Chapter 60 Chapter 60 - Long Lover's Quarrel
Cedric’s POV
“I will take you to meet your family.”
The words hung in the air between them, so unexpected that for a second Cedric thought he’d misheard. He blinked at Gianni, his brain still fuzzy with sleep and the lingering warmth of lying in his arms.
“What?”
“Your family,” Gianni repeated, already separating himself from him and sitting up.
Cedric normally needed at least one hour of lying around in bed like a cat before he could actually get ready for the day, but Gianni was all business immediately.
The morning light caught the cuts on his face, making them look worse than they probably were. “Your mother and sister. Since my consigliere took it upon himself to essentially destroy your only method of contact with them, I need to make up for the errors of my subordinates somehow.”
He stood and stretched, his bare torso revealing the network of scars and ink Cedric had traced with his fingers. “And what better way to do that than to go see them in person?”
Cedric stared at him, completely blindsided. This morning had been… he didn’t know. Peaceful? Part of him had wanted to stay in that bubble, to keep the world at bay for just a little longer.
But his mom. Lily. God, he missed them so much it physically hurt sometimes.
“I…” he started, then stopped, trying to organise his thoughts. “Are you serious? You’re actually going to let me see them?”
“All that constant talk out of your mouth must’ve blocked your ears,” Gianni said, his voice carrying that dominant edge. “I’m offering to take you. Do you want to go or not?”
“Right. Sorry.” Cedric sat up too, the sheets pooling around his waist. “I’m just… surprised. I mostly just wanted to stay in bed and not deal with anything yet.”
The confession slipped out before he could stop it, and he saw something flicker across Gianni’s face. “Is that so?” he asked, satisfaction in the idea that Cedric would rather stay here with him than face the world.
He was starting to influence him, break him piece by piece, and he knew it.
Cedric rolled his eyes, but the truth was, he missed his mom and Lily desperately. Worried about them constantly, especially with Ray still in the picture. The thought of actually seeing them, making sure they were okay with his own eyes…
“When?” Cedric asked.
“This afternoon,” Gianni said, moving toward his closet. “After I handle some morning business. We’ll drive out, you’ll have a few hours with them, then we’ll return.”
Cedric nodded slowly, his mind already racing. Gianni was being so nice to him. Why? What was he up to?
It felt kind of like a reward for being good last night. For letting him sleep in his arms, not pushing when he was vulnerable, maybe for—
Then Cedric saw it. The way Gianni’s expression shifted when he turned back to face him, a dark and calculating haze sliding across his features.
“Of course,” Gianni said conversationally, “this also gives me time to have a conversation with Dante. Since I couldn’t get the truth about that note from my lover, perhaps I’ll have better luck beating it out of his coconspirator.”
Cedric’s stomach dropped. “Gianni…”
“Did you really think I’d forget?” His voice was still casual, but there was steel underneath it now. “I do not plan to just let it go because we had a nice moment, Cedric. You made a choice to protect someone else’s secrets over being honest with me, and there will be consequences for that choice, one way or another.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Cedric said quickly, his mind spinning. “Dante just… he was just being friendly, trying to help…”
“We’ll see what Dante has to say about that,” Gianni interrupted. “After I’ve had some time alone with him in a room where no one can hear him scream for mercy. Non sexually, of course.”
Then he laughed, like he thought he was hilarious.
The casual cruelty in his tone made Cedric’s blood run cold. This was the real Gianni, he reminded himself. Every single time he thought Gianni would be different or better, he would do or say something to remind him that he was wrong.
He was a monster, through and through. A complicated monster, but a monster all the same.
Cedric opened his mouth to say yes to the family visit, to try to smooth things over before they got worse, but then it hit him.
Six PM. Block E. M says hi.
If Gianni was planning to torture Dante today, then there was no way Dante would be in any condition to meet him tonight.
Or Dante could somehow magically be fine, but chances were that Cedric wouldn’t be back early enough from the visit to meet the six pm deadline.
So if M really was Marcus, if this was his one chance to make contact with the outside world and salvage this entire disaster of an undercover operation, then he couldn’t let that opportunity slip away.
But he also couldn’t let Gianni know that he cared whether Dante lived or died. That would only make him more suspicious.
“Can I ask you something?” Cedric said, changing tacks as gently as he could manage.
Gianni’s eyes narrowed slightly. “That depends on what you’re asking.”
