“You are not doing it,” I immediately retort, taking the opportunity away from him. I know Giovanni sees me as incapable, and at times, I see myself that way too, but Zane is too close to my heart for Giovanni to step in and literally rip his heart out of his chest cavity.
“Amelia, you’re fucking in love with the man! Tell us, please, how the fuck you think you’ll ever be able to kill him when you think with your heart and not your head.” Just to annoy me further, Giovanni points his left index fingers and gives me a sharp jab into my chest, right above my heart. “You’re a weak Abbiati. You should be ashamed of failing this one job.”
“So weak, I’ve killed twice the men you have,” I observe sarcastically and snigger. “Yeah, I’m fucking weak, Gio.”
“You don’t really get involved in the gritty grisly deaths, though, do you?” Giovanni states dryly.
“Their hearts all stop beating the same. It’s kind of the only conclusion to death. They’re all ending up at the same destination. Just because you prefer bloodshed doesn’t give it much difference!” I can feel my blood boiling with agitation, and I want to scream at Giovanni. He probably still wouldn’t even get the idea in his head. “So, get it out of your head now – you are not killing Zane Maverick.”
“I’m in agreement with your brother, Amelia.” My father stands back up, setting his glass down on the side. I look at him disbelievingly. “I imagined this case to take you by surprise, but you’re delaying the inevitable now, Bambina.” He comes over to where we’re standing. “All you’ve got to do is pop some poison in a drink and serve it to him. Hell, pin him down and drown him with it. Amelia, I don’t care how you do it, just do it.”
“She loves him,” Giovanni points out. “Ergo, she won’t be able to do it.”
“Princess, he broke your heart. This is the time to get even and break him in the best way you know how to.” I cringe at my father’s reference to death as if it’ll be a simple crack in Zane’s heart like the multiple he caused to burst into mine. “Kill him and I’ll allow you to take a break.”
“Kill him and you might stay in Daddy’s good graces.” Giovanni strikes up, taking the opportunity to use my own comments against me. “Or, let me, and you don’t have to kill the only man who will ever love you and your cold heart.”
“I think Giovanni’s onto something.” My father’s hand comes up to my arm as he begins to release me from my duties. “Let your brother take care of this one.”
“Shut up!” I bellow, my voice hard and barely shaken by anger. “Zane is my hit. I will kill him as I so please, but I cannot and I will not treat him like any other man you’ve had me kill.” Zane isn’t another victim to my family’s name. He’s a victim to my love. “And you,” I say and point to my father, “need to realize that I love him, so unlike you with Mom, I cannot just kill him and not think twice!” The moment I say that comment leaves my mouth, I regret it. Even more so when I notice my father’s eyes darken. “I don’t care if this takes me two weeks or two months, I need to do this. He is mine. Not yours, not Gio’s, but mine.”
“Then you continue to kill other men while I wait for news Maverick is dead because I fear it’ll take far longer than two months.” My father’s deal is offered with spite. He hates to have to negotiate with anyone – family means no exception.
“Fine,” I exhale, happy with that compromise. I go to leave, but my father grips my wrist and traps it at such an angle I fear he’s about to break it. “Papà,” I hiss in pain as I fight for freedom from his grasp on me.
“You dare bring up your mother’s death to me again,” he begins to snarl, and I interject him immediately.
“What? Bring up the fact that you strangled the life out of her, you mean?” I ask him. He’s already hurting me, but I’m past the point of trying to keep calm over this. “I might do your job for you and I might remember how it was all too easy for you to kill her, but I’m not you. I might have your genes and your name, but I have her heart. The one she fucking loved you with!”
My father releases me only to slap the back of his hand over my cheek. The powerful swipe sends me falling, and I land upon the floor with a heavy thump. I look up at him in horror and his look matches mine. I reach to my cheek and feel the heat of his strike. I can’t believe my father lost his cool so quickly that he lashed out at me.
“Amelia.” Enzo is by my side in seconds, helping me up. As my father approaches, apologetic, Enzo puts his hand up to stop him. “I think you’ve said and done enough on this matter. I’ve told you before you never lay a damn finger on her!”