More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“He shot his father when he tried to take my dad’s life, Katie. My uncle wanted the power and was willing to kill his own brother for it.” “What?” I whispered.
“Rome doesn’t trust anyone because he almost missed it. We all did. He saved my dad’s life by taking his own father’s. It’s a mind-fuck. And the damn power of this city did it to all of us.”
“No man but me should ever be touching you. You’re driving me insane just living with him, Katalina. It’s driving me fucking insane.”
“You want to choose this? Choose the man who can kill you
in a heartbeat? I’m the family’s monster, Katalina. I don’t have a heart to give you except a fucked up one.”
“Watch my dick slide into where it belongs. If nothing else, this works and works very”—he thrust so hard into me I arched—“fucking”—he pulled out and then pounded into me again—“well.”
I pulled her down into the black hole. It swallowed us up and ate us whole. Our light was gone.
I was the monster. I had to keep it together. I had to let her
go and get her out of this mess of a family instead of pulling her further in.
You’re
only as strong as your right-hand man, and if I’m going to be that for you, well, you don’t fuck with what’s mine.” “Meaning Katie is yours?” I sucked on my teeth. “I’m not sure yet.”
“Draw the line, Rome, or you’ll end up lying in a pool of your own regret.”
“This dress is hypnotic, Katalina. You’re hypnotic.” He rested his chin on my forehead, and my curls rubbed against his five-o’clock shadow. “What am I going to do with you, huh?”
“Why do you have to do anything different than what you’ve always done with me before?”
“Because before I was sure I didn’t care. Now I’m not so sure. Caring makes me vulnerable when I can’t be. Not for the family.”
Rome was my most dangerous downfall. I didn’t care about my life being at risk, because I knew that losing myself would be much less painful than losing someone I loved.
“Then I guess what I want is for you to claim me, because the harder you both pull the more I’ll relish the pain of splitting in either direction.” “Ever the masochist, huh?” “Takes one to know one.”
My mind wandered. Bastian’s stare was bright on