“Okay.”
“Do you trust me, Violet?”
Trusting people had never come easily to me. Not after my parents. Not after losing Lily. Not after having to hide my child from my own father.
“You still there?” Sienna asked.
“Yes, I am.” I cleared my throat, then continued, “I trust you’re a smart young woman, Sienna. However, when it comes to this Irish mobster, I don’t trust your motives and I don’t think you trust your own motives either.”
She snorted. “Whatever.”
“Ah,” I mused, smiling faintly. “I must have struck a nerve.”
“I appreciate you talking to me,” Sienna rasped, and a part of me wished she was here and I could hug her. I never offered physical closeness with anyone, but Sienna was practically family.
“Anytime.”
“Anything I can help you with?” she offered.
I stared out toward the endless row of whitewashed homes and sparkling blue sea beyond them. “The only thing you can do for me, Sienna, is to take care of yourself. I want you to be happy and since your kidnapping last year… you’re struggling.”
“It’s scary how perceptive you are, Violet,” she muttered. “I promise to be happy, but I also think it’s time you find happiness too.”
“That sounds suspiciously wise for someone trying to entrap an Irish mobster.”
“I contain multitudes.”
I laughed softly.
“What are you going to do?” I asked after a long pause. “About a certain Irish mobster?”
“I honestly don’t know.” She sighed heavily. “But I’m afraid I’ve come too far to stop now. Bye, Violet.”
The line went dead and for the next hour—or maybe three—I sat alone with my thoughts.
Then I took a shower, cooked an early dinner and ate it with the children. Lykos was nowhere to be found. Since the kids were still recovering from everything that had happened, they went to bed early and I was alone with my thoughts. Again.
Except, with every passing minute, my anxiety and fear of where I stood with Lykos grew. I was scared to lose everything I’d found in this short amount of time. I hadn’t had the best childhood and my parents’ marriage was nothing to look up to.
But for the first time in my life, I felt like something in my life could be right.
A door slammed somewhere in the penthouse, and then I spotted Lykos. He stalked toward me and grasped me by my throat. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to force me to look up at him.
“You want to go to the States, fine. But I’m coming along. You’re not leaving Dimitros and me behind.”
His lips covered mine and he swallowed my next breath in his mouth.
FORTY-ONE
LYKOS
Imight have overreacted when Violet said she wanted to show Aria her life in the States.
But could you fucking blame me? Violet’s father was some sick bastard who wanted Violet and any of her descendants dead. And then there was the fact that Violet’s words and plans didn’t sound like they included Dimitros or me.
It fucking hurt.
So, after spending a whole day cooling and failing, I came home and resorted to the only thing I knew would tie her to me: rutting her to oblivion. Having her so addicted to me she couldn’t breathe without me, just like I couldn’t live without her.
