Twisted Pride (The Camorra Chronicles, #3)

by Cora Reilly

think I’ll carry you downstairs like this. Danilo is still talking to Dante. I’m sure he’ll love to see his future wife this disheveled. Maybe he’ll decide against marrying you if he sees you’re not quite the obedient lady you want him to believe you are.”

“She is a nice piece of ass,” Simeone commented from behind the steering wheel. I leaned forward. “And you will never look at her again unless you want me to rip your eyeballs out and shove them up your ass. One more fucking disrespectful word from you and your tongue will keep your eyeballs company, understood?”

“Not like this, Serafina,” he said. His voice was low and dark, mesmerizing, but it was his gaze that held me captive. “Not like a whore on a stained mattress.”

“I haven’t started playing, and you aren’t a mere chess piece. You are the queen.”

“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.”

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 shook her head and peered up at Nino with so much fucking love I knew I could never hurt a single hair on her body.

“Your pride will be your downfall,” I said. “And your fury will be yours.” “Then we’ll fall together. Isn’t that the beginning of every tragic love story?”

A fucking kiss when I wanted so much more. But kissing Serafina had been like the first hit off a crack pipe. It got you addicted from the very first taste. I wanted to kiss her again, wanted to steal every piece of her innocence.

“I’m fairly sure God designed your body to drive men into insanity,” Remo said darkly. Stifling the excited thrill Remo’s words sent through me, I retorted, “You believe in God?” “No. I don’t. But looking at you, I could turn into a believer.”

“I wonder how long it’ll take for your mind to say yes to me because your body has been screaming yes from the very first moment.”

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.

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.

Serafina twisted her head, staring at me. She was backlit by the silver moonlight as she perched in the window frame. She’d never looked more like an angel than in this fucking moment, and I realized I was on a precarious path. Her whispered words broke the silence. “I wonder whose game is more dangerous, yours or mine, Remo?”

“What do you want?” I muttered. “I want you gone.” My eyes widened. “Then let me go.” “I fear it’s not that easy.” He bent lower and then his palm touched my belly and slowly slid down. I held my breath, becoming still in a mix of shock and anticipation. He cupped me through the covers and my clothes. The touch was light, almost questioning, and I was completely frozen. My center tingled and that, more than Remo’s touch, sent a fierce stab of fear through me. I wanted him to touch me without a barrier between us, wanted to get a taste of something utterly forbidden, something I wasn’t allowed to want.

Neither of us said anything. I knew what paralyzed me, but what restrained Remo? He exhaled slowly and stood. Without another word, he disappeared. Good Lord, what was happening? With him? With me? With the both of us?

“You are Remo Falcone. You are Capo. You rule over the West. Who could stop you from having me?” I murmured. My God. What was wrong with me? His fingers shifted on my neck, loosening, and he pulled back to meet my gaze, and I wished he hadn’t because the fierceness in his eyes was like the first breath of air after holding your breath for too long. “The only force on this earth that can stop me is you. You’re the only one I’d allow to do so,” he said in a dark voice. He kissed me, a slide of his lips over mine. “How much longer will you?”

“Do you want to know why I know Nino is currently licking pussy? It’s because you don’t hear him. His face is buried in it.” Kiara’s moans turned louder, desperate, and then she cried out. I wanted to be disgusted, but my body reacted hearing these sounds. Heat gathered between my legs. “Have you ever made this sound, Angel?” he murmured. “No, you haven’t. But don’t you wonder how it would feel to be overwhelmed with so much pleasure to force these kinds of moans from your lips?” I stopped struggling, but Remo didn’t loosen his hold on me. His firm chest, warm and strong, still pressed up against my back. “A tongue between your thighs, licking, sucking. Don’t you want to know how that would feel?”

Rough fingertips slid over my skin, higher and higher until they reached my nipple through the lace of my bra. My lips parted from the sensation. “Won’t you tell me to stop?” Remo murmured in my ear before his tongue led a wet trail down my throat. His free hand cupped my cheek and twisted my face around so he could assault my mouth with an all-consuming kiss. His tongue licked every crevice of my mouth, tasting, consuming, owning my lips. “You better tell me to stop, Angel, because if I don’t stop now, I fear I won’t stop at all.”

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.

“I’m not a patient man. You are playing with fire.” Forcing down my nerves, I turned my face, bringing my own lips to his ear. “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.

