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A year ago, he stopped informing as suddenly as he started. Tommaso Genovese and three dozen of his men ended up in graves, his granddaughter married Luca Valentino, and Diego's sister ended up married to Rafe Valentino. Diego went radio silent immediately after. The events are connected. We just don't know how.
Diego knows. I think he was probably in the thick of it. But he isn't talking. No one is, including Genovese's family.
"You haven't, have you?" he demands incredulously.
"That's not your concern, and I know more than enough about the mafia." I slip my hands into my pockets, craning my head back to look up at him. "For instance, I know that Rafe Valentino may be responsible for the death of your biological father, Dario Marchesi. I also know Valentino's wife and your sister is the long-lost Cerrito principessa." I hold his gaze. "But you already knew that too since you and your adopted father hid her from everyone for most of her life, didn't you?"
Seraphina Cerrito's parents were killed in a house fire when she was a toddler. She ended up in foster care. Everyone lost track of her after that. But she turned up again last year under the name Amalia Santiago, claiming to be Diego's sister. No one even knew Diego had a sister, let alone one connected to the Cerrito family. He'd been hiding her for years.
What else has he been hiding from us? That's what we'd really like to know. He's at the heart of everything that happened last year, but we don't know how the pieces connect yet. I fully intend to figure it out. If he's still a threat, we need to know it.
We were wrong about him once already, and it nearly resulted in a war we never saw coming. We can't afford to be wrong again.
"Do you have a point?" Diego asks.
"Who were you hiding her from, Mr. Butera? Tommaso?" Given that Rafe Valentino married her, I don't think he was hiding her from the Valentino family.
He eyes me levelly, not speaking.
"Is that why he's dead? He found out who she was and went after her?"
"Tommaso Genovese is dead because he was a rabid dog," he growls, his eyes flashing unholy fire. "He was born a rabid dog and died a rabid dog. The world doesn't mourn him, Athena. Not even his family mourns him."
I don't think he's entirely wrong about that. Genovese wasn't even cold in the grave before his granddaughter married Luca Valentino, a union that stopped whatever war his death almost started last year. Their families have been at peace since. By all accounts, the world is better off without Genovese in it. But the FBI is in the dark…and that's the one place we don't like to be, especially when men like these are involved.
"You're going to have to talk someday."
A wicked smirk steals across his face, turning him from debonair lawyer to deadly devil in the blink of an eye. "Yeah? You think so, bella?" He leans down over me, getting in my personal space. "Tell you what, I'll make you a deal."
"W-what deal?" I lick my lips, trying to focus as the rich, decadent scent of his cologne swirls around me.
He leans closer, so close his breath washes across the side of my face, warm and intoxicating. "The day you agree to ride me soft, I'll agree to answer any questions you want me to answer."
I gasp, jerking backward in shock. Without even thinking about it, I lift my hand, prepared to slap him across his smug, gorgeous face. He catches my hand in his fist, using it to pull me into his arms.
"Hit me, and you'll be wearing my marks all over your body when you walk out of here," he growls, his eyes twin pools of obsidian flame. "Think you'll be able to explain that to your bosses?"
I jerk against his hold, my heart hammering. I'm not afraid of him, though. Perhaps I should be. But I'm too mad to be afraid. "Let me go right now, Diego. Before I arrest you for assault."
"Don't call it what it isn't, goddess." He brushes his lips against my ear. "We both know if I checked your panties right now, they'd be soaked. You fucking love the fact that I just touched you."
I growl a curse, yanking my arm free of his hold. He's right, damn him. And I think I may hate him a little bit for knowing it. I also think I was right earlier. Diego Butera is one of the most dangerous men in this city.
I just didn't realize he was going to be a personal danger to me.
"Walk away, Athena. Before I decide not to let you walk away at all."
"Is that a threat?"
"No. It's a warning, bella. Walk away."
"I'm not going anywhere, Diego."
