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Tino (Tino and Angel’s sequel after the events of The Italian Son)
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CHAPTER ONE
TINO
As if reminding me she was still the mother of my son, Angel held Nicco like a shield during the entire flight back home.
Home. Family. Loyalty. Honor. Did any of it mean anything to her?
I closed my eyes because I couldn’t stand looking at her, my sweet fucking Angel, but her gaze trained on me endlessly. I could feel it not lifting off me, and through it, I could almost taste her guilt, her fear.
Good. She should be afraid.
In our world, the only price for betrayal was blood, and she knew fucking well what she’d done was way worse.
How did I miss all the signs? How could she have planned all those schemes right under my nose in my own home with my own fucking friends? How could a little girl that knew nothing of the world but what I’d taught her fool me like that?
My mind leafed through the moments she’d masterfully lied to me in the face, starting with our wedding.
“Look at you, all worried about Mob politics.”
“Well, isn’t that what queens do? Public affairs and stuff.”
She was too worried when Nicole kicked Il Coyote in the nuts, convincing me it was the family and the alliance she was concerned about, and not her fucking deal with him behind my back.
Then there was the day Il Coyote made me believe Leo escaped when all that time he had him in a cage in his house, only so that Nicole wouldn’t leave the mansion, only so that he could have her close. The performance of true fear Angel had given that day couldn’t be topped except by her similar performance when Nicole tried to escape before the engagement.
The lies she’d told that day…
“I prepared that duffle bag myself and gave it to Nicky, convincing her to…elope.”
That text she’d convinced me was from Nicole to Il Coyote, which he knew nothing of, was all her doing. Was it a backup plan meant to stab Il Coyote in the back, too, or was it and the whole helping her sister escape, knowing damn well I’d have caught Nicole in time, another charade that would have brought Angel closer to her keeping her part of the deal with Il Coyote?
“Weddings are too dangerous or don’t you remember? Anything could happen then. Leo could crash it and try to kill my sister to have his revenge. He could kill you. The only way I can know my sister is safe is for this wedding to be a secret away from all the vendettas and blood. I can’t take another red wedding, Tino, I can’t lose my sister or you. I just can’t. I just can’t!”
The tears, the staggering… I knew she was lying about the whole eloping idea, but I let her only because I truly thought she was terrified, and all that mattered to me was making her feel safe. I’d folded my arms around her protectively, thinking she was going to pass out of fear. I was truly fucking worried about her. “Shhhh. No one is gonna die, my beautiful Angel.”
“I’m so scared, Tino. Terrified,” she’d sobbed. “What if he comes after Nicco? Our baby? I can’t lose our baby, Tino. Please.”
“Shhhh. Never when I’m here. I won’t let anybody come near you, Nicole or our son. You’re always safe with me.”
“We can’t have that wedding. Promise me, Tino. You have to wait until it’s safe. Please. For me.”
“For you, I’d do anything, my sweet Angel.”
A raging snort fled my throat as my fists clenched. How could I have been so fucking blind?
“T-t-ino—”
My fist closed around Angel’s neck in a flash. At this moment, I couldn’t bear her voice or my name on her tongue. I couldn’t stand the sound of her breath or her very fucking existence next to mine. I didn’t want to have her in that seat by my side, but I had to because Leo was on the same plane, and predicting what he could or couldn’t do wasn’t an option after what he’d been through because of her. Because there was a part of me that still would do anything to keep her safe and wouldn’t let anyone hurt her even when she deserved it. The same part that softened my fingers around her throat when all I should do was squeeze her last breath out and burn her to ash. The part that betrayed everything I was, even deeper than she had, every time she looked at me with that fear in her eyes. Every time I pictured life without her.
My stare froze her bulging eyes. “Not. A. Fucking. Word.”
Her gaze barely moved, only to drop toward Nicco in her lap. I, too, looked at my baby boy. I thought about ripping him from her arms and never let her see him again. “He won’t protect you forever. Not from me. Nothing can.”
Tears rimmed her eyes, but they wouldn’t fall, as if they, too, were too terrified to move, just like every fiber of hers.
