Secrets
Icaro stared at the man he once considered a friend and glowered, “what game are you playing?”
“No game, Icaro.” The Walrus held his thick hands up in a careless shrug. “The heart wants what it wants,” he let his gaze trail to the backside of the woman marching away with her friend tucked to her side, “and from the minute I saw Zorah on the balcony in Rome, mine wants her.”
“You cannot have her. She is my wife.”
“You just finished saying she is not a possession, yet you’re staking a claim.” He paused, “I wonder, would you really allow her to sleep with someone else?”
“Anyone but you.”
“Why?”
“Because I am not sure what your game is here and while I don’t own her and she is her own person, you are up to something, and I don’t trust you.”
“We’ve been friends since we were boys. We do business together. You suddenly don’t trust me?”
“You have openly admitted to wanting to fuck my wife. I’m certain it gives me reason not to trust you.”
“I don’t want to fuck your wife,” he shook his head, his dark eyes gleaming with something Icaro couldn’t pinpoint. “I want her to be my wife. She deserves the world on a silver platter and what have you done other than force her to be your bride and then traumatize her at every turn.” At Icaro’s stunned expression his own features took on a serious quality, “do you think you are the only man in the world with a team who can run an investigation? While you live on your generational wealth, I made my own successes, but it wasn’t because I don’t play dirty. Does your wife know for example the number of women from our town who have confessed to Father Tarantino about sleeping with you and how dirty it made them feel after? How many times will your wife see your ex-lovers in church, at the local market, or better yet, when you take her to Catania, will she know there are hoards of women you’ve fucked? Does she know your numbers are in the triple digits? You were so frustrated being unable to wait for your bride you would have fucked a termite hill because there were holes in it.”
“What business is it of yours?” Icaro was contemplating how deep of a hole he would need to dig to hide this prick once he killed him.
“The minute I saw her, I knew she was special. You’ve known her entire life how special she was, and you foolishly squandered it. Wah, wah, you didn’t get to bring your blessed bride home with you and so you went on a fucking and killing spree. What kind of man has no self-control? You blame the Lucchesi bloodthirst, but we all know the truth. You were weak. You are weak. You left her behind to be assaulted by her family and creeped after her in the dark. Your own men didn’t report to you when she was being harmed. You didn’t even know.” At Icaro’s stunned expression, “I did my homework Lucchesi. I know all her secrets now. By the way, the man her mother is fucking is Sidonia Gaines’ uncle, the one married to her aunt running the school the girls attended. A pregnancy scare a while back encouraged her to get the pill. They’re in love but so terrified of Giannone and his bullshit control over his church they can’t act on it. Zipporah Esposito hung around because of her daughter but now she is gone, how long before the couple run off together causing another scandal for the priest?”
“You speak as if Zorah’s mother was making sacrifices in staying.”
“How much worse do you think Zorah’s punishments would have been without her mother involved?” The Walrus asked Icaro. “Do you think she hasn’t suspected all along her brother lusted after her daughter? Do you think she doesn’t know the nuns watch every move Zipporah makes and reports it back to him? If she was kind to Zorah, Zorah would have paid a bigger price. Sometimes you hurt the ones you love to spare them even deeper cruelty. I think it would have only been a matter of time before Giannone revealed he is not blood related to Zipporah and thus her daughter was not as taboo as everyone thinks.”
Icaro froze, “what?”
The Walrus threw his head back and laughed, “you do not know? You with all your connections and investigations never figured it out? You need to go back to your little office and do more research.” He gave a hearty chuckle. “Or I could tell you all the information right here right now for a price.”
Icaro scoffed, “I imagine your price involves my wife.”
“No. I will win her on my own. I don’t need your dirty involvement in such things. She will learn on her own whether she wants to be involved with a murderous bunch when her heart is so pure.”
“You speak as if you’re as pure as the driven snow.”
“I am not but I also wasn’t engaged for twenty-one years and fucking everything with a pussy. You’ve been cheating on her for the entirety of her life. I’ve also never killed anyone in front of her. I have never discounted her feelings or emotions.”
“Why? You still haven’t said why you want her.”
“I have multiple times but you’re not listening, Icaro. Do you think you Lucchesi men are the only ones on Earth who see a woman and feel lovestruck? While the rest of us mere mortals,” he mocked Icaro, “must make do with wooing and putting in the effort instead of spouting centuries old myths and legends, there is such a thing as lovestruck. I took one look at her and knew my life would never be the same.”
“You’re lying. There is something else going on.”
“There is not. It is as simple as I say it is. I saw her on the balcony. The setting sun casting a glow on her. Her eyes were closed as she prayed, and I knew she was praying. She is an angel sent to this earth to lighten the darkest of corners and I felt it in my soul the minute I saw her. An hour later her entire file was on my desk including every shitty thing you, her uncle and her mother have done to her since she was born. I would die for her and not think twice.”
“I can make it happen.” Icaro bunched his fists.
“Yet you won’t.” The Walrus commented, “because you and I both know you don’t deserve her. You have never deserved her.” He stretched his arms over his head, “I want a twenty-five percent discount on my contract for the year and I’ll have a file to you in an hour on the real relationship between Giannone and the Esposito and Grasso families.”
With this he turned and walked towards the office where Calogero waited.
Icaro remained standing trying to wrap his head around what the other man said.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
