Free Giovanni (Blood Brothers Book 6) by Eve Vaughn

agree but he kept hinting that I wasn’t a real Sarducci. Papa told him to be quiet and he would for a while but he’d start up again. I was so angry, I hit him.”
    Giovanni raised a brow. It wasn’t like his brother to lose his cool in front of their father or at all for that matter. “What did our father say?”
    “I didn’t give him a chance to say anything. I ran out the castle and went looking for you.”
    “You shouldn’t listen to them. They are troublemakers. They come here twice a year, eat a lot, gossip and cause trouble. No one takes them seriously.” Giovanni hoped his response was enough to calm his brother down, although at least he actually looked like one of their parents. Giovanni, on the other hand, looked like neither. He’d heard the servants gossip about his paternity when they didn’t think anyone was listening. It often made him wonder about the validity of those claims. At least then it would make sense why his father treated him the way he did. But he recognized that hearing something like that would be devastating for his brother, who was the favored son.
    “You’re right. What does Fabricio know anyway? He’s jealous because he won’t inherit all this and I will.”
    Giovanni nodded. “That’s exactly it. Jealousy.”
    Adonis smiled. “Thank you, Giovanni.”
    “For what?”
    “You always manage to make me feel better. How about we race to the end of the field?”
    Before Giovanni could agree, his brother took off. He smacked his horse’s rear to take it from a gallop to a run in order to catch up to his brother. Adonis might have been older, but Giovanni was the better rider, mainly because of all the time he spent in the stables.
    Giovanni caught up to Adonis and beat him by a nose.
    Adonis didn’t seem bothered by his defeat. “I almost had you that time.”
    “Almost, but not quite.”
    “Giovanni?”
    “Yes, Adonis?”
    “Can I ask you a question?”
    “What is it?”
    “Why didn’t you save me?”
    Giovanni turned his head to ask Adonis what he was talking about. To his shock and horror, his brother, who still sat astride his horse, had a trail of blood trickling down both sides of his mouth. There was a huge fist-sized hole in the middle of his chest.
    “Why didn’t you save me?” Adonis asked again before his eyes turned bright red.
    Giovanni sat up in his bed with a start. The dream had seemed so real. It was a cross between an actual memory and a nightmare, just like before. He remembered that day when Adonis had come looking for them when Fabricio had upset him. And then they raced their horses. That had happened shortly before their mother was found to be having an affair with Gio. It was revealed that the man who Giovanni had seen as a father figure was actually their real father.
    It was getting to a point where he didn’t want to go to sleep because he’d be reminded of a past that still haunted him and probably would continue to for the rest of his life.
    A soft knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. “Who is it?”
    “It’s Sydney. Are you okay in there?”
    Sydney.
    After their kiss Giovanni had spent the next couple of days avoiding her, only joining the house for meals. During the day, he went for long walks to clear his head. The local library had also been a welcome distraction that kept him occupied and away from the house. Sydney seemed to be doing the same so he was surprised that she’d be outside his room.
    He slid out of bed and grabbed his pajama pants and quickly slid into them. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t see his nudity; Giovanni needed that barrier between them in case he did something stupid. Whenever he was around her, he couldn’t think straight.
    He opened the door just enough to see her face. Giovanni barely managed not to gasp. Once again he was struck by her beauty. Even without a drop of makeup her skin glowed and he wanted nothing more than to have another taste of her sweet lips. Wrapped in a fluffy