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“I need to arrest you, Frankie.” Her lips twitch into a smirk, shaking me from my thoughts. Putting my theory to the test, I lean into the crook of her neck. “Is that right, detective?”
“I think you are the one under arrest, baby,” I mutter against her throat. Her body goes stiff against me. I clasp the other link over my own wrist. She yanks it, pinching my skin.
Even looking slightly disheveled, with splatters of blood over her. To me, she is pure perfection.
The sight of her makes me dig my nails into my palms. Mine. Zara is mine. Whether she likes it or not.
“You mean you want to be spanked over your father’s desk for disobeying me? Is that what you need?”
“A good girl dressed as the devil,”
There’s a way, somehow, she manages to bend my control. The way she looks into my eyes, we are two of the same people. A dangerous mix. Lethal even. I’m not sure if that's for everyone else or each other.
“Try it, baby. Embrace the power you hold.” He presses a soft kiss to my temple. When he is by my side, I do feel powerful.
“You don’t get to run from me, dolcezza.”
“There isn’t a single corner you could run to where I wouldn’t scorch the earth to find you. I told you, you belong to me. Understand?”
What she doesn’t know is that I belong to her, too.
No matter how much she’s pissed me off with her little stunt, the fact still stays the same—I won’t let anyone else touch her.
“Y-you tied me up?” Her voice starts to shake. “I did, and you had best get used to it, angel.”
“Taste how much you hate me, dolcezza.”
“Tastes like hate, doesn’t it?”
“I care. More than I’d like to admit to even myself, dolcezza.”
I want to show her how fucking freeing it can be, letting me take control. For once in her life, she can stop that brain from overthinking everything.
If she says stop, I will. This is a test. Can she trust me enough to hand over herself entirely to me? I want to prove to her she can give me every single part of her and I will protect her with my life.
“La mia ragazza perfetta.” My perfect girl.
She might be a brat, but she is my brat.
“You think that is what I want from you? I’ve told you I want a woman to stand alongside me. It’s up to you if you become that.” “Oh,” she says in a breath. “Oh, indeed.”
“It’s because deep down, you and I are similar. That fire in you—I want to tame it for me, never for anyone else. You, Zara, were meant for more in life. I can give you that. You have shown me that time and time again.”
It’s freeing. The pain and the reward. Perfectly imperfect.
“I think someone wants to speak to you,” she whispers, without a hint of embarrassment. “Us. Baby. They’ll be speaking to ‘us’,” I correct her.
“Now stop talking and bend over and take it like a good fucking girl,”
“If you don’t apologize to Zara in the next thirty seconds, the whole deal is off and I will take my entire army into Vegas and we will tear your empire to the ground. She is my woman and she will be treated with respect from all of you. Do I make myself clear?”
For the first time in ten years, I truly mean those words. With her by my side, I am happy. I can see a future, one that exists outside of hunting my enemies.
“I don’t want to be your good girl, Frankie.” “Is that right?” I rasp. My hands slide down her back and rest on her perfect ass. “I want to be your dirty little slut.”
“Well, you better sit then. I might be able to change your mind.” Her green eyes narrow. “I am sitting. What are you talking ab—” “Sit. On. My. Face.”
I thought I knew what love was ten years ago. Leila never loved me for who I was, simply who she wanted me to be, for her. Zara, she knows my flaws. She sees every single part of me and craves more. Every moment in my life happened for a reason. To bring her to me. And there is not a single soul on this earth who can take that away from me.
“In every single lifetime, it will always be you, Zara. I would go through the torture I’ve dealt with a thousand times over if it meant that you were my reward. You make everything worth it. Every ounce of pain I’ve ever felt was to bring me to you. My undying love for you is unquestionable. No matter what life throws at us. You, Zara. You are my inevitable, my love and my purpose.”
“You don’t think I love you? You think my fucking chest doesn’t burn every time I’m near you? That I’m not completely and utterly obsessed with you? That I don’t have an overwhelming need to protect you, where not a single thing else matters to me more than you?”
How I live purely for this woman.
I look down at my bare chest and push the tip of the hot blade on my pec. Blood drips as I start carving the letter ‘Z’ into my skin.
I reach the last line of the letter, ignoring the stinging of my flesh. “Now. Tell me I don’t love you. I dare you.”
This is the man she needs right now. I swipe the fresh drop up with the tip of my finger. “I just carved your initial into my skin. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.” I stalk towards her and open up her legs. Sliding between them, I trace an ‘F’ across her chest with my blood.
Maybe we both needed this to realize what is important beyond anything else. Us.
We need to all be together. We are stronger this way. That is the only way we can all get through this. We have all lost someone. And we all are seeking our revenge.
“We,” I answer. This is no longer just about me. “We will never be able to get back what we’ve lost. But we will burn the fucking world down to get ours, dolcezza. That, I promise you.”
For the first time in my life, I truly do understand Luca’s utter devotion to my niece. The way he was willing to give up everything in a heartbeat for her. I know now, Zara is my person. There isn’t a single thing on this earth I wouldn’t do for her.
“I need you to help me feel normal again–sexy. Make me forget who I am, even for a little while. Break me to make me whole again.”
Together, we are unstoppable. Just like I knew we would be.
We may be the most fucked up family to walk this earth, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Family are the ones you choose. Zara and these men beside me, they are my family, the ones I will kill for, or give up my fucking life for. The ones I will have by my side as we rule over the city. There is just one last piece to put into place… making Zara my wife. My forever.
“I love you, Frankie. I just want to give you everything, like you have for me.” “You already have, angel.” He places my palm on his cheek. “We’ve got this,” he whispers.
It will be our escape from the world where we will always be just us. A place where we can remind ourselves of our power, and where pleasure is the only thing we feel there.
I’m confident everything in my life has led me to Zara. She is who I have always belonged to. I know my true meaning, to love this woman with everything I have.
There is not a single doubt that our love will give us the power we need to take on the world. And, if all else fails, we will have one hell of a time burning it to the fucking ground together. Now that is true love.
