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"I know the feeling." I shake my hair back from my head. "Looks like both of us are goners, eh?" I chuckle. "Who’d have thought this could happen."
"You know I can’t marry him, right? Not that there was ever a doubt that he was going to marry anyone other than you."
I rise to my feet and begin to pace. "I can’t marry him, Solene. I really can’t. If I do, I’ll get distracted. I’ll lose myself in him and not be able to focus on what I need to do."
"And what is it you need to do?"
"I need to figure out what I want. Whether I still want to be an actor. Whether I want to do something else with my life, and if so, what that is. I left home with a promise to myself, never to become a Mafia bride." I spin around and face her.
"Umm, Livvy?" Solene interrupts me, but I ignore her.
"I told myself I’d never be dependent on a Mafia guy, that I’d make something of myself before I settled down. Yet here I am, in the one situation I’ve been trying to avoid. I can’t do this."
"Livvy, stop," Solene says urgently.
"I can’t. I need to get this out. It’s been eating away at me." I throw up my hands. "If I married him now, I’d be untrue to myself. I’d turn into the very woman I’ve wanted to avoid becoming, know what I mean?"
"I do." She blows out a breath. "And now, so does he."
"What?"
She glances past me. I turn to find Massimo at the doorway. Heat suffuses my face. Oh hell, I hadn’t meant for him to hear me ranting like a lunatic.
"I tried to warn you." Solene twists her fingers together. She keeps her gaze averted from Massimo.
The silence stretches for a few seconds, then Massimo leans a hip against the doorframe. “Can I talk to you, Via?”
Ugh, not exactly what I want to do right now. I squeeze the bridge of my nose.
“Livvy? I think you need to speak with him,” Solene whispers.
I lower my arm and search her features. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’m fine,” she smiles a teary smile. “A little in shock, but I’m okay. I’m not sure about you, though.”
“Me?” I shake my hair back from my shoulders. “I’ll survive. It’s all going to work out, Sol, you’ll see.”
She holds my gaze for a second, then nods. “Okay.”
“Okay.” I lean forward and kiss her cheek, then rise to my feet and make it to the doorway. I brush past him and down the corridor to one of the guest rooms, aware he’s on my heels. I walk toward the window and glance out.
He stands in the doorway. "Think she’ll ever forgive me for what I did?" he asks.
"Probably not."
"Will you forgive me for what I did?"
"There’s nothing to forgive. If you hadn’t shot him, he’d have married me off to that Mexican Mafia lord." A shudder grips me. "Nothing I could say or do would have stopped him. He’d have probably made me a prisoner in my own home, and if I had escaped, he’d have found me and brought me back.” I turn toward him. “You saved me from a future worse than death, so really, there’s nothing to forgive."
A pleased look flashes across his face. "Now that we have that out of the way—" He steps inside the room and shuts the door behind him, then locks it. "Let’s talk."
31
Massimo
The plan had been for me to negotiate with Diego. To hand over theCosa Nostra’soverland routes through Southern Europe to him, in exchange for my marrying Olivia, leaving Solene free to be with Declan. But the moment he said Olivia’s name, referred to her as being scarred, then said he was going to marry her to that Mexicanstronzo,he signed his own death warrant.
I’d asked Solene to set up a meeting with him. Not that he’d have refused if I’d asked him directly; he wouldn’t dare. But if the request came through Solene, it would seem like I was accepting the idea of the marriage to her, and it would put him more at ease. It definitely loosened his tongue as he began to accept me as part of thefamiglia. Enough to confide the plan he had for Olivia, and thank Santa Maria, I was able to nip that in the bud.
