by J. J. McAvoy
“I did tell you! What do you think the fucking wedding meant?” he snapped back. “She is my wife!”
“Which is why she let her take over today,” a new voice chimed in.
Looking over to the side door that led to the kitchen, I watched as Gabriel came forward; a plate in one hand and bottle of Rosé in the other with a towel over his shoulder. He placed the plate in front of me and then lifted the bottle to pour as he spoke. “Ivy is your wife; she has the right to be at the head of the foundation. Your sister respected that. She stepped back, allowed her to take over and your wife stumbled. That isn’t Dona’s fault. No matter what Donatella said, Ivy was going to stumble because she is a baby wolf left alone in the forest. If her teeth aren’t sharp enough, that isn’t Donatella’s fault. If a child falls, don’t blame the floor; blame the parent who put her there, wouldn’t you say?”
I cracked my jaw to the side; “This isn’t about you. I don’t need you to back me up—”
“I wasn’t backing you up,” he said, handing me the wine glass. “I was simply telling the facts as they are, knowing your brother is a reasonable man and will see the truth himself.”
Ethan stared at him bored, before asking, “How much of our time do you plan on wasting, Mr. Gabriel with no last name?”
“For as long as it takes for your sister to marry me.” Gabriel smiled and for the first time she noticed he had a dimple in one of his cheeks. Taking the towel off his shoulder, he cleaned his hands.
“You might be here until kingdom come,” I muttered.
“That’s fine, I’ve only learned two of your favorite dishes today, anyway. Chef Carluccio isn’t the most patient teacher I’ve ever had,” he replied, shifting his gaze to me.
I looked down at the food in front of me and sure enough it was one of my favorite dishes. Salmon with sunflower-dill pesto sauce and a small side of avocado and shrimp spicy Gazpacho. I felt my mouth water involuntarily.
“Do you mind?” Gabriel asked Ethan. “She hasn’t had dinner yet.”
Coldly, Ethan looked to me. “Ever since Ivy came, you’ve been acting erratically, I hope this soon-to-be-dead loon isn’t going to add to that.”
“So far it’s just you who’s been making me act erratically; making me wonder if you’re actually my brother still? Making me wish I did pull that trigger. You just met her, and now it’s my fault whenever I stand my ground in my own goddamn home. If you were going to treat me like this Ethan, you shouldn’t have pretended to give a fuck about me at all. Pick your wife, I’ll pick myself. You’re as useless to me now as father was to all of us back then.”
He stared me and I saw his eye widen just a little bit. I hoped I hadn’t imagine the hurt in his eyes, I hoped I had stabbed something of merit under that suit of armor but I wasn’t sure. He simply tossed the knife back on the table, allowing it to hit the glass before stabbing me with his words. “And you, Donatella, are still that selfish little girl who can’t recognize the reality of the world around her.”
“Goodnight Ethan,” I replied, picking up the Gazpacho, taking a spoonful into my mouth.
Ethan didn’t say anything else before turning around and walking out the doors from which he had come. And I wanted to relax but I looked over to see Gabriel staring at me while drinking a glass of the wine he had brought.
“Can I help you?”
“Is it good?” he asked and nodded to the bowl in my hand, waiting eagerly for my reply. It was then I remembered he was the one who had made it.
“What is this?” I asked.
He frowned. “Avocado and shrimp—”
“No.” I chuckled, not meaning to. “Why are you making me food? Is this a ploy to get me to like you?”
“Kind of,” he admitted but didn’t seem sure himself. “You don’t seem like the kind of woman who’d go to anyone’s arms to cry or complain about your problems. You just want to force them down and bottle it up. Food helps the pain go down.”
I paused, swallowing the food in my mouth. Going over his words in my mind, I said, “This is your way of comforting me?”
He nodded. “You don’t have to talk about it—”
“I have nothing to talk about,” I replied, taking another bite.
“Okay,” he replied, reaching behind him and I tensed. He raised his eyebrow then lifted the book for me for to see. “It’s just a book.”
“Why my parents would have engaged me to a book nerd like you is still beyond me.” I shook my head.
“Says the novelist,” he muttered flipping to a page of his book. I tilted my head to the side to see what he was reading, praying it wasn’t my book. And thankfully it wasn’t. It was Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.
He didn’t say anything more and neither did I.
I simply ate.
And he simply read beside me.
I hated to admit it, but I enjoyed it. It was like being alone and not being alone at the same time…which meant… I needed to get rid of him.
He was getting too close and too comfortable with me.
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and wondered how?
TWELVE
“I'm a kind person, I'm kind to everyone,
but if you are unkind to me,
then kindness is not what you'll remember me for.”
~ Al Capone
GABRIEL
Death had a smell.
It wasn’t the type of smell that brought vultures.
It was the type only certain living people could smell. People who’d come close to losing their lives one too many times, who’d been living on the edge of death’s door. I was one of those people. When death tried to come for me, the air around me would become still, the hair on my arms would rise, and I could smell the scent of peach and vinegar, just like I had last night. At first everything had seemed fine. But then she looked at me from the corner of her eye and I knew… Death was going to try to take me again.
