“Tino has been my friend and ally before you were even born, Ravenna. This has nothing to do with Tino and everything to do with his fucking son who betrayed us all.”
“But—”
“What would the man you’re so grateful to do when he knew that your mamma’s real last name wasn’t Berlusconi?”
I gasped, my heart sinking to my knees. No one knew that secret. How did he know?
“What would he do when he knew, all this time, he’d been taking in aSeppikid at his school?” Lanza knew exactly how to silence me.
I froze in place, not even able to breathe.
“Enzio, you can’t do this,” Papa rasped. “If Tino knew my wife belonged to the family that killed his, he’d burn us alive. Isn’t it enough what has happened to us already? My boy is dead before he even got a chance to live. I’m in a fucking wheelchair for the rest of my life, and my wife has lost her mind. I don’t care about what happens to me, but my daughter doesn’t deserve this. Stop making my children pay for my mistakes.”
“Then knock some sense into your daughter’s head.” Lanza switched his gaze toward me. “Not only will I be more than happy to keep your secret, but if you take the job I’m offering, all your debt will also go away.”
“You mean she’ll never have to do any more favors to any Mob family ever again?” Papa asked.
“Si, si. She’ll be free to do however she pleases.”
“Malyshka,” Papa squeezed my hand, “do you hear this? You won’t have to lie in court again or deal with any of those men. All you have to do is this one last job, and it’ll be over. You’ll be free, Ravenna. You’ll finally be safe and free.”
My heart thrummed in my ears as tears dropped from my eyes onto Leo’s photo.
“Please listen to the man, Ravenna. Please, malyshka.Please.”
CHAPTER 4
Leo
When life drowned you in despair and cruelty, you didn’t know who you’d become once you resurface.
In here, I had nothing left. As time passed and every breath of mine felt shared with my tormenter or the agony he caused, space turned into vacuum and so did my soul.
Except when it came to her.
I tried to forget. I tried to give in. But she was always there. I didn’t want to love. I didn’t want to feel. I didn’t want to hope. But she was always there.
Love wasn’t meant to exist with my sins. Emotions were a curse so bright it squeezed shadows out of my darkness, forcing me to see it all without a chance to hide. And hope, the worst of them all, compelled me to relive desires I’d smothered to survive.
I’d managed to stay alive in torture for a year, feeding on the hopeless fantasies of my twisted mind. With the hope Nicky had given me and then brutally yanked away, I had to face truths I’d ignored for so long I wasn’t sure I’d recover from them anymore.
The chains rattled against my growls of wrath and pain as my bleeding feet kicked the cage bars hard enough to make them bleed some more.
A breath whiffed in from the side. One I’d recognize for what was left of my life. My jailer’s.
“I was gonna get him out, but it wasn’t safe yet. You think I don’t know we’re fucked?” the Lanza dog seethed, a phone on his ear as he rushed in from the secret door. “I’ll handle it.”
“Look who’s back for more.” My eyes darted at him. “What, you couldn’t find your woman waiting in bed to take care of the hard-on you get every time you’re done with me?”
He hung up, his eyes sweeping the place, glowing in the dark like those of a beast about to tear his prey. “Where the fuck is she? What did you say to her?”
I laughed as he spotted the broken door. “You just missed her…and all the secrets we shared. I wished you’d been here to listen to the heartfelt conversation we’d had yourself.”
He dashed toward the exit Nicky had taken. “I’ll deal with you later, you fucking prick.”
“Can’t fucking wait.”
He stopped in his tracks as the door squeaked ajar. His tall frame blocked the view, but it wasn’t hard to guess who froze him in place. A sated smile burst on my swollen lips.
