Antonio
“Antonio, are you sure you want to do this?” Alessandro asked me as we sat in my study. Jimmy was in the living room with Elisabetta, Imogen, and Gia. He’d ordered some pizza and was trying to calm them down. He’d looked battered. His face was black and blue, and if I hadn’t known how strong Jimmy was, I would’ve almost felt bad for how much they’d done to him. But I would make Tommasso and his men pay, and I knew Jimmy would make them pay as well. I was surprised they hadn’t done more to me. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t been beaten to a pulp or even killed. I knew Tommasso Romano hated me, and it wasn’t like he cared if I lived or died.
Perhaps it was out of some loyalty to my father who, even though he despised me, was keen to carry on the Marchesi name. That was one thing my dad cared about beside himself and his lineage, and I was his firstborn son. I was as cold and as cruel as him. Only it didn’t please me to know that anymore. I used to revel in the fact that I was cold, a wolf, treacherous and arrogant. People feared and hated me, and I saw that as a sign of respect. But that had been before I’d met Callie Rowney. Who knew that a sweet little twenty-two-year-old lamb would change me? Not I. It was laughable to think that I was this worried about her and her wellbeing, especially when I was the one who’d arranged for her to be kidnapped in the first place. But this was different. This had not been part of the plan.
“Jimmy says he doesn’t know who the leak was,” I told Alessandro.
“You believe him?”
I nodded. “We can trust Jimmy.”
“I know,” Alessandro started but stopped as I gave him a look.
“We can trust Jimmy,” I repeated.
“I know,” he said again. “I’m just saying someone had to be a leak, and if it wasn’t Jimmy, then I don’t know who it was. We got a lot of problems, bro. We got Melba’s.”
“I know.”
“We’ve got Lupo’s. We got to get rid of Lucio,” he said.
“One thing at a time.”
“I know,” he said.
“You and Gia going to be okay? You look like you’re about to go at it.”
“She’s fine,” he said, shrugging. “You know women.”
“Uh-huh, biblically, but have you known Gia biblically?” I asked him, one of my eyebrows raising.
“Why the fuck would you ask me that?”
“Because you and her used to be best friends, and now I can’t tell if you want to rip each other’s heads off or fuck each other’s brains out.” I shrugged. “The sexual chemistry, I could cut it with a knife, bro.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind, Antonio? There ain’t no sexual chemistry between me and Gia.”
“Okay. If you say so.”
Alessandro sighed.
“I’ve got to call Tommasso now.”
“I thought you were going to call Serena,” he said.
I stared at him for a couple of seconds and shook my head. “Fucking out of it. That’s who I meant.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I’m sure,” I said, staring at him.
“Because you know this will mean war.”
“It already means war, Alessandro, when they took me, when they took Callie, when they kept Callie.” I stared at him. “That was it. The line had been drawn in the sand.”
“So we’re going to go to war for this girl?”
“What else are we going to do?”
“You could leave her,” he said. “Let Tommasso Romano do what he wants to her.” He shrugged. “She’s not a Marchesi. She means nothing to us. She was literally collateral damage for the revenge we wanted to get for Mama. And shit, if Tommasso Romano takes care of her, fuck, if he kills her, that will destroy her dad. That’s even better than we could have hoped for.”
I stared at him. My heart constricted at his words.
“You think I want to see her die?”
“I mean, I don’t think you want to see her die, but who cares what happens to her?”
“I care, Alessandro.”
I knew I couldn’t get angry at my brother. I knew I couldn’t blame him for saying the things that he was saying because, ultimately, our plan from the very beginning had been to destroy Paul Rowney, and we were going to do that through Callie, and we didn’t care if people lived or died. We just wanted our ends to be what we wanted, yet I wouldn’t live with myself if anything happened to Callie.
“You’ve changed, Antonio.” He stared at me for a couple of seconds. His eyes narrowed.
“This girl’s gotten into your brain.”
“She hasn’t gotten into anything.”
“She has,” he said. “Huh, I never would’ve believed it if I didn’t see it with my own two eyes.”
“See what?” I was getting angry again.
“That you have a heart.”
“I don’t have a heart.”
“You do,” he said, his lips twitching slightly. “Huh, I guess you’re human after all.”
I grabbed the phone, not wanting to pay attention to him anymore.
“Put it on speakerphone,” he said.
“What?”
“Just do it.”
I rolled my eyes and put it on speaker as it rang. Serena answered. “Hi, Antonio,” she said in a breathy voice.
“Serena, it’s me.”
“Yes. And what can I do for you?”
“I wanted to apologize.” There was silence on the line. “I wanted to tell you that I was very sorry for everything that happened with your dad and me the other day and the things that I said, the things that I told him.”
