“Carmela, come here.” Gian pulled my cold and trembling body into his arms, holding me close for a few beats before releasing me. My vision was fuzzy around the edges and my stomach swirled with nausea. I had to be in shock. “Don’t do this to yourself. Rocco loved you, don’t ever doubt that. And there’s nothing you can do to change the past. Rocco and Marco are dead, so we’ll probably never know the truth. Let it go. Let Rocco go. Please.”
He was right. It was easier said than done, though. Grimacing, I swatted away the salty tears burning my cheeks. “So I can marry Nico and live happily ever after?”
He grasped my chin with enough force to get my attention. “I thought you liked Nico. I thought you wanted to marry him.”
“Oh please, you’re my brother. Don’t you know me at all?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“When we’re together, I don’t feel anything for him. Just a lot of nothing. Maybe I’m getting cold feet about the whole thing and looking for reasons not to marry him. I mean…you and Mom like him, right? And Dad trusted him or he wouldn’t have put the whole thing in motion. Maybe I’m too fucked up to see a good thing even when it’s in front of my face.”
“Nico and I don’t always see eye to eye. He pissed me the fuck off before Evie and I got married. Lately he’s backed off, though, which probably has more to do with you than me.”
“That’s not exactly comforting.”
He squeezed my upper arms. “You don’t have to marry him. We can find a way out of this. I want you to be happy. You deserve to be happy after everything that’s happened to you.”
“But Mom—”
“Will get over it. Sure, she’ll be embarrassed and she might yell at you. Her anger will pass. You know how she is.”
“What do you think I should do?”
“I won’t force you down the aisle. Follow your heart.”
I nodded, staring absently at the family picture above the fireplace. I guess in a small way I was lucky my dad wasn’t around. He would force me to marry Nico without batting an eye. He was more old school than Gian. Be that as it may, Gian’s support might not help me.
“Doesn’t matter what you do if Uncle Dominick decides otherwise.”
His expression darkened, and his jaw tensed. “Yeah, but you have a better shot of changing his mind if I’m on your side. I’m sure we can come up with some dirt on Nico to make Dominick think twice.”
“Maybe. We can figure it out later. I’m starving.” I smiled, signaling the end of our conversation. “Did you guys already eat dinner?”
“No. We were waiting for you.”
“In that case, I’ll go find Mom and Evie, and let them know it’s safe to come back inside.”
When I pivoted to leave, he grabbed my hand. “I want to clarify one thing. I’ll support your decision to break things off with Nico, but all bets are off if I find out you’re hanging out with Konstantin Trincher.”
“What are you saying?”
“I want you to cut all ties with him. He hurt Evie. I won’t let him hurt you too when we both know things with him won’t end well. Can you do that?”
Apart from stiffening, I didn’t react. “It won’t be a problem,” I agreed, my voice thin like a frayed rope.
It was a flat out lie. I had no intention of kicking Kon out of my life. Last night’s attempt to get him out of my system had categorically failed. Only an hour had passed since I left his place, and I already missed him. Missed his touch, missed his cocky grin. It was too early in our non-relationship to miss him, which said a lot about how deep my feelings for him already ran. Honestly, I couldn’t remember feeling so much for anyone after such a short period.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Konstantin
“Carmela,” I whispered when she crossed the threshold of her bedroom. I’d been waiting here for over an hour. Dumbest fucking move I’d ever made considering Gian’s car was sitting in the driveway when I scaled the wall.
Her hand flew to her chest, and she stumbled back into the door. I turned on the television to mute our voices if her mom wandered down the hall.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She looked up at me, the flickering television highlighting one side of her face and the darkness of the room shadowing the other. “My brother and Evie are downstairs.”
“I watched them pull out of the driveway thirty seconds ago.”
“Why are you here?”
I didn’t know why I was here. No, that was a lie. My plan to fuck away my need for this woman last night backfired big time, making me crave her more than before I touched her. On some level, last night was the worst decision I’d ever made, and I’d made a lot of bad decisions in my life. However, that didn’t stop me from crawling back for more tonight.