Chapter 34 Unfinished Business
Cedric’s POV
“Please put that knife away,” Cedric said fearfully, his voice coming out rougher than he intended, still thick with drug-induced sleep.
Why couldn’t anyone in this place ever be fucking normal?! Cedric wondered. Was it too much to expect a ‘Hi Cedric, how are you, and how’s your arm feeling?’ instead of constant insults and accusations all the damn time?!
Gianni didn’t move. Just continued sitting there in the moonlight, the blade resting casually against his thigh like it was the most natural thing in the world. His shirt was partially unbuttoned, his hair slightly mussed, and there was darkness in his expression that Cedric didn’t understand.
“No,” Gianni said simply.
Cedric’s heart rate kicked up several notches. He pushed himself into a sitting position, trying to ignore how his injured arm protested the movement and how his head was still fuzzy from whatever had been in those pills.
“Okay, so we’re doing the scary mob boss with a weapon thing,” Cedric said, aiming for sarcasm but landing closer to nervous. “Cool. Fucking fantastic. Any particular reason for that?”
“My consigliere, Luca tells me you tried to escape,” Gianni said, his voice calm.
By now Cedric knew that Gianni always sounded deathly quiet before exploding with violence, so he swallowed, sweat breaking across his forehead.
“He says he came in this evening to check on you and found you standing at the window. Acting suspicious, like you’d just been caught doing something you shouldn’t.”
Cedric’s mind raced. He’d thought maybe Gianni had somehow found out about the book he’d thrown under the bed somewhere.
But the window? He’d been looking out the window this morning, sure, but he hadn’t opened it. Hadn’t even tried to open it. He’d been too busy being interrogated by Maria and then passing out from exhaustion.
“That’s bullshit,” Cedric said flatly. “I wasn’t trying to escape. I was just…”
“Just what?” Gianni leaned forward slightly, the knife catching more moonlight. “Planning your route through the forest or trying to figure out if you could survive the fall from this high up?”
Cedric’s voice rose despite his better judgment. “Your bastard guard is a bully and a fucking liar.”
“Luca cannot lie to me.”
“Well, apparently he can, because I didn’t do what he’s accusing me of. Okay?!”
Gianni’s expression didn’t change in the slightest, instead the knife lifted slightly, no longer resting on his thigh this time but held with purpose. “Even if that were true,” he said slowly, “then the fact that you were near an open window and looking out is concerning enough.”
“Concerning enough for what?” Cedric challenged, his eyes fixed on the blade. “Are you going to cut me up with a knife because of it? Because I stood near a window in a locked room in a house surrounded by armed guards in the middle of fucking nowhere?”
Gianni appeared to reconsider, his head tilting slightly as he studied Cedric. But ultimately, the knife stayed exactly where it was.
“You have one minute,” Gianni said quietly, “to make a case for yourself. Convince me that Luca is wrong, and you weren’t planning anything, that I shouldn’t demonstrate exactly what this knife can do to skin like your's.”
Cedric’s mouth went dry. His brain was still foggy from the medication, and he struggled to form a good defence.
The smart thing would be to grovel and apologise even though he hadn’t done anything wrong.
But instead, something else came out of his mouth.
“Why are you here with me,” Cedric asked, “when you should be spending the night with your wife?"
Gianni went completely still, every muscle in his body freezing like he’d been turned to stone. The knife remained lifted in the air between them, but Gianni’s grip on it had gone white-knuckled.
“What did you say?” His voice was barely above a whisper.
“Your betrothed,” Cedric repeated, watching Gianni’s face carefully. “The person you’re supposed to marry in a month. Is that ringing any bells?”
Slowly, Gianni lowered the knife to his lap. But he didn’t let go of it. “Who told you about that?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.” The word came out sharply. “It matters very much. Who. Told. You.”
He didn't deny it, Cedric noted. He was pissed about finding out about Cedric finding out, but he didn't deny it. That meant that the woman was telling the truth.
Cedric’s mind flashed to the young woman standing in the corner, she'd been spewing her bigoted homophobic nonsense, but also looking genuinely worried about the family's reputation.
She was awful, sure, but she was also just following the twisted logic of the world she'd been raised in. And Cedric knew exactly what Gianni would do to anyone who’d spoken out of turn.
“Some woman came into the room this morning,” Cedric said carefully, keeping his description vague and making sure not to reveal anything that would clue in on her identity.
“She brought me breakfast and essentially called me a tempting whore from hell and said I should get out and make way for the legitimate wife who would be coming soon.”
Gianni’s jaw clenched. “I have more staff than I can count. Tell me her name.”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me, Cedric.”
“I’m not lying. She didn’t exactly introduce herself.”
“What did she look like?”
“I don’t... I don't remember."
“Cedric.” Gianni leaned forward, and the knife came with him, now pointing directly at Cedric’s chest, fury written all over his face “I’m going to ask you one more time. What was her name?”
Cedric’s hands clenched in the sheets. Every survival instinct he had was screaming at him to just give up the name, protect himself, and let Maria face whatever consequences would come from doing what she did.
But something stubborn in him refused. Either the medication was making him stupid, or it was just the fact that he was so fucking tired of being powerless all the time and being the one who always had to bend and break and give in.
“No,” Cedric said.
Gianni’s eyebrows rose slightly. “No?”
“No. I’m not telling you. Do whatever you want to me, but I’m not giving you a name so you can hurt some woman who was being a bitch, yes, but was just doing what she thought was right.
“I’m not going to ask you again.”
“Good then, because my answer isn’t changing.”
Gianni stood abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor and crashing loudly to the ground.
Cedric flinched, and suddenly Gianni was looming over the bed, all that powerful presence and dangerous height and barely contained violence. The knife was still in his hand, and Cedric could see his own reflection in the blade.
“You’re willing to be punished to protect someone who disrespected you? Called you a whore?” Gianni asked, as it sounded unbelievable to him.
“I’ve been called worse by better people,” Cedric shot back. “And yeah, I guess I am. Because another night in your fucking dark cell can’t possibly be as bad as death for her, right? I'll take it if I have to.”
“I could make you tell me,” Gianni said softly, bringing the knife closer to Cedric’s face. “I could make this very unpleasant for you until you give me what I want.”
“Then do it. Do your worst.” Cedric lifted his chin, even though his heart was trying to burst through his ribs. “I’m not talking.”
Gianni leaned in closer, his face now mere inches from Cedric’s, the blade still raised between them making him shrink back a little in terror. This close, Cedric could see every detail, the sharpness of his jawline, the intensity in his dark eyes, the slight part of his lips as he breathed.
And God help him, even with a knife pointed at him, the pure rage radiating off of him, and the threat of punishment hanging in the air, Cedric’s body responded immediately.
His pulse quickened with want, not fear, and he felt familiar heat pooling low in his stomach as Gianni’s scent of expensive cologne, filled Cedric’s senses.
They still had unfinished business from that morning, Cedric remembered. He'd been left high and dry and wanting and now...
The moonlight caught Gianni's face at just the right angle, highlighting the sharp planes of his cheekbones, the curve of his mouth, and the way his eyes were fixed on Cedric with a dark, dangerous intensity that made breathing difficult.
Cedric’s tired brain, still foggy with medication and exhaustion and confusion about betrothed wives and open windows and everything else, made a decision that was either the bravest or stupidest thing he’d ever done.
Fuck it.
He leaned forward and kissed him.