Chapter 99Katie’s POVThe afternoon light drips through the sheets of glass, highlighting the impressive view.The more we walk away from the concierge, the fewer people we encounter.And it’s mostly staff members. People who ensure everything looks sparkling clean and is neatly organized.He shows me to a large room that looks like an event room.I’ve never been in one of those.My stomach clenches as a different thought swirl in my head, and Tina comes to mind.I fear these flashbacks.I’m not superstitious, but they’re never good.Sweat lines my palm as I feel my way around my purse.“Is everything okay?” he asks, swiftly noticing that I struggle.“Yes.”He pulls the chair out for me, flicking his chin toward my purse.“What’s in your bag?” he asks before signaling the servers to bring the food.The man multitasks with ease.“Open it up,” he says as I fail to answer. “Toss the contents on the table,” he continues, and I look at him a bit baffled before moving my focus to the prist
Chapter 100Cephus’ POVThe last time I saw a girl like Katie, I was seventeen and spent the summer in Sicily.I didn’t want to go to Italy that summer.Like every other kid I’d known, I wanted to spend the summer with my friends in New York. My father insisted, and my mother refused to side with me on that one.They were both enthralled with the idea of visiting our extended family.Me? Not so much.I knew little about Italy. I spoke Italian because my parents had taught me, and I knew my cousins, aunts, and uncles, but I wasn’t born there.I was born in New York. Long Island, to be exact.That summer, I didn’t know that two years into the future, I’d lose my father and shortly after, my mother.My father was a decade older, and his health could’ve been better.My mother died of a broken heart after his passing, which I never thought would be possible, but it was.So that particular summer, my father and I fought a lot.Who wanted to spend all that time over there?Not me, anyway.I
Chapter 101Cephus’ POVShe was a girl, and I was a boy, and all I wanted was to talk to her. I just wanted to hear some words coming out of her beautiful mouth and maybe, if I was lucky, get a smile.I never dreamed of getting more than that. I had imagined her voice was soft and quiet.She glanced at me several times while I was working hard at getting noticed.And finally, while on a break, I realized she looked at me. Our eyes had met for the first time, and I was over the moon.She had a red scarf around her neck that day, her dark hair draped over her shoulders.She pulled it all back into a ponytail.Several silky strands of hair had broken free and slipped away, giving her a hard time, and that’s when I headed to her and asked her if she needed help.Sitting on a woven basket, she looked at me, and I instantly puffed out my chest and pulled my shoulders back, boastfully hinting at my athletic shape.A few months earlier, I started to get that nice V-shaped torso the girls went
Chapter 102Cephus’ POVWe returned to the olive orchard and sat on a blanket under a tree.I could swear it was the same blanket. It looked the same, anyway.And then she started to talk and tell me about her family, how they’d lost her father and struggled to work the land and support themselves.And I heard every word coming out of her mouth, yet I couldn’t make sense of anything she was saying.I was so affected by her presence.I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she finally came out of her shell and showed me that she liked me as much as I liked her.We became friends and were confined to each other.And I immediately felt like she’d have my back if something bad happened, and my mind ran away with that idea.And for the first time ever, I imagined someone like her to have a family of my own one day.Have a wife and children.And it quickly dawned on me how impossible that was.Like her hair being tamed, sitting nicely in her ponytail, it was simply impossible.I had a family and
Chapter 103Cephus’ POVLater, people said she was kidnapped and eventually trafficked anyway.Others said she’d been executed with her husband after he got into a bad deal with some nasty people.Whatever it was, she was gone.My cousin directed me to the cemetery, where fresh flowers sat on her grave, and her picture was encased in the tombstone.My heart stopped when I saw her.She was even more beautiful than I remembered her.Her long, unruly hair framed her face, and her lips were curved into a soft smile. Like she was smiling at me.As if she knew I’d be there one day, looking at her and recollecting those hours I’d spent with her.I had a hard time believing she was dead.I had a hard time convincing myself I was truly looking at her burial place.It was insane. Her story was insane.And I sat there and tried to understand why life would go so bad so fast.How that summer that seemed like any other summer would be the last good thing before tragedy struck.Only a few years bac
Chapter 104Cephus’ POVI barely walk out of the event room, where Katie Leto indulges in her food when Vito and Gianni tear away from the cushy armchairs in the hallway and head my way.“How was it, Boss?”“Fuck you, Gianni. That’s how it was.”He grins and winks at Vito while I run my fingers through my hair, smiling, still walking, not stopping to chat with them.At once, they spin around and follow me.“Where is the motherfucker who was supposed to interview this woman?”“The club manager?”“Are you clever with me now?” I toss at Vito, who struggles to keep up with me as I move briskly toward my office. “I thought you knew everything about her by now,” I say.“I do.”He reaches inside his pocket despite knowing my vehement aversion to phones.Anything digital makes my skin crawl as it’s such an expenditure and an around-the-clock operation to keep us safe.We use digital things in our legit businesses, like security cameras and, yeah, some phones.I was about to say the safe–depos
Chapter 105Cephus’ POVThat doesn’t mean our animosity for each other hasn’t soared and is not fueled by occasionally getting wind of the crap he’s doing.And also, occasionally, he must tiptoe around my business.I’d be surprised if he hadn’t talked to his boss and tried to sell him the idea that they could do more business if someone other than me was here.They’d even put down a good chunk of money if they knew they could trade living things that come in the shape of beautiful, vulnerable women like that girl, Katie Leto.My eyes go back to the screen, and I catch her just as she pushes her chair back, picks up her purse, looks around the room, and makes a beeline for the exit.The staff walks in to clean the table while she looks for her way out.“Vito?” I murmur, my eyes still pinned on the woman.He starts to speak.“Katie Leto lived all her life in LA at the same address.”I glance at him, making sure he’s not reading shit from his phone. He peeks at a scrap of paper where he’
Chapter 106Katie’s POVEarlierI look at my plate before peering at the view outside, filled with dread that I need to return.Sure, the man said I could stay a little longer, but how long is that?Besides, I’d rather go back to my car before the night sets in.“Fuck…” I murmur quietly, running tense fingers over my brow.I like it here. The temperature is nice. The view is beautiful, and the food is good. I look at the plates of food on the table.I wish I wasn’t stuffed. Ignoring that, I eat more food to hold me over until I return to the hotel tomorrow morning.Beau is surely waiting for me where I parked the car if he hasn’t moved it already just to fuck with me.He doesn’t need my key to do that. The guy who sold me the car could’ve given him a copy of my key.Although Beau knows how to hot-wire a car.I murmur another ‘fuck’ under my breath and sigh.Adulting sucks. I can say that much. Who needs this crap?I don’t have the answers to my problems.And I don’t know who to trust
Chapter 183Katie's POVAll I see is a blur of him as I try to get my mind and body to function so I can answer him. My legs hit the floor as he pushed me down, releasing me to walk away. His hand grips his hair as he stares at the gun in his other hand and back down to me.“No. No, it’s not true,” I whimper, tears still falling. “Don’t listen to him,” I plead, looking him straight in the eyes.“Silence,” he orders, walking over to me with his hand raised. Will he hit me? Will he hurt me?“That isn’t true!” I shoot back. “Nothing he is saying is true…”Silence ensues for a long second before Cephus speaks. “Get the ropes and tape!” he yells to Mack. I’m lying on the ground on my side when his face comes into my vision.“Was it all a lie, Katie? Was it all some fucked up lie so that you could get into my head? So you could get the inside job done and walk away unscathed?” His voice is so loud in my ears, I push away from him.“Was it?” he shouts, demanding a response, his fingers gripp
Chapter 182Katie's POV“I see it as more of a protective arrangement for both of us. There are legal protections for each of us… incentives to keep one another’s secrets.”I fixed him with what I hoped was the most vicious look I had in me. “I never went to the cops after you kidnapped me, didn’t go running to my parents begging them to find someone to break your kneecaps, and you thought you needed some other way of getting me to keep your secrets?”“It matters…” I can hear the anxiety in Mack’s voice. Something is very, very wrong.“Why does it matter? She was nothing before this whole incident and will be nothing after everything takes place. She’s clean. I know it.” Cephus sounds confident, and though I know I have done nothing wrong, if Mack convinces him I did something, I know I am as good as dead.“It matters because I know she’s not clean. After Jared called me and told me what Luccio said, I did a little digging on her and found some shit out.”Horror fills my mind. What i
Chapter 181Katie's POV“I was seven or eight, in a regular primary school not far from here.” His right hand moved, grasping for his phone, then he left it alone and pulled my hand he was still holding onto his knee, placing both of his hands over it. If the ring I was wearing was digging in, he didn’t give any sign. “It might surprise you to hear this, Katie, but I was not the best of children.”“Shocking revelation.”“I was always targeting kids a bit younger, a bit smaller. The ones I knew wouldn’t be able to give me any shit in return. Except this one time, there was this kid—Billy Burke, I remember his name vividly—and he did give me shit. He told me he wanted me to stop pushing him around and trying to scare him, and no he wasn’t going to give me his lunch money, by the way. I’d never run into this situation before when I was running this scam, so I panicked a bit. I hit him in the face. Told me to his parents.”I didn’t know what to say to this. It took me all too quickly b
