Chapter 39 Planning Her Death
Nico POV
My brother died too, and so did my father. You think you’re the only one that’s suffering because you now have the responsibility of making this all right?” His dark eyes bore into mine.
“You act like you’ve been cursed, burdened with all of this. I would sell my fucking soul to be able to do this, to be able to avenge Nikolai and dad, to show the world that no one fucks with a Moretti and gets away with it.”
I snorted, glancing to the floor before looking back up at him. “Believe me, brother, I’ve sold my soul, and from where I’m standing it’s not fucking worth it.”
I turned my back on him and walked down the hall.
“You’re turning into a coward,” Damon yelled after me. “rex was right. You’ll never be the leader Dad was.”
I let his words wash off me like oil on feathers. Nothing he said could make me feel worse than I already did. For the first time in my life I felt like I was drowning. I’m drowning in responsibilities I didn’t want, that I haven’t been prepared for like Nikolai had been.
Our father had taught him, primed him, groomed him for this role, but not me. I was never more than just another son, a son that would always follow and never lead. And I was totally okay with that unlike Damon.
I never wanted this. I’ve never felt like I wanted to sell my soul to lead yet that’s exactly what I ended up doing.
Images of lila naked body, sounds of her panting breaths haunted my mind while I walked toward the office. It had been months yet I still couldn’t refer to it as my office. That was the room I hated the most in this house.
With a heavy sigh I opened the door and walked in, not in the least surprised to find my mother there, already waiting for me.
What did surprise me was seeing Uncle Lucas there, and by the way he stood with his back toward my mother pretending to stare out the window it was clear that these two had nothing to say to each other.
“mother,” I greeted when I closed the door behind me.
She got up from her seat. “Everything is going according to plan?”
“It seems so yes.” I made my way to the desk, opening my laptop. If Falcone was following my instructions, there should be an email in a fake account I set up for exactly this purpose.
My mother stood at the other side of the desk. “What is our next move?”
I glanced up at her from under my lashes before returning my focus on the laptop. “Let’s just see if the Falcone will play along.”
“I have no doubt that they will. Their daughter’s life is at stake. If that man has an honorable bone in his body, he would give up his life for his daughter.”
“So that is the plan?”
Both my mother and I looked at Uncle Lucas.
“The plan is to trade her life for his? Set her free once he hands himself over to us?”
My mother snorted, rolling her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous, Lucas. Of course not.”
“But that’s what you just said, that he would give up his life for his daughter?” He narrowed his eyes at her, his suspicion shown in the way he frowned.
My mother walked over to the couch and took a seat. “That’s what we want him to think.”
“So what happens with the girl?”
“She dies along with her father.”
The way my heart stammered when she said those words, the way my chest tightened with an unexplainable urge to do whatever the fuck I can to stop that from happening, was terrifying.
Leaning back in my chair I let this conversation run its course without intervening. After what Uncle Lucas had told me last night, I decided to follow his example stand back and observe from the outside.
Uncle Lucas swirled his glass of whiskey. “Well, yes. I’m struggling to grasp the fact that you’re luring Falcone here under false pretenses.”
My mother laughed. “Please, Lucas, stop acting like you’re a goddamn saint.”
“Says the one with the giant crucifix around her neck.”
Mother glared, Uncle Lucas glowered. The tension between these two was downright toxic.
The look on my mother’s face was that of someone who would gladly stab someone to death who in this case was Uncle Lucas.
She got up, shoulders squared, chin held high. “That bastard had my son killed, ultimately causing the death of my husband as well, yet you have the nerve to stand there and act like they are the victims in all this.”
“Aren’t they?” He set his glass down on the table. “Are you not keeping his daughter hostage, blackmailing him, forcing him to trade his life for hers, then plan on double crossing him by killing lila anyway?”
“They killed my son and my husband.”
“And you’re about to kill another woman’s daughter and husband. So let me tell you one thing, Selena. If you think that you’re better than them…you’re not.”
“You lowlife piece of shit. I always knew you were the weak link in this family. You would let your nephew’s, and your brother’s killers go free, without justice?”
He shook his head. “This is not justice, Selena.”
“Of course it is,” she bit out. By the way my mother’s eyes flared up like the deepest pits of hell, her hand gripping the crucifix around her neck, I knew that I’ve allowed this conversation to go on long enough.
I stood up from my chair. “That’s enough. Both of you.”