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“How are you feeling, printsessa?” he asks, stroking my hair back from my face, dropping a sweet kiss on my cheek.
“Better,” I whisper. Although that’s not entirely true. Anticipating Deidre’s call tomorrow has brought on a fresh wave of anxiety. “How was your day?”
He stills for a second but then melts into me. “Bloody. Card counters, repeat offenders. They had already been warned and told to stay away from the blackjack table. I had to teach them a lesson.”
My body stiffens. “At the casino?” I ask, hysteria tinging my voice. Because if so, who knows what the feds picked up on.
He sighs as he brings me against his chest. His hand snaking around me to cup my breast, holding me against him.
“No, we keep bratva business far away from the casino. We own a garment factory in Brooklyn, that’s where we handle our shit. It’s one of the few places we can talk freely.”
Lead drops in my chest, hot and heavy, and the pressure knocks the breath from my lungs. Why did he have to go and tell me that now? I want to curl up into a ball and scrub that piece of information from my brain, but I can’t erase what I’ve learned.
Daniil nips at my neck and grinds me against his hard dick. “I’m glad you’re better, printsessa.” He flips me on my back. “’Cause I desperately need to fuck you.”
I open my mouth to protest because I don’t deserve him. I don’t deserve his tenderness or his heart, but he swallows my words with his lips and tongue, devouring me like a starving man. One hand wanders down my body, snaking under my nightgown to land between my legs.
Pulsating arousal and a blinding rush of ecstasy fill me, as happens every time his hands are on me. Lighting me up from the inside out, as if we’re connected by electrical currents that flow between us. With each touch, each drugging kiss, all those wretched feelings bouncing around inside me melt away. He consumes me with such intensity that all I can do is take shelter in his arms, in our physical connection, and not think about the road to hell I’m leading us both down.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
BIANCA
I dreamof my parents and sister that night. A vivid dream, not a nightmare like I used to have when I was younger. This dream is different.
I am in a beautiful meadow on a sunny day, wandering alone and enjoying the peace and stillness. I bend down to pick a wildflower, and when I stand back up, my parents and sister are there, holding hands, so happy to see me. I run to them, hug them, relish the feeling of them in my arms.
I cry, but they are tears of joy because we are reunited. They are alive and well and so happy to see me. The love between us is still so real, palpable—the familiar way Dad envelopes me in his arms with Celeste pressed between us, my mother’s perfume, floral and light, the warmth from her body.
“I’m so happy to see you,” I cry. “I miss you so much.”
“I know,mi amor, I know.” My mother kisses my forehead. “But I am still with you. Every day.”
“How is that possible?” I sob.
“Can’t you feel us with you?” She smiles. “We are still here. And we want the best for you.” She strokes my cheek, love shining in her eyes. And then she points to a lone figure walking towards us through the tall grass.
It takes a moment for my eyes to adapt to the bright sunshine, but once they adjust, I see who is approaching. Daniil. Looking as handsome as ever, as devastating as always. I want to run to him, but I don’t want to leave my parents.
“Mama,” I say, my heart suddenly heavy. “I’ve ruined everything. He’s going to find out what I did soon, and he’ll hate me.”
“No, sweetheart.” She takes both of my hands and stares into my eyes as she so often did in life. “It will be all okay. You’re going to make it okay.”
As Daniil gets closer, I turn to my mother. “But he’s mafia. Is this the man you want for me? Really?”
“It’s not about what I want, it’s about what you want.” Her hand lands on my heart. “And only you can answer that.”
As quickly as my family appeared, they disappeared like mist off a lake, and I find myself wrapped in Daniil’s arms, enveloped in his heat, consumed by his smell.
When I open my eyes, sunlight floods in through the windows, and like in my dream, Daniil is cradling me into his chest, the safest place in the world.
And just like that, what I need to do next is clear as day.
I’m no longer going to be a pawn. Somehow, I am going to make this right.
* * *
At three o’clock sharp myphone rings. I stare at the screen for a moment, hands shaking, because I know whatever news Deidre has for me will change everything. I close my eyes, back pressed into the bathroom wall, and with one final deep breath, answer the phone.