I had to applaud her.
The ability to call forth death was something all men secretly wanted. That’s why Americans were so damned attached to their second amendment. The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. It was merely eloquent words for pure savagery. It shouldn’t have been called the right to bear arms; it should have been called the right to call death upon thy enemies. No matter how innocent a person was, no matter much good they did, there was still a black blemish in their hearts; the place where they caged their savagery, unleashing it on those who could hurt them. Guns made it easy. Easy to give the gift of death to those one came up against…so easy that they could detach themselves from how vicious they were being. The simple pull of a trigger and death came and went.
No. I didn’t want to be detached.
I didn’t want death to come and go with a single finger.
My whole body needed to be steeped in it because when my enemies…or in this case my fiancée, sent death after me… Death would join my side.
I made space for it.
I decisively walked into backyard, and kept walking into the woods, pretending to read the book in my hand. Over the last four days, I had known they had men watching me, tailing after me. So, if she’d sent them to kill me, they’d do it now.
Why?
Why was she doing it?
In a way, it actually made sense; she was scared. No one was on her side. Not the way she wanted it. They were all pushing her into a corner, starving her of respect and consideration. They didn’t mean to. They didn’t understand, when you are born with fire in you, when you wanted to rise but reality kept weighing you down. Like being a bird with broken wings staring up at the sky through which you were meant to soar. The sight was maddening. I understood her madness. Because I had the same madness in me as me as well. It was why I was here.
I was running out of time.
But I still knew to be patient.
What was worth having was worth waiting for. Worth fighting and killing for.
Snap. I
paused in the middle of the trail, which was covered in leaves still green and blades of grass.
Closing the book, I looked up to see six of the men surrounding me on all sides with guns in their hands.
Looking over them all, I asked one question, “Are we doing this like men or like bitches?”
They glanced over at each other before snickering; one of them stood up straighter and dropped his gun to the side.
Hubris was a sin for a reason…and they were going to learn that today.
DONATELLA
I was just about to take a bite of my French toast when all of sudden the doors burst open, and Helen gasped.
“Oh my God!”
Gazing through the door, I flinched at the sight of him. His light grey shirt was covered in blood and some even sprayed across his white face. In his right hand was a pair of dismembered hands, hog-tied together with shoelaces and dripping blood. Gabriel breathed in deeply as he walked around the table towards me. Wyatt got up but Ethan held out a hand for him to stop, his green eyes glancing at me. His eyes asked a clear question: what did I do?
Ignoring them all, I took a bite of my food. The only bite I’d get seeing as how Gabriel decided to drop a pair of hands on top of my plate as if they were toppings. He pushed his face directly next to mine.
“I got your gifts,” he said, brushing the side of my face, but I pulled my head away.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Did something happen?” I asked, turning to look him in the eye.
His gray eyes shifted back and forth, making it seem like he was reading my eyes; “If it wasn’t you, I can’t forgive this. I’ll think it only could have been your elder brother. How else could six men jump me on his property? I don’t want to think it’s your elder brother because that means he just declared war against me at the same time he’s trying to prevent a war in the south, keep you from killing his wife, as well keeping the Irish and Italians from feuding once again.”
He stood up straighter. “You must really enjoy juggling, Ethan.”
Ethan’s eyebrow twitched slightly and he glared at me before looking back up at Gabriel. “I’m not sure what happened to you Gabriel, however once I find out, they will suffer the consequences. You are a guest here, under our family’s word of protection. Anyone who respects me would never do such a stupid thing.”
The second part of his words were obviously directed at me. Reaching for my water, I drank, looking at none of them.
“No need, they aren’t capable of suffering now anyway,” Gabriel replied, picking the hands off my plate and tossing them to one of the guards standing off to the side. “My apologies, Donatella. It seems I falsely accused you.”
“Apology accepted.” I smiled, rising to my feet. “I’ve lost my appetite though; please excuse me.”
Stepping around him, I walked out the door quickly. My jaw set angrily, I marched up the stairs and into the elevator. But instead of going up to my room I went down, needing to scan my palm and my eye before the doors opened. When they did, I saw the dozen men who were meant to be watching the damned security cameras.
“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?” I hollered at them.
“Ma’am—”
“Don’t talk! Show me the motherfucking feed,” I said to them, marching up to the screen. I could hear fingers typing away on the keyboards before finally seeing Gabriel on the screen in a stainless V-neck shirt and jeans.
I watched as he walked down the path before suddenly stopping to close his book and look up. The men were then around him. However, he said something and instead of shooting, one of them dropped his gun to charge him… The idiot only ended up being tossed and flipped over on his back; Gabriel twisted both of his assailant’s arms behind his back until they broke and fell lifelessly on the dirt.
