This man was murder incarnate. There is nothing else behind those gray eyes as he looms over Claudio as if he is calculating the most excruciating way for him to meet God.
I know at that moment, I should have taken the opportunity to run. I should have run before my fear had a chance to catch me in a chokehold. I’m frozen with terror, afraid to move or speak.
“You demanded satisfaction. She is my peace offering,” Claudio half-grunts.
“You do not speak for her.” Rocco’s voice is like ice slicing across my skin.
Something must have happened. Claudio must have gotten himself in trouble with the mob, and now Rocco has come to collect what he’s due.
I want to scream at Claudio for being such an idiot, for even thinking he was smart enough to outwit someone as dangerous as a powerful man in the Italian mafia. A thousand questions bubble up within me, but sheer terror keeps them all down.
“Ask her then,” Claudio cries. “She’ll do it, won’t you, darling? She loves me.”
It takes an embarrassing amount of time for the pieces to come together.Take her for the night,he’d said.
He wants me to sleep with Rocco to atone for whatever he’s done.
Are youfuckingkidding me?
That too-long dormant flame of anger within me roars to life, spreading through my body and burning through the numbness that had taken its place. For the first time in what feels like months, years even, I feel true anger.
Deep, wounding, unchecked anger.
And it feels so damn good.
“She won’t do shit for you,” Rocco growls, taking the words right out of my mouth.
I want to destroy Claudio. Completely and thoroughly, for taking an innocent girl from her hometown, for seducing her with promises of fame and fortune, for belittling her, gaslighting her, andstealingfrom her from the moment she arrived.
My embarrassment is nothing compared to the rage roaring joyously through my veins.
“What would happen, do you think? If you broke up with him?”
Mia’s voice of reason grounds me. I need to be smart about this, or else I risk losing everything. Which is a surprising consideration when you have nothing to begin with.
“I’ll do it,” I say before I can talk myself out of it.
Everyone freezes and turns to me.
“Have some self-respect,” Teresa mutters.
But I ignore her, staring only at Rocco, registering the confusion that flashes across his expression as he shakes his head. “No,” he says, his voice quiet, almost pleading. I don’t take the time to ponder why he sounds like that. I’m too angry.
I put my chin in the air. “I’ll do it.”
“See? She’s fine with it,” Claudio says from the floor.
Rocco kicks him, and I try my best to keep my face neutral. But I can’t hide from Rocco. His eyebrows raise slightly at the sight of my concealed glee.
Please. I have a plan. Please. Trust me,I try to beg with my eyes.
He doesn’t owe me anything, so there’s no reason for him to agree to this. I have nothing to offer him beyond my gratitude.We might have flirted earlier, but we don’t know each other. And he might well be the most dangerous person I’ve ever met.
It says something about my current situation that I am eagerly considering someone from the mafia to be my best hope of salvation.
“Are you sure?” he asks me softly.
Relief washes through me as I nod.
