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“Go fuck yourself, Lorenzo. If you lay a finger on her I’ll cut off your hands.”
I help Chiara into the car, and slam the door closed behind us. As the driver pulls away, Chiara sits rigid on the seat beside me, staring straight ahead. She seems like she’s sobered up at last.
“You all right, baby? There’s no need to be afraid. I would never let them touch you.”
Tears fill her eyes and fall down her face. Tequila tears?
“Seeing them all again reminds me of that night. The moment when—”
No, tears of grief and pain as she remembers her mother’s throat being slit right in front of her. I watch her with teeth gritted, torn between pulling her into my arms and telling her to toughen the fuck up.
In this life we all see things we wish we hadn’t.
I take her inside her house, meaning to see that she gets safely up the stairs and then leave. Chiara turns to me in the hall and stares at me, her eyes huge in the darkness.
“Your three friends. Ex-friends. Do you think they meant what they said?”
“I’ll kill them if they lay one finger on you, that’s a fucking promise.”
Chiara steps closer. “You would kill for me?”
I stare at her, wondering at her sudden change in mood. Mentions of death and violence have always had her shrinking away from me. “Is that what you want, baby? I thought you’d want me to be sweet with you. Treat you gently and make you feel like a princess.”
She shakes her head. “I’ve been treated like a princess all my life, and look where it’s gotten me. I want to know if you’ll kill someone if I ask you.”
Hatred and determination are burning in her eyes.
“Who do you want me to kill, baby?”
Chiara places her hands against my chest. Her beautiful face is raised to mine like she’s begging for a kiss, and the whisper falls from her lips like a word of love.
“Dad.”
10
Chiara
Dad. He’s the one who deserves to die.
I see him again, stepping out of the house clutching Lorenzo’s knife in his grip and approaching Mom as she stood by the side of the pool and wept.
She never even saw him coming.
With four ruthless men in the house, Dad was the one to kill her.
I step closer to Salvatore, and automatically, my hands smooth up his chest to wrap around his neck. It’s dangerous to ask a man like Salvatore for anything, but he’s promised to protect me like a husband, and this is what I want from him.
It’s theonlything I want.
“Please kill Dad for me,” I whisper. “I have no way to pay you other than with what Dad’s already offered you, but if you do this for me then I…” I falter over promising him the one thing that I can offer that he cares about. “I…”
I can do this. For Mom’s sake. I swallow hard.
“I’ll marry you without…resisting. I’ll do what you want.”
Salvatore’s eyes narrow. “You’re going to do that anyway. Don’t bargain with what’s already mine.”
He doesn’t understand. I’m not just talking about what happens between us on paper.
