Many men nodded in agreement; others looked like they had shit their pants. I didn’t give a fuck. “This meeting is over.”

I waved toward my uncle’s men then pointed at his remaining son, who didn’t look particularly sad about his father’s demise. “Take his corpse back home with you. I hope you won’t share your brother’s and father’s fate one day.”

I turned, fucking done with this meeting. Matteo was close behind me as I stalked out of the power plant and toward my Aston Martin.

Matteo stepped in front of me before I could get behind the wheel. “I think I should drive. You aren’t quite sane right now.”

I shoved the keys at him. “You think?” I muttered.

He headed back to the trunk, returned a moment later and held out a clean white shirt. “Perhaps you should change. I don’t want to have to explain this to the police if they catch us. Not all of them are on our payroll, remember?”

I pulled off my shirt and wiped my face and hands clean with it, but the pink tinge remained. Romero came out after us and I handed him the shirt. “Can you burn this?”

He nodded, eyes worried as he took my shirt. I didn’t need their fucking worry. I was fine.

I got into the car and Matteo got behind the wheel. We drove in silence but he kept looking my way. “You okay?”

I scowled. “I’ve killed so many people. You think I still care?”

“The last time you crushed a throat, you were a bit unhinged afterwards. You’ve been on edge anyway considering everything that’s been going on.”

On edge was a strange way to put it. Ever since war had broken out, the voices in the Famiglia that wanted me gone had grown louder. They were still a small minority but it made my life difficult. Perhaps tonight had silenced a few enemies, or perhaps I’d earned myself new ones. It was difficult to say yet. I’d have to replace my uncles with more trustworthy, younger Underbosses. I had tolerated them for long enough. It was time for them to retire before I had to kill another one.

“Back to our wives? Or do you need additional time to cool off?” Matteo asked.

“I don’t need time to cool off. I’m fine. All I want is to have Aria’s naked body beneath me.”

Matteo slanted me another look. I hardly ever mentioned sex with Aria. I hated to share even that tiny bit of Aria with anyone. We spent the rest of the drive in silence. Usually my pulse slowed quickly after the kill, but this time it didn’t. When we pulled up in the driveway of the mansion, I was still wired. Romero arrived shortly after and together we entered our home. It was quiet as we moved into the living room. The women had put up the remaining Christmas decorations. The Christmas tree glowed in red and silver. I needed a peaceful Christmas, couldn’t wait for a few days of quiet with my true family.

My mobile beeped, announcing an email. I took it out of my back pocket. It was from a journalist contact and the subject line read “Urgent” followed by about a dozen exclamation marks. I paused and clicked on the email.

I got this from a colleague in Chicago and stopped it from making the rounds or worse, headline.

I clicked on the three attached photos.

chapter 17

MATTEO

I had always suspected there was a point for both Luca and me when the darkness in us would rise too high, so high it would spill over and drown out all the light, all the good that remained. I feared this was the moment for Luca.

I stopped Romero from moving closer to Luca with a hand against his chest. Romero frowned, but then he looked at Luca and tensed. I, too, was frozen with apprehension.

Luca and I had spent all our lives together, had gone through the bad and the worse, had killed and suffered, had laughed and fought. I had never been truly wary of my brother. Not when he’d crushed our cousin’s throat, not when he’d threatened me for talking shit about Aria, but until now I’d never seen that look on his face.

I wasn’t sure what had him looking that way, but I knew only one thing that had the power to bring him to his knees, only one thing that could destroy Luca, that could make him snap once and for all. It was the one person I’d thought would stop him from snapping in the first place.

“Luca?” I asked carefully.

He stared down at a photo on his screen. I moved closer and what I saw made the blood drain from my face. It was a photo of Aria holding hands with Dante. It took me a moment to comprehend what I was seeing. It didn’t even make sense. Romero, too, threw a glance at the photo then frowned.

Gianna, of course, chose that moment to saunter into the living room in nothing but a nightgown, but stopped when she saw us. Her eyes darted from me to Luca and the smile slipped off her face.

“Where’s Aria?” I asked her sharply.

“Don’t take that tone with me,” she muttered, her eyes darting to Luca once more, who still hadn’t moved a muscle and who was still staring down at his phone, but I knew he was listening.

“Gianna, where the fuck is Aria? This is serious,” I snarled.

Lily appeared behind her, but Romero shook his head and gestured at her not to come closer. “Where?” he asked her.

“I don’t know,” she said quietly, but it was a lie. Romero knew it. I knew it. Luca knew it.

“Is she in Chicago?” I asked.

Gianna and Lily exchanged a glance but remained silent.

“What’s going on here?” Gianna asked.

And Luca raised his eyes from the phone.

“Fuck,” I muttered because that look in his eyes…it scared me shitless.

“Lily,” Romero began, but he didn’t get to finish whatever warning he’d wanted to voice.

“Did you know about this?” Luca asked in a voice I’d never heard from him. Low, dark, on the verge of breaking. He turned his phone so Gianna and Lily saw the photo of Aria holding hands with Dante, then he clicked to the next photo showing Dante with his hands on Aria’s shoulder, his mouth at her ear in an intimate gesture. And the next, the worst: Aria in a car with Dante and he was leaning over her, his back to the camera, hiding most of her body from view. You couldn’t see their faces, but they were close and his arm reached between her legs.

Lily sucked in a breath, and somehow it was the last straw. Luca roared and flung the phone away. It shattered against the wall. Next he gripped the Christmas tree and threw it to the ground. I grabbed Gianna’s arm and shoved her toward the entrance door. “Leave! Go to the car and wait for me.”

Gianna refused to leave, unlike Lily, who had allowed Romero to lead her outside. “Luca, stop being an idiot. Aria would never cheat on you, you stupid asshole!” Gianna shouted.

Luca had pulled a knife and was staring down at the blade, his chest and shoulders heaving, his face a mask of acute agony. Never had I seen him like that. Not even when our father had tortured us with knives, lighters and needles.

I gripped Gianna’s arm and pulled her out of the house and toward my Porsche, not caring that she was barefoot. She tried to shake me off. “Stop it, Matteo. He’s getting it wrong!” she shrieked.

I didn’t listen. I needed to get her to safety and then return to Luca and try to keep him from falling apart in a scary serial killer kind of way. I pushed her into the car, then locked the doors. Gianna hammered against the windows.