“Tell me, Angel, what will be my reward for my patience?” I stood on my tiptoes, curling my fingers over Remo’s neck, pulling myself up and against him. His hardness rubbed against my naked stomach, and he groaned a low, dangerous sound. “Something forbidden. Something you aren’t meant to be gifted.” Remo’s body became taut, eager, and he tipped my head back, his lips brushing mine. “Something you promised to someone else?”

I kept stroking her arm then kissed her skin again. Fuck. How was I going to give her back?

“You’re right,” I whispered, holding his gaze. “I’m only your captive. The queen in your game of chess. Something meaningless, easy to forget the moment you give me back.” Even as I spoke the words, I couldn’t imagine Remo really letting me go, not with the way he looked at me, and I wasn’t sure if the realization terrified or relieved me. Because how could I return to the Outfit? “Oh, Angel, forgetting you will be impossible.” And I smiled. God help me, I smiled. Remo shook his head slowly. “This is madness.”

“You are mine, Angel. Body and soul,” he rasped. And God help me, he spoke the truth.

“Release my niece, now,” he ordered. Remo chuckled. This was a trick. This had to be a trick. Remo had said it himself: I was his. He owned me. Body and soul. He wouldn’t let me go. The worst was that deep down I hoped he wouldn’t—and not just because I didn’t want to live among the family I’d betrayed so horribly, but also because the idea that he could give me up so easily tore at me.

“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.

Fifteen minutes later I stared down at the test in my hands, at the truth that shattered the last shred of hope I’d held. Hope that I could ever find my way back into the Outfit. Hope that I could forget Remo. As if there was a way I could have ever forgotten him. I stared at the two lines on the test. Pregnant. With Remo Falcone’s child.

“Oh God,” Mom whispered. “What? What’s going on?” Mom’s eyes filled with tears. “Twins.” The doctor nodded, and my eyes jerked toward Samuel. “Like us,” I said in wonder. He managed a small smile, but his eyes held worry.

My heart ached fiercely when I looked at them, throbbing with a longing I’d tried to bury with the memories of Remo, but Remo wasn’t a man that could be forgotten. Not easily, not quickly, not ever.

“Wow,” she breathed. “I’ve never seen hair that black.” She’d never seen Remo. Anna nodded as she lightly brushed a finger over Nevio’s head. His eyes peeled open and as always when they did, my breath lodged in my throat. Dark eyes. Remo’s eyes. Even at two days old, my boy was his father.

“I thought she was falling for you …” I stood, glaring down at her. “You women always need to turn everything into a fairy tale, even a kidnapping. Serafina was my captive. The only falling she did was her fall from grace.” She pushed off the ground as well. “You can pretend all you want, but I saw the way you looked at her.”

“Trust Adamo to fall in love with a whore and be monogamous when she’s got about a dozen dicks up her pussy every day,” Savio said.

“You didn’t marry Danilo,” Remo murmured. “How could I?” I whispered, bending low until Remo and I almost touched. “How could I marry him when I was pregnant with your children?” Remo stiffened. I’d wondered how he would react if I ever told him about Greta and Nevio, but nothing came close to the look on his face. Complete and utter shock, and more than that … wonder. “When you gave me up, I carried your babies in me, Remo. You gave us up.” “I thought you’d return to me,” he rasped. “You pushed me away.” “I set you free.” “I wasn’t free,” I hissed. How could I ever be free when his name was etched into my heart?

I’d always wondered what it would take to break Remo, and I realized I held the power to do it, to crush the cruelest, strongest man I knew in my hand, held it on the tip of my tongue. One word would shatter him. The knowledge filled me with unparalleled joy, not because I could break the man before me. No, because our children even without knowing them meant so much to him that their death would destroy him. “Oh, Angel, have they sent you to deliver the ultimate blow? Tell Dante he wins.” I shook my head. “No,” I said quietly, then fiercer, “No. I didn’t get rid of the babies even though everyone wanted me to do it.” Remo held my gaze. “How could I get rid of the most beautiful creations I can imagine? Greta and Nevio are pure perfection, Remo.” He exhaled, and the look in his eyes … God, that look. This cruel man had stolen my heart, and I had let him. “They look like you. Nevio is you. Everyone who sees him knows he’s yours.”

Remo smiled the darkest, saddest smile I have ever seen. “Have you come to tell me before my death that I’ll never see them? Angel, I must say you are crueler than I could ever be.”

