A grin cuts across my face and I shake my head, the amusement all too real. “So, who is she then? The boss’ wife? She sounds hot.”
Roman scoffs. “Gia is the fucking boss. She’s the head of the Moretti family, not someone who you want to meet in a dark alley. She makes us look like child’s play.”
My eyes bug out of my head and I glance back at Marcus, waiting for him to tell me that Roman is fucking with me. But he raises his brow and nods, and damn, the sparkle in his eye tells me he’s not just impressed by this woman, but he’s got a little crush.
“Well, shit. Isn’t she going to be pissed that you put the blame on her for this shit?”
Roman shrugs his shoulders. “Probably,” he says, something dark flashing in his eyes as he pulls out another bottle of whiskey from under the table, instantly making Levi’s brows draw down in irritation. “There are two things people like us hate. Not being acknowledged for our … achievements and being blamed for someone else’s.”
“So, doesn’t this mean that she’ll come for you then?”
Marcus scoffs. “Nah, not Gia. She’s got her heart set on my father so she’ll go after him before coming for us, but she likes to bide her time. He’ll be dead before she gets her chance, and we’ll already be rising up. I wouldn’t be surprised if she changes her tune. She’s a smart woman. She knows what’s good for her. She’ll keep out of our way and we’ll honor her by keeping out of hers.”
Letting that sink in and wanting to give Levi space to work on Marcus, I scoot off the edge of the table and make my way around to Roman before dropping down into the seat beside him.
He narrows his gaze at me as I reach forward and grab an apple out of the fruit basket. I take a big bite and glance back at him to find his stare still heavy on me. “What are you doing?” he questions, liking his space more than anything.
Swallowing my bite, I glance back at Levi and Marcus to find them already lost in a private conversation, probably trying to work out a screwing schedule between themselves that will keep all parties involved as satisfied as ever.
Turning back to Roman, I let out a sigh and allow myself to be vulnerable for just a moment. “I, uhhh … I didn’t mean to get under your skin or bring up bad memories when I said that thing about Felicity being the one to … you know. I just wanted you to know where my head was at,” I explain. “Marcus mentioned it to me when we got back from visiting Antonio, and it’s just circled my head a few times since then. I just think if she were still alive, all arrows would point toward her.”
Roman shakes his head. “You don’t think that I spend every fucking waking hour of my life wishing she were still alive? Fuck, Shayne. You’ve got no fucking clue, do you? Get the idea out of your head. She was good and honest. The last thing she would have ever done was hurt Marcus. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I nod and slowly slide my hand across the table until my pinky finger is pressed up against his, knowing that after what he did to me, I shouldn’t feel guilt for bringing up something so painful, but I do. It’s there and it’s killing me that he’s hurting. “Like I said, it wasn’t my intention to bring it up to hurt you. I just needed to talk out the theory because I knew Marcus wasn’t going to.”
Roman pulls away from me as though my touch physically hurts him and everything inside of me breaks. For the past week, it’s been the opposite way around; me flinching every time he gets close to me, and while the circumstances are very different, I kinda get it.
“I was planning on marrying her,” he tells me, keeping his voice low. “Did Marcus tell you that? I had the ring and everything. All that was left to do was to propose and she would have been all mine. But I waited. I wanted to make it special for her. I wanted to wait until I could get her out of this fucking castle, so I foolishly went to my father, thinking for just one night, he would give us a pass to be free so she wouldn’t have to sneak out of here like some kind of prisoner. I wanted it to be a night she couldn’t forget.”
I shake my head, already seeing the pain in his eyes at telling this story, and considering his brothers would have already known, I’m sure this is the first time that he’s ever forced himself to say it out loud. “I got my freedom and had the ring in my pocket. I thought for once in my life, something was going right. She had my baby growing in her womb and I was about to give her everything she wanted.”