“Maria,” Cedric said, and watched Gianni’s expression immediately darken. “Did you… Was she actually taken care of? Like, did she get medical attention? Is she okay?”
“I don’t like how you keep bringing up that insignificant woman,” Gianni said, his voice going hard and flat. “She got exactly what she deserved for disrespecting you. For questioning my judgment and spreading gossip about my private affairs.”
“But did she—”
“She’s alive,” Gianni cut him off. “She received medical care. Her fingers were properly treated and she’ll heal, though she’ll never forget the lesson. You should be satisfied with that, Cedric. Grateful that I cared enough about your honour to mete out appropriate punishment.”
“Satisfied?” Cedric’s anger started rising, pushing past the fear. “We already went over this, Gianni. I am not satisfied, I am repulsed.”
“I did it because she needed to remember her place. Do I need to make you remember yours too?” Gianni said, his voice dangerously quiet.
Cedric swallowed with fear, quieting down, hiding a little underneath the covers.
“You are mine to defend. No one speaks to what belongs to me with anything less than respect,” Gianni finished.
“I don’t belong to you,” Cedric said automatically, but the words felt hollow even to him after last night.
Gianni moved closer, looming over where Cedric still sat on the bed. “Yes, you do. And you know it. You gave me more comfort and showed me, the monster you claim to hate so much, more care last night than I believed you were capable of.”
He smiled calmly. “I have your heart in the palm of my hand.”
Cedric tore his eyes away and bit his lip, not having an answer for that.
“Promise me,” Cedric said instead, his voice dropping. “Promise you won’t do something like that again. That you won’t hurt people for my sake. I can’t…” His voice cracked. “I can’t forgive myself for what happened to her. I blame myself. So please, just promise me you won’t…”
“No.”
The single word hit like a slap.
“What?”
“I cannot promise that,” Gianni said, his expression completely unmoved. “I protect what’s mine, whether you ask me to or not. That’s what it means to belong to someone in my world.”
“But…”
“However,” he interrupted, “I’ll take your feelings, inconvenient as they are, into consideration next time. Does that satisfy you?”
It didn’t. Not even close. But the fact that Gianni had given even that much felt like a minor miracle.
“I guess it has to,” Cedric muttered.
Gianni nodded once, considering the matter closed. He turned toward the bathroom, clearly ready to start his day and leave this conversation behind.
But Cedric wasn’t done.
“Can we talk about last night?” Cedric asked quietly. “About what happened with Il Macellaio? About how you’re actually feeling after all that?”
Gianni stopped in the bathroom doorway, his back to him.
“No,” he said finally.
“Gianni—”
“I had a lapse in judgment.” He turned to face Cedric, expression closed off. “Sharing that kind of information with you. Showing weakness. It won’t happen again.”
“It wasn’t weakness,” Cedric started, but Gianni cut him off with a sharp gesture.
“Forget about it,” he ordered. “Focus on what you’re actually here to do, Cedric. Give me pleasure. Be what I need you to be. The rest is none of your concern.”
The dismissal stung more than it should have.
“Now come here,” Gianni said, his voice dropping into that commanding tone. “You can shower with me before we leave. I find myself in need of distraction.”
He disappeared into the bathroom and Cedric heard the shower turn on, water hitting tile in a steady rhythm.
Cedric sat on the bed for a moment, processing everything. The offer to see his family, the threat to Dante, and the complete shutdown of any real conversation about what had happened between them.
And underneath it all, the ticking clock. Six pm. Block E. A meeting he couldn’t miss and couldn’t tell Gianni about.
He was so fucked. In every possible sense of the word.
But when Gianni appeared in the bathroom doorway, steam curling around him, hair damp and eyes dark with want,
“Cedric,” he said. “Don’t make me ask twice.”
Cedric stood on shaky legs and crossed to the bathroom, telling himself this was just survival. Just playing the role he needed to play to keep all his options open.
But when Gianni’s hands closed around his waist and pulled him under the spray, when his mouth found his in a kiss that was hungry and demanding and somehow still gentle, Cedric couldn’t quite hold onto the lie for much longer.
The hot water kept falling. Gianni’s hands kept moving. And Cedric let himself sink into the distraction he was offering, just for a little while longer.
Before reality came crashing back in and destroyed whatever fragile thing they had built in the darkness.