‘His ridiculous demands are the same as Lorenzo’s to you. They’re both terrified one would attain more power than the other. But he had the nerve to threaten my family. I cannot allow that to stand.’
Eva rolled her eyes. ‘You realise how much like a bad gangster movie actor you sound?’ When his eyes narrowed, she continued, completely unfazed. ‘You have a veritable army guarding me and the boys when you’re not around, and Carmelo’s claims of you owing him allegiance because your father was a one-time lieutenant of his before he switched sides to Romeo’s father is flimsy at best. How do we even know that’s true?’ She looked at Romeo. ‘Besides, I know you two have enough dirt on the man to send him to jail for a long time.’
Romeo shook his head. ‘I’ve talked to the lawyers about it. It’s all circumstantial without hard evidence. I only witnessed Zaccheo’s father being beaten.’ He sent his friend a look of grim-faced sympathy, to which Zaccheo nodded. ‘He was still alive when I was thrown out of Fattore’s mansion. We need irrefutable evidence of blood on Lorenzo’s hands.’
‘So, what’s the alternative?’ Eva exclaimed. ‘A duel at dawn beneath Mount Etna?’
Romeo’s jaw clenched but he didn’t refute Eva’s outlandish claim. Maisie’s stomach hollowed out, both at the news Romeo had just delivered and his intent expression.
‘You’re not thinking of going back to Palermo, are you?’ she demanded in a shocked whisper.
His eyes when they met hers were hard, implacable, with no trace of the gentleness they’d held yesterday before Zaccheo’s phone call. ‘It’s the only option. I won’t entertain the idea of my son living in fear.’
Zaccheo nodded in grim agreement and captured his wife’s hand when she began to protest.
Maisie struggled not to feel excluded and even more miserable as Romeo proceeded to converse to the couple, switching to Italian when the debate got heated.
Once or twice, she spotted Eva’s probing glance and fixed a smile on her face, answering her questions about the island and the villa when she switched back to English.
When Eva yawned loudly and started to droop, Zaccheo stood and ushered her inside.
Knowing she wouldn’t be able to sit and make small talk while her insides were shredding with the knowledge that Romeo had room in his heart only for his son, and not her, she jumped to her feet.
‘I’ll go see if the boys are okay.’
He caught her hand and stopped her. ‘You’re upset because I intend to confront Lorenzo?’
‘Does my opinion matter enough for you to change your mind? I thought you were pursuing a different route other than direct confrontation.’
His jaw flexed. ‘I suspected his mellowed stance was all a bluff. Just as I suspect, this is nothing more than an extortion scheme, probably concocted between him and Carmelo. The timing is a little too synchronised. Whatever it is, I need to end it once and for all.’
She tried to pull away but he held on. ‘Since your mind’s made up, there’s no need for my opinion, is there?’
‘Gattina—’
‘Don’t call me that.’ The blurted plea rushed out before she could stop it.
He gave a hiss of frustration. ‘You suddenly have a problem with the name?’
‘No, only your use of it when you’re trying to put me back in your little box marked Handled.’
His mouth twisted. ‘Even if such a box existed, the physical and psychological scratch marks you leave on me would point to an abject failure in my task.’
She tugged at her hand again until he freed her. ‘And you’ll continue to fail. Because I won’t be put in a box and labelled as to what I need to be. Never again.’
A new tension stilled his body. ‘You think that’s what I’ve been doing to you?’
‘What have you been doing, if not knocking down my every objection in a bid to get your way since you found out about Lucca?’ she threw back.
‘He’s my son. There was never a doubt that I would claim him. You knew that. Did you think I wouldn’t do everything in my power to give him everything that had been denied me?’ he demanded.
‘No, but what sort of mother would I have been if I’d wilfully turned my back on the one thing you led me to believe would save our son.’
His nostrils flared. ‘You believe that’s no longer true?’
‘I went along with this marriage because it would protect us while you found a business solution to this problem. Now you tell me you’re planning some sort of vendetta-settling and I’m left asking myself whether this marriage was worth the aggravation I put myself through in the first place if the outcome is going to be a different one! Would I not have been better off in Ranelagh, alone with my son while you carelessly diced with death?’