CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
“PROMISES CAN BE BROKEN”
SCARLETT DEL GATO
The school parking lot the next week Monday was dreadfully full, making me groan loudly when Giovanni parked the SUV.
I suddenly didn’t want to climb out of the car anymore but Giovanni would know that something was wrong. He’d pull the truth right out of me. I don’t want to tell him the truth, not until I know the truth myself.
I don’t know if my brother’s alive or not.
I don’t know if what Vincent said was true or not.
I didn’t know anything.
All I know is that Giovanni didn’t shoot my brother. He didn’t pull the trigger. Vincent did. He was there that night. He was the silhouette I kept seeing in my dreams over and over again. It was him with the white pistol tattoo I saw in my nightmare.
“What’s wrong?” Giovanni asks when he parked the SUV.
His eyes were full of concern and the look he was giving me wanted to make me blabber everything to him.
Right here, right now.
But I can’t. There was too much at risk.
If I tell him what Vincent expects of me, I don’t know what Giovanni and Vito would do with the information. I don’t know if they would go and wipe out the entire gang of the White Pistols before I could even get a chance to know if my brother was alive or not.
I shake my head and flash him a small smile. “Nothing. I’m just tired.”
He squeezes my hand when I wanted to click the button to unlock the seatbelt. His hand was so warm against mine, I wanted nothing more than to take his hand in mine and to give it a squeeze back, but he pulls away before I could get a chance to.
He places his hand on the steering wheel again.
“If you feel too tired or pressured, let me know and I’ll come and get you.” He says. “And if something feels off, message me first before you take matters into your own hands.”
“Are you referring me to me going back to the house without letting you know?” I ask him.
He nods. “I know why you were upset that day.” He says. “Eden told me about Vincent. You were upset about it.”
“You saw Eden?”
“I came to school with Vito. She told me she tried to contact you but you never responded to one of her calls or messages. I tried to find some clues about where you were but she didn’t have a clue either. She just wanted me to find you and to bring her back.”
A small laugh escapes through my lips. “I’m surprised you didn’t drag her along.” I smile at him. “I thought you would drag her along to get some information out of her.”
“I wanted to but then it occurred to me that you might be at your house. So we decided to look there before we jumped to conclusions that she might have had a part in your disappearance.” He replies, smirking at me.
“I know better than to just leave the next time.” I tell him. “So you don’t have to worry anymore. I’ll message you when something feels off.” I lean backward, grabbing my bag from the leathered backseats of the SUV.
I peck his cheek and turn to get out of the SUV but he stops me and pulls me by the arm. He kisses my forehead, long and hard while at the same time soft and gentle. “Don’t hesitate the next time to call me.” He says against my forehead. “If something is wrong again, just text or call and I’ll be here faster than you can say Asstiglione.”
I chuckle, savouring the feel of his lips against my forehead.
“And you should let your shoulder get some rest.” I tell him. “No more driving today if you get back to the mansion. Let one of the guards pick me up later. I’ll be fine.”
He nods. “Yes, Miss Del Gato. I will rest my shoulder once I get home.”
I wave at him after I got out of the SUV. I watch him driving out of the parking lot when I feel Eden pulling me by the arm. She then hugs me once I was turned around by her sudden movements.
She was literally crushing me to death.
“E-Eden, c-can’t b-breathe.” I tell her, trying to pry her arms off of me but she had me in a tight grip. I couldn’t move an inch.
She finally lets go.
She looks at me with worry all across her face. “Where the hell were you? I was so worried. When Giovanni came to school the other day, I really thought you died or something because he looked terrible and when he spoke to me, he sounded very shaky and frightened.”
“I was at my house.” I shrug. “I just couldn’t handle the pressure of everything anymore. I needed to get away for just a few hours.”
“So you couldn’t message us and let us know where you were?” Eden asks, “Giovanni was on the verge of killing someone.”
Giovanni was o protective over me—it made the guilt start to eat me up all over again. And when he kissed my forehead in the SUV a few minutes ago, I wanted to tell him the truth. I wanted to tell him what I have to do in order to get my brother back. I wanted to tell him that he wasn’t the one who shot my brother. I wanted to tell him that it was Vincent.
But I couldn’t.
I focus my attention back on Eden. “I’m sorry.” I smile apologetically at her. “It won’t happen again.”
“It better not.” She swats my arm. “My heart can’t handle it anymore.”
She hooks her arm in mine as we walk into the school building.
I notice Diablo standing by his locker again, this time he was focusing on his phone instead of glaring at me like he usually did.
I wanted to go over to him, to demand him if he knew about my brother all this time, but Eden pulls me out of my thoughts. She pulled me back into the present when she tugged my arm.
“What’s wrong? It looks like you have some heavy burdens.”
Hell, if only she knew.
“Nothing.” I shake my head. “I’m fine. I’m just deep in thought.” I tell her, hoping she won’t notice the lies written across my face.
