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Marco stares at me for a beat.He didn’t know that.Then he realizes how many men of ours are around. He looks embarrassed. “Yes, boss,” he mumbles. “But it makes no sense.”
“No shit,” I hiss, stepping past him.
I guide Sophie up the steps and there’s a host of cars all lined up and waiting, black tinted and dark as midnight. I take Sophie by the crook of her arm now and put her in. “I’ll be back. I’m just getting your things.” I don’t give her time to answer.
I head on board and take the shortcut to the bedroom we shared earlier. Images and sounds flood my mind of our glorious afternoon. I can hear her innocent voice uttering her confession, as well as the moans of her intense orgasm … I catch myself. The moment feels sour, now. I tell myself to stop.Something special that is now tainted …
I take her clothes and phone and bundle them up. Her phone lights up with my movement and I see many notifications. I’m curious but I don’t pry. As far as I’m concerned, the Russos are falling behind. Knowing this, knowing that she is the next in line, I suddenly don’t feel threatened.
Obviously someone placed a hit, but was it on me?
Or her?
As I come back down the gangplank, I see her head pressed against the car window. I open the door and give her her things. I open the door and tell the driver to take her wherever she needs to go. Then I go back to her, deciding suddenly to cut her from my heart.
“Today didn’t happen,” I say, the anger laced with lust is like barbs on my own heart. “Between us there wasnothing. All you were to me was another woman to bed. A virgin to conquer. I never want to see you again, and if you breathe a word of it, then my mercy will not be as lenient.”
The words cut her deeply and I see how much it’s wounded her. She is young, I tell myself. She’ll get over it. She’ll find another fuck, another man. She’ll trick someone else and run their life. Even if she’s just witnessed me murder two men to protect her.
Was it her?
I don’t give myself a chance to go down that road and slam the door without her responding. I watch the car leave, telling myself to be angry. Telling myself that I’ve just got rid of a Russo spy. But in truth my heart cracks that Sophie Russo has left me. The goddess that was mine for a few hours has departed. It feels like the sun has winked out.
I close my eyes and exhale slowly.
I open them and turn back to the yacht and all the men gathering and working. Tonight is going to be a long night. Someone tried to place a hit on me. And I mean to find out who.
Then bury them.
Chapter 11
Sophie
Atextcomesthroughfrom Mimi,Still pissed?
I unlock my phone and sigh at the same time. I stare at the keyboard for a full minute before replying.Yeah, he’s still pissed. Not escaping his sights just yet.
Mimi replies straight away.But it’s been a month though!
It has been a month since the yacht ordeal, as it has now been called. But more than the yacht and the attempted hit, the ordeal has signaled bigger things changing in our house. I’ve been cooped up more than ever, dragged further into the family business, and escape is literally impossible.
But you know it’s all exciting, it’s engaging and dare I say interesting … I roll my eyes and Mimi and I text back and forth a few memes. My father has brought me further into the family business by having me shadow his accountant. Who’s the husband of his assistant. Anything I can work from home with really. I’m not to leave the grounds under any circumstances. Not since my last day out.
So what're you gonna do then?Mimi asks, bringing us back to the subject.
I go to reply, but then don’t. I don’t know what to say. What am I going to do?
We’ve been texting all morning knowing that today was my day of review. Except there’s been no review organized, just a note slipped under my door telling me things stay as they are.
When I came home a month ago from Key West at four in the morning, dropped off by an unmarked car, my father went absolutely ballistic at me. And then subsequently silent with me.
Our home had been like a military warzone. There were men everywhere running around with guns and radios. Every part of my last twenty-four hours was being scrutinized and even Mimi had been dragged in. To her benefit she hadn’t ratted me out, but also to her loyalty my father had barred her from visiting me ever again. He said I’d be grounded until he changed his mind …
Then the next day he said we’d review in a month.
I expected my father to crumble in a week, as he normally did, but this time he held strong. It’s literally been a month of me staying in my room, trying not to think about the world that could have been. Obviously the most angry part of his whole series of lectures was the fact that I had single-handedly, and stupidly, continually put my life in danger by being with a Colombino.Did I not know who they were?Of course I did! But my explanations fell on deaf ears.I should have expected it,he kept saying.
I’ve tried forcing myself to forget about the glorious forty-eight hours where I escaped this world. I’ve cried about it more times than I can count in the last month, but inevitably, I do remember it all. I think of the club. I think of Piovere. But more than that, I think of Luca.
