Blood for my Rose |• Crimson Rose series✔️

Chapter 7

Italy
Sicily

It was the typical Italian mansion. Not those types built by wealthy families of the Italian Renaissance in the 19th and 20th century, no. This one was Mediterranean. The building had a front and back yard with the back mirroring the structure of the front, except it had an extensive garden that grew Rosemaries, which always made the compound smell of evergreen herbs.

On each sides of the building were a pair of stairs leading to the gigantic front porch that cut into a long hallway to meet the foyer at the back. People didn't necessarily need to go in through the ground floor to access the first and second floor of the house. It was a very huge building that sat in the middle of two acres of land.

Step by step, Rose walked ahead of Riley as they faced the front of the building. No matter how hard she tried to maintain confidence, she left too many in the car to have enough to face Giovani.

Meanwhile, Enzo and Pedro had disappeared to the back after they'd dropped the luggage in front of the house. And Romero was making a phone call behind the car trunk. It was left with Rose to face the wrath of her brother alone, only if Romero had the time to put up with Giovani this evening, because it sure did look like he had a lot on his plate.

Her feet stopped and she raised her head to Giovani's figure. He had legs for daze but a face that looked like ramification. He stood hip-shod at the last stair of the few stairs that led to door of the ground floor as he smoked his pipe tobacco.

Rose eventually looked into his half-closed eyes, and the voice she'd dreaded hearing finally spoke. "Rosa, may I ask who this man is?" His face was twisted into a stony mask as he placed the pipe on stool. He took in Riley's appearance as he raked his eyes down his form till saw his sneakers.

"I'm her fiancé," Riley said from behind, making Giovani look at him, and he couldn't miss the sight of his enraged eyes.

"I didn't ask you, idiota," (Idiot) he fired, crossing his arms over his chest in a domineering stance.

"Well, did she look to you like she'd have answered?" Riley had lost his last whit of self control and pretense of being the respectable brother in-law. He took a step forward, and another, bringing him in front of Rose. He wasn't even sure of his own tone when he began to speak again. "Look, I've never met you before, and I'd not lie that it's been a pretty good experience being here. Rose and I," he stuttered the last part of his sentence. "We're about to-"

"Giovani," Rose called in a soft, yet demanding manner, stopping Riley's words at the tip of his tongue. She wouldn't let anyone of her bothers see the tiniest form of weakness from Riley, even if it meant daring almighty Giovani. "So," she murmured. "His name is Riley-"

Giovani let out a humorless laugh. "I don't give a fuck about his name. The question is why's he in the house?" His eyes revolved around Riley as he asked.

"I asked him to come," Rose started.

"Because she felt it was the right thing to do." Riley finished it up, shrugged and then continued, "left to me, I'd have married her there, regardless of what was going on here."

Rose was gratified to see the shock in Giovani's eyes after Riley dropped the bomb. Her show of indifference was completely pseudo, because she was actually terrified to the core of her spine and trembled under her skin.

"When did you begin to lose your morals?" Infuriated and irritated, Giovani asked Rose.

She frowned. Frankly, the question was completely unnecessary. "It's not about morals. Do you even hear yourself?" She yelled. "Who ever questioned you when you brought Ximena to this house?"