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“Come in,” she calls.
I step inside and she’s sitting on the bed, her face scrubbed of make-up, revealing a purple bruise around her eye, and her hair pulled into a high pony tail. She’s wearing a pair of Joey’s pink, unicorn pajamas.
She looks so young and innocent. Like a nineteen-year-old instead of the Stepford housewife she was trying to be to secure our engagement. I sit on the bed beside her, and up close, I see the faint fingertip bruises on her neck too.
My chest tightens, and I suck in a deep breath. “I spoke to your father. I told him we’re engaged and that you’ll be living with me from here on out.”
“Was he okay with that?”
“He accepted it.”
“Okay,” she whispers, and I notice the fear creeping into her voice. She shrinks back from me a little, and I take it as my cue to move a little further away from her.
“I have no intention of marrying you, Nicci, but until I figure a way out of this, everyone must believe that we are engaged. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
“That includes Sabine.”
She blinks at the mention of her friend’s name. She told me about her on our second date, and then again on our third and fourth.
“S-Sabine? What does she have to do with anything?”
“I don’t want you speaking to her for a while.”
“B-but she’s just my friend, Dante. I… she won’t…”
Fuck! The naivety of this girl is gonna get us all in trouble. “Nicci!” I snap. “This has to look real. I am the head of the fucking Cosa Nostra. Do you think I would allow my fiancée to consort with her lover?”
Her cheeks turn bright pink. “She’s n-not…”
“Do not fucking lie to me. I am not your fucking white knight, Nicci. I will keep you safe here. I don’t care who you fucked, who you love, who you want, but you do not get to fucking lie to my face.”
“H-how did you know?” she whispers, tears running down her cheeks. “Nobody knew.”
“She was the only person you ever mentioned other than your brothers and father. The only time there was ever any light in your eyes was when you spoke about her.”
She blinks at me.
“And on our second date when you were sleeping over at her house, you had a manicure. You trimmed your nails extra short and smooth.”
She gasps, her cheeks turning an even deeper shade of pink. “You’re like some sort of a… wizard.”
“That’s definitely something I’ve never been called before,” I say with a frown.
“It’s true. I mean, my nails? Who even notices that stuff?”
“I do,” I say as I walk out of the room. “I notice everything, Nicci,” I warn her. “And I mean it about the lying. You have no reason to lie to me. If I find out you have…”
“You’ll what?” she asks, her eyes narrowed.
“If you put my family at risk, I will kill you. And I won’t lose a wink of sleep over it.”
She nods her head in understanding. She might be young and naïve, but she knows the world we live in. She knows my reputation.
Chapter47
Kat
