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To all the readers who complain that my heroes are always irredeemable jerks… I’m afraid I have terrible news.
Here I opened wide the door;—Darkness there, and nothing more. —Edgar Allan Poe May the flowers remind us why the rain was so necessary. —Xan Oku
term: BAD BISHOP In chess, a bad bishop is a bishop that is blocked by its own pawns, making its scope and the number of squares it can control very limited. A bad bishop is considered irredeemable.
Pain. It was one of my favorite delicacies.
Not that there was anything to save. No soul. No heart. No conscience.
I was an animated corpse. Bones, muscles, flesh, and menace. Vengeance was my fuel, and it was enough to keep me moving, just about.
Who was he kidding? If he wanted me dead, I wouldn’t be here, listening to their lecture. Death was a luxury they didn’t offer me. Instead, I had to watch their meltdowns on loop.
I kept staring, hoping it was Tate Blackthorn. The man who gave me the most wonderful present I’d ever been gifted—a dance. A moment of feeling like a woman.
And the sad part was…I’d let him do it all over again. This was how badly I craved human connection.
I lived with psychopaths. I knew the surest way to become prey was to act like it.
“Beauty is such a fragile thing, Raffaella. I can tarnish your face with one stroke of a knife.”
A nightmare. An omen. But no, he had to be real. I knew. Because I kept his eye.
“If you so much as look in her direction, I will scoop the other one out. And unlike the Ferrantes, I won’t stop the blood loss.”
I’m going to draw you. And then I’m going to find you. And then I’m going to kill you. If you are stupid enough to let me live after this.
Men are filthy. Mama’s words rang in my head. They make you suffer when they have their hands on you. Never let them.
“He’s a psychopath. I’ve seen him cut a man’s tongue and feed it to his wife for snitching. Lila is pure and innocent and—”
I was pregnant and getting married to Tiernan Callaghan. And I had no say about it.
“Have your fill, lover boy. You just entered my territory unannounced, and I have every reason to make lasagna out of your brain. Frisk them.” I jerked my chin toward the Camorristi men.
“People will believe you’re ruthless enough to take someone like…Miss Ferrante.” He cleared his
throat. “You thrive off your merciless reputation. This’ll serve you well. We’ll have Ferrante business, connections, resources. They’ll open up the port for us. We’ll be able to get shipments from Europe. Unchecked.”
“Blood. Power. War. We crave it. Our soldiers, too. It’s time.”
“The most beautiful woman on the continent. No close seconds. They call her a vision, a masterpiece, a myth. From now on, she only has one name—mine,” he
cannot wait to devour my little forbidden fruit tonight. Touch the untouchable. Sully the pristine. Turn the elegant Ferrante princess into a Callaghan delinquent.”
“Raffaella Callaghan is mine. Nobody is to look at my wife, speak about my wife, or breathe in her direction. She’s under my protection now. The first to cross the line will be the last. They’ll be made an example.” His gaze dragged across the room, which collectively held its breath. “There will be no body to bury, no ashes to spread, no memory to spare if you’re stupid enough to disrespect her. Us. Understood?”
“You have to stop trying to kill me, Lila. It’s giving me a massive hard-on, and I’ve never been good with delayed gratification.”
“Quick lesson in anatomy and stabbing people, since it’s less work than teaching you how to use a gun.” I flicked the blade open on a sigh. “When you attack someone, you want to be lethal and strategic. Don’t just wave it around like you’re trying to swat a fly.” I had no idea how much of this shit actually registered. Since I wasn’t in the habit of repeating myself, she better fucking pay attention. “You go for the main blood carriers. The faster they bleed out, the slower they are to chase you. Radial and ulnar arteries.”
throat. She smelled decadent. A heady combination I’d yet to detect on human skin. Like flowers and summer and innocence and mine.
“One of the many perks of marrying a psychopathic murderer is I’m in no position to judge you.”
monster, like the rest of her family. A pretty monster, but one who was capable of killing just like any other. It was a thing of beauty, watching her feast on my blood. Submitting to her brutal nature. The way her eyelids fluttered shut, the shallow panting that made her tits bounce in this odd, erratic rhythm. Her sweet tongue moved in and out between my fingers, catching every drop.
“Don’t parade your whores in front of my sister ever again,” Achilles finally clipped out. “It’s disrespectful to the family.”