After the second assailant squared off with him they all charged, and I watched as Gabriel used one man as a shield to take bullets before using another man as a weapon to kill both. He broke the necks of the rest. When he was done and his attackers lay broken like discarded toys, Gabriel looked directly at the camera, reached into his boot, and retrieved a knife. He then bent down on one knee like hunter with his prize, and began to cut.
“Is this how you were all trained?” I asked softly, standing up straighter. “You were given an order and instead of doing what was asked, you allowed yourselves to be provoked into a fight and lost?”
“Ma’am—”
“DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING MY GODDAMN SELF!” I screamed, turning around on them. Inhaling slowly, I nodded. “Forgive me. I was mistaken to think I could count on you all.”
I laughed bitterly and they had the nerve to hang their heads. The elevator doors opened for Ethan, in all his mighty glory, to come forth. But I didn’t stop speaking. “I forgot you aren’t my men but my brother’s. So, my orders can be handled carelessly like this. My future can be dropped and kicked to the side so you can all compare dick sizes and protect your useless pride. A man can walk in here and demand I marry him and you…” I laughed. Shook my head. “And you all can just look away. Fine. Keep looking down…” I said looking directly at my brother as he stared back. “When you look up at me again I might be burning this place to the ground and dragging you sorry bastards straight to hell with me.”
Ethan didn’t stop me as I walked towards the door, proving he was just as smart as everyone thought. In this state, I would’ve tried to kill him this time for sure.
ETHAN
I watched the feed, asking, “What were her orders?”
“To kill him and make it look like suicide,” one of them answered.
“Who picked these men?” I asked, still watching.
“I did, Sir.” Boyle, who had been working as a house guard for almost six years, stepped forward. Short hair cut in a standard ex-military buzz cut.
“Follow my sister’s orders.”
“Kill him tonight, Sir?”
I looked away from the screen and looked to him. “Not him. You.”
“Sir—”
“A mistake of this magnitude needs to be made up for somehow,” I replied, fully turning to him and pointing to the screen. “They are all dead so they can’t pay for it. You picked them so you will pay. My sister wanted death by suicide… You will give her what she wants. In doing so, you will remind the rest of these men that the next time they are given an order and fail to complete it because they’ve decided to take it upon themselves, as my sister said, to compare dick sizes and protect your unless pride, you’ll all remember you are gambling with your own lives as well.”
“Sir—”
“Boyle, you can die her way or mine. Believe me, her way is kinder,” I said, turning from him and moving to the elevator. “Drink bleach if you must, I don’t care, but you better be dead when I check in again.”
Stepping inside, the silence was heavy. I’m sure all the men liked Boyle but they weren’t here to make friends or take it upon themselves to deal with situations as they pleased. They were meant to be robots; when they were given orders, those orders needed to be completed as instructed. If not… They were broken and I needed to get new ones.
“Oh, Dona.” I exhaled when the doors closed.
I thought the ticking would stop, that the bomb in her had at least been partially defused…but apparently it had only quickened.
She really did have the power to bring this all crashing down and she couldn’t be fucking rational anymore because of Gabriel. He’d either drive her to destroy us all or maybe…hopefully…redirect the blast somewhere else.
I didn’t like either option.
It left my choices up to a man I knew nothing about.
If she had killed him…it might have been better.
At least my hands would be cleansed of it.
GABRIEL
I could have taken a longer shower, I thought as I sat on the edge sofa waiting, twisting the knife in my hands around slowly as I stared at the ceiling…finding it kind of odd that the
re was a ceiling fan in any room in a mansion so modern as this. Everything else was automatic; even the curtains closed themselves in the evening if you left them.
“I never thought I’d need a lock for my room.” I heard her voice as she came inside.
Glancing over to her, I smiled. She was beautiful in dangerous sort of way, glaring at me with those fearsome green eyes. “You shouldn’t have been so upset. You aren’t the first woman to fail to kill me.”
“So, this happens often to you.”
“It’s a tragedy really. Being as handsome as I am yet surrounded by women who prefer power instead.”
“Power instead?” she replied. “You speak as if you are better than having power. What can you do that my gaining power can’t?”
“I can keep you warm at night?”
“I’m rich. I can afford a blanket made with the fur of polar bears to keep me warm.”
“Witty conversation?”
“The voices in my head provide me with more than enough of that,” she replied and I laughed at that. She was funny…good. I might count on that humor in the future.
The way she stared at me sent shivers down my spine. How could any man not want to tame such a fearsome beauty? To have this…her, that fire on their side?
“Stop fighting me Donatella and you’ll—”
“Can’t you see?” She smiled up at me as she spoke. “All I know is fighting, Gabriel. And it’s a shame, because if you weren’t here trying to force my hand, I’d actually find you attractive. I’d be turned on by how well you fight. And how fearless you are. But you are here trying to force my hand, so I will fight you until you give me a reason not to. I’ll fight you in every way I know how and with everything I have. Because you aren’t being honest with me. You’re hiding something very big…no, not hiding—you’re waiting. Like a wolf under the cover of darkness, I feel you watching and waiting to strike at me.”