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I get out to knock on the door and shoot a glare at Nico as he opens his own door. Why is he so damn aggravating? If he's some hotshot businessman alongside being an Attolini underboss, doesn't he have better things to do than screw with me?
"You're not meeting my family, Nico," I hiss as we approach the front door. I try shooing him away, but he just grins.
"Watch me."
He knocks. There's only half a beat before Krista cracks the door open, and her face lights up instantly.
"Sybbie!" she cries, pulling me close and hugging me so tight I'm surprised my ribs don't audibly crack. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh myGod.You're back. I can't believe it. Are you okay? Mom was so worried—all of us were, and I don't believe for one second that you just went away on some random bachelorette—"
She cuts off, eyes going wide at the sight of the man behind me. While she's looking over the tall, brooding energy of dangerous sexiness that Nico is, my mother rushes out of the house and embraces me, too.
"Sybil," she breathes into my hair.
Her voice is so fragile, despite being filled with relief. I pull away before my mom can make me cry and smile brightly at her.
"I'm fine, Mom. Everything is fine."
Her dark eyes—which I inherited from her—flicker to Nico and back to me. She's clearly thinking exactly what I don't want her to be thinking: that I did something drastic to get the Attolinis to scare off the Gattos.
It's the truth, but I don't want her to know it.
Trying to devise a good excuse for the stranger at my side, I gesture back at Nico. "This is…um, he's just—"
"Sybil's fiancé, Dominick Fiore," he says easily. "Please call me Nico. I'm glad to finally meet you."
I recoil and whirl on him, wondering if I can shove him hard enough to knock him off the porch. He's a wall of muscle, but I could probably manage.
My sister's jaw basically slams into the ground, but my mom sees my flaming cheeks and tips her head. "Are you…sure? Sybil doesn't really date much."
She just states it like that, as if it won't embarrass me.
"Come on. Yes, I do," I insist, still trying to wave Nico away. "There was that guy a couple months ago, remember? And before that, Jared. You guys liked Jared."
"Oh please,no oneliked Jared." Krista swings the door wide open, looking between us with palpable excitement. "Nico, was it? Come on in!"
Nico ignores my death glare, smirking over his shoulder as he traipses right into my family's living room. It's not dirty by any means, but it's always been a little cluttered and outdated. There are pictures of all of us on nearly every wall, worn oak cabinets in the kitchen that shares space with the living room, and neat little stacks of books on a bookshelf behind our old, pillow-filled couch. The TV is cracked.
It's all humble but homey. I immediately feel better being here and seeing them safe and sound. Well—almostbetter. There's the little issue of the annoying-as-hell mafioso tagging along, and my brother is nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Mark?" I ask, trying not to sound worried.
But Krista smiles. "He's at work! He got a new job a couple of days ago, completely out of the blue, and it's a thousand times better than his last job at the docks. Thank God because he really needed to catch a break. And everything else has been really good here, Sybbie. Better than it has been in…well since I can remember. We can talk more about it all later, but first things first—thisis your fiancé? Really?"
She's not subtle about ogling Nico. I check his face for any sign that he may have played some part in my brother's stroke of luck. He just smiles, heartbreaking dimples on full display as he turns to my mom.
"Mrs. Rivera, may I call you Tina?"
"Oh…yes," she says tentatively.
"Sybil has told me a lot about you. I know you've been worried about her recently, and you had every right to be. But I give you my promise that nothing will harm her. Not while I'm alive. Sybil is the most important thing in my life, and her safety and well-being will always come first. Your daughter is in safe hands and always will be."
Damn. He shouldn't be allowed to use such a genuine tone or fake such sincerity because it's clearly working on my mom and sister. And a little bit on me if I'm honest. But they're the ones who are clearly half in love with him already.
Krista looks at me, eyes so wide I'm worried they'll pop. "Wow," she says. "And what hands they are, am I right?"
My mother looks between Nico and I, and the ghost of a smile traces her lips. "Nico… I'm not one to believe just anything I hear, but I believe you. You seem like a good man."
Oh, God. I'm tempted to announce that he's actually a notoriously violent mobster who hates me when he's not fucking me, but I swallow back my words and put on a tight smile.