“Consider yourself lucky I haven’t raped her.” I doubted I ever would, but I did like keeping
“If I find out you touched her, I am going to snap your windpipe like a wishbone,” Luca said in a conversational tone.
from plain sight. “What a preposterous thing to say. Of course I can,” I countered. “You’ve been playing too much chess, Vello. Once you start moving knights and bishops, sacrificing pawns, you alert your enemy he is on a battlefield. Better to let him find out when there’s a sword wedged between his ribs.”
welcoming a baby.” I was welcoming bleeding nothing. I wasn’t going to stick around for their sister nor for the bastard in her womb. I had other plans. Ones that didn’t include a family.
“I’m not letting you go, you know.” My voice was calm, final, before I let my eye flutter shut. “You’re mine. Only fucking mine. Till my last breath.”
“You do that, while I help my wife settle in the examining room. Remember—if she’s uncomfortable, I’m uncomfortable. And if I’m uncomfortable…” He trailed off, casually leaning a shoulder against the wall and exposing the gun in the holster beneath his tailored peacoat. “Everyone gets real uncomfortable.”
“Don’t feel so sorry for yourself. Tragedies are excellent teachers, Lila. Learn, absorb, and conquer.”
Deaf. Not intellectually impaired. Not developmentally delayed. Deaf. Sharp. Intelligent. Cunning. Talented. Slightly unhinged, which—let’s admit it—only added to her allure. Beautiful beyond words, art, and cultural standards. A mixture between sweet, naive, and goodhearted, yet bloodthirsty enough to put a bullet in someone who crossed her. Thank fuck I had no heart, or we’d have one hell of a problem.
And why didn’t she supply her with means to make her life better? A hearing aid? Apps and gadgets? My wife had been robbed not only of her freedom and choices, which was standard for women in the underworld, but also from education, music, culture, arts, sports. Deaf people lived full, satisfying lives. They became doctors and scientists. Climbed mountains and broke glass ceilings.
I saw her at the doctor’s. The way her body reacted to mine. Those sweet, rosy-pink nipples were calling for me. It was the first time I wanted to put my mouth on a tit. The first time I wondered what it’d feel like to fuck a pussy. Funnily enough, I, too, was inexperienced between the sheets. In a different, more depraved way, but nonetheless a virgin by some technical standard.
But if I truly wanted Lila’s pussy—which, I was beginning to suspect was the case—I had to tone it down. And maybe no more hookers. Fine, definitely no more hookers. Sex was neither here nor there for me. I could take it or leave it, depending on my schedule, workload, and its availability. Going without wouldn’t be a first, or particularly difficult. But this was a headache I didn’t anticipate. A complication that wasn’t a part of the arrangement. I’d deal with that later, though. I knocked my drink back. I’d handle it. I always handled it.
“Came to fetch you first before I go meet her.” “Why?” Luca asked. “Because you’re the only people who might stop me from killing her.”
“If we reach an understanding, she’ll probably get to live.”
“My only sin was trying to protect her from men like you.” “Men like me are unavoidable.” I straightened my cuffs.
“Her life was miserable. You’ve cut her off from everyone but yourself.”
“Don’t pretend you have her best interest in mind.” She pressed on. “She means nothing to you.” “You’re wrong. She does mean something to me. She’s my best business deal by a long mile, and I intend to keep my end of the bargain.”
“She deserves someone who loves her.”
“Because if you’re not true to me, I won’t be true to you. And it doesn’t matter if you kill him after. I spent my entire life being overlooked and disrespected by my family. I won’t repeat the same mistake with you.” “No.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “There’s been no one else.” Relief flooded me. “When did you lose your virginity?” “Twelve,” he answered matter-of-factly. “What?” I asked, smiling awkwardly. Surely, I misread his lips. “Twelve,” he signed with his hands. “Although, it was hardly sex in its traditional form. I was forced to sodomize someone at gunpoint.” I sat up straight with
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forced me to do it. I now do it because I choose to, not because I have a gun to my head.” He was silent for a moment. “It reminds me of who I am.”
the golden strand with a faraway look on his face. “You’ll never be without protection. Your father won’t send all three of your brothers with me because he still needs a new don. And.” He grabbed another tendril, this time rubbing it between his fingers. “If I die, you’ll be a widower. Your pregnancy will still be legitimate. You’ll give birth, and down the line, can marry someone else without any stigma or prejudice.”
