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“Because you are perfect.”
Annie’s cheeks pinkened as she spoke next. “Be serious.”
“I am. Why would you think I wasn’t?” I was beginning to realize that Annie didn’t see herself properly. “You are the perfect choice. I want to be approachable, but I still want there to be a sparkle to my family.” It felt odd to speak this way to someone not Marcel. Normally, a person didn’t engage in this kind of talk when discussing marriage and family. Maybe they should. It might make marriages more successful if they did.
“This is insane.” Annie said, shaking her head.
This was the moment I needed. I needed to sell her on my idea. It could work, but she needed to know what was in it for her.
“Think about it,” I implored, “you’d be taken care of. You’d have the best of everything…”
“What makes you think I need any of that?” she asked, her lips pursed. This was a test, and I knew that if I failed it, Annie would walk out of here, and I would have missed my one shot. Something told me that that was the only chance I would be getting with her.
I also suspected that Annie was pragmatic. If I could convince her that this arrangement was also in her best interest, that she would agree. And this was in her best interest.
“What if I don’t want to be married?” she asked.
“Do you think I want to be?” I wasn’t quite sure how to answer her question. I hadn’t considered that Annie might not want to be married. I’d grown up with women who wanted nothing more than to find a rich husband who would take care of them for their entire lives.
Annie’s blue eyes examined me as she thought about my question. “No,” she said. “You see this as a way to gather power, which is why I have no interest in agreeing to help you.”
She started to get up from her chair, but I reached out and grabbed her by the wrist. My grip was light, but she jerked her arm away from me so quickly that she nearly toppled over from the force of it.
“Don’t touch me,” she bit out. She was cradling her arm close to her body, and for a moment, I really worried that I might have harmed her in some way.
I reached out but drew my hand back when I realized that the action caused her to tense further. “Sorry,” I said.
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. Something had happened to Annie to make her nervous, and I wondered, selfishly, if that was going to be a problem for me. I couldn’t afford another misstep in my road to the mayorship.
“Please, stay,” I asked, softly. Despite my misgivings, I was sure that Annie was the person who could help me get where I needed to be.
With a sigh, Annie resumed her seat. “Why do you want to be mayor so bad that you would marry a woman that you don’t even know?”
It was a valid question. After all, I was young and wealthy. Losing the Marco Blanchi case had been a speed bump in my career, but I was sure that I could bounce back from it. There were plenty of criminals in New York who I could take down if I wanted to become a household name.
But becoming mayor was about more than that. “Are you familiar with the Blanchi/ Petrov crime family?”
Annie’s face was stoic and still, but I noticed the color draining from her face. “I know the names from the news. Didn’t one of the cases that catapulted you into stardom?” There was a little bit of sarcasm in his voice.
“The Blanchis and the Petrovs have been fighting each other since before we were born,” I told her. Annie wasn’t born in New York. She couldn’t understand how this war had ruined our city, what it had taken from so many of us.
“What does this have to do with you running for mayor? From what I’ve heard, no one actually expected you to put Marco Blanchi away. The evidence wasn’t exactly airtight considering that Nikolai and Katarina Petrov kidnapped and murdered a bunch of people.”
Annie knew a lot more about this than I thought she would. It wasn’t too surprising considering the case had been in the headlines for months. Sasha Petrov Blanchi was the perfect victim–beautiful, young, pregnant. Marco Blanchi and his brother built their whole defense around her.
“Ezra?” Annie asked. “Are you alright?”
I shook away the anger I felt when I thought about the case. Marco Blanchi might have been acting in self-defense, I still wasn’t sure if that was the case or not, but I knew that there were plenty of people who he had killed.
“I’m fine,” I told her, my voice hard.
Annie’s blue eyes examined me. Her pink lips were pursed, and her brow was furrowed in concentration. I stayed as still as possible. Annie was examining me. She wanted to know more.
I released a heavy sigh. I’d hoped to give Annie the bare minimum of my story. She didn’t need to know my motivations. Who wouldn’t want to rid the city of the mafia if they had the chance?
“My father was a prosecutor. DId I ever tell you that?”
Annie shook her head. “Is that what made you want to become one? Your father?”
