More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
His grin widened, wolf-like, and I realized my mistake. He’d led me into a trap. My own pride a weapon he used against me.
She held her head high in spite her mistake. Her long, blonde hair trailed down her back. Cool blue eyes assessed me like I wasn’t worth her attention. Perfect.
Highborn and about to take a deep fall. “So proud and cold,” I said, trailing a finger down her cheek and throat. “Just like good ol’ Uncle Dante.” She turned her face away with a disgusted expression.
“Oh, I hope they do, so I can bathe in their blood,”
You might rule over Las Vegas and over these men, but you don’t rule over me, Remo Falcone.”
A smile crossed Remo’s face, and I released my dress and rammed my fist into his abdomen while I slashed the knife at him once more. The blade grazed his arm and blood trickled down, but Remo didn’t even wince. His smile got wider as he took a step back, completely unfazed.
I lunged at him but got caught in my long skirt. I barreled into Remo and tried to land another deadlier cut. We fell and Remo landed on his back with me on top of him. I straddled him and stabbed at his stomach, but he gripped my wrist with a twisted grin on his face. I tried to force the knife down, but Remo didn’t budge. And then, suddenly, he showed me what it was like when he actually tried fighting back.
Remo’s dark eyes wandered over my face, my hair, my arms stretched out above my head. He leaned down, his cruel face coming closer. He stopped when our noses were almost brushing. His eyes weren’t black; they were the darkest brown I’d ever seen. He held my gaze, and I held his. I wouldn’t look away, no matter what he did. I wanted him to see me as I was. Not a weakness, not a pawn, but a human being.
“I haven’t started playing, and you aren’t a mere chess piece. You are the queen.” He took the knife and straightened, releasing me in the process. He stood slowly, drawing up to his full height and staring down at me. “And what are you in this game of chess?” I whispered harshly, still lying on the mattress. “I’m the king.” “You aren’t unbeatable.”
“White and golden like an angel,” Remo mused darkly as he took in every inch of me.
He bridged the distance between us, and I held my breath. He stopped close to me, dark eyes tracing my face, and he raised his hand, causing me to stiffen. The corner of his mouth twitched. Then his thumb brushed over my cheekbone. I drew back, away from the touch, which made him smile again. “Virgin bashfulness, how endearing,” Remo said darkly, mocking me. “Don’t worry, Angel, I won’t tell anyone that I’m the first man who saw you like this.”
“Whatever you take, it’ll always be less than what he would have gotten, because I would have given myself to him willingly, body and soul, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You will have to settle for the consolation prize, Remo Falcone.”
more. A queen in my game of chess, indeed. Noble and proud like a queen and arrogant and spoiled like one too. She made me want to break her. Break those white wings. An angel in appearance but one with clipped wings, happy to be grounded, happy to never roam the sky. Content to become the beautiful tamed bird in Danilo’s gilded cage.
Serafina was a masterpiece, almost too beautiful. Her golden hair and unblemished skin against the dirty mattress had felt like sacrilege, even to me, and I had committed almost every sin conceivable.
didn’t want less than what she would have given to Danilo. I wanted more. I wanted everything from her.
And I swore to myself that no matter the price, no matter what it would cost me, one day I would be the one to bring Remo Falcone to his knees, the one to break the cruelest man I knew.
She kept surprising me. The photos I’d seen of her on the internet and the accompanying articles had suggested she was an ice princess. Cold, prideful, fragile. As easy to crush as fresh snow, but Serafina was like eternal ice. Breaking her with force was difficult, not impossible because I knew how to break, but that would have been the wrong approach. Even eternal ice yielded to heat.
“And your fury will be yours.” “Then we’ll fall together. Isn’t that the beginning of every tragic love story?”
I wanted nothing less than every last part of her. Her innocence, her heart, her soul, her body. Her purity and her darkness. I would take everything.
“Oh, Remo, I will be your first angel. Patience is a virtue, and you will be rewarded for it.” I kissed his ear then trailed my tongue over the rim. He exhaled and pulled back so he could look at my face, and the look in his eyes, it almost made my knees buckle. For a second, I had him. I held the reins on the cruelest, most powerful man in the west, and it was thrilling. But Remo wouldn’t be Remo, wouldn’t be Capo, if he didn’t know how to take his power back.
sound. “Something forbidden. Something you aren’t meant to be gifted.”
