Page 87 of Until Death or Defeat

Ifeel relief when I see Caesar. I know the last time we spoke it was a bit heated...but I’m stuck in a whirlwind of emotions surrounding our family so for now I just need to keep everyone close while I work through this. I move forward and hug him, and he holds me back.

“You guys came fast,” he says as he releases me and lets us walk in.

It’s awkward. I know Artem is angry but pushing through for me, while Roman and Maxim haven’t necessarily had a conversation with my brother before.

“Um, so where is Leo? Isn’t he coming?” I ask.

“He said he was going to go talk to Uncle Robert, apparently he said he vaguely remembers something about Russians and he needed to go check something. He sounded worried,” Caesar says, and Artem turns to me looking angry.

“What?”

“Why would you tell them every fucking detail we have? Don’t you have any form of self-preservation?”

“That is mybrother, Artem!”

“Look, Artem, I’m sorry. I should have asked if it was okay. The truth is that Leo is innocent, so I really didn’t think twice about it,” my brother offers.

I know that look on Artem’s face. He’s furious. But fuck, I didn’t think it was a big deal either.

“Aren’t you the Head, Caesar? Are you aware that your little sister’s life could be indanger? Or do you two share a delusion? Because I expect more from the head of the most prominent Family.”

“Artem—”

“No, you’re right. Of course I’m serious about her safety,” Caesar answers, cutting off my outburst.

“Act like it. The reason I’m here is because of her, and I will not rest until whoever threatens her fucking life has their head on a stake. If that includes you, and you know something then?—”

“Artem, stop,” I beg, grabbing his arm.

“I would never let something happen. I wanted to assure you that for the last couple weeks Leo has been so helpful here, he’s serious about joining our family again. He’s good people now. I know when we were teenagers, he...was a bit wild. But he’s settled now, he wants to build a life.”

“Wild? He was looking for a war, Santoro. You know very fucking well what he did.”

“Yes, and I swear that I told him if he loves Gigi and wants to show her that he’s changed, that he needs to apologize to you.”

“Don’t think an apology will fix the fact he fucked?—”

“Shut your damn mouth,” Artem snaps at Maxim, smacking the back of his head.

What?

“Seriously? You guys are keeping another thing from me?” I whine as I look at Artem.

“No,moya,” he says with a sigh. “It’s not something I like to be reminded of.”

“You don’t mean Sara?” I ask gently.

He nods. “I knew. I had found out one night at the country club. Fucking bastard said something out of line and...”

“And he was wrong. He knows that. He felt terrible about it when she died,” Caesar interrupts.

“You didn’t break up?”

“No, we didn’t. We were still figuring out how our future could work. We weren’t even out of high school.”

I nod slowly, taking in what he just said. I guess I understand now why he’s always been so biased against Leo.

“That was almost thirteen years ago now. I swear that he’s changed.”