EleniA couple days later, I close one of my assigned readings and check the time. Too early for lunch. Too late to start something new. I glance at my phone, sitting on the couch next to me in the living room. I’ve been missing Mama a lot lately. Maybe… Maybe one call won’t hurt.I’m dialing almost before I finish the thought. My heart hammers. What am I going to tell her if she asks about Christos? Or Dante?She picks up after a few rings. “Hello? Who is—”“Mama!” I squeal.“Zouzouni?” she asks disbelievingly. “I thought—I mean, I feared—”“I’m all right, Mama,” I say. “Safe and sound.”Her broken sob crackles through the phone. “Why did you not call sooner? Oh, I was so worried.”“I’m sorry, Mama.” Tears sting my own eyes, and I wish she was here to hug. “It wasn’t safe.”“To call? That Dante lies to you,” she says. “It is always safe to call your mama.”I know that’s not true after my weeks in the boss’ chair, but I don’t disagree with her. “How are you? I want to hear everything.
DanteI trudge into Piacere as the sun starts to dip low in the sky. Long day at the docks today. It needed to be done—some of my foremen get uppity if I don’t check in often enough—but fuck, I hate docks days. The regular LEDs cast my club in an unattractive light, destroying all the magic. I shamble past janitors cleaning up and dancers in sweats practicing routines on the poles. I’m actually looking forward to the paperwork awaiting me downstairs because it means I get to sit my ass down for a second.On a whim, I pause at the bar and wait for Carla to walk over.“Send a glass of scotch down to my office.” I think for a moment. “Maybe just send the decanter.”My club manager nods sharply. “The decanter would be smart. You have a guest.”“A guest?” My eyebrows shoot up. “Who the hell did you let into my office?”“A woman who swore up and down she knew you.” Carla raises her hands defensively. “She had the phrase.”I spin away from the bar and scowl as I storm down to my office. The
Eleni“Wait, there’s seriously a ceremony?” I ask as I pick through a wooden tray of pears for the best ones.Seb glances at the stall owner. “Yes. Do you know you talk very loud?”I roll my eyes and pay for the three pears. “We’re in the middle of one of the busiest farmer’s markets in Brooklyn on a Saturday afternoon. I’d discuss the nuclear codes here if I had them. Now tell me, what exactly does the ceremony for becoming a capo entail? I skipped that step.”He laughs and accepts the bag I hand him. This has become something of a routine for us. Dante said being a boss, even a part-time one, means having at least one bodyguard at all times, and Seb was an easy pick. He’s actually fun to talk to and hangs out instead of hovering three feet behind me at all times.“It’s not like a graduation ceremony, if that’s what you’re picturing.”“I was picturing something much more Arthurian,” I say. “Like Dante with a big sword, knighting you.”He shakes his head. “Try again.”“It’s a big gun!
DanteI walk into my house after another long day at Piacere trying to figure out if Cal Duncan’s information is worth anything, and I have nothing on my mind but a quiet night at home with El. The empty foyer echoes with my footsteps, but she’s been working on getting ready for school in her office upstairs, so I trudge up.At the top of the stairs, the door to Eleni’s office stands closed, but my—our?—bedroom door is open, and light spills out onto the floor. I frown and walk in.“Dante!” Eleni leans out of the bathroom. A few perfect curls swing away from her updo, and a long, silver earring that kind of looks like an elegant stick jingles. “You’re earlier than I thought.”“Sorry?” I step farther into the room and realize she’s just wearing a towel. “Did I forget we had plans?”She laughs. “It’s a surprise.”I nod slowly, trying to put together the clues. Fancy hair. Two garment bags sit on the bed. She’s smiling.“Yeah, I got nothing,” I say.She steps out of the bathroom and kiss
EleniI take one last bite of the airy sorbet that the stuffy waiter brought for dessert and look at Dante. He’s barely glanced away from me since we stopped talking about work, and my body burns with it. I slide my leg out from under the long tablecloth, letting it catch my skirt and exposing inch after inch of skin. He watches me with darkening eyes.“Put that away,” he says.I smile. “Why?”“Because I don’t share well.”I tuck my leg back under the table. Seeing him relax after days of walking around in a fog is satisfying, though, and I’m not sure I want to give everything up yet. I toe out of one heel and run my foot up the inside of his calf.“How sure are you that you can wait?” I ask.He grasps the edge of the table. “What are you doing?I chuckle and keep running my foot smoothly up and down. “That’s not an order.”He meets my gaze. “Don’t expose yourself here, pet.”My skin goes hot. We’ve never played like this in public before. I don’t even know if he sees the loophole he’
EleniThe rising sun peeks through the heavy hotel curtain as I lean back into Dante’s hands in the massive bathtub. He smooths conditioner over my hair, the final step in our now usual aftercare routine. I sigh and continue picking up the pieces of myself that scatter when he takes me apart like that. Still, I always return to myself looser-limbed and more at ease than before.Dante drops a kiss on my soapy shoulder. “How are you doing, El?”“Good.” I smile. “You?”He chuckles. “Grateful that little stunt didn’t get us kicked out of the restaurant. I liked the food.”I grin. “And the blowjob?’“Now I know you’re back.” He shakes his head. “The blowjob, I can get at home. Or anywhere else, it seems.”I stretch out as I laugh. Through the soapy water, I can just see my tanned legs next to Dante’s longer, paler ones. I tangle my ankle with his just to feel him in more places.“Do you ever daydream about that?” I ask.Dante removes his hands from my hair. “Don’t rinse yet, it needs to si
