Twisted Hearts (The Camorra Chronicles #5)(32)

I didn’t want to kill Mick, or Diego.

That wasn’t true. I wanted to kill Mick, but I shouldn’t, but I would kill him if we didn’t find another solution. “That’s something I’d like to avoid.”

I had Remo’s full attention now. Killing was his favorite pastime and I too enjoyed to spill our enemies’ blood. “Spill.”

“Gemma was promised to Mick. She’s supposed to marry him when she turns eighteen.”

The keen look disappeared at once and was replaced by annoyance. “I don’t see why that’s my concern. My men handle their family matters. I told them when I became Capo that I didn’t want to be involved in their fucking match-making. They don’t need my blessing to barter their children away.”

“It’s your concern because I want Gemma, and I don’t give a fuck what I’ll have to do to get her.”

Remo got up and tilted his head in contemplation. Remo managed to make you feel like an insect under the microscope when he regarded you like that. The worst thing was that he always saw more than you wanted him to see. It was his special skill, that and being a twisted, brutal fucker who loved to torture people. “Why didn’t Daniele arrange a marriage with you then, if you want her?”

“I didn’t say I wanted her. He mentioned he was looking for a husband for her, but…”

“But you didn’t want to cage your fucking bull in,” Remo said with a nod toward my groin. His twisted smile stirred the rage in my insides once more, but a fight with my brother was the last thing I needed.

“I thought I had time.”

“She’s sixteen, Savio. Don’t play dumb. You know that girls are often promised way before then, especially in traditional families like Gemma’s. That they waited this long is already unusual.”

I made a non-committal noise. I knew why they’d waited this long because they’d thought I might throw my hat in the ring. “I need to have her.”

“You need to have her so you can fuck her, boost your ego and then discard her. Or you need to have her—”

I interrupted him. “I want her as my wife. It’s the only way I can have her at all.”

Remo looked close to laughter, a far more unsettling sight than him covered in the bowels of his enemies. “You want to marry?”

Could he have sounded any more shocked?

“Is that so hard to believe?”

Remo walked past me and toward the liquor cabinet. “I think that requires alcohol.”

“Come on, stop being dramatic. If you can be a husband, it should be a piece of cake for me. A few years ago, you loathed the idea of marriage, now you’re making a marriage work as if it was nothing. You’re a father for fuck’s sake.”

Remo poured a generous amount of whiskey into two glasses then held one out to me. Rolling my eyes, I went over to him and accepted the drink. I could use some alcohol. Today’s news had been a shock to my system.

Nino appeared in the room, only dressed in underpants, regarding us with a suspicious expression. When it had been only my brothers and me in the mansion, most of us hadn’t even bothered with clothing. “What’s going on? You woke the boys and Kiara with your rude entry.”

Remo grabbed another glass, and filled that too. “You should have a drink.”

Nino accepted the glass. “What are we toasting?”

“That Savio wants to put his bull on a leash.”

I sent Remo a scathing look, which he answered with his twisted grin.

“What exactly does that mean?” Nino asked in mild curiosity.

“He wants to marry.”

“Gemma Bazzoli, I assume.”

I downed the rest of the whiskey, annoyed that my brothers could look through me as if I was a glass figurine. “You are a fucking know-it-all, aren’t you?”

“Did you ask for her hand?”

I grimaced. “No. Until recently, I didn’t really consider marriage a valid option.”

Nino regarded me as if I was a curious specimen worth studying. “And what changed?”

“She was promised to another man, Michelangelo.”

“Carlucci’s second son,” Nino stated. “And one of your best friends.”

That was true. Diego and Mick were pretty much my only friends, except for my brothers. Finding people that you could trust if your name was Falcone was close to impossible. “He won’t marry Gemma. I don’t care what I’ll have to do to make her mine.”

“The Carluccis and the Bazzolis are loyal families,” Nino drawled. “Offending them would come with a price. Our soldiers respect us because we’re just. If we force the Bazzoli girl into a marriage with you despite her engagement to Michelangelo, that could lead to dispute among our men.”

Remo nodded. Usually, he didn’t give a fuck about other people, but as cruel and twisted as he was, he took care of his men. “Nino’s got a point. We have to handle this carefully, or this could snowball into something very ugly, all because you were too horny to make up your mind in time.”

“Gemma wants to marry me, not Mick, that’s something you should keep in mind, and let’s be honest, her family will throw a fucking party if Gemma becomes a Falcone.”

“Are you sure the girl really still wants you? Maybe she’ll hold your man-whoring ways against you, not to mention that you didn’t bother asking for her hand when she wasn’t promised to another.”