Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
“Okay, good. Take her home. I don’t want her to see this. She’s already more involved than I ever wanted her to be.”
Enzo is kicking, moaning, trying to yell through the gag. He knows what comes next. He knows who he’s dealing with now. I’m not the kindhearted mafia man anymore. I’m not the do-gooder. I’m not the good samaritan.
I’m the Nightmare, the Barbarian. I’m the man who, when Dominic set three men on me, had to hold me back so I didn’t kill them all.
“I’ll see you soon, Nico, okay?” Arria says softly. “Whatever happens, I won’t judge you. Whatever happens, I still care about you. Okay?”
I look down, unable to meet her eye.
“Come on,” Lucy says. “Let’s get out of here. He doesn’t want us here for this part.”
The two women leave. I walk across the room and open a briefcase. Inside are the tools from my old life, the enforcer days.
“I wanted to put all this behind me,” I say sternly. “I did nothing wrong. All I did was keep an innocent woman away from you, Dominic. All I did to you, Enzo, was stand up for a woman who didn’t deserve the filth you threw at her. You made fun of her body. It was immature. It was pathetic. Let’s face it. You’ve done much, much worse. Perhaps I should’ve done this a long time ago.”
I turn, curling my hand tightly around the grip of the knife.
I never wanted to be this man. I’ve always wanted to do good. But for Arria, my angel, I’ll do anything.
CHAPTER 23
ARRIANA
Aunt Lucy and I sit in the semidarkness in her and Nico’s living room. There aren’t any photos of them as a couple on the walls, and there are no signs of a relationship, like a half-finished puzzle or an opened bottle of wine. The apartment has a strangely cold feeling.
“He thinks we’re going to hate him,” Lucy mutters.
“I could never hate him,” I reply earnestly. “Has he told you about us?”
Lucy smiles sadly. Her expression has a shell-shocked quality to it. I don’t have to ask to know that her short time with Dominic hasn’t exactly been fun. Talk about the biggest understatement of the century.
“He didn’t have to. It was obvious from the start. Nico’s always been able to do a passable job at pretending to be my husband in public, but it’s difficult for him. His upbringing wasn’t easy. Later, when he became an enforcer to save his parents, he often talked about it taking pieces from his soul. It hardened him. With you, Arria, he stopped being so hard.”
Pride blossoms in me and something else—something love-shaped, maybe. “It’s funny. Mostly, we’ve been texting. I never thought about texting like this before, but there’s something magical about it. It lets us skip all the awkwardness, the self-consciousness. We didn’t hold back as much as we would have in person. I know cell phones are the enemy, whatever, but not to us. For us, they made…” Love. “Uh, us, possible.”
Lucy narrows her eyes, and I’m sure she knows what I was just about to say. “He’s taking a gigantic risk for us. If anybody ever finds the bodies of those two men and links them back to him, he’s going to be in danger.”
“When will we know if we’re safe?”
“It will take time. Months, maybe. One day, we’ll all be together, you and Nico, Rocco and Sandy, me and…”
“Giancarlo?”
“Nico told me you saw us,” she says hesitantly.
“I was so confused. I thought you were cheating on Nico. Then Nico and I kissed, and for a brief time, I hated myself. I thought we’d cheated on you, too. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“It wasn’t cheating. We were never together.”
“That’s why he told me,” I tell her. “He didn’t want me to beat myself up about it. That’s what makes him a good man. He’s capable of bad things, lying, hurting people, but he always has a good reason.”
“Make sure you remind him of that after this,” Lucy mutters. “He’s going to beat himself up. He never enjoyed his time in the mob. He hated being an enforcer. Before you came along, Arria, he was cold, closed-off. He focused on his pro bono work, and that was it.”
“I will,” I tell her. “I won’t let him hate himself. He doesn’t deserve that. He deserves… well, love. I’m not saying from me.”
Another brittle, sad smile touches her face. “From somebody else, then?”
“No,” I snap, suddenly jealous. “I didn’t say that. I’m just not sure people can fall in love by texting. Plus, Dad’s seriously against anything happening with us.”
“Your dad’s worried about you, that’s all. Deep down, he knows Nico is a good person. I think he’ll come around. If not…”
“Are you saying I should pick Nico over my family?” I ask.