For a chance to avenge her family, Angelica married the enemy--Curtis Arciero, the ruthless owner of the most famous nightclub in the city, a cold-hearted asshole with a heart made of stone. Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer, they say. But when the flames got too hot to handle and the chemistry too much, she realized she had a bigger problem at hand. Does keeping the enemy close include falling for his charm?
Voir plusAngelica St. Clair
“Miss St. Clair?”
I nodded to the man sitting across the table and pulled my chair to sit opposite him. He was my late uncle’s lawyer, Clinton, who had contacted me a week ago regarding Uncle Robert’s will. I didn’t even know there was one. My uncle had died two years ago in a car accident. He had been young, so I had assumed there was no will, especially since no one had ever mentioned the existence of one. I generally thought his belongings had been liquidated or donated.“I would say it’s nice to see you, but…” I shook my head so I wouldn’t appear rude.
“I know how difficult this meeting is for you, Miss St. Clair, but I promised Robert I would make sure you were aware of everything he wanted you to know.” He had sympathy in his eyes and I knew why. For eight years, Uncle Robert was all I had. he was not just an uncle. I would say he was like a father to me but no one can replace Papa.That's not to say I didn't love him. I did, and losing him had crushed me so hard that I didn’t think I could ever recover from the blow. Clinton knew this, and I hated the look he was giving me. I did not want anyone’s sympathy.
“Let’s get out of here,” I suggested, not wanting to discuss my uncle in a restaurant with patrons milling about. Besides, I had to keep myself distracted before I punched Clinton to sweep off the ‘poor girl’ look on his face. He followed my lead to Mystic Park. It was a chilly morning, so the park was nearly empty with only a few people running laps around it. We had plenty more privacy than at the restaurant, where tens of people strutted in for their morning caffeine fix. “Robert was a great man,” Clinton started, and I immediately cut him off. “Get straight to the point. While at it, do you mind explaining why you only came seeking me now? Uncle Robert has been six feet underground for two years and I don’t believe his ghost came to find you and tell you it was time to talk to me.” I nearly regretted being rude but I didn’t care enough. Clinton must have dealt with far worse families because he didn’t seem to care either. “Your uncle's will did not indicate when you should claim his estates. In such instances, the law requires you to be of age before you can claim anything. I nodded, but I was furious. I wanted to be done with this discussion as soon as possible, so I could crawl back into my boring, numb life. Clinton opened his briefcase and passed an envelope to me. The will. It felt like it weighed a hundred tons. Tears stung my eyes and I rapidly blinked them away. “Can I read it later?” I pleaded. I was not ready for this. “Of course. Do you want the key to the deposit box?” I had no idea what he was talking about but I nodded. He rummaged through his briefcase and dug out a single key with a golden tag with a logo I recognized all too well. Galaxy Bank. That’s where my uncle had kept all his savings. I had been allowed to keep my credit cards for emergencies but this was different. It was like having a piece of him back and I had to take deep breaths to stop my tears from spilling out. “If you need any elaboration about anything,” he dug into the pocket of his black suit and placed a business card in my palm. “Feel free to call me any day.” _____ “Morning, Nana.” I kissed Nana Simone on the cheek, placing my bag on the small table beside her ancient rocking chair. “My Aniela.” Her wrinkly hand trembled as she placed it on my shoulder. She had called me ‘Aniela’ for the last several months and I should be getting used to it. Yet it broke my heart every time. Aniela was her late daughter, and when Nana was not having episodes, she swore I looked like her. I liked to believe it was the reason why she wanted to adopt me. That, and the fact that her daughter’s name had the same meaning as mine, just in different languages. Although she was past the legal age and wasn’t in the right mental state for adopting a child, I had insisted on going home with her. After all, I was not technically a child at the time. I was sixteenI wrapped my arms around her and did what I always did to calm her down. I played along with her current hallucination. “I’m home, mama,” I whispered. She flashed a smile. “Don’t stay up too late dancing, you hear?” She wagged a finger at me, making me squint my eyes. Was she back to the actual world where she knew I was Angelica St. Clair, or did Aniela like dancing too? I could never tell with her. Either way, I kissed her cheek again and grabbed my bag pack on my way to my room. The staircase creaked louder than usual as I impatiently dashed for my room. Unlike the will that felt like a decree from hell when I received it two days ago, my curiosity had been instantly piqued when I found the contents of the safety deposit box. I emptied my bag pack where I had stashed them and took out the two keys. They looked familiar but I couldn’t remember where I saw them. Setting them aside, I sat on my bed and opened the envelope addressed to me. Heaven knew it was the only thing I was truly curious about. I unfolded the letter with trembling hands and glanced at the door. I shuffled out of the bed and twisted the key carefully to lock it, afraid it might snap and lock me in infinitely. I was not afraid that Nana Simone might snoop; it just felt wrong for me to have sought my uncle’s belongings without telling her a word of it. She had been nothing but kind to me. I returned to the bed, pulled my legs under me, and teared up at the sight of my uncle’s familiar handwriting.