{EDMONDO'S POV} * * The lamp flickers faintly on my desk. It casts uneven shadows over the papers I’ve spread out. Not that it matters. The words are turning into a blur. Have been for days now. I lean back in the chair. My fingers press to my temples, willing the pounding in my head to easen. It doesn’t. It never does. Marco’s already gone to fetch Giovanni. He knows the drill by now; Giovanni’s the only one I trust with important issues pertaining to my life. And I hate that. I hate that I’ve reached the point in life where trust feels more like dependence. Dependency. It's literally the case now because aside Giovanni, no one knows about my flaw and no one should. I rub a hand over my face, dragging it down to my chin. The meeting with the Cosa Nostras is just in three hours, and I’m barely holding all this shit together. No longer my eyes, my brain betrays me now. What's sad is that it's not just the vision anymore. It’s worse than that. My fucking b
{EDMONDO'S POV}**The air is thick and of course, heavy with tension. It's always thick and heavy when it comes to the things of the underworld.Giovanni and I step into the room and the silence swallows us whole. This is no ordinary gathering. It’s the Cosa Nostras; mafia families from all over Italy, each with their own power and their own stakes. The Gambinos from Sicily, the biggest name in the South, are here amongst other dominant famiglias in the South. Dons from the East, the heart of the world's mafia kingdom are here as well. Famiglias from the West, from the deep corners of Southern Italy, and even the ragtag groups that found their place in some corners of Italy.We don’t need to speak. The moment we enter, all eyes fall on us. Giovanni doesn’t need to give much of a sign. A simple gesture, and I understand. I already know what this is about. They think they have po
{EDMONDO'S POV}**When I get close, I turn away.I walk past her, keeping my gaze straight ahead. I can smell it before I even see her; blueberries. That fucking scent. My fucking scent. On her, it's sweet. Tempting. And it claws at me, like it knows the hold it has. Cara. Her presence is like an itch I can’t scratch. And I fucking hate it. She stands there, glowing under the full moon. Her hair shines underneath the moon like some goddamn fairy-tale red. She's practically radiating like she’s the fucking center of the universe.But I don’t stop. I try not to flinch. I’m not letting her weaken me. Not now. Not ever. If I stop, if I let myself acknowledge her, I might slip. Might give a damn. And I can’t afford to do that. Not with the mess I’m dealing with. Not with her father that I have to kill. That sorry-ass bastard has it coming, and I’m going to make sure he get
{CARA'S POV}**“I don’t get it. I really don’t.”I’m sitting with Porcelina, trying to wrap my head around the mess. We’re in the corner of a dimly lit room, the flicker of candles casting shadows across the walls. The place smells like wood, leather, and a bit of smoke, which doesn’t bother me anymore. It’s just the way things are now. “So, this guy my friend’s been dealing with.. he gave her all the right signals, you know? Green flags, like he's totally into her, making her feel special. Then, boom! He just turns on her. Tells her to get lost. After everything. Doesn’t that feel wrong to you?” I say. My voice is a little too sharp and it's obvious I'm frustrated.Porcelina arches an eyebrow, leaning back in her chair. She’s always got this air about her, like she knows things the rest of us don’t. “Are you sure he actually gave her green flags? What if he was just playing her? Using her to get somet
{EDMONDO'S POV}**I’m sick. Sick of the damn reports. Sick of the lies. And sick of her. Every damn day, I feel it creeping in; questions that claw at my insides. Where is she? Why hasn’t she come back? Is she fine? Has she eaten? Hope mother isn't making her feel unwelcomed? What is she up to currently?Is she on her way here?Is she outside my estate gate?Should I send a message?Maybe an order to bring her back?Damn, I'd told myself she’d return after I shooed her that night. I’d told myself she wouldn’t give up. But no. No, she didn't. A week has passed, and not a damn word. A week and four days since I last saw her, a week and four days of wondering if I made the right call by telling her to get lost. Wait. Hold on. Am I missing Cara?Shit.Fuck, anyway, I kept an eye on her through my men and the
{CARA'S POV}**I slip out of the room as quietly as possible, though my movements are deliberate and cautious. The place is silent. Everyone is deep in sleep. The darkness is swallowing everything whole. There’s a heavy weight on my shoulders, a feeling. It's a feeling that something.. or someone.. is watching, waiting for me to slip up. I stop by the dining table, glancing around. My pulse quicken. And there she is. Madre Padrina.She doesn’t say a word. Just watches me. Her eyes carry the kind of weight that makes my insides tighten. There’s a knowledge there, a wisdom… or maybe just the weight of secrets I’m not privy to yet. I brace myself, ready for whatever’s coming. But instead of questioning me right away, she simply speaks.“You’re going out, I see.” Her voice is calm and smooth like she’s asking about something as casual as the weather. But I know it’s a test. It always is
