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Candace rubs my back. “Nerves, poor thing.”
It’s not nerves. It’s humiliation and disappointment that I’ve been rejected by the one man in the city I thought would help me.
If he ever scares you or does anything you don’t like, I’m here. I’m nothing like him.
Bambina, there’s danger at every turn in this city. Sometimes three is better than one. Have a think about that.
Cassius Ferragamo is full of shit. Was a four million dollar engagement ring not incentive enough to help me when he offered on two separate occasions to be my knight in shining armor? The first time was at the fountain the night I got drunk on tequila shots and he saw the tearstains on my face. He knew how cruel Salvatore could be. The second was at the deserted warehouse the night I was nearly raped and murdered.
But it was neither of those occasions that made me reach out to him a week ago. It was what he did exactly one year earlier on my seventeenth, right after Mom was murdered. I lost it completely, screaming and crying and grabbing the person nearest me and begging them not to leave me alone with Mom’s murderer.
That man was Cassius Ferragamo.
As I sobbed hysterically and begged him not to go, he murmured words only I could hear.I’m sorry, I can’t help you tonight. You have to wait. I promise I’ll be back.
He would help me, but not yet.
And I believed him.
I take a deep breath and sit up. It’s just another hard lesson I had to learn. Fathers are murderers, fiancés are cruel, and knights in shining armor will take your four million dollar diamond ring and run. I know it’s a four million dollar ring because that’s what my father bellowed at me when I told him I lost it.
You lost Salvatore Fiore’s four million dollar engagement ring?
I can only imagine what he would have said if I told him the truth.Actually, I used it to bribe Salvatore’s former best friend to smuggle me out of the country, and he ignored me.
I pull the lace veil over my face and let my bridesmaids escort me downstairs to Dad and the waiting wedding car.
Before I get inside, I turn around and look at the house that was my home for seventeen years, and my prison for one. For a second I think I see the outline of someone standing in one of the upstairs windows, her face in shadow.
I’m sorry, Mom. You died for nothing.
At the church, I stand in the vestibule next to Dad, bouquet in hand, while Rosaline, Sophia and Candace spread out the train of my wedding gown. Organ music plays from within.
There’s a sudden, loud bang from inside the church and voices rise in confusion.
“Wait here,” Dad says, and pushes through the doors. I only get a quick look inside but people are milling about, and I wonder if something’s fallen over inside the church. Is that smoke drifting through the air?
My bridesmaids gasp in shock and hurry forward to see for themselves. As the door closes behind them, I feel the air pressure change around me. I whirl around and see that two tall figures dressed head to toe in black and wearing black ski masks are looming over me.
The taller of the two men in black smiles, and I recognize those deep brown eyes. “Bambina. I told you I’d be back.”
I asked Cassius Ferragamo for help, but as he bears down on me, the black sweater he’s wearing stretched tight across his chest and his leather gloved hands poised to grab me, he knows this isn’t the help I was hoping for.
But he’s doing it anyway.
I brandish my bouquet of flowers like a weapon. “Get away from me!”
I back away, toward the door into the church. There’s a leaner man next to him, almost as tall, that has to be Vinicius. My high heel catches the edge of a tile, and I stumble. The satin dress drags across the floor, weighing me down.
From inside the church, I hear Dad yell, “You. What are you doing here?”
There are shrieks and shouts of alarm from within the church and the sound of pounding feet. Cassius scoops me up in his arms like I’m nothing just as Lorenzo Scava, dressed in black combat pants and a polo shoves open the door and is framed against the huge gold cross at the far end of the aisle. Soft light from the stained-glass window falls across his powerful shoulders.
He’s got his ski mask pulled up, revealing his face. As he sees me pinned against Cassius, his mouth curves into a triumphant smile that freezes my blood.
Over his shoulder I see Salvatore standing at the altar at the far end of the church. He sees me in Cassius’ arms.
His mouth falls open in horror. And he starts to run.
