After KC proposed, the whole fucking club went wild. We waited a few days to say anything, but Hollywood sniffed it out. And once he knew, the rest of the club knew. Selene and Ru planned to throw us an engagement party later in the week, but I had a few personal things to deal with first.
Like my mother’s house.
We’d had it cleaned since Trojan died there, but I still had to go pack everything up. KC insisted he could have the prospects do it, but I wanted to do it myself.
It seemed like closure.
But when we pulled up to the house, a black Range Rover sat out front, the windows tinted. Jericho and Saint went on high alert.
“You stay here,” Jericho said to Ru and me, shutting the door of Saint’s new truck behind him.
“Yeah, fucking right.” I climbed out anyway, much to Jericho’s chagrin. “If they’re at my house, they’re here to see me.”
Saint pulled out his phone to text for backup, but when I walked up the front steps and opened the door, I froze at the sight on the other side.
Perhaps I expected Nikki or Leo Caputi.
But instead, I found an older woman with dark-brown hair and bright blue eyes. Eyes that looked like my mother’s. A nose and cheeks that looked like my mother’s.
This had to have been Gabriella Caputi, Benito’s wife.
My grandmother.
She wore a pair of dark slacks and a white blouse, the heels on her feet too high for what I’d expect someone her age to wear. Jericho raised his gun, and Saint followed suit, but the men on either side of Gabriella raised theirs in response.
“Please.” My grandmother shook her head. “Lower your weapons. I am not here for a fight.”
“Then why are you here?” I took a step toward her.
“This is where my only child died.” Her bottom lip quivered. “Can’t a mother mourn her daughter?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Having your husband kidnap your granddaughter and hold her for ransom is a funny way to show your love.”
Now it was Gabriella’s turn to look skeptical. “No real harm would have come to you. I wouldn’t have allowed it.”
“Right.” Saint reholstered his gun and took a step in front of Ru, blocking her with his body. “And I suppose she broke her own nose.”
Gabriella looked at Saint and Jericho before returning her gaze to me.
She stiffened, adjusting her shoulders and regaining her composure. “We may fight like cats and dogs, the Caputis and the Roses, but we are not that different. We have family, loved ones. And in that family, we find our strength.” She reached inside her purse to retrieve a flat, golden case. She opened it, pulled out a cigarette, and closed it. “But we also find our weakness.” Gabriella lit her smoke and took a step toward us, making Jericho tense and push my body behind his. “Please. If I wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead.”
Another step closer, her long brown hair swaying toward her waist. She inhaled deep on the cigarette.
“I came to give you a warning, and it is this. If you cut off the head, three more will grow in its place.” She looked between the four of us. “You took my daughter from me. You took my grandchild. You took my beloved nephew, and finally, my husband.”
“Your husband killed countless Roses.”
“Enough.” Gabriella lifted her chin, peering down at us. “There is one thing that you and I understand well, my dear Alba. It is not the men who hold the true power. And soon? You will know what a mother’s grief can do.” We moved as she walked toward the front door, her men following behind her. “I’ll be seeing you. All of you.” She walked down the steps and climbed into her Range Rover when one of the men held the door open for her.
We may have hoped to end a war by killing Benito, but we’d only pissed off his widow.
And hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.