Page 82 of Sinful Bride

I don’t want to believe that, but she's right. If Dante is feeding information to the Capettis, if he's the reason my men were ambushed, then I've been a fucking fool. I brought the enemy right into my organization because I was desperate to prove I belonged.

"I'll talk to him," I say.

"Today."

"Today," I agree.

She nods and starts to pull away. But I catch her hand, holding her in place. "Elena."

"What?"

"Thank you." I bring her hand to my lips, kissing her knuckles. "For helping me see what I was missing."

Surprise flickers across her face. "You're my husband," she says quietly. "Your enemies are my enemies now."

The words settle between us. Even after everything that's happened, even with all the walls still standing between us, she's on my side. Or at the very least, she acknowledges that our sides are the same, and that’s a start.

I pull her down and kiss her, slow and deep. When I pull back, her breathing has quickened. "I have to go," I murmur, even though every instinct is screaming at me to stay, pull her against me, and spend the day learning every inch of her body. "But tonight⁠—"

"Tonight," she whispers.

I kiss her once more, then force myself to ignore my hardening cock and get up and get dressed. Because she's right. I need to deal with Dante Moretti.

Before anyone else dies.

—

I head over to Lachlan’s a little while later. We go to sit in the kitchen to talk over coffee, and I can’t help but notice, like I do every time I’m here, how comfortable it all feels. The kitchen is bright and sunny, with copper pots hanging from a rack and fresh flowers on the counter. Adriana's touch, I assume. The woman who made Lachlan give up everything.

"She's at the market," Lachlan says, reading my mind. He pours two mugs of coffee and hands me one. "So you can stop looking around like you're afraid she's going to appear and lecture you about your life choices."

"She did that once."

"You deserved it." He leans against the counter, studying me. "What happened?"

Despite everything, I smile. I've missed this easy back-and-forth, this friendship that's survived everything life has thrown at us. I spent a decade without my best friend, and now I don’t see him nearly as often as I’d like to. "I slept with Elena."

Lachlan snorts. "About fucking time."

"It's complicated."

"It's always complicated with you." He takes a drink of his own coffee. "What happened?"

I give him the gist of what happened. “She wanted me to stop at the end. Not…” I wave a hand. “Make sure she wasn’t going to get pregnant. Which seems odd. That’s the whole thing these mafia bastards expect, right? For us to pop out kids as soon as possible? That’s what she would have been told she’s supposed to do.”

Lachlan shrugs. “The two of you just consummated things. I don’t know, maybe it shows she trusts you enough to let you know she’s not ready yet. You’re right, most men she might have married wouldn’t have listened. She probably wouldn’t have even said anything. The fact that you’re not the typical man she would have been matched with means she felt safe enough to tell you that, so I wouldn’t worry about it. She’s probably just nervous about having kids with a man she’s not even sure she wants to be married to yet.”

That assessment stings, but I can’t exactly fault it. “You’re probably right.”

“And maybe she’s nervous about the whole thing. Modern medicine is great and all, but it’s still dangerous. And mafia men tend to see their wives as disposable. Maternal mortality is just... accepted. The cost of producing heirs."

My stomach drops. "Jesus."

“So maybe she’s scared of getting pregnant. But if she is, she’ll tell you in her own time. Just go buy a box of condoms. That’ll probably mean more to her than all the fancy dinners in the world.”

“Are you serious?” I stare at him. “So it’s just… get married, get pregnant, produce an heir. And if you die in the process, well, that's just how it goes."

“Yeah.” He frowns. “It’s fucked up. Like I said, give her time to come around to the idea of kids, and she’ll trust you a lot more.”