“Bruno did it,” I counter, admonishing his statement.
“I’m not Bruno,” he argues, defying my comment with harshness. “My loyalties lie with you and Manuel first. Hell, they even lie with Carlo. If I’m not here, I dread to think what anarchy would be happening. I’m here because I’m meant to be. He, selfishly, got out to make a life with Allana, but I couldn’t walk away from you, Lia. It’s not in me to that.”
“But maybe it should have been and you wouldn’t be so unhappy!” I dispute feeling myself getting enraged over this.
“Are you two going to have a secret meeting here all evening or are you going to come and join us in the other room?” my father’s stormy voice breaks into the moment and I’m glad for it – until he continues, that is. “After today’s performance, Amelia, you have a lot of people to win over, not make them cower at every single turn. You can’t get the reputation you want by blowing people up!”
“Don’t start that,” I groan, and I don’t care if it exacerbates his anger, I’m done with being treated like an insubordinate under his name. “You should really teach men how to treat ladies, Sal. What you give is what you get, and if a man so much as makes one snarky remark at me, I will make a worse one back.”
“By blowing up a building,” my father argues, his tone tightening.
“That was just for effect,” I say, patting him on the chest before strutting past him and heading to the main room with my attitude intact. I can hear my father berating my stance and approach but carry on as if nothing is amiss.
When I find my brothers, I see Giovanni and Lorenzo are already hitting on women by the bar and as I approach them, Carlo and Manuel decide to leave Zane to fend for himself for a moment. I notice people all around are looking at Zane, and he has this wild look in his eyes as he prepares to bolt. I decide it’s time for an appropriate course of action.
“Get rid of that lost sheep look,” I comment as I come to stand by his side. “They’ll eat you up otherwise.”
“I don’t know what else to do,” he utters, panic lacing with every word.
I laugh a little, knowing this feeling, and put a hand to his back. “Let’s go get a drink,” I say and guide him toward the bar on the other side of the room. I deliberately take the opposite end to my scathing brother and Lorenzo and immediately try to gain the attention of the bartender. When he comes over, I order two scotch on the rocks. The moment they’re in front of me, I place one in Zane’s hand. “Drink it up,” I command and turn to look out at the crowd.
As I hold my drink, I notice one thing in particular – the female attention Zane is getting. As if I’m fucking surprised! The man is every woman’s walking dream and he’s here in front of them all. I look up at Zane, who is totally oblivious at first, and I feel relieved over it. It means my hold on him is still crushingly real, but I know it can’t remain that way and only I can change it. As I notice his gaze wander, I see him clock the same thing I had and lean in to let him know.
“That pretty little thing has had her eyes on you,” I comment, noting the brunette who has been standing with a redhead and staring for the past five minutes. “Go and talk to her. Make a new buddy. Hell, if I were you, I’d go and get yourself a little Bella on your arm for the evening. You might even find a good night cap in her,” I joke, but that last bit hurt far more to say than I want to admit, but I’m building up my guise toward my heart’s desires.
“What about you?” Zane asks, his brow furrowing with his confusion.
“What about me?” I ask him, giving a tight smile as if to say I’m okay. “As you said, I called us nothing, so you have every right to go and indulge a little.” I watch as he hesitates between what he wants to do and what he should do. “So, go.”
He shifts to the right, blocking the girl whose eyes are firmly on him and looks at me.
“Really,” I tell him, offering another forced grin. However, I quickly let it all fall away and offer him a more relaxed expression to be honest with him. “My father wants you to prove yourself to him before you even get me. I nailed the final bolt into the coffin of any hope we had, so go and enjoy attention from someone who won’t give you a verbal beat down.”
“Amelia,” he starts, declining what I’m proposing.
“Really.” I stop him from going further. “Go make some friends, Zane. You need to start building some alliances. Go charm her because I know for a fact that her father is quite a powerful man in the business. I’m pretty sure if my father could see you schmoozing well with his associates, you’d be more in the good graces than ever.”