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Nino shook Kiara awake then turned to Adamo. “Take Kiara into the panic room. Shoot for the kill, no questions asked.”
His dark eyes flashed with an emotion I couldn’t read. “You didn’t beg for your own life. You didn’t offer me your body to avoid pain, but you do for your brother?” “I do. I’d do anything for him,” I whispered.
She loved her brother fiercely, wanted to protect him at any cost, like I would my brothers. I could respect that. I’d never admired a woman on her knees more than I did Serafina.
I needed to own this woman. Body and soul and everything else she could offer. I fucking burned with the desire to possess her in every way possible.
Finally, Serafina screamed, and it was so fucking real that my body reacted to the sound, but not in a way it usually did, not with excitement and the thrill of the hunt. There was something close to revulsion filling my body, hearing her agonized cries and imagining they were real.
Serafina’s eyes snapped open. They searched my face, and a second too late I realized she got deeper than anyone was allowed. “Enough,” I repeated, my voice shaking with rage and confusion.
“Remo is the cruelest man I know. He is beyond redemption.” She smiled sadly. “Maybe he just needs someone who will show him the path to redemption.”
I hated Remo, hated him for making sense, hated him for getting under my skin. And I hated myself for letting him.
Remo released my face and nipple, gripped my hips in a bruising hold, and got down on his knees. Glancing over my shoulder, shock washed over me to see the Capo kneeling behind me.
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.
He possessed me. He owned me. I was the queen. He was the king. Checkmate.
I stared into her eyes as I claimed her body. She was mine. I couldn’t wait for Cavallaro and her fiancé to find out.
“The taste of blood never disgusted me, and your virgin blood is sweeter than anything else.”
Nothing had ever cut deeper than Remo’s words. He didn’t need a knife to make me bleed. I glared at him, wanting to hate him with every part of my being, but a tiny, horrible part of me didn’t, and it was that part of me I despised more than I could ever hate Remo.
He crossed his arms. “Either you mauled a kitten and rubbed your face and groin all over the spoils or you had a disturbing meeting with virgin pussy.”
Nino shook his head. “I’m glad you are my brother and not my enemy.”
I slept with Remo Falcone. Capo of the Camorra. My enemy.
I'm jealous
I could still feel Remo’s body on mine, the way he moved in me. It was … wondrous. Freeing. Intoxicating. Sin. Betrayal. My ruin.
Her eyes held mine as if she could find salvation there, but we were both damned, and I was dragging her closer to damnation every day.
My fingers twitched but I restrained my anger. “They are my brothers, my flesh and blood. I’d die before I ever hurt them.” I fell silent.
No, she wasn’t. Serafina was everything. Cunning and strong. Loyal and fierce. She could have been Capo if women were allowed that place in our world.
“That wasn’t so bad,” I drawled. “But if you want to bring me to my knees, you’ll have to use your mouth.” She huffed. “I’ll figure out another way to bring you to your knees, Remo.” If anyone could, then it would be her.
“Oh, Angel, forgetting you will be impossible.” And I smiled. God help me, I smiled.
“Oh, Angel, trust me when I say you’ll remember me for the rest of your existence.”
“Devastating.” I lowered my head, locking gazes with Remo. “Devastatingly beautiful,” he murmured. I lowered the gun and pressed it to his chest.
Remo had been right. A bullet to his head wouldn’t free me of him. At this point, I wasn’t sure if anything could.
Kneeling before me, challenge and triumph in her blue eyes, Serafina owned me. Body … and whatever black soul was left.
but I stood my ground because if I knew one thing it was that Remo wouldn’t hurt me. Not anymore, not ever again.
Holding his gaze, I opened my legs for him because I was lost, had been lost from the moment Remo had laid eyes on me, and as I looked up at him, I knew without a doubt that he, too, was lost.
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.
“You are mine, Angel. Body and soul,” he rasped. And God help me, he spoke the truth.
“I never thought you’d give me this look on the day I released you— as if giving you freedom is the worst betrayal of all. You shouldn’t want someone to cage you in. You should long for freedom.” He exhaled, his hot breath against my skin making me shiver. “Goodbye, Serafina.”
And again I shivered because part of me, the part that terrified me most, missed Remo. I own you. He did.
“You are safe now, Fina. Nothing will ever happen to you again. I’m sorry, dove. I’m so sorry,” Dad whispered against my hair, and I realized he was crying. My father. A Made Man since his teenage days. Underboss of Minneapolis. He was crying into my hair, right in front of his Capo and my fiancé, and I fell apart. I clutched his jacket and cried, ugly cried, for the first time since I could remember, and my father hugged me even tighter.
I'm literally sobbing
“Yeah, my plan worked …” “Then why—” Fabiano’s eyes widened. My grip on the steering wheel tightened. “We can try kidnapping her again. It worked once, who’s to say it won’t work again?” he said almost incredulously. “No,” I said harshly. “Serafina doesn’t belong in captivity.”
“Fuck,” I rasped, taking a step back. I held out my arm, tattoo on display, my palm up. A silent apology, the only one I was capable of. Fabiano turned back around, leaving us alone. Nino linked our arms, my hand on his tattoo, on his scars, and his palm on mine.
“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.”
“Not the scrawny boy you can torture for your own amusement anymore, am I?” Fabiano murmured as he crouched in front of the other man. I prided myself on my scary smile, but Fabiano’s expression surpassed everything. He’d enjoy today.
“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.
“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.” “That millisecond will be the moment I’ll cut your head off, Matteo,” I said with a twisted smile of my own. He released my hand. “May the craziest fucker win.” My smile widened and I caught Nino’s gaze across the room. We both knew who that would be because when it came to crazy fuckery, I was the undisputed master.
“I’ve got small kids who need me,” Scuderi tried in a hoarse voice. Fabiano lifted him by the collar and jerked him up against the wall, getting in his face. “They’ll be better off without you. My sisters and I would have, that’s for sure.”
Then Matteo leaned over Scuderi and brought the knife down on his chest. “Gianna sends her regards. I told her I’d let you suffer, and I will.”
“You gave Lily to a fucking old bastard so you could get a child bride for yourself. You’re a disgrace of a father.” He punched the man again.
Fabiano swallowed before he held out his forearm with the Camorra tattoo. “You gave me a home. A purpose. You treated me like a brother…” He glanced down at his father. “Like family. I know you wanted nothing more than to kill your father and had that taken from you. I know it’s not the same, but…will you help me kill my father?”
I linked arms with Fabiano, clutching his forearm tightly. “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.”
One of our bodyguards stepped in, and then Sofia shot inside. Her wide eyes landed on me, and she stormed off in my direction. She collided with me, and I would have fallen backward if Samuel hadn’t steadied me. “You’re back!” Sofia hugged my middle tightly, and I rested my chin on top of her head, smiling. When I pulled back, her eyes were alight with happiness despite the tears in them. “I missed you so much.” “I missed you too, ladybug.”
His name. Remo Falcone. The father of my unborn child. And worse, the man who filled my nights not with nightmares, but with longing.
Adamo groaned and I turned to him, kneeling before him. Only a small part of his tattoo had been burned away, and the skin was blistered and red. I touched his shoulder and he flinched. “Adamo,” I whispered. He raised his head a few inches, teary eyes meeting mine. A weak smile pulled at his lips. “Serafina.” How he could still sound friendly after what had been done to him was a mystery to me.
“Enough!” a female voice rang out, and my eyes snapped back to the screen as Serafina threw herself in front of my brother, protecting him. I froze, unable to trust my eyes, to believe that the woman who haunted my nights was really in front of me.
Serafina had saved my life. The woman I’d kidnapped saved my fucking life.
