Mafiosa (Blood for Blood #3)(69)

Was I really talking about making out with Luca directly to his twin brother who was also the boss of our entire Mafia family?

Yep.

Valentino steepled his fingers in front of his mouth. ‘For someone who has waded through so much violence and hate, and had her world tipped upside down and all those she loves fall out of it, I think your decision to open your heart to love is a commendable one. You know, it is braver to love when hate is the easier option. Impassivity is an easy mask to wear, but it takes the most out of you.’

‘Don’t you think it makes you vulnerable?’ I asked. Wasn’t that why I had been hiding my desire for Luca all this time, trying to stamp it down, trying to ignore it?

‘Yes,’ said Valentino. ‘But allowing yourself to be vulnerable does not make you weak, it makes you strong. It makes you brave. And most importantly, it gives you more to live for.’ He made the shape of a gun with his thumb and forefinger, and pointed it at an imaginary target behind me. ‘It is hardest to kill the man who has the most to live for.’ He took a pretend shot. ‘The empty, the soulless, the hate-filled enemies drop like flies. Those who love, and love hard, are the ones left standing.’

‘Well, damn,’ I said, smiling. ‘I forgot how wise you are.’

Valentino’s laugh was a lilting melody. ‘I think too much, Sophie. It’s not always a good thing.’

It was infinitely harder to dislike or mistrust Valentino when I was on the same side as him. Here he was – funny, charming, empathetic and interesting, everything I thought he wasn’t. It was as if gaining Luca’s affection had loosened Valentino up too. He was showing me a sliver of who he really was. In the end, they weren’t all that different from one another.

‘You surprise me,’ I told him candidly. ‘I never thought we would get to talk like this.’

Valentino pitched forward again, closing the distance between us. I mirrored him unconsciously. ‘Here is another surprise, Sophie,’ he said, his voice low. ‘I know you didn’t kill Libero Marino at The Sicilian Kiss.’

Abort. Abort. Abort. Every drop of colour drained from my skin as I sat beneath that icy gaze, struggling for a way to respond.

Valentino’s grin turned wolfish. ‘Don’t try and lie,’ he said, raising his finger as if to wag it. ‘I find it personally offensive when people lie to me. It insults my intelligence.’

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.

I forced myself to say something. The longer the silence, the deeper his thoughts. ‘How?’ I asked. ‘How did you find out?’

‘I know you, Sophie. I also know what my brother, Luca, sees in you. Does that surprise you?’

He was speaking in facts. The emotion was gone.

‘I don’t know,’ I said.

‘If you had put a bullet in Libero Marino’s head that night, it would have changed you. And despite a slightly increased desire for bloodshed and, evidently, romance, I find you decidedly unchanged.’

‘Oh.’

He smiled, and it made his eyes look … kind. It made him look like Luca. Not just on the outside, but on the inside, too. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Oh.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I said hastily. ‘I was going to. I really wanted to, but I stalled at the last second and I couldn’t make myself do it. I froze.’

‘It happens.’ He waved away my response. ‘I can only assume Luca deigned to dispose of Libero on your behalf.’

‘I don’t know. I can’t remember.’

Valentino’s laugh caught me off guard. ‘That’s good,’ he said, still chuckling. ‘I was hoping you’d lie for him. Luca deserves someone who would lie for him. Even to her boss.’

I squeezed my eyes shut. If only I could make myself disappear.

‘Just as he lied to me that night,’ Valentino continued. God, he had the whole thing figured out, and I had been skipping around like a regular Houdini, thinking how fortunate I was for getting away with my cowardice.

‘Please don’t be mad.’ I looked up at him imploringly. ‘It was such a crazy situation, and everyone got their wires crossed …’

Valentino’s laugh reignited. ‘Still lying!’ he said, mock-accusingly. ‘You can stop now, OK?’

I decided to shut my mouth. I was probably just adding insult to injury at this point.

He sat back in his chair with a sigh, the smile still fixed on his face. ‘You know what I felt tonight when Luca told Nic that he loved you?’

‘Abject horror?’

‘I felt relief,’ he said. ‘I’m relieved that my brother is in love with you, because it makes the lie he told me easier to stomach. I can understand it. He was protecting you. He wasn’t putting distance between us, but placing himself in front of you. That, I can understand. That, I can forgive.’

‘Why didn’t you say anything? If you knew all along?’

‘I didn’t want to tip Felice off.’ Valentino scrubbed a hand across his buzz cut. ‘If he knew Luca had lied to me, he would see it as a weakness in the family, and he would find a way to exploit it.’

‘Ah,’ I said, nodding in agreement.

‘It’s a full-time job keeping things from him.’

‘I can imagine.’ Evelina’s ruby ring flashed through my head. I blinked the image away, replaced it with the image of Felice’s face inches from mine, his hands around my neck as he slammed me into that alcove, whisky on his breath, hatred in his eyes. All the things I had overheard, all the lies inside him. And in that moment, I knew I had to say something to Valentino. If I could throw myself in the firing line for Luca, for loyalty, I could do this too. I could be a good Falcone, even if it meant standing against another member of the family.