Vengeful Mafia Prince (Vicious Heirs #2)

Chapter Twelve—Giovanni

"I can't believe you've been so fucking stupid."

Marcus spits the words at me, and I bite back the urge to shoot him down. I'm not used to being spoken to like this, not by anyone, not even my family. But I know damn well that I've screwed up here, maybe beyond the point I can return from.

It's been three days since Elena found out the truth about me—or, at least, who I really am. I've called in sick from work to avoid her and to avoid the payback for what's going to come my way now they know who I really am and what I'm really planning.

But in that time, I haven't heard from anyone at the office at all. Almost as though... almost as though they believe me. And almost as though Elena hasn't told everyone what I've done.

Which is ridiculous. At the end of the day, she's loyal to her family, and nothing is going to change that. No matter how much I might like to think I had her wrapped around my little finger, she walked away from me the other night.

I can still feel the sharp pang of that memory driving into me, like a stake through my heart. Fucking her again, it had been a mess. But it had been one last chance to show her that I really meant it when I said that I wanted her, that the desire I felt for her was far from an act.

I want her.

Some deep, profound part of me wants her, and no matter how much I try to hide from it, I don't think it's going to go away that easily.

"I know," I reply. "And I'm sorry. I thought I could handle myself at the Carter business, but..."

"But instead, you got involved with that bitch Elena," Valentina spits at me. I bristle. I know she's got every right to talk about the family who killed our parents like that, but still, I hate hearing her despise Elena so completely.

I have, of course, had to come clean about the truth of our... relationship? Is that what it is, is that what I would call it? That would suggest the way I felt about her was real, after all. I've told them that she got a little too interested in me after the two of us grew closer, and it was that which led her to break my cover. It's not entirely a lie.

"Nothing's come of it yet," I point out. "So it might just blow over."

"You really think she's not going to tell her father?" Marcus demands. "You're really that stupid?"

I fire him a look. "I was doing what I could to take down the people who—"

"You don't think we've all wanted to do that at some point or another?" Valentina replies, her voice high with anger. "You don't think we've all thought about how we would make it happen, what we would do, how we would make them pay?"

"Then why haven't you—"

"Because we need to stay alive, Gio," Valentina shoots back. "We need to stay alive to take care of their legacy. It's what they would have wanted for us, and you know that. This is the last piece of them we have left, the business, and you want to go throwing it away because you can't let go of..." She shakes her head.

I can see the tears filling her eyes, but she quickly swipes them away before we can get a good look at them.

"She's saying that we haven't been stupid enough to get in trouble," Marcus tells me, his voice low. "And you went and put yourself in the middle of a damn warzone, and now, your cover's blown. How exactly are you going to deal with that?"

I fall silent. I don't have an answer for that part, not yet. I have no clue what I'm supposed to do next, no idea how I'm going to find a way through this mess without getting my ass handed to me. When they find out who I really am, when Elena spills the truth, it's all over for me—they're going to take it as an act of aggression, and they're going to snuff me and my family out.

"Are you going back to work? Or to college?" Valentina demands.

I shrug. "I honestly don't know at this point," I confess. "I... I don't know what I should do."

"And you should have gone into all of this with a plan for how everything was going to go," Marcus cuts in. "You should have been ready for anything that came your way, but instead..." He waves his hand at me dismissively and takes a long drink of his vodka on the rocks.

I don't think I've ever seen him so freaked, and it worries me. Normally, Marcus is careful and calm in everything he does, but I've thrown him off his game enough that he's starting to worry.

And that's making me worry, too.

"You haven't been in touch with her since the day she told you what she knew, have you?" Valentina asks. I hesitate for a moment before I answer, but that's all she needs to see through the lies I'm trying to spin. "Holy hell, Gio, you have to be fucking kidding me!" she exclaims. "You thought— you thought it was a good idea to see her again?"

"It wasn't like that," I protest. "She was the one who came to me—"

"So she knows where you live in the city now, too?" she adds, her eyes widening. "Jesus. What doesn't she know about us?"

I swallow hard. "I had to give her some things that were real," I mutter. "I had to— to make the story stick. It's not like she knows about this place. Or anything about the real me, either."

"You don't even believe that," Valentina mutters.

She's right. I've done all I can to keep the truth from her, but parts of it have come leaking through, anyway. There's no way I can deny the desire I feel for her, the want, and that's more than just about the way she looks.

"I'm going to make it right," I assure them both.

Marcus snorts. "You need to keep your fucking head down," he snarls at me. "Stay out of trouble. If that's even possible for you."

He gets to his feet and stalks out, leaving my sister and I alone together. I look over at her, but she's staring at a picture of Mom and Dad on the table next to the couch.

I try not to look at it too hard, if I can. It's too painful a reminder of everything we've lost, a reminder of the family we had before all of this fell apart. She picks it up, gazing down at it for a long moment, and then, silently, she lifts her gaze to meet mine.

"I miss them so much, Gio."

"I miss them, too." I rise to my feet and put my arm around my sister's shoulders. She reaches out to touch the picture, as though she could reach in and pull the two of them out of it.

"I just... I can't lose you, too."

"What are you talking about?"

She turns to me, raising her eyebrows. "You really don't know?"

I sigh. She's got a point.

"I'm not going to let them... hurt me, Val," I promise her. "I can handle myself. You know that."

"It's not just them hurting you that I'm worried about."

"What?"

"It's..." She bites her lip. "I worry about losing you to another family," she admits. "I worry about your loyalties changing. And if I lost you that way, Gio, I don't know what the hell I would do because it feels as though you're the last connection I have to our old life right about now." She tries to laugh as she says the last part, but it comes out as more of a sigh.

"Hey," I murmur to her, shaking my head. "That's never going to happen. You hear me? My first priority is this family. And always has been this family. That's why I'm doing all this in the first place."

She eyes me for a long moment, clearly not sure if she's buying what I'm telling her. But then, finally, she nods.

"I know, Giovanni."

She puts the picture back and glances at the stairs.

"I'm going to get some rest," she tells me. "You will soon, won't you? Here, not at your apartment?"

"Of course."

Even though there's a part of me that wants to go back to my apartment in the city, just to see if she's there, Valentina needs me tonight. She needs some small piece of normalcy to convince her that at least some things are going to stay the same around here.

Even though, I know, deep down, that nothing will be the same again.