“If something happened to you while you were gone, you can tell me.”
“I’m not sure if I can tell anyone for that matter.” I tell my best friend. “All I can tell you is that my life is officially a shit-show and I can’t do anything or tell anyone about it.”
Eden stops in her tracks, watching me worriedly as she steps in front of me. “Scarlett, I’m your best friend. You can tell me whatever’s bothering you. If I can lessen the weight on your shoulders—”
“I want to tell you, Eden, but I can’t.” I sigh in defeat. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me so it’s better that I don’t tell you. This is my burden and I’ll carry it myself.”
Eden nods in understanding, smiling sadly at me. “Okay, but if you ever need to unload some things, I’m here for you always, and Giovanni too,” she says, “but all I ask of you is that you won’t do something stupid again like endangering your life, because I won’t be able to handle losing you again and I believe that Giovanni will kill anyone if something happens to you.”
I wanted to tell her that my life was already endangered and that there are no easy solutions to all my problems, but that would just make her worry about me more, so I kept quiet instead, and tried to ignore the thoughts and guilt gnawing on the inside of my mind.
When the bell rings for the first period of the day, I tell Eden I want to go to the bathroom.
She nods but makes me promise that I won’t disappear again.
I, of course, promised her.
I wanted to talk to Diablo and I know he wanted to talk to me too.
I make my way to the girl’s bathroom, spotting Diablo still leaning against his locker ignoring the fact that the bell rang for class. He sees me making my way to the bathroom and I jerk my head towards the bathroom.
He smirks before he walks over to the bathroom.
After the two of us walked into the bathroom and made sure no one was inside, I lock the door behind me and turn to look at him. “The last time you cornered me here in the bathroom, I asked you if you had a grudge against me for what Giovanni did to your brother, but you knew all this time that he was alive and well.”
“The last time I checked,” he smirks, just like his brother, “you never asked me if he was alive. I would’ve been honest with you if you simply just asked.” He says, twirling a strand of my hair between his fingers but I jerk backwards, away from his fingers.
“A lot of things happened since that day like the fact that your psychotic brother kidnapped me and told me to kill the Castiglione brothers,” I pause, seeing how his expression changed from being smug to frightened in a matter of seconds, “and like how he told me that my brother’s alive.”
He chuckles, trying to walk away from me but I grab his arm, twirling him around so that he can face me.
Anger floods through my veins, watching him. I grab him around the neck, pushing him to the wall beside the bathroom stalls. I don’t know where I got the sudden strength from, but I was glad that it worked in my favour.
“You’re going to tell me everything I need to know about my brother.” I tell him. “Is he alive? Are you keeping him somewhere? Where the hell is he?!”
Diablo shrugs and I tighten my grip around his neck. His face started to redden as he tried to hard not to gasp for air.
He was tough, I give him that. But everyone breaks at some point.
“If you don’t tell me in the next five seconds, my grip will tighten again.”
He shakes his head, his eyes filled with water as he was struggling to catch his breath. “I don’t know.” He coughs, squirming underneath my hands.
“Don’t lie to me, Diablo.”
He grabs my wrists and turns me so my back was against the wall. He holds my hands right above my head, his face so close to mine. “My brother doesn’t tell me anything. I don’t know if your brother is alive or not.”
“He’s your brother! Don’t bullshit me—” I yell.
“I’m not bullshitting you, sweetheart.” He says and for the first time I actually believed him. “Trust me, if your brother was alive, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
I don’t know why my heart sank inside my chest when he told me that, but it did. It means that he didn’t know if he was alive or not. It also means that Vincent might’ve lied to me to get me to kill the brothers.
“But just so you know… the Castiglione brothers are an enemy of ours, they have been for a long time now. So if my brother told you to kill them and you refuse to do so, he will kill you, your brother and the brothers too. Either way, someone dies in this story.” Diablo says, letting go of my wrists.
I let them fall to my sides.
At least he didn’t try to strangle me like I did him.
He wasn’t like his brother.
“But if you’re wise enough,” he continues, “you’ll make the choice of killing the brothers yourself before my brother kills you and them. He has the entire White Pistols gang wrapped around his finger and he won’t let the chance of killing them slip through his fingers again.” Diablo says, his tone sending a chill cascading down my spine.
“If you can get me proof that my brother is alive, I will do anything.” I swallow hard, releasing a sigh as I watch a smirk appear on his mouth again. “Even kill the brothers.”
Bile rose up my throat and I swallowed it down again before I discard the breakfast I had this morning onto Diablo’s black lace-up boots.
“Although I don’t want to be mixed up in this story, I will give anything to see the brothers squirm.” Diablo says. “They deserve to fall. So I will get you information about your brother.”
I reach out my hand towards him and he takes it into his.
I ignore the smirk on his face when I shake his hand. Mine was sweaty in his, but he didn’t seem to care.
Little did he know that promises can always be broken.