“How did it go?” I asked as I brushed my hair a while later. Curtis had done quite a number on it and I didn’t want to do a walk of shame into the foster home. “She spoke to me, which is surprising because she’s Autumn. I was right. The Angel of Death set her up.” He said. I had to think about my reaction before revealing any expression. I couldn’t be too nonchalant either, or it would make me seem even more suspicious. I was treading on a thin thread here and it was driving me crazy. “Well…” I drawled, finding my words. “That’s not a bad thing for you, is it? You hate Autumn.” “I do. But something tells me she’s after Klara next. Klara mentioned being stalked before.” Fucking Viper. I wanted to kill him. Why would he go after Klara? If the target was Arcieros with a hand in the family business, we should be going after people like Autumn, Miles and Meghan. We had been on the same track before. But now, he had only one aim—to mess with me and probably kill me while at it.“Why wo
Curtis “What do you want from me, asshole?” Maverick grumbled when I dropped by his house. “Don’t make it sound like you don’t want to see me, old man. We both know you’ve been hoping I’d come over.” I retorted in return, making him grumble something about being done with the Arciero shit. When I revealed that I had some of Angelica’s cookies with me, however, he was a little more enthusiastic about my presence. “You didn’t bring her today.” He remarked, and I could swear he was complaining about it. “Didn’t you say you hated being called Ricky by her?” He grabbed another cookie and gobbled it in one bite. “If she brings these with her, she can call me Shirley if she wants. Since when do I like sugary crap?” Since Angelica started baking them in the Arciero mansion. I swear, my wife was magical. She had managed to lure everyone close to me into her biggest fans. Except for Giancarlo and Heston, that is. But those two were icebergs and I would rather not have them close to her
Curtis I was never going to joke about ghosts from the past again. “What do you mean Nikov Kastellanos is alive?” I asked Millie. “Exactly that. I did my homework and when I found out, I was just as shocked as you are.” She looked up at me with teary eyes. “I know it’s shocking but I saw him.” I shouldn’t be surprised she looked into my father. That was what she thrived on—getting hold of a secret her current billionaire boyfriend would never want revealed and then using it to get as much money from him as she could to buy her silence. It was exactly why I knew there was something to it when it was revealed Father left everything to her in his will. Two things had to be happening here. One, she knew he was going to die soon. Otherwise she would have wanted him to simply write off some of his wealth to her. Father wasn’t old enough for anyone to assume he was going to die of old age. Besides, father couldn’t have written anything while he was bedridden with none of his fingers f
Angelica Sometimes things didn’t go as planned—but that wasn’t always a bad thing. Right now, for example. I had planned to get Yakov involved in helping Uncle Nikov escape. I had already drawn the best plan to distract the Arcieros. I would create something to distract Giancarlo and then I would ask Curtis on a date to last the whole weekend. Since none of them knew about the dungeon, they wouldn’t know a prisoner had escaped. But then, Millie happened. She thwarted the entire plan by bringing the dungeon that was not so secret anymore to Curtis’s attention. I wasn’t mad about it. She had also created the perfect way out for me. I let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Talk to me, baby.” Curtis crooned, falling right into it. “I never told you who Spider really is…” I started. “It wasn’t my tale to tell. It still isn’t now, but..” I bit my bottom lip. “He’s a Kastellanos. His real name is Adrian Kastellanos and the man you found is his uncle Nikov.” “Uncle?” I nodded. This was whe
Angelica “Fuck, Angelica!” His voice rumbled through the room amid the sensual tune while I pumped faster. My body was trembling and I knew my climax was dangerously close. “Curtis,” I moaned. A bang snapped me out of it and when I looked over at him, my jaw dropped. He had pulled the chains off along with the pieces of metal that kept them attached to the back of the chair, and was now using the key to unlock them from his hands. My first instinct was to jump off the couch and flee. He caught me at the second step and shoved me against the arm of the couch. “You should have run faster.” I heard the buckle of his belt and then he rubbed my ass with his palm and I didn’t know what to expect. “I want to spank you so hard for pulling that on me.” He growled, his lips against my ear. He did just that. His palm landed on my ass, the sting making pleasure course through me. He rubbed the spot he had just spanked to soothe it, right before he landed another smack in the same spot. If
Angelica “Crystal?” I walked over to the shocked woman. She looked like she had a dozen questions to ask me but I beat her to it. “When you say you see me in the stars, what exactly do you mean?” She stared at me blankly. I ran a hand through my hair helplessly. “I really need to know. It’s important.” For a woman who was so hell-set on telling me about the stars she kept seeing me in, she was quite uninterested in explaining when I needed to know the whole truth. I pulled a stool to sit opposite her. “What about when you call me Hyacinth?” That seemed to pull her from whatever universe she was lost in a moment ago. She studied me closely and shook her head. “You said you’re not her.” “But do I look like her?” I questioned. I already knew the answer to that but I needed her to remember. Instead, I remembered she had taken her medicine and groaned inwardly. Just great. If Uncle Nikov was right about Fergus deliberately messing up with her head so no one would believe what she s
Curtis“Hey, baby.” I snaked my arm around Angelica’s waist and pulled her closer to kiss her when I got back home. It had been four days since Autumn was arrested and I had spent most of my time at either Inferno or Arciero industries. Giancarlo was slumped with work too—Autumn had more influence in the company than we thought. We had ignored her presence earlier but now that she was behind bars, Giancarlo’s already hectic workload had significantly increased. Unless I wanted my brother to end up replacing my mother in SSP, I had to help him out. Not that my workload at Inferno decreased any. Instead, aside from finding a vial I recognized all too well in Autumn’s dresser, I also discovered Giancarlo had found out something he wasn’t telling me. I had a feeling it was related to the assassin I was trying so hard to find, the Angel of Death. Knowing him, he was waiting until he was certain of the information he had before telling me about it. Not that it made me any less on edge.
Angelica Crystal Yenin? The feud between the Arciero family and the Bratva was starting to make sense. Crystal’s maiden family was the Yenin family? The Bratva? I certainly had lived long enough. I had come to Crystal’s gallery to check out what other clues I could have overlooked in my previous search. I scoured the paintings and I did find something. Every time Crystal had painted something against the starry night sky, they were the same stars in each of them. It was easy to assume that was her impression of the stars—it wasn’t easy to find a relationship unless you were looking for a pattern. And this particular pattern was tattooed on my torso. It was the same constellation—Lyra. The very constellation my sister was named after. I didn’t know Mama knew so much about stars. There were many names related to stars that she could have given my sister but knowing her, there was a very high chance she researched what constellation was in the sky that night if she wanted to give h
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