{CARA'S POV}**“I beg you, Edmondo. Please. Please have mercy.”I’m on my knees. Begging. “Please, Edmondo, I beg you.. don’t, don’t do this,” The words tumble out, desperate, weak. But I can’t stop myself. I feel the cold floor beneath me and I inhale the smell of urine spoiling in the air; Pietro’s piss, I’m sure of it. He must have pissed on himself out of fear.He’s standing there. Edmondo. His shadow is long and dark behind him, cutting through the dim light. I can feel the heat radiating from him. It's a smoldering, red-hot anger curling around us. I don’t know how much longer Pietro’s going to last under Edmondo’s gun. The barrel’s pressed against his head, and I can practically hear the blood pumping in Pietro’s temples. One wrong move. One slip from me. And I’m sure Edmondo would pull the trigger, ending him right here. I don’t think he’s bluffing. I’ve seen it be
{EDMONDO'S POV}**I’m sitting in my study, my eyes fixed on the computer screen, but my mind is elsewhere. The hallway is quiet, lit only by the dim light flickering from above. The silence makes everything feel worse. Every creak of the floorboards, every rustle from the rooms nearby is sharp against the stillness.And then I see her. Cara.She comes out of my room. Completely naked. As I had commanded. It's just her damn fiery red hair cascading down her back that she has on. My breath hitches in my chest.But I don't let it show. I sit back in my chair, staring at her for a long moment from my computer. She doesn’t know I’m watching, but I am. And there’s something about that; her walking out like she owns the damn place… it pisses me off and gets me turned on at the same time.I stand up slowly.I walk toward the door of my study. My footsteps are soundless like
{INGRID'S POV}**The air inside the guest house in the clubhouse feels as stale as a musty basement, it's like it’s pressing in hard on me. The walls are too close. The furniture, too still.I’m curled into a ball, crying myself into nothingness in the same room. I felt bad, but everything feels different now. And it's because of him. Because of his words to me.‘I’m giving you five minutes,’ is all he says in the end. That was all he said before leaving me here, alone with the weight of it.Five minutes for what? To breathe? To collect myself? Or to decide what to do next? That time was never enough and couldn't be.I press my fingers against my temples. My mind is a mess. My pulse is erratic. I need to move. I need to get out of here.I grab a dress from the cupboard. It's good there's one there, even if it's bigger and longer. And so out of shape.I leave the room quietly and the place entirely.The moment my feet hit the ground outside, the cold air rushes against my skin, clear
{GIOVANNI’S POV}**I shut the door behind me seeing to it that the slam echoes in both my ears and hers. My hands flex at my sides, my fingers tingling from where they had just been wrapped around her throat.She wanted me to hurt her. She fucking wanted me to hurt her. Punishment, hard sex... anything that would hurt her she wanted it.And for a second…. for one fucked up second, I almost did. I saw it in her eyes, that plea for something more than just words, something deeper, something that would cut through whatever storm was brewing inside her. And I could have given it to her.But I didn’t.I don't break little girls. Or maybe I do, but I don't want to break her. Also, I don’t indulge their self destruction. Not like that. Okay, maybe I do too but if and only if I should find interest in a little girl, which has never happened aside from Ingrid La Rosa. My jaw tightens, and I push the thought away. I move down the dimly lighted hallway. The weight in my chest is a familiar
{INGRID'S POV}**“Maybe it’s because nobody will ever love me because of my past. Nobody will ever really touch me, no, not after someone else did. Nobody will ever let me know what it’s like to have a man fall in love with me for all time when my heart beats for someone else who doesn't even care. They wouldn’t, now would they? There's nothing good or lovely about me or my life.”His eyes widen on mine, and I see more than those emotions. Worse than hate or disgust. It's Pity. I see damn pity. It's directed towards me. And I hate that. “You need to get some fucking therapy and work on your self and mind,” he says, his hands still gripping tight on my wrists.“....” God I'm speechless. Really? Therapy?! What does he think of me? A lunatic? I have not lost my mind!He stares at my thighs, and I feel ashamed of them, so fierce in my pain. I have a low waistband on, which I made by myself because I feel bold wearing them, but he barely even notices. His attention is so fixed on my fla
{INGRID'S POV}**I feel him nudge me from behind so I move away from the space close to the door. He steps forward and keys into the lock, opening the door and stepping in ahead of me. I enter. I don't even attempt to shut the door behind me after I enter, only fold my arms like a spoilt kid who is being grounded.He finds the light switch as soon as I'm in after him. He peeks out the door, his eyes checking out the neat little hallway before shutting the door. This is definitely a hotel room. No, more like a condo. But it's... unusual. There's a handmade tapestry of a dolphin breaching beside a boat hangs above the bed, and a photo of pirate colleagues on the deck sits on the kitchen counter. It isn't exactly the kind of decor I'd expect to find in a… sort of hotel condo room. But then again, life is full of surprises, and sometimes the most unexpected places can become the most memorable. So, the lady always in a yellow scarf who fed me on the street for a month before she die