[Dear Angelika, If you are reading this, you are eighteen and unfortunately, I am not there to see you take your first steps into adulthood. You were right when you said I suck at being an uncle. In my defense, I think that’s because I’m better suited for fatherhood. I may have not said it in so many words but you have always been and will always be my little girl. I have always been a strong believer that actions speak louder than words but this letter is proof that actions are not within the scope of things I can do. Allow me to tell you the things I should have said when I had the chance. 1. Clinton must have given you my will. I need you to keep everything; it’s the least I can do for failing you.] I frowned with the letter in my hands. Was he being serious? He was the best father I could ever ask for. When did he ever fail me? Was he drunk when he wrote this? Assuming he meant not being with me forever when he promised to, I continued, this time letting my tears fall. [2. If a boy tries to mess with you, you know where to hit him.] I burst into laughter through my tears. He had always been super protective of me, assuming every boy who looked at me was trying to steal me from him. The next part was less playful and more serious.[3. Not every battle is worth fighting. If you fight hard enough, you will win, but sometimes winning comes at a price that’s not worth paying.4. Surprise is the best strategy (assuming you think winning the battle above is worth any price in the world). I still believe some skeletons are better off staying buried but if you want to set them free, you need to be more prepared for their attack than they could ever be for yours. 5. The small key opens the jewelry box. Everything in there belonged to your mother. 6. If you are going to fight the battle in (3) and (4), I need you to remember one thing. You need to always put yourself first.]Angelica"What is it like being a mother?"Klara paused with a spoon of chocolate ice cream halfway towards her mouth. I only realized how odd my question was when I saw how she was looking at me. I dug into my ice cream and shoveled a spoon into my mouth to calm myself down."Why would you ask?" she asked. "Are you planning to have kids?"I was glad I wasn't looking at her so she wouldn't read my mind—not that I still believed shrinks could read minds but it was awkward nonetheless."Maybe," I gave a vague answer. Considering Curtis's stance on kids, her surprise was understandable. However, I didn't want to tell her I was pregnant yet. It didn't feel right to tell anyone else before Curtis."Well," she shrugged. "That's a broad subject. But I had all these plans for my kids. Rowan and I always wanted two, close in age, and we planned everything including what parenting methods we would use, which schools they would go to, what kind of friends we would allow around them, how I would
Angelica I groaned as I forced my eyes open, adjusting to the blinding light that had just been flickered on. I didn't know how long I had slept. Hell, I wasn't sure if it was day or night. There was no window in this dingy cell and the door was a solid hank of metal that didn't allow any light through it. The only source of light was the offensively bright bulb above me, which had been kept off until now. I had alternated between sleeping and pacing in the dark the whole time and it was driving me crazy. The only thing I could feel was the chains around my wrists and ankles, reminding me that I wasn't dead yet. I didn't know how long had passed since Curtis interrogated me about The Viper. It could be a day, a week, or a year. Hell, it could be ten years for all I knew. I looked down at my stomach and my lips twitched. At least there was a way to know if months had passed. My belly would bulge out. This was Curtis's idea of torture.To be fair, solitary confinement was one of the
Curtis“Angelika Giannelli, Angel of Death…is there any other identity I should know of?” I mocked.“Tell me everything about The Viper,” I demanded.She averted her gaze, dragging the long chains with her so she would walk up to me. I smirked when she stopped, her radius finally running out.“Is this necessary?” She bit back.Yes, it was. This woman killed Miles right under our noses and we didn’t think she was at fault. She played us all like a violin with that innocent smile on her face, all while taking out one Arciero after another and pitting us against each other. However, that was not why I was here.I pointed at her chains. “That will be the least of your problems. Answer me.”She shook her head. “I can’t tell you anything. You’re going to kill me anyway. Just do it.”“I knew you would say that.” I grinned. Someone with her skill could endure a lot of pain.Besides, I couldn’t bring myself to torture her. At least not physically anyway, which was odd, considering how willing
