𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 ( 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐎𝐧𝐞)

𝐅𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐲- 𝐋𝐢𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐚 𝐀𝐬 𝐀 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦

      𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐚

Lia smiled at Cesare. It was the first real smile she had given him since we entered the room, Cesare seemed confused by it, suspicious of it.

"What?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Now we take out your firstborn," I mumbled carelessly, pulling a seat from one of Cesare's guys standing in front of me.

"No. No. I didn't kill you."

I know.

"I told Marco to make sure it's a scratch." he continued.

"Did you?" I asked in a mocking tone, looking at my bandaged hand hidden inside my coat.

"Yes." He replied even though it was a rhetorical question.

"If it was just a scratch, why did he bleed so much?" Lia interjected. I cleared my voice to keep her from adding any emotional information.

"He can still race, can't he?"

Lia clenched her jaw, her black eyes unblinkingly fixed on Cesare for more than a minute he became nervous. The righteous fury emanating from her got everyone in the room skittish.

"You said it was a message," she shrugged, intentionally resting her eyes on Riccardo before moving them to his father. "how about we send one of our own?"

"Look, I made a mistake." Don Cesare said, motioning with his hands. Even though he did not plead, he seemed like he would have. But a Don didn't plead, or beg especially not in front of his men.

"Okay. How about Marco?" Lia prompted, her attention moving to the guy who had shot me. I could tell that Lia would forever hold a grudge against him. Whether he was following orders or not didn't matter to her. He had shot me, and that was enough to be on her hit list.

Marco's eyes shot up, panic clouded them, his gun wavering.

"How about we shoot you? Not kill of course. A scratch like Don Cesare says." Lia was not about to get out of this room without hurting someone. Not that I could blame her. I wanted to rip Marco into shreds and throw his remains at his uncle.

Marco did not say anything or perhaps I waylaid his response when I asked, " What can you give us, Don Cesare."

He looked confused at first, "surely you don't think we would leave this room without something..."

"What do you need?"

I shrugged, staring at him until I heard a commotion outside the door. Matteo opened the door to reveal a few men in suits. I recognized some of them from the triple B drawing room during the briefing on Dr Charlie's burial.

"Information on Romigi." What followed was the most disturbing, disgustingly immoral recollection I have ever heard in my life. I shouldn't have been surprised given what he had already said in our first meeting with the families, yet I was.

Uncle Raph once told me that every leader should have a line which he would never cross.

He drew a line on drugs and child prostitution. "Ironic, isn't it? he had said with a weary laugh, "that they make the most money." something in me recoiled at the idea of what this meant for our family.

Romigi had to go. There was no way the patriarchs would keep him under our family.

"By Antonio, you mean my dad's biological father?" Lia queried, her stance not changing. Uncle Rom was right, Lia was improving. Her emotions were in check, and no one could tell what the hell was going on in her head. It made me anxious that I couldn't tell either. Lia was different in this room. More confident, more sure of herself, her emotions hidden behind those beautiful black orbs.