who she was before all of the shit she’d been through.
“I’ve got you covered then, bella,” Frankie assured her, not even noticing that she’d just remembered something, or maybe just not making a fuss in case she didn’t want to. “I’ll go and make sure I didn’t leave any of my home movies in there and get some popcorn cooking.”
“Home movies?” I asked him in confusion and the smirk he shot me was pure filth.
“All consensual and for my eyes only,” he assured me with a wink and I couldn’t help but think about that kinky ass room me and Winter had found the other week. I hadn’t asked him about it but the weird and wonderful things he’d had hanging from the walls had left me pretty fucking curious.
Frankie paused for a moment, looking at me like he could read my mind and as Winter got up to take her plate over to the sink, he leaned low to speak to me. “Have you been exploring the back bedrooms, fratello?” he asked me with a dirty grin.
“Why?” I asked, careful to keep my face neutral. “What would I have found there if I had?”
“The very best kinds of fucked up shit,” he assured me, laughing to himself before strolling away to go set up the movie for him and Winter.
I cleared my throat, wondering if I wanted more details on that or if I was better off left in the dark and settling on the latter. No one needed to hear about their sibling’s sex life.
The elevator dinged and I pushed to my feet suddenly, my heart hammering inside my chest as the door slid open and Martello Romero stepped into the apartment.
Winter froze in her position by the kitchen sink and I seemed to have forgotten how to move my damn legs. It wasn’t like this was the first time I’d ever met him, but it was certainly the first time he’d ever let his attention linger on me, or for me to see him without his eyes filling with hostility. He was a tall man, at least my height and despite the twenty five year age gap between us, he looked in good enough shape to give me a run for my money. His dark hair was streaked with subtle lines of silver and his navy suit was pristine to the point of immaculate.
“Angelo,” he said, his voice rough and low like a soothing caress against my soul.
“Nicoli,” I corrected quietly, feeling like an asshole at the pain that flashed in his dark eyes. “But...it looks like I’m a Romero instead of a Vitoli.”
Martello smiled a little at that, his gaze flicking to Winter as he slowly tugged his leather gloves off and tucked them into a pocket of his woollen coat before slipping that off too.
“Winter’s with me,” I explained, though I guessed Frankie had probably already let him know that anyway.
“Of course,” he agreed with a nod, moving to take Winter’s hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it. “Ciao, bella,” he said in that utterly soft voice of a gentleman which made it hard to believe he was one of the most ruthless monsters in the entire country, let alone Sinners Bay.
Winter bit her lip as words failed her and I hurried to explain before he thought she was rude or something, but before I’d even gotten the words out, Martello was talking again.
“My son explained your silence to me, bella,” he said, “It takes great strength of character to survive all you have and come out so strong and beautiful on the other side of it. If you ever have words to speak to me then I will be honoured indeed.”
Winter flushed red at the compliment just as Frankie strode back into the room with an excited greeting for his papa. He pulled him into an affectionate hug and they had a brief exchange in Italian which was spoken too quickly for me to understand, though I guessed that was the point.
A moment later, Frankie turned away, grabbed Winter’s hand and whisked her out of the room, leaving me alone with the man who had contributed his DNA to my existence.
Martello cleared his throat and indicated the armchairs sitting by the floor length windows. I followed him over to them and he paused to grab two tumblers and a bottle of scotch from the liquor cabinet before taking the seat opposite me.
“This seems like a conversation that will go down easier