Angelica I needed my head examined. Was I seriously considering having this child? I had bought a dozen pregnancy test kits in the hospital’s pharmacy and couldn’t wait until I got to my hotel room, so I took the tests right there in the hospital washroom. Unsurprisingly, all of them came positive. It was unbelievable. I didn’t know what I thought pregnancy felt like but this was not it. I had expected a little more drama. Aside from my boobs feeling like they were about to fall off, the doctor mentioned I was lucky enough to have a morning sickness-free pregnancy. Maybe that was why I still couldn’t believe I had an actual baby inside me. It sounded like a joke—until I remembered I had to tell Curtis. Between upgrading and downgrading my way through as many cars as possible in the last two months, and spending each of those nights at a different hotel, I had about a thousand dollars to my name. It was a drop in the bucket in relation to how much I needed to bring up a child. I
AngelicaI felt like crap. Where the hell am I? I wondered. I forced one eye open and squinted, wincing from how horribly my head hurt. I patted around for my phone and remembered dropping it the night before. I hadn’t stopped to pick it up. I was too busy running for my life with Curtis hot on my tail. I didn’t know how he found me but I wasn’t going to be able to hide from him forever, I guess. My plan was perfect if I do say so myself. I ran around the city, leaving Curtis a trail that would make him think I was headed for Arcron, then I circled back and returned to Silverwood, where I rented two apartments; one in my name and the other under Klara Arciero. I stayed at neither. I spent every night at a different motel far from both apartments. The apartments were only a way to keep Curtis busy if he found out I was still in the city. Which is why I couldn’t understand why the fuck I thought it was a good idea to check out my fake apartment. I was yet to enter the building when
CurtisTwo months later. Why was I still on this wild goose chase? I hadn’t caught a whiff of my wife even though I felt I had searched the whole of West Auburg. She couldn’t have left the country. There was only one person capable of helping her get a fake passport and he was currently on our side. Sometimes I could swear she was leaving me a trail. Though when I got to it, she was gone like a puff of smoke. I was more frustrated by the realization that the longer it took to find her, the farther away she could go. If she found a way to get a fake passport from somewhere else, she could be halfway across the country and there was nothing I could do about it. But I wasn’t giving up. I meant it when I said I would tear down the whole world to find her. I was not giving up now. I was still staring at the road with my hands gripping the steering wheel. What if I was approaching this from the wrong angle?I took a U-turn at the next exit and returned home. Klara was visiting, which was
The Viper “Angelica left.” I glared at Spider. “What do you mean she left?” He shrugged, letting me know there was nothing else to explain about it. She ran away. “And you let her?” He scrunched his nose. “You know there’s no such thing as ‘letting’ with Angelica. You could lock her up in a cage with an active electric field all around it and she would still find a way to leave.” His words conjured up a memory of that feisty little kitten she once was. She’d been looking for me for a year and I knew every bullet she put between a target’s brows, every throat she sliced was to get my attention. She did get it, but it was way too much than she bargained for. She ended up in my dungeon after putting down one of my most loyal men. I made sure the shackles were way too small for her to wiggle her hands free, and the chain was too short to be of any use. I was going to decide whether she was worth keeping that night but I walked into the dungeon only for her to head-butt me and make
CurtisLyra Giannelli, now known as Eloise Dalton, was as hard to find as her sister. I already knew she was Samantha’s cousin from overhearing their argument but I still couldn’t find her, not even with Giancarlo’s help. Eventually, I had to ask Samantha and I had to promise not to harm a hair on her head before I got any useful information.Good, because I didn’t plan to hurt her. She was more useful to me alive, anyway.I watched as the debate played out on her face, if she would be able to run past me if she tried. She decided against it. Smart girl. I didn’t track her down just to let her escape.She sat down opposite me. “Make it quick. I have to get home.”“Of course.” I let her settle down before I asked what I knew she was already expecting. “Where is she?”“Who?”“Don’t play dumb with me.”She crossed her arms at her chest. “What do you expect me to tell you? That I know where to find your wife? Why would I know that if you don’t?”I knew what she was worried about. “Look, I
Lyra “Come with me.” Angelica urged me. When we made it to her car, she had floored it out of the Arciero mansion’s garage and only stopped about half an hour later. We were far from the Arciero mansion and certainly not being followed. How nice of her to ask if I wanted to leave with her after grabbing me without much choice earlier. I was yet to figure out why we were running away. Wasn’t Curtis her husband? So what if her maiden name was a little different from what everyone thought? “Why?” I asked. “You said your life is in danger. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She said frantically, and I knew she was hiding something. “Curtis might just take his anger out on you.” “I’ll be fine.” I assured her. Samantha was my cousin. Not biologically, but if the Carlo she always talked about was Giancarlo Arciero as I was starting to think, Curtis wouldn’t hurt me. And Andre…well, I wasn’t about to put Angelica in more danger than she already was in. “No one wants to mess with
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