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When I was little and Dad used to lock me in the cellar, I would let my mind wander into crazy fantasies. Dad treated me as his prisoner for years before Aunt Vittoria saved me from the deranged man my father had become after Mom died. In that time, I got good at detaching myself from reality. I smiled, leaning against the cold door, and thought of Luca, the only man I’d ever loved.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I forced myself to see him in his three-piece suit. I saw the faces of hundreds of students mesmerized by the magnetism their professor exuded. Yeah, Professor Luca Gallo was an enigma to all of us. He was gorgeous, wicked smart, and oh so dangerous…
CHAPTER1
My Sweet Queen Bee
Donata
Eight Years Ago, Columbia University
“So how was your holiday break?” I used my bubbly voice to get Enzo’s attention. He’d been brooding over his toast since we sat down for breakfast. I openly stared at the stitches on his knuckles as I spooned more fruit onto my plate. “Did I miss anything fun?”
“No.” He bit into his toast. “I spent two whole nights in Brooklyn with my mother and my father, the ex-mobster. You can imagine how that went.”
“Oh Enzo. Did your father try something?” I reached for his injured hand.
“What? No.” He rolled his eyes. “He’s a changed man. We’re one big happy family now.”
“Aunt Vittoria says it was a good thing Don Alfera stepped down. Things are better now that your dad is no longer part of the Society. I’m not saying the devastation he left in his wake was justified, but there’s a silver lining here.”
“He’s just Michael Alfera these days.” Enzo met my gaze. “And you can say it, my father is a monster who had no business being the head of a secret society with access to a multi-billion-dollar organization.”
“Yeah, that’s what Aunt Vittoria said actually.” I reached for his hand but then stopped. The stitches looked painful. “So what happened to your hand then?” I sat back in my chair, wishing I could do more than ask stupid questions. I knew what’d happened to him. Ever since Aurora was killed in the fire, he’d been going out alone looking for trouble and beating up guys. Though I knew there was only one guy he wanted to hurt—his dad. Enzo wanted his dad to pay for what he did to Aurora. I drank from my coffee. “More Batman shit.”
“Batman shit?” He furrowed his brows at me and chuckled. Not a happy laugh, more of a dark snicker. “Don’t start, Donata.”
“I know you do that. Did this guy deserve it?”
“Yeah, he did.” He nodded. “He was trying to get a drunk girl into a cab. She said no three times.”
“Okay.” I inhaled. “Who patched you up?”
“Mollie, my new housekeeper.” He glanced at his knuckles. “She did great.”
“Yeah, awesome job. You look like Dr. Frankenstein found you a new hand. Jesus, Enzo. Did you kill him?” I wanted to tell him that he had to stop. But then what? He’d stay home, thinking about the last two years without Aurora. “I’m not saying the women of New York don’t appreciate your vigilante services. But you keep looking for trouble, one of these days trouble will find you.”
“I’m very much looking forward to that day. And no, I didn’t kill him. We dropped him off at the hospital. Right at the front door.” He chugged down the rest of his coffee. “How was your holiday?”
“Same old.” I shrugged. “Skiing in Vail with Aunt Vittoria was actually very relaxing. You know how she’s not big on Christmas. Anyway, we should probably get going. I have like five classes today.”
“Columbia is ridiculous. Why are we still doing this?” He took another bite of his toast.
It didn’t look like it, but this was progress. Enzo was talking to me, eating, and even if he was still complaining about it, he was going to university full-time. I should be mad at Santino and Rex for ditching him to go to Wharton. But in their defense, Enzo cut them off first. He blamed Rex for Aurora’s death. And Santino for backing up Rex. It was like Mom and Dad had gotten a divorce. Santino went with Rex. I stayed with Enzo.
“It’s good to have a purpose, Enzo. Which reminds me, I have a mini-series seminar for Cogs, Cognitive Science. It’s this Friday night. And you’re coming with me.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to.” I shrugged.
“Do you?” He let the rest of that question linger in the air. Was I using this as an excuse to keep him off the streets this weekend?
“Yeah. There’s not much you can do with that hand.” I rose to my feet. “Up you go.”
He grunted but did as I asked. One day soon, he’d figure out how to live without her. Until then, I had every intention of being here for him, to remind him to breathe, to remind him that his life was worth living. I took his hand in mine and walked him from his dining room to the elevator of his penthouse. I had sort of moved in after Rex and Santino left. Aunt Vittoria had agreed this was a good idea. And Enzo didn’t have the strength to push me away. Or maybe he recognized he didn’t really want to be alone.
Downstairs in the garage, I climbed in the back seat of his SUV and waited for Enzo. He moved as if his body weighed a ton, as if the simple act of breathing hurt every part of his body. In the past two years, I’d learned to simply wait—wait for an answer to my question, wait for him to walk next to me, wait for him to get in the car.