He possessed me. He owned me. I was the queen. He was the king. Checkmate.
Both lost. Both taken … No. Given. Remo’s mouth traveled up my stomach, licking and nibbling, tongue flicking my nipple. He bit down lightly then soothed the spot with an open-mouthed kiss. His body covered mine, his palms pressed into the bed beside my head, the knife still clutched in his grasp. For a moment our eyes locked, and I hated him, hated myself, hated us both, because hate became harder to hold on to each day that I spent with him. We both needed our hate, and yet it was slipping through our fingers like sand. There was no way to contain it. Lost. His dark eyes reflected my inner
...more
I shuddered, my throat tightening even as my body throbbed with traitorous pleasure. Finally I tore my gaze from the dress to glare up at Remo—my captor, my nemesis, my ruin … and yet, despite what he’d taken from me, hatred wasn’t the only thing my weak, idiotic heart felt. But that was a truth I would take to my grave.
my dress. “You are mine, Angel. Body and soul,” he rasped. And God help me, he spoke the truth.
“You walked through fire for me, Remo,” he said quietly, imploringly, “but you should know, I’d do the same for you. I wouldn’t have asked you to send her back if I’d known … And I’ll walk straight into Outfit territory for you and get her back if that’s what you want.”
“Nothing better than bonding over shared torture,” Matteo said with a grin as he sauntered into the cell in the basement of the Sugar Trap. That asshole always looked as if he’d walked straight out of a photo shoot for a fashion magazine. One day I’d fuck up his pretty face. Romero gave me and Fabiano a curt nod before his eyes, too, fell on Scuderi.
“I still can’t stand your fucking face, Remo,” he said with a smirk. “But for this I might hesitate a millisecond before cutting your throat once we’re back to being enemies.”
“We aren’t blood but we are brothers, Fabiano. I’ll walk through fire for you.” I stared down at the fucker who’d wanted his own son dead then back up to Fabiano. “And there’s nothing I’d rather do than kill him with you. It’s an honor.”
Still, part of me wondered if I was lying to myself, if it wasn’t better to return to Las Vegas.
Nevio and Greta were Remo. Dark eyes, thick black hair.
I tilted my head, regarding him. Remo was Nevio. Nevio was Remo.
Our children are beautiful.” My voice became fiercer with every word. “They are meant to hold their heads high, not be ashamed for who they are. They aren’t meant to bow, aren’t meant to live in the shadows. They are meant to rule. They are Falcones. They belong in Las Vegas where their names carry power and respect. They are meant to rule at the side of the cruelest, bravest man I know. Their father.”
“Strong enough to take you and our children home where you all belong, Angel.”
“Don’t give me that look. Your kids are safe. They will always be safe, and not just because Remo would kill me if something happened to them.”
I turned to Greta and quickly lifted her as well then straightened to keep an eye on Savio. He held Nevio against his chest, and my son seemed content to be held by the unknown man. Savio’s eyes were curious and fascinated as he looked down at my boy. No resentment, no associated shame.
I’d never expected Remo to want his children, but now that I knew he did, guilt washed over me. I thought I protected them by keeping them from him, by staying in the Outfit, but I had been wrong. Las Vegas was their home because it was Remo’s home.
“Hardly anything worth having can be gained without loss, pain, and sacrifice.”
He gently stroked her black tuft of hair then ran his hand down her back. His voice was low and soft as he spoke to her. “Greta, mia cara.”
“Oh no, Angel. From the day I saw you, I knew I was the least worthy of them all.” I should have never laid a hand on her, but I was a fucking bastard and had taken everything she was willing to give.
me. “I’m the queen. You are the king. And you used me to put the Outfit in checkmate.”
forearm. “And I love you,” I murmured harshly. I never thought I’d utter those words to anyone, even though I’d admitted my feelings to Serafina before. “Because you brave my darkness every day, because you should run but you don’t, because you
brave your darkness gladly because your light shines all the brighter against it,” she said. I kissed her fiercely. This woman had my cruel heart. She’d always have it. I was cruel.
I was beyond redemption, but I didn’t care as long as Serafina … as long as Nevio and Greta saw something redeeming when they looked at me. I’d make sure I’d never betray their love and trust. And if anyone ever dared to take them away from me, I’d show those unfortunate bastards what I was to those I didn’t give a fuck about: the cruelest man of the west.
