stella on the phone for me,” I said.

“I’m downstairs getting Magpie coffee,” she said. “I’ll be back up in a few minutes.”

I hung up and called my grandmother. After she answered, I asked her to put Stella on the phone for me.

“Sure thing, handsome,” she said to me. “For you, Stella Sparkly,” she said with a girlish giggle. “My too-handsome grandson would like to talk to you.” I heard the phone exchanging hands, and then a meek, “Hello.”

“Tell me, does anything in the chateau mean anything to you.”

Silence on her end long enough that I was about to call her name. Then a deep breath, and she whispered, “Yes. The vanity and your coat, but I don’t know what she did with the coat.”

“They’re yours,” I said.

“Matteo?”

“Yeah, baby.”

Silence again, until I cleared my throat.

“How much longer?” She sounded anxious.

“Not much longer.” I took a breath. “How’s Magpie?”

“Okay,” she said, but the tone of her voice had changed. It was lighter, like maybe she wanted to say something else, like…eccentric or wild. But she didn’t. One day she would. The chains the Nemours had cuffed her with would unlock, and she would laugh for me.

Hanging up, I felt the distance between us like it was a tangible thing. Something that couldn’t be reeled in fast enough, but this had to be done. When I turned, about to grab the vanity myself, the wall behind me stopped me cold. A line of blood had frozen to it.

I came close to snapping the finger off the hand that had reached out to touch my shoulder. My grandfather. His eyes were quick, and they had already spotted what I had. It had to be my blood, the blood that belonged to mine. A lot of holes were still gaping in this fucking cage, but this one seemed to fill itself in for me. They had burned her things and had rammed her head into the wall. It explained the gash Saverio had to stitch up. The one that had given her a concussion.

“I’m taking the coat and the vanity,” I said to the men around me. “That’s it. And after that, burn this place to the fucking ground.”

My grandfather squeezed my shoulder and said good in Italian. Then my father helped me carry the vanity out before we torched the motherfucker.