AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mmm. Is it that or that you have Emily Shaw in your bed?”
I stiffen, feeling my heart leap into my throat. She knows my name?
“Who I have in my bed is none of your concern,” Noah says.
“It is when that whore killed your father! That’s right,” she adds, “I know it was her.”
My heart isn’t just in my throat anymore. It seems to have stopped. Suddenly, my blood pressure drops and every pore in my body releases sweat.
“Justin,” I hear Noah murmur just as I pull away.
There’s walking, the sound of heels clacking against the wood floors. “Justin was loyal to Francesco and Leonardo. Of course he would be loyal to me as well.”
“Then he’s useless to me,” he says.
“You’ve known it was her for days and have done nothing about it!” she shouts.
“It is at my discretion to decide what and when I will do something, Sylvia.”
“The godfather only has power so long as the men respect him. How do you think they will react when they find out that instead of killing her, you’ve been fucking her?”
My mind racing, I scan the room wildly, searching for my clothes. It’s been pointless to wear any for days since all I’ve done is have sex. I find them piled in a corner. Not caring that they probably stink by now, I begin to get into them but stop at the next thing Sylvia says.
“I want her dead, Noah. Now.” Although this isn’t said aggressively, the demand is clear.
“I’m confused, Mother. Am I the king, or are you?”
King? Noah is the new Gianni Don? I’d heard their boss had been murdered. But beyond that, I didn’t pay attention since it didn’t concern me. Apparently, I was wrong.
Sylvia huffs. “If you’re willing to allow your father’s murderer to go unpunished, it won’t matter. It’s her life or yours. And before you get all noble, remember that she’ll be killed either way. We are family, Noah. Family comes before anyone else.”
An eternal silence permeates the space, seeming louder than anything they could have shouted at each other.
Then he breaks that silence with a single word. My death sentence. “Family.”
Footsteps coming toward the bedroom have me bolting from my spot in search of anything that can be used as a weapon. On the nightstand, I see a pen, the only sharp object within reach, and I grab it as the door opens.
I hold it out threateningly toward him. “I’ll stab you. You might kill me, but I swear I’ll hurt you too.”
He stalks toward me and I swing, getting a good scratch on the side of his arm. But if it does anything to him, he doesn’t show it.
Without missing a beat, he grabs my wrist, squeezing it so hard that I drop the pen, and spins me so that my back is to his front. He snakes an arm around my chest and twists my wrist painfully behind me. “Emily,” he whispers, inhaling my scent. “Why is ityouI have to kill? Why fucking you?”
My chest constricts, and for the second time since I can remember, tears prick at the inside of my eyes. A lifetime of no tears, until him.
“And why did it have to be you?” I ask in return. “Why are you the one who’s going to take my life?”
He swallows audibly. Milliseconds pass like hours as we remain like that, his arm around my chest, my hand pressed to my lower back.
Leaning in closer, he says so low that I can barely make it out, “When I shoot, stay down. No matter what, do not move.”
I don’t have a chance to ask what he’s talking about before he’s dragging us toward the door, pausing briefly to take something from his drawer. Without asking, he jams it into the front of my shirt, securing it beneath my bra.
“Wh—” I begin to ask, but I’m cut off when he shoves me out of the room so hard, I fall onto my knees. Before I can push myself up, he grabs me by the arm and hauls me to my feet.
The first thing I see when I lift my eyes is a beautiful woman dressed in a black form-fitting dress, standing by the counter with a glass of wine in her hand. She watches with amused curiosity as he takes me to one of the dining room chairs and sits me in it. I try to stand but am unceremoniously shoved back down.
Sylvia’s red lips pull into a terrifyingly beautiful smile. “So you’re Emily?”
