“Do you love my son?”I don’t know him. I only met him two days ago. He’s tall, handsome, and so intense that he puts weird ideas and thoughts in my head that I never dreamed would exist when I agreed to this. Yet it doesn’t matter how Itruthfullyfeel. “I love your son more than life itself.”“Marriage isn’t merely about love, however. I’m sure you’re aware of that.”“I’m ready to dedicate myself to him. I’m ready to do whatever it takes.”“Whatever it takes,” she repeats. “How lovely.”Yet her tone says the exact opposite. I slipped there, making it sound like I was doing this out of duty, not love, as I just proclaimed. I wonder what would have happened if Dario and I had met under different circumstances. Would sassing him still feel so good?“Oh, would you look at the time,” she says, gesturing at the grandfather clock. “Excuse me, but I must leave early.”I wait for her to stand, and then we do the posh fake-kissing thing again. Once she’s gone, I sit at the table, grab a bread r
“Bad things,” he grunts. “What I have to, but I didn’t come here to discuss this. We have a charity gala this evening. Get yourself ready.” “What do I need to do?” “Nothing. Someone will handle your outfit, makeup, and hair, but you should prepare mentally. Some of these people are even more judgmental than my parents.” I force a smile onto my face. “Is that even possible?” He grabs my shoulders. Not hard, but with enough intensity to send more confusing sensations through my body. “Careful. Even if they live with sticks up their asses, they’re still my parents. I wouldn’t make comments about your parents.” “My parents died in a fire,” I whisper. “Good. You’re sticking to your role.” “No.” Why am I even telling him this? “That wasn’t part of my role. It was the truth. I just incorporated it. My parents and my little brother died when I was a kid. That’s why Aunt Rosa took me in. That’s why I can’t lose her.” His touch tightens on me. My skin blazes under his palms. “It’s true?
DARIOI sit in the shadows in the storage room of the bar. Beneath a naked lightbulb, a Romano soldier is tied to a chair, blood running from his nose and leaking from his scalp, dripping down his cheeks like tears. In my mind, I wonder what Elena would say if she could see me now. I know she’d hate it. I know she’d be disgusted. No civilian is ever prepared for what mafiosi life is really like.“Are you trying to tell us that the vandalism of the charity is completely unrelated to my meeting with your boss?” I ask.The man shudders, his lips trembling. “I don’t know nothing.”I sigh, gesturing at Allessio. He slaps the man across the face so hard that the chair falls to the floor. Paolo quickly rights it, and then Allessio hits him again.“Nobody is getting any enjoyment out of this. You’re well known to us as a lead soldier in this area. You’re wasting our time by keeping your mouth shut. It’s just going to cause you more pain.”Again, I feel Elena watching me in the back of my head
I punch the man in the gut as if trying to prove to myself I’m still the cold bastard I need to be. He gasps and coughs up blood. I hit him again, reminding myself I’m not a good man. In this life, nobody can be good.“Please,” he gasps. “No more …”“Thenspeak,” I growl, reaching into my holster and taking out my gun. I press the barrel against his forehead. “Or would you prefer I make it quick?”The man whimpers. Then, slowly, he speaks. “I don’t know what he’s going to do next?—”“So it was Vincenzo?”He nods, looking defeated. “I don’t know what he’s got planned, but …”“Don’t keep me in suspense.”“We’ve got a new bar, a new hideout. I can give you the address. Okay, man? That’s all I know. I swear.”I stand up but keep the gun pressed against him the entire time. “You know, ending your miserable life here would be far easier. It’d be safer for everybody involved.”His eyes water as he stares up at me. “Please, Mr. Moretti. I’m getting married. We’ll disappear, me and my fiancée.