“You really hurt me, Antonio,” she said. “I thought we had something special. I thought I was going to be your wife, and you basically compared me to a common whore, and do you know how degrading that was? Do you know what my father said to me after we left? He basically told me I’m nothing better than a prostitute in the street. I have basically ruined the Romano name, and it’s all because of you. Why would you do that? You know that in our world, these things are—”
“I’m sorry,” I cut her off. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean to tell your father those things, but I hate your father. I’ve hated him for a long time. He doesn’t want to see me become the don of the Marchesi family. You know that, Serena. I’m sure your father must have talked about me at home. You know he hates me.”
She paused. “It was really because of my dad and not because of me?”
“Really,” I said. “You know how hard I get when I’m around you. You know how much I want that wet pussy of yours.”
She giggled. “I mean, you do get very hard.”
I growled into the phone. “I need you, Serena. I need to see you.”
“I don’t know. My dad told me not to leave the house, no matter what happened. In fact, he told me not to answer the phone unless it’s him. I really shouldn’t even be talking to you right now.”
“Don’t you want some of this hard cock?” I said. “Don’t you want to become Mrs. Antonio Marchesi?”
“What?” she said. “Are you proposing to me?”
“Meet me at our hotel?”
“What?” she said breathlessly.
“I said, meet me at our hotel and we can talk more.”
“I don’t know if I can get out. I don’t know if—”
“Serena, this is your big daddy talking. This is Antonio ‘the wolf’ Marchesi. You’re going to meet me in our hotel in thirty minutes, and I’m going to show you just how much I’ve missed you.”
“Okay,” she said. “Promise?”
“Oh, I promise, Serena.”
I hung up the phone quickly and looked at Alessandro.
“That was fucking disgusting,” he said. “What the hell did you guys get into when you were dating?”
“We weren’t dating,” I said.
“Oh, sorry. When you were fucking.”
“Well, you just answered your question, bro.”
He started chuckling. “So, you guys have a hotel?”
I shrugged. “There was a place that we used to meet, this cheap-ass hotel in Times Square. She called it our hotel. I just went along with it.” I shrugged.
“Come on, let me go and get Jimmy.” He opened the door and headed out to the living room.
“Everything okay, boss?” Jimmy asked.
“Yeah, I’m going to meet Serena in Times Square at a hotel.”
“A hotel,” Gia said, her eyes widening. “You’re going to meet Serena at a hotel. Why?”
“Because there are things we have to do.”
“You’re not going to fuck her, are you?” Imogen said, gasping. “Oh my God, you’re such a dog. You literally just slept with my best friend the other night, and—”
“Please, enough. I’m doing what I have to do to get Callie back,” I said. “Jimmy, I want you to come with me. I’m going to have you wait in the lobby, okay?”
“Okay, boss. You want us to go now?”
“Yeah.” I looked over at Alessandro. “You stay here with the girls.” I looked at Gia, Imogen, and Elisabetta. “You guys are going to have to stay here until we have Callie back and everything has been situated. Okay?”
“What? I can’t stay here,” Imogen said. “My parents are going to—”
I stared at her, and she pressed her lips together.
“Fine.” She shrugged. “I’ll just be held here against my will as well.”
“I don’t really want to stay here, either,” Gia said. “I don’t want to be with him.”
“Look, Gia. I don’t know Tommasso Romano’s plan. Okay? I don’t know if he’s going to come for you. I don’t know if he’s going to come for Elisabetta. I don’t know if he’s going to come for Imogen. Right now, I need to concentrate on making sure Callie is okay, and I cannot do that if I’m worrying about the three of you as well. Alessandro will lock you in one of the rooms if he has to.”
“It’s fine. We’ll stay,” Gia said, glaring at me.
“We’re cool, big bro,” Elisabetta said, shaking her head.
“Good,” I said. “Now, Jimmy, let’s go. I’ll text you.” I nodded at Alessandro. “If you hear anything from Callie or about Callie, you get in contact with me immediately. Okay?”
“Yes, boss.”
“Good.”
I stared at Alessandro and ignored his comment calling me boss. I knew he was being facetious. I knew he didn’t like being left here with the women, but I needed Jimmy with me in the hotel in case Serena took anyone with her. Her people would recognize Alessandro immediately, but they wouldn’t necessarily recognize Jimmy, and that was what I was counting on.
“Okay, let’s do this,” I said. “Stay safe, everyone.”
Jimmy and I headed out the door and down toward the Range Rover.
“So, you’re not going to sleep with her, boss?” he asked me, his eyebrow raised. “I thought you were done with that ho.”
“I am done with her, but I’ll do whatever it takes,” I said.
“Including fucking her?” he asked me, eyebrow raised.
“Stop asking questions, Jimmy.”
I let out a deep sigh and grabbed his shoulder.
“I’m glad you’re okay, man.”
“Me too, boss. For a second there,” he shivered, “I thought they were going to, well, you know, they had a gun cocked to my head.”
I stopped and grabbed his shoulders. “We’re going to get them, Jimmy. You know that, right?”
“I know, boss.” He grinned. “And I can’t wait to see them go pow, pow, pow.”
I grabbed him and gave him a quick hug. “You’re a real one, Jimmy. Don’t forget that. I love you, bro.”
“Love you too, boss.”