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I’d been bored for years. The last few days were in color, after a decade of monochrome. What was the point of all the wealth and power I’d amassed if life had become bland and boring?
Giada’s words came back to me as I stared off into space.“Watching you with her, I can’t decide if you’re going to kill her or marry her.”
Marry her.
Of course.
“What are you going to do?” Elio asked, his voice carefully devoid of emotion.
He never gave his opinion unless I asked for it. He was unreadable and stoic, just as mentally strong as he was physically, but I wondered if I might finally be able to shock him.
“I’m going to marry her,” I told him. As soon as I said the words, they fit inside me like the missing puzzle piece I’d been seeking.
To his credit, mysottocapowas only mildly surprised by the announcement.
I started toward the car, Elio at my shoulder. “I need a wife and an heir. She wants to live. It’s a simple solution.”
Elio nodded. “I’ll get the eyes on her to pick her up.”
“No.” The word left me before I could question it. “I’ll go myself, and you get the sister.”I don’t want anyone else touching her.
“Yes, boss,” Elio said.
“When you want something done right, do it yourself. This has turned into a delicate situation, and I don’t trust anyone else with it.” It was pure lies, but Elio wasn’t going to call me on it, if he knew what was good for him. “Let’s go.”
There was something dark and twisted in my belly as I got into the armored SUV and slammed the door. Something simmering and hot. Something new.
It felt a lot like excitement.
9
CHARLIE
Imoved through work in a haze after Renato left. It felt like I’d just survived another near-death experience. I didn’t know how much more of it I could take. The cops came to our apartment, and hours later, Renato knew. I couldn’t get anything past him, and going to the cops about the murder wasn’t going to guarantee our safety.
My neck throbbed where he’d injected me with the tracker. I couldn’t stop imagining it, lurking just under my skin, letting him know where I was at all times.
Kneeling before him to “confess my sins” had also shaken me. The man was deviant. Dangerous in a way I’d never known. He was the living embodiment of everything the nuns at Mercy House had warned us about. A dark and powerful temptation to sin. And my idiot body didn’t hate that. Shame coated me, thick and sticky. Maybe I should give myself a cold shower, now that I was old enough to police my own impure thoughts.
I dragged myself home at the end of my shift and collapsed at the kitchen table. I’d never been so exhausted.
Lucy shuffled out of her room. The run-in with Renato had shoved everything else out of my head. The guarded look on my sister’s face reminded me of our fight.
She leaned against the kitchen counter and folded her arms. I looked at her, wondering which way she was going to go. She opened her mouth, like she wanted to say something, and then closed it. Eventually, she took a deep breath and spoke.
“I think that guy came here today…Miguel’s buddy.”
Suddenly, making up after our fight didn’t seem so important anymore. My heart stopped for a beat. “Tell me.”
“Someone knocked at the door. I was in bed, so I didn’t get there quickly. Before I could open it, they started pounding. It was scary. They waited around for an hour, maybe more, before leaving. I think he’s going to come back.”
“He is definitely going to come back,” I muttered, chewing on my lip.
“So, what should we do? Go to the police?”
“And tell them what? Some guy keeps knocking on our door? There’s no way to tell them what kind of threat that really is without admitting all of it and putting us in the De Sanctis crosshairs.”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “So, what do we do, then?”