{INGRID'S POV}**I really am done with it. I am done with caring. Done with feeling. Done with living like some goddamn pushover. Maybe that punishment will really help in liberating me from this crappy stubbornness of mine and make me a better person that everyone will be satisfied with. Right?I mean, it isn't my fault I grew up to be like this, now is it?To the outside world I am a kid who should listen and be good, but my inside world is a pit of pain and memories of my lonely past. A pit of pain I’ve been breathing through in agonizing little gasps since I was a little girl trying to be good for people around to spear me some food, alms and some money. But now, I feel so fucked up, and used, and twisted with all these looks and words Mr. Giovanni especially throws at me. I've been hurt and is still being hurt by so much of the life I'm still holding dear.Yeah, I am done.And what is with all these? All these family shit, and more secrets. More secrets. The underworld, alcoho
{GIOVANNI'S POV}**I move. Silent. The door clicks shut behind me.In the mirror, I watch her freeze.Her shoulders tense first. Then her grip on the sink tightens, like she’s bracing for a hit.Slowly, so fucking slowly, she lifts her head. Our eyes meet in the mirror. Her pupils go wide, her throat tightens. What does she fucking know? What is she afraid of? Me? And yet, she doesn’t move.I step closer, watching the shift in her body. It's small movements, but still there. The way her breathing changes, the way her lips part like she wants to say something but the words won’t come.She still doesn't back away. So I move closer still.Her breath catches. She still doesn’t speak.She’s holding herself together, but I can see the tension in her arms, the weight of a thousand unspoken things pressing down on her. And I wonder, just for a second, how far she’s willing to push before I fucking break her to total obedience surrender to me.“Well, well, well,” I say. “I never expected to
{GIOVANNI'S POV}**She asks for her father. She says she's here only and only to ask me of her father. Does she know that he is a monster? That he and his empire tore the happiness of Trento apart once. Edmondo's people who are also mine.. some bled to death, girls raped, a few murdered in the eyes of their own children and loved ones.I wonder how pretty little girl La Rosa will look when it is revealed to her just how tainted she and her now dead La Rosa empire is. I wonder how her eyes will glisten with tears as she stare up into the malice in mine when I break it to her what Edmondo and I did to them in return.I wonder how much I can make her pussy stretch for me before she screams when I force myself into her again.Shit. That was random. I'm crazy. I'm a crazy old man. Haha.It's funny, looking around me at all the people in this blue hue room. They don't even have the slightest idea of just how evil a monster I am amongst them. So many idiots… living their idiot lives, havi
{GIOVANNI'S POV}**The ring display is full of light; fucking bright diamond reflections sharp like cut glass, bands of gold and platinum polished to a perfect gleam. Elise is to my right, examining a row of engagement rings with the focused eye of a woman who already knows exactly what she wants.I should be doing the same. After all she's my wife-to-be, right?Instead, my gaze drifts, tracking over the cases until it lands on a section that's further down. There's a different style that seems simpler, yet shiny and clear. It's a pretty section. My eyes skim over the sizes without thinking….. until I pause.Nine.It’s becoming a habit; assessing things that might look good on bambina, measuring them without needing to be told. I better not let it stay till it becomes old and hard to die. My fingers twitch, recalling something unbidden: the weight of a hand gripping mine in the dark of the bunker as I pound into her pussy. So small hands but steady and firmly gripping my shoulders
{INGRID'S POV}**“You don’t look like an Irish lady either,” he counters.I arch a brow. “What do I look like?”He tilts his head slightly, studying me. “Like someone who’s waiting for a reason to burn this whole place down.”The air between us tightens. He has a good sense of humour. And he just called me a lady, not some bambina. Wow. It's weird.The white haired man makes a noise; something between a laugh and a knowing hum, but I don’t break eye contact. I don’t let Ronan think he’s got me figured out just because he threw out some poetic bullshit that happened to land close to the truth.Instead, I set my drink down, lace my fingers together, and give him the smallest, sharpest smile I can muster.“Good thing I left my lighter at home.”Ronan holds my gaze. His own mouth twitches like he wants to say something else. But before he can, the white haired man claps his hands together, breaking the tension. “Well,” he says, amused, “This is going exactly how I hoped.”I shoot him a