Chapter 22

“You’re alive.” The whisper of disbelief escapes my lips as I rush into his embrace. It’s him, my big brother, solid and real, holding me close as tears blur my vision. Where the hell has he been all this time?

I know they’re all still here with us, but the rest of the room is so silent you could hear a pin drop. Marco hugs me and lets me cry into his expensive suit. Stroking my hair, he whispers to me softly that everything is going to be okay.

As I pull back and meet his gaze, the truth sinks in like a lead weight. Something really twisted is going on. It has to be. Why is he here in this house? Parts of the conversation I just overheard come back to me. Mr. Moretti was talking about him like he was currently helping him. But what can that mean?

“Papa?” I murmur, hope and fear warring within me as my eyes search his for answers. Is he alive as well?

He shakes his head, and my heart constricts painfully, feeling the loss all over again. “Lana,” he whispers his nickname for me gently. “He’s not the person he made you think he was,” he says, his words piercing through my already broken heart. I’ve heard enough over the last few days to gather that, but this all still makes little sense.

My body trembles, the pain, nausea, and fear seeping into my limbs making me crumple to the floor.

Ricky rushes to my side, dropping to the ground, his arm cradled around me. “Baby doll.” Now he wants to help me? A little late.

“I told you she wasn’t ready for all of this. It’s too much,” Alessandro yells at my brother. The tension in the air intensifies as I feel him move toward Marco antagonistically.

“She needs to know the truth. All of it,” Marco fires back, a steely determination in his voice. He’s here to save me from this hell. From all of them and their lies. But where did he come from? And why did he wait so long?

He shoves past Alessandro, not worried about him in the slightest, and reaches down, taking my hand. His eyes flick to Ricky in a get-your-fucking-hands-off-my-sister look that even scares me. I’ve never seen my brother like this before. There’s a darkness to him that weighs on me. His appearance is strikingly different, older, almost as if the past six months have been as unkind to him as they have been to me. His expensive suit and the way he presents himself make him look amazingly similar to Alessandro. I don’t like it one bit. However, he is still alive, and maybe both of us can escape from this dreadful situation. Tonight, hopefully.

My eyes meet Alessandro’s. “Marco’s right. I need to know everything.” My voice shakes, not sure what everything means. Has my entire life been a lie? But he’s the first one willing to come clean, and no matter how terrible the reality is, I need to know.

Marco’s hand intertwines with mine, giving me support as I rise to my feet. While he looks at me, I can sense the affection in his gaze that is reserved solely for me. He encircles my shoulders with his arm, drawing me nearer in a protective hug.

“It’s such a relief to see you here.” My voice is barely audible. Confusion clouding my head.

“Things will be different now, Lana,” he assures me, the warmth of his body so comforting. He glances at me and gives me a gentle kiss on the cheek. A spark of optimism courses through my entire being, the first time I’ve felt hope since I thought he was dead.

“I can’t believe you’re here.” Feeling like I’m in a dream, I let him guide me away from them. I’ve been so lonely without him, so lost, but it was all a lie. He’s alive, and now everything is going to be okay. It has to be.

He takes my hand. “Let’s go somewhere quiet to talk before we go back to the party.”

When I take a quick look over his shoulder, I notice the boys are still watching us attentively. Of course they are.

“You have twenty minutes,” Alessandro snaps, and it leaves me wondering why Marco has so much sway with these guys.

Marco guides me into a room just a little farther up the hall and the two of us go inside. He closes the door behind us, and the click echoes through the room. I glance around, wondering where he’s brought me. The room looks like a bedroom with a king bed off to one side and an office to the other. But it’s the travel bag on the floor that has my curiosity piqued. “Are you staying here?”

He nods as we take a seat side by side, with a heavy silence hanging in the air between us. I can’t help but stare at him—his expensive suit, the way his hair curls at the ends, the fresh scar on his face, and his unusually long beard. He’s not the same boy who called me every night to check on me. Something enormous has transformed him .

He squeezes my hand in a silent gesture that offers some reassurance. “I only got back yesterday. The Morettis have kindly offered me a home until this has calmed down.”

I look him over. “Where have you been?”

“Italy.”

I give him a piercing look, questioning why he’s being so abruptly curt in his responses. He’s acting like one of them. “And you didn’t think to mention that to me? Call and let your only sister know you’re still alive? I mourned you. Jesus, Marco, I thought they killed you. I could have…” God, when I think of what I was aiming to do when I arrived at their underground compound, it makes me feel physically sick. How did I get all of this so wrong?

He lowers his head, and I sense the burden on his shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Lana. I never wanted to hurt you, but the situation got out of control, and this was the only way.” When our eyes meet, I see a haunting sadness in his gaze. “I had to turn to the Morettis for help or we would both be dead because of our stupid father.”

“What did he do? I want the truth. No sugar coating it because you think I can’t handle it or shit like that. I can, and right now I need to know exactly what we’re up against so I can get us out of this mess.”

“You can’t get us out of this. No one can. The Moretti family employed our father to smuggle cocaine across the nation hidden in the spare tires of the high-end vehicles he was bringing in. He engaged in illegal drug trafficking on behalf of this family for years. He was a big deal, and our name still is. The Morettis’ business doesn’t just extend to the casino. It’s a hell of a lot more complicated than that.”