ELENA“How do I look?” I ask Dario, unable to hide the smile on my face.When the hair and makeup crew—yep,crew—were doing their work on me, I tried to stay detached and above the whole thing. I tried telling myself I felt like a pig dressed for the market. Yet the more they worked, the more I could see myself as beautiful. That’s rare for me.Now, I stand in front of Dario in a stylish, form-fitting dress. They’ve made my cheeks even more flushed than they usually are. My hair is up in an intricate style with pins.Dario stands on the other side of my bedroom in a tuxedo, his freshly shaven jaw tight as he stares at me. “Good,” he says.I try not to show any disappointment. He’s gone from fiery hot to icy cold all over again. I’m not sure what I expected, butgoodfeels majorly underwhelming. I nod, keeping it all business. “Good enough for the party?”“You’ll fit in,” he says, offering his arm. “Shall we? The car’s waiting.”When I take his arm, I’m sure I can sense something in him.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be a quiet and obedient employee.”“Why are you acting like you’d be anything else?” he grunts.I hide my hurt. I hope so, at least. It shouldn’t exist. Even if he’s being a jackass, he’s got a point. I knew what I was signing up for, but that was before the kiss. That was before he gave me hope for … for what? That his family would accept me? That Aunt Rosa would welcome him? That his life isn’t too dangerous for me? That this all isn’t just an act?In my head, I hear Giulia.Make it your mantra.“You’re right. This is just business.”He flinches as if he has any right to, as if he’s being anything other than jerkish. “Exactly.”The driver opens the limo door. Dario steps out and then offers me his hand. It might be petty, but I don’t take it. I hold my hand near his and instead climb out myself. His eyes gleam as though he might smile, but he doesn’t.Leading me into the party, I’m stunned by how extravagant it is. A band plays from a big stage at the front. Server
DARIOI’m relieved when Father announces he wants to leave early, affording every Moretti the chance to exit if he wishes. The dinner was filled with awkward conversations about opera, books, and other things I don’t care about. It’s not that I’ve got anything against it. I’m sick of everybody trying to seem clever.I offer Elena my arm as we get ready to leave. When she takes it, I remind myself for the millionth time that I have to be cold, but there’s too much warmth sparking between us. It’s like she’s waking something long forgotten inside me.“Can I use the ladies’ room before we go?” she asks.I think about the Romanos, the threats, the vandalism. What if something happens to her in there? She smiles at me as she places her hand on my chest—all part of the act. “Don’t worry. I’d never dream of running from my dear, devoted lover.”I grab her hips; I’m conscious people are watching us while pretending not to be. To sell this game, I’ve got to be convincing. The entire city has b
“So we’re still playing a game?” she whimpers.“Unless you’re the best actor in the world, there’s no way you’ve made yourself so gorgeously wet for me.”As I push my finger inside of her, she lets my hands go, pressing her face against my chest as if she doesn’t want me watching her when she gives in to the pleasure. I haven’t touched a drop of booze tonight, but it’s like I’m drunk on her.I slide my finger deep, swirling it in circles, her walls squeezing and pulsing around my hand while I grind my palm against her engorged clit. The combination makes her moan loudly into my chest, almost screaming as the pleasure causes her body to twitch.“Grab my cock,” I growl. “Feel how hard you’re making me.”Her hand slides shyly up my leg. She gasps when she wraps her hand around my dick through the fabric of my trousers. Precome leaks hotly out of my tip, and I know, at least for one crystal clear moment, that there’s something real here. I’ve never lost control like this.I can track how
“Keep. Going.”All over this city, I inspire fear in men. People talk about me in low whispers of pure dread, but I have no power here. It’s all Elena.“I’ll show you how bad you really want it,” I growl, pulling down her shorts and her underwear.Falling to my knees beside the bed, I stare in awe at her feminine core. She’s glistening with her wetness. Her lips are swollen with pure need. I reach under the bed and grab her ass, caressing her supple mounds as I bring my mouth to her slit.“Do you think this is a game?” I snarl.“I’m not playing any game.”“Sure you’re not. Beg me to lick your pussy. Beg me to make you come.”I stare up at her. Genuine desire dances in her eyes. She bites her lip. I can see how tortured she is. I can see how confusing this situation is—for both of us.“Do it,” she says after a pause. “Lick my virgin pussy, Dario. You own my clit.”“I don’townyou.”“Yes, you do.” She reaches down, dragging her fingernails through my hair. “You own me—all of me. Lick me.
I don’t know what this is. Is she trying to make some twisted point?She slides her hand higher up my leg. “You fought for me. Go on. I’m your trophy, your property.”“You don’t want this,” I groan.“Says who?”“You’re not thinking straight.”“I know you want it …”Fuck. She slides her hand even higher, finding my hot, pulsing steel and stroking me up and down through my pants. The mania in her eyes gets even more intense. I should stop her, but dammit. Her hand feels like it belongs on my precome-slick heat.“See,” she moans, moving even closer. “I know this is what you want. A woman who can see something like that and then give her wet pussy to you.”“Elena,” I groan. “This isn’t how you want to do this.”“Maybe I just want to forget.”She kisses me passionately, almost desperately. It’s like she wants to immerse herself in our pleasure so she doesn’t have to think about everything. Maybe this is her way of proving I only want to use her, not be with her, but it’s not true.Her body