“Our children are perfection but here, in the Outfit, they represent shame and dishonor. People whisper behind their backs, call them Falcones as if it is something sinful, something dirty. 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.”

“How strong are you, Remo Falcone?” “Strong enough to take you and our children home where you all belong, Angel.”

“He’s badly injured,” I said quietly. “Remo is too strong to die,” Nino said. Tears stung in my eyes. “I’m driving as quickly as I can.” “Serafina,” Nino began. “He thought you’d come back. He wanted you to come back on your own free will.”

his dark eyes stared back at them. My small Remo. “Holy fuck,” Savio gasped. His brown eyes flew up to me. “They are Remo’s.” It wasn’t a question because one look at Nevio and they knew he was their brother’s. “They are and he passed out before he could see them.” My throat constricted.

What if my children never met their father? 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.

“My children,” I repeated, trying to make sense of the words, trying to fucking understand that I was a father. Greta and Nevio. “Fuck,” I breathed. “It’s like looking at a baby version of you,” Nino said with a disbelieving look. “Make sure they have everything they need. No matter what Serafina says she needs, you get it for her.” Nino nodded. “She’s here to protect her children because the Outfit didn’t accept them. Not because of you.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t care why she’s here. All that matters is that she is. I told you before, I don’t have a fucking heart that can be broken, or have you forgotten?” Nino touched my shoulder lightly. “I know you better than anyone else, Remo. Or have you forgotten?”

“My brothers would have protected them even if your family had killed me.” I put a hand down beside him on the headboard, hovering over him. “Nobody will protect them like you will. You’ll go through fire for them.” I didn’t ask. I knew it. He raised his hand stiffly, most of his arm bandaged, and cupped the back of my head. I let him pull me down. “For them. For you,” he murmured, fiercely, harshly, angrily. His lips brushed mine, and my entire being melted. I fell as I had the first time he kissed. Shuddering, I drew back and straightened. This was too soon. I needed to figure things out between us. He watched me with a bitter smile. For some reason, the sight tore at me. I leaned down and briefly brushed his lips with mine to show him that my withdrawal didn’t mean “never” only “later.” I quickly stepped back and turned. “Will you show them to me?” he asked quietly. I looked over my shoulder. “Of course.”

I held Greta and Nevio tightly against my body as I nudged the door open. Then I stepped in. I was inexplicably nervous. My family had never looked at my children the way I regarded them, like they were something precious, a gift I wanted to cherish every single day. Remo’s eyes zeroed in on our babies as I moved closer, and he didn’t look away again, appearing almost stunned. I sat down beside him and carefully put Nevio down on his back next to Remo. Greta still clung to me tightly. Remo’s expression held wonder, and when he raised his eyes to mine, they were softer than I’d ever seen them. He stretched out his bandaged arm and stroked his fingertip over Nevio’s chest reverently. Nevio being Nevio snatched up Remo’s finger and brought it to his mouth to chew on it with a toothless grin. Remo’s lips twitched. Then he raised his gaze to Greta, who’d turned her head to watch him curiously.

Tears ran down my cheeks. Remo stroking Greta’s back and having his finger chewed off by Nevio was the most beautiful sight I could imagine. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy,” I admitted, not caring that I was being emotional in front of Remo. This was no longer a battle of wills, a twisted game of chess. These stakes were too high. Remo locked his gaze with mine. “I know I’ve never been happier.”

“When were you planning on telling me about our babies? Would you have told me at all if Adamo hadn’t gotten himself captured?” “You sent me away, back to my fiancé. I didn’t think you’d care what happened with me, much less wanted kids,” I muttered, but something in his eyes made me continue. “I wanted to tell you. The moment I saw them, I knew I needed to tell you, but I didn’t know how. I was … a coward.” His hand came up, cupping my cheek, his dark eyes impossibly possessive. “I was sure you’d return to me.” His lips brushed mine. “You aren’t a coward. You saved me. You went against your family to protect our children. You gave up everything for them … and for me.”

“Do you regret becoming mine?” “No,” I admitted, and finally drew back from his touch. “Not that. I just wish it wouldn’t have cost my family so much.” Remo nodded and settled back against the headrest. “Hardly anything worth having can be gained without loss, pain, and sacrifice.”

oozed.

“You’re in pain,” I protested, trying to put distance between us, but Remo tightened his hold on me. “Fuck the pain. I want you in my arms.” I stilled and finally relaxed against him, my cheek pressed up to his strong chest. This felt too good to be true.