I feel sick, his unsettling gaze stripping away the illusion I’ve held onto for so long. “What are you talking about, Marco?” My intuition already knows the answer deep within. For years, I’ve had vivid dreams, flashes of conversations or fights that didn’t seem real, but I knew were. My drawings flash through my head, and one in particular sticks with me. “Mom?” I whisper, not sure what to expect.

He nods, and memories flood through. A vivid image of her on our bathroom floor fills my mind, making my chest tighten.

“She died because of him, didn’t she?” Deep down, I always knew it was true, but I couldn’t accept the idea that her death could be linked to him. Everything was always veiled in secrecy, with hushed whispers that were beyond my understanding as a young child. But I had ears, and I knew something more was going on. Maybe that’s why he sent me away. Sadness overwhelms me at the thought.

I get a vision of my beautiful ma, the last I remember. She was curled in a ball on the bathroom floor. I screamed for my papa to come help me wake her up. Hugged her ever so tightly, hoping my cuddles would warm up her cold skin. But there was nothing I could do. My father took one look at her and knew. The way he yelled at me to get away from her scared the shit out of me, and I ran for it. Straight into Marco’s protective arms. He tried to shield me from the pain I was about to endure, but he was right there with me, grieving for her as well. He may have been eight years older than me, but he was still a kid who needed his mom.

“He was the one who got Mom hooked. She died of a drug overdose, not a terrible accident like he made you believe.”

A sob involuntarily escapes my lips as the harsh truth digs its way into my soul, gradually eroding the small amount of goodness that remained. He’s lucky he’s already dead. If he hadn’t been killed by the Morettis, I would have taken it upon myself to eliminate him for taking her away from me.

“His selfishness knew no bounds, and she held onto him as if he was the only thing that mattered in her life. Until he became so engrossed in the business that she became invisible to him, and he started feeding her the product to keep her sedated and pliable. If she was high, she wouldn’t know the truth about what he was doing behind her back. How deeply engrained in this life he was. And it was deep, Sis, our father did things for this family no one should have to. And for years it worked, he distracted her enough he could keep up the charade.”

“How could he hurt her in such a horrible way? She loved him.” Tears blur my vision, and I bury my head in my hands. I keep seeing her beautiful face and the way she looked at him like he was her everything.

Marco’s hand comes to my back, rubbing slow circles. But doesn’t this all tear him up inside as well, or is he so accustomed to it that it doesn’t affect him anymore? “He didn’t care about anyone but himself and how he came across to his boss—Enzo Moretti. Dad dreamt of being one of the big players, having the billions and the life that went with it.”

Mr. Moretti, I hate that name with a passion. That man, he’s pure evil. I can see it in his eyes. My cheek still fucking stings from his slap. “How do you know all of this?” I demand, needing to know everything.

His eyes, filled with ghosts, meet mine with a sense of gravity. “I know he seems harsh, but he has done things for us that only family should ever have to. We both owe him our lives.”

I return my attention to Marco. “Why did Papa send me away? When I was little, why did he keep all of this from me?”

“To protect you from this life. It’s no place to bring up a little girl without a mother.”

“Then why drop me in the middle of it now?” I cry, frustration taking over my emotions.

The door opens, and I hear Alessandro, Ricky, and Maddox enter the room quietly, right behind me, but I keep my focus locked on my brother. Adrenaline surges through my veins, causing my hands to shake. I’ve never experienced such a blend of confusion and clarity in my life before. “Who are you? And don’t fucking lie to me, Marco. I deserve the truth.”

He looks toward the boys, seeking their approval before proceeding. “Maddox, Ricky, and I have been friends since childhood, and we all swore our loyalty to the Moretti family together.”

“So, you work for Alex?”

“We all work for Enzo.” Alessandro shows no concern as he casually eavesdrops on our private conversation.

I disregard his intrusion and concentrate on my brother. I’m so angry with them all I can’t even look their way. “And that makes you what, a thug? A mobster, a drug dealer? Just like our father? What kind of shit are you all involved in?” I spit out my words, with them feeling like poison on my tongue. His truth infects my soul in a way I know I’m never going to recover from.

He gazes right into my eyes. It’s obvious he’s grappling with his loyalty to the Morettis and wanting to help me, but I can already tell they’re going to win out. He needs them to survive. I’m just a girl in a world I don’t understand. I can’t help him any more than I can help myself.

“Answer me,” I beg him because I’m exhausted from all the lies. If I know what we’re up against, I can work out how to deal with it. But I can’t stand being kept in the dark anymore.

“We all work for the Moretti family, doing whatever needs to be done,” he says cryptically, sounding like Alessandro’s clone.

I shake my head. He’s one of them now. I can feel it. One of the men under Alex’s thumb or his father’s. Pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Maddox’s story of them being friends checks out. And as screwed up as it all is, for the first time since I arrived at their cave, I understand why I’m here. To repay a debt, our father cursed upon us.

“Why didn’t you come back as soon as you heard I was here?”

“He only found out you were here yesterday,” Alessandro says for him.

Marco nods sadly. “It wasn’t safe for me to come back until you were found. The D’Amicos want me dead to pay for our father’s debts. When you marry Alex, that threat will go away. The Moretti family will protect us.”

His tortured eyes meet mine. I knew there was more to all of this. He wants me to marry Alessandro as well, because it saves him. Resignation comes over me, because for the first time since all of this started, I know what I have to do. Stay and marry Alessandro to save my brother.