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“It wasn’t Primo, if that’s what you’re asking,”shesaid.
He forced his body to remain loose, not wanting to alert her to his surprise. “How doyouknow?”
“He was never there,” she said. “Not once. OnlyMalcolm.”
He craned his neck to look at her face. “Gatti?”
He would let Primo’s involvement in her kidnapping go for now. She’d been safe for less than twenty-four hours. It would kill her to know her own brother had been complicit in keeping her locked up for almost two months. He would tell herlater.
Or never, if he could makeitwork.
She nodded against his chest. “Malcolm and the other men you saw. I don’t know whotheywere.”
“They work for Stefano Anastos,”Damiansaid.
“Anastos… The guy who controlsAstoria?”
He wasn’t surprised she knew about Anastos’s stronghold in Astoria. She was Primo Fiore’s sister, and while she hadn’t taken an active role in his business, she’d probably overheard plenty, both at home and at Velvet, the nightclub that served as Primo Fiore’sheadquarters.
“That’s the one,”Damiansaid.
“You think Malcolm is plotting against Primo with the Greeks?” sheasked.
He hated the worry in her voice. Hated that she was still worried about Primo after everything he’d done. But of course, in lieu of Primo’s involvement with Anastos, she would assume it was all Malcolm’sdoing.
And the only reason Malcolm would conspire with Anastos would be to overthrow Primo and take histerritory.
“I don’t know,” Damian said, trying to stick as close to the truth as possible without hurting her. “I can’t speak to Malcolm’s motives, but we know the apartment in Athens is owned by Anastos, and we know the men who were holding you there worked for him. It stands to reason that if Malcolm was there too, they were working together in somecapacity.”
“But why? What did they have to gain by kidnapping me?” She propped herself up on his chest to look at his face. “Do you think they were trying to get Primo to turn over his territory to them by using me asleverage?”
He had to swallow the fury in his throat. After everything Primo had done to her, she still believed in him. There was no way she was ready to hear that he had allowed her to be locked up, not for territorial gain but simply to keep her fromDamian.
To teach her a lesson. AndDamiantoo.
“I don’t know,” he said. “We’re still sorting out the details. We have to do some more digging on Anastos’s activity over the past twomonths.”
She trailed a finger over his chest, gently touched the area around his healing gunshotwound.
“I thought maybe you’d died,”shesaid.
He kissed the top of her head. “Not achance.”
She propped herself up, looked in his eyes. “Seriously, I thought I lost you thatnight.”
His eyes darkened. “I would have come for you on the terrace if I could have. You know that,don’tyou?”
“I would have come for you if I could have,” she said, laying back down on his chest with a sigh. “I missed yousomuch.”
He tightened his hold on her. “I missed you, too. More thanyouknow.”
“I thought about you every day. Every night.” She drew in a deep shuddering breath. “Sometimes I think you were the only thing that kept mealive.”
“No.” He tipped her chin, forcing her to look at him. “You did that all by yourself. You’re strong, Aria. Stronger than you give yourselfcreditfor.”
She smiled a little, the first one he’d seen in almost two months. “Well, it didn’t hurt to think of you. Let’s put itthatway.”
He returned her smile, felt the chuckle spread from his stomach up through his chest, the first time he’d laughed in almost twomonths.
“Touché.”
She stretched to kiss him, lingering over his lips before returning her head to his chest. “Just promise me we’ll never be apart again,”shesaid.
“Ipromise.”
He held her closer and tried to ignore the feeling that he was making promises hecouldn’t keep.