DARIO“She doesn’t want to speak to me,” I tell Mother, a strange numb feeling cloaking me.“She’s never seen anything like this before,” my mother replies, her hand on my shoulder. “I’ve lived in this world for most of my life, andI’venever seenthataspect. You can’t blame her for being in shock.”“She looked like she hated me,” I say, looking up at the night sky as I sit on the back porch. “Do you know what she said when we got into the helicopter?Don’t look at me. Don’t touch me.She doesn’t even want me to bring her aunt and her friend here. She said she feels dirty, different.”“Dario,she’s in shock.”I grit my teeth, but I can’t stop reliving the beating I gave that lowlife who was going to hurt Elena. When I stormed the farmhouse after the successful shootout, and I saw him standing there with her, the monster in me came out—the part of me I never wanted her to see.“I’m going to see how she’s doing.”My mother sighs. “Is that a good idea?”“She’s my fiancée,” I snap.My mother t
I shudder, still not looking at him, but I’m forced to when he violently stabs the knife into the wood of the table. “I asked you a question.”“No. I don’t know.”He grins a thin, ugly smile. “The other fellas don’t much like the things Vesper does to ladies. Some of them got their morals, or that’s what they call them, anyway. Me? I take a more flexible view. Get what I mean? They don’t want to be here in case I’ve got to make you see sense. Please, make me have to make you see sense. Get it?”Part of acting is using my imagination to immerse my mind fully in a character’s experience, but this doesn’t require much effort. I don’t have totryto imagine what hemightmean. This man, the psycho who refers to himself in the third person, is willing to go to lengths even regular Mafia soldiers won’t. That means serious, life-ending abuse.“That wasn’t rhetorical,” he says.“I understand.”He taps the knife against the table. “Why don’t you try to give me some fight, hmm? Why don’t you try to
ELENAI’m pretty sure I’m in the back of a car. My hands are bound in front of me with zip ties. I think it’s a car, not a truck, because I can see light shining through the bag they’ve put over my head. I have no idea how long we’ve been driving. Time has distorted, losing all meaning. I’ve been trying to focus on slowing my breathing down.They haven’t hurt me yet, apart from the ambush itself, my head still splitting down the middle from what I assume was some sort of grenade. It all feels surreal—an acid reminder of how unsuited I am to this world.I’ve stopped crying, at least. When I think back to the attack, I feel like an idiot. I shouldn’t have assumed that the men were on my side. Nobody in the mob, not even Dario, is on my side. I’m not just from a different world but from a different universe.I think about all my aspirations and dreams of acting as Aunt Rosa sits lovingly and supportively in the crowd and all the good times Giulia and I would share. Now they’re all gone t
“I didn’t tell them anything,” my father says. “I only learned about this after the fact. Please, son, sit. Try to slow down. Try to think. You can’t approach this how you need to if you’re in this state.”I lay my fists on his desk, glaring at him. He flinches away. Now, it’s the second time he looks spooked by me. “I’m in the exact state I need to be. The right mood to tear this city to pieces to find Elena. The right state to destroy the Romanos.”“We have to be intelli?—”“Are you telling me tolet them get away with this?”“No, of course not,” he says quickly. “When they find her, I know you’ll do what you must.”“So, what are you saying?”“I don’t want you to domorethan is necessary,” he says slowly. “Find her. Rescue her. Hurt anybody who gets in your way, but as it stands, there have been no deaths.”“That we know of,” I say, then regret saying it. Putting it into words is like giving it a chance to be real. I slam my fists on his desk. “I don’t want to think about that. Elena
DARIO“Don’t start a war?”I roar down the phone at my father on speaker as I speed through the city, my hands tight on the steering wheel, blood boiling through my body like a call to violence. “Are you fucking joking? The Romanos attacked Mother and my fiancée. Theytook her, and you want me to be calm?”“Your mother is safe. The men got her out.”“And they left Elena!”“They didn’t leave her,” my father says as I speed around the corner to the theater. The police are already here, a cordon out front, which means I’m too damn late to get any information. I’m unsure what I will find, but not Elena, the one thing Ineed. This can’t be happening. “They tried to rescue her, too, but the Romanos had already taken her by the time they arrived. They didn’t abandon her, son.”“Do you think that makes any of this better?” I bellow, then hang up and call Allessio. “What’ve you got?”“No activity at their safe house on the docks, Dario,” he says. “I’m going to check their warehouse in the industr
I almost laugh, breaking character. Instead, I take the cell and pretend to type. “What’s your passcode?”She grins. “I shouldn’t tell you that, should I? I’ll type it for you.”“Here you go. Oh!” I pretend to drop the phone, then lean down and pick it up. “It’s busted. I’m so sorry; I’ll pay for a new one. In the meantime, do you have a landline?”Her eyes gleam. “I’ve been waiting for one of your kind to come.”I’m surprised for a moment, but the exhilaration of acting keeps me going in the scenario. I broaden my stance. I put a grim note to my voice. “So you know what I am, then, day dweller?”“I know, and I’m ready.” She pretends to take something out of her pocket. “This is a clove of garlic.”I smirk. “Those old myths, day dweller? I’ll take your garlic and use it in my pasta sauce. It doesn’t do a thing to us.”“What aboutthis?!” She leaps to her feet, looking so different from her usualpersonathat I wonder if she’s been putting on an act all this time, too. Or maybe it’s natur
ELENA“Iwould just like you to give me a concrete reason I can’t visit the theater,” I tell Rocco, my driver and mafiosi bodyguard.The lean man frowns at me from across the roof of his car. We’re in the front courtyard of the townhouse, the vehicle gleaming after a recent wash. “There are several issues, ma’am,” he says, clearly uncomfortable with challenging the soon-to-be Mafia princess.Since Dario left around two hours ago, I’ve felt more restless than I have since I agreed to this deal. I let myself fall into a false sense of intimacy, let the sass hint at something real. However, earlier, and let’s be honest, I played my part, too. He made it clear that was a mistake.“Are you seriously telling me?—”“Is something wrong?”We both turn at the sound of Maria Moretti’s voice. She walks toward us in a long, flowing dress that makes her appear to floatelegantly. Rocco stands a little straighter, his hands behind his back.“I was telling Miss Esposito that we can’t, at this time, tak