Chapter 180Katie's POVEven when it gets worked out in the end, it sucks for long-term relationships.”It had to be even harder to find someone you could enter into the sort of long-term relationship most people were especially keen on with. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised Cephus had jumped at the chance to get me on board as a future wife.And speaking of my future husband, I had half-expected he wouldn’t be there when I returned. Then when I saw him sitting on the couch in front of the TV where he’d been when I ran out to get in Caroline’s car—where he’d probably slept for all I knew, he’d gone out the night before and hadn’t been back before I admitted defeat and crawled to bed—I half-expected to spot Angel somewhere in the room in the next moment. She didn’t have anything further to add to her roster of manipulations for the moment: we were alone.“What was your day like?” asked Cephus without looking at me. I let my bag slip by degrees from my fingers, frozen in place by the p
Chapter 179Katie's POV“Cephus isn’t supposed to be a part of this side of things, he can’t do it… and I doubt you’re in a position to ask your mother for assistance. Caroline is an ideal choice.”I didn’t like it, but she was right. I couldn’t go about this the wrong way if I ever wanted to be on Cephus’s good side. I didn’t want to go about it the wrong way. And while I was surrounded by Cephus’s family I needed to make connections unless I wanted to be treated the same way I was on my own. Caroline seemed like the safest option there so far.“If you’re sure I won’t be inconveniencing you,” I told Caroline. “I could use the help. I don’t have much experience with the whole wedding business, that much is for sure.”Caroline broke out in a little golf clap of delight. There might actually be some benefit in spending trying to absorb as much as I could of her elegance. “I’m so pleased to help. Now, I was thinking, I have the whole of tomorrow afternoon off work, so that would be a g
Chapter 178Katie's POVI sat up with a gasp.It was just like the morning before when I had woken to unexpected voices. But this time I was in a strange bed again, and at least one of those voices didn’t seem familiar at all.I’d learned my lesson from the day before. I couldn’t get myself into the single bathroom in the apartment, but I pulled on a proper outfit, brushed out my hair, and cleaned my face thoroughly with some wipes. I didn’t dare put on makeup without a full mirror, but I was young and fresh enough that I could probably get away without it.Once I was decent, I made a quick and quiet tidy of my room and then stepped up to the door for a bit of strategic eavesdropping before I joined the action.A childish female voice was doing most of the talking. “She’ll need someone to guide her through the process.”Cephus’s voice sounded both amused and exasperated. “Someone who has never been even close to getting married before?”“You know exactly what Caroline means.” The thi
Chapter 177Katie's POVI kept trying to convince myself that what I was craving was the worst craving anyone had ever had, including anything that had been thought up by a brain on pregnancy. But it was ridiculous to be so worried about whether I did or didn’t sleep with him when I was already making myself vulnerable to him, right? Or was this just how I was convincing myself to go along with wherever my lust took me?I don’t think about looking at my plate. Then when Cephus abruptly slid his chair backwards and stood, I startled like a tiny animal that could run away if provoked further. I knew damn well I couldn’t run.Cephus came to my side and put his hand out for mine, drawing me to my feet when I complied.“You have sauce on you,” he said and pointed it out on my shirt—his fingertip pressing slightly into my breast in a way that was, I’m sure, entirely necessary.I looked down at his hand there. Well, I’d managed to at least try to eat something.I thrust my chest forward in
Chapter 176Katie's POV“Madonna and child.” Cephus folded his arms and leaned back; it felt like an acknowledgment that I’d landed a hit, but I didn’t have any idea how. I’d just been trying to give a voice to my frustrations. “So you know a little bit about art, then.”“I think that’s kind of something I picked up through pop culture actually,” I said. I was hoping to screw with him while I seemed to have an advantage, and he did appear to deflate a little in response. “You’d be more eager to get a leg over if I was the kind of girl who t art and how to engage with you because I have any desire to ‘get a leg over’. And I have no intention of scorning you because you lack cultural polish. I assure you that I will be able to provide for you sexually in every way you might require.”“What kind of statement is that? Trust me, I’m a sexy beast, even though from the way I behave you would expect pretty much any Arctic land to be less frigid than I am?”“Do you want me to provide referen
Chapter 175Katie's POV“Am I supposed to believe you are shy?”I was so startled by Cephus's Voice that here I dropped the capsicum I’d been fidgeting with. It rolled across the bench, and Cephus caught it with one hand while he continued dicing its unlucky sibling with the other.“I guess you wouldn’t,” I admitted, “but if any situation was going to make me feel that way… I mean, we’ve gone from you having me dragged out If bed to trying to cook with me?”“You’ve got to roll with the challenges life presents you sometimes, Katie,” said Cephus, rolling the second capsicum into the path of his knife.“Are you talking about me here or you?”“Both of us, for once.” His expression visibly dulled. It struck me then just how much more animated he had become since we had first met. It was just a handful of hours but there was someone behind the mafia man front he was slowly letting me see, whether by choice or unconsciously I did not know.It bothered disappearing again. It was messing wi