EleniA few weeks after the hotel date, I look over the table of classes on my laptop one last time and shut it with a smile. My first registration at Tandon, and I got all the classes I wanted! I text Dante about my success and laugh when he responds with a huge thumbs-up. He texts like he protects his data, but I’ve grown used to the labyrinth of old-timey habits and emoji usages. He’s thrilled. And, with any luck, bored out of his mind at Piacere. He put out the hooks for potential rats to snap up a little while ago, and nothing has caught yet. That means a full day of sitting around waiting for disaster, which makes him feel, in his words, “like a fireman without a fire,” so he’s been coming home a little grumpy, but watching his mood improve as soon as he sees me makes it really easy not to take personally. Plus, we’re now going on—I check the date—just about two and a half weeks without any deaths in the organization. The quiet made getting ready for school a lot easier. Dante
EleniGianna—whom I now hate—picks up on my bitchy mood after our run-in with Camila and not only makes me stay at brunch long enough to sober up but comes home with me and hangs out for the rest of the day, inventing new activities every time I get bored enough to get pissed about Camila all over again.My phone vibrates on the edge of the bathtub next to me. I glance at it. A text from Dante, letting me know he’s on his way home. I lift it and silently show the screen to Gianna.“Perfect.” She caps the bright-blue nail polish bottle in her hands. “I just finished.”I wiggle my neon-painted toes. “You know you didn’t have to stick around all day, right?”She shakes her head and stands. “You’d think you never had a best friend before.”“I haven’t,” I admit.She takes my hand, the expression on her face softening. “Fuck, I didn’t realize.”I shrug. “It’s not a big deal, really. I had friends. I was just too busy with The Greek Corner to ever become anybody’s go-to.”“It absolutely is a
ChloeThe first few days after I learned that Mateo was no longer on this planet were a bit chaotic. Tony and his men had so much to do: cleaning up the mess, assigning the new positions each one of them would take when it came to protecting our family and the house, determining who would go back to dealing with the Saints’ businesses, and so on. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve managed to create a routine for myself and Ellie. It took me a while to process that I wouldn’t have to continue hiding or running away anymore, but eventually things just became… easier. It’s funny how easily and quickly humans get used to things. In the first few days, I was still scared to leave the house by myself, even with a couple of guards accompanying me, or Rocco taking me from place to place inside a bulletproof car. I would always watch over my shoulder, expecting someone to jump out of a bush or something and kidnap me–or worse–kill me.But Tony assured me he wouldn’t get rid of the security s
ChloeOur warm kiss turns into something more passionate as our hands begin to roam each other’s bodies. There are so many emotions bottled up inside us that it is hard to express them with words. Tony’s hands explore my body while he devours my mouth in a heated kiss, suffocating my moans. My head is still spinning from his confession that he loves me, and I can barely focus on what he’s doing. My distraction seems to catch his attention because he pulls away from me, his eyes studying my face carefully. “Is everything okay? We don’t need to do this if you don’t want to. I–”My lips are on his before he even finishes his sentence. Like hell I’d let him stop right now. I urge myself to be present, storing his confession for later, when I have time to dwell on it over and over without being interrupted. I wish I could’ve recorded it so I could listen to it whenever I need reassurance about how he feels about me.But this is Tony. I know he will shower me with affection and love whenev
ChloeAfter I welcome Tony home, I make sure to wake Ellie up so she can have dinner with us. She needs to eat something since she has been sleeping the whole afternoon, and she also needs to wake up now so she can get some sleep later. I’m not looking forward to staying up all night because she slept too much during the day.The three of us have dinner together as a family for the first time, and it just feels… right. Like how it’s always supposed to have been. Neither one of us brings up the elephant in the room. I’m sure we’ll have time to talk about it, but right now, I just want to enjoy this moment while I can. Watching Tony feed our daughter, playing with her, and getting her to laugh is just so adorable that my heart can barely take it.It’s a dream coming true right in front of my eyes.“Come on, baby. Let’s show Mommy how you’re a good girl who eats all her dinner,” he muses, making airplane sounds as he flies the spoon toward her gaping mouth.Ellie chuckles and opens wide
ChloeReuniting with Ellie and my mom felt overwhelming, although bittersweet. Even though I was beyond relieved and grateful to hold my daughter in my arms once more, my heart was shrinking by the minute, not knowing what Tony was up to.The Irish King’s bar I was brought to is surprisingly comfortable and welcoming. I was even more surprised when I found Cal playing with Ellie. The way she laughed at his exaggerated movements and jokes, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this enchanted with another man before.After I settled down from the flight and kissed and hugged my family, Cal asked one of his employees from the bar to bring me something to eat. Mom and Ellie already had dinner since they arrived here earlier, and when the waitress returns with a tray filled with burgers, fries, and a chocolate milkshake, I almost let out a moan of pleasure.Only now have I realized how starving I am. I can’t even remember the last time I ate. So much has happened in the past twenty-four hours t
TonyMy vision turns red, and I clench my phone in my hand so hard that I hear it crack. “Send it to me. I’ll be on my way,” I inform him.Armando clears his throat, and I know he’s about to contradict me. “Shouldn’t we have a plan first, Boss? We have no idea what he’s been up to,” he wisely reminds me. I’m glad I have someone to make me see clearly now because all I can think of is putting a bullet hole through Mateo’s forehead and making sure he doesn’t take another breath in this world. “What do we know?” I ask, already starting the car.“They are in an abandoned warehouse outside the city. It’s not our territory, but that shouldn’t be a problem. No one really rules that part of town,” he explains firmly and professionally. “I have all men on hold, waiting for instructions on how we can best approach without being noticed.”“Do you think the cartel is waiting for us?” I have no fucking clue what Mateo was thinking when he invaded the safehouse to go after Chloe like that. It wa
TonyI warned Chloe not to even try and convince me of doing anything else other than going after Mateo and his men. I’d been doing my best to act cautiously, to consider every single possible outcome from this war, but after he ambushed Chloe at the safehouse, making her fight for her life, it left me blind with rage.My guilt didn’t help, either.I was so relieved when I found her on that dark street, wearing nothing but a robe covered in blood, that I could have cried when I held her in my arms. She felt so small, so vulnerable within my embrace that the monster dormant inside me snapped to life, and I simply couldn’t put this aside any longer. Even if I die, even if I don’t get to see her one last time, I will make sure to take Mateo down with me, so he never has the chance to lay a hand on my wife again. Or my daughter, for that matter.“Do I really have to go with Cal?” Chloe’s sweet voice asks from the bed, making me take my eyes off the phone and look at her. I promised her
Chloe“Listen,” Tony continues, still focused on the road. The police sirens get more and more distant as we drive away from the city, but I still don’t ask him where he is taking me. “I know you don’t want to think about it now, but I need to know what happened,” he requests in a gentle voice. I hear a hint of pain in it as well, but mostly, I can hear the guilt behind his words.I want to tell him none of this is his fault, but we’ll have time for that later. Right now, we just need to make sure no one else gets hurt, or worse, killed.I inhale sharply, steadying myself enough to share the recent events with him. I am strong, and I can do this, I tell myself. I’ve always told Tony I could handle it all, and even though I was scared as hell back there, I still managed to save myself.I can do this.“After you left, I spent a few more minutes in the office before I headed up to take a shower. I don’t think I was in there too long, but as soon as I stepped out, I heard the alarm go off
ChloeI should be dead.I was certain I’d be killed the moment I saw Mateo by the front door.I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look as mad as he looked a couple of minutes ago.Somehow, by the grace of God perhaps, when I saw him approaching me with that gun pointed at my face, I managed to take it from his hand after sparring with him and shot him in the shoulder. I think.I didn’t stay there to confirm. I didn’t wait to see if he was injured or not. I simply ran out of the house, not daring to look back, not even once. It’s been a few minutes, and I’m still blindly running through the neighborhood, trying to think of what to do or where to go. There’s no one on the street that I can ask for help, and even if there were, I’d be so afraid that Mateo would kill them for helping me that I don’t think I would ask for help anyway.It’s cold outside, and I’m still only wearing my shower robe, and even though I don’t dare to look back, too afraid of what I’ll see, I know I’m being follow
TonyComing here was a fucking mistake.Seeing Chloe did everything to me that I was trying to avoid. It just left me even more confused than before. We haven’t spent more than an hour together, and I still managed to screw it up.Being with her felt natural as if this was the only place I could be. Whenever I’m with her, holding her in my arms and feeling her close to me, everything just seems to go away. Every concern, every fear, every bad thought I ever had… I finally feel at peace.That’s the sort of effect she has on me. But I was not expecting her confession. Hearing her say she loves me and not being able to say it back shattered my heart in ways I can't explain. The look on her face will haunt me forever. It seems to have become a pattern lately. I can't seem to be able to stop hurting and disappointing her. I know what she expects from me, but unfortunately, I can't give it to her.It's clear to me that I have fallen for her, harder than I could ever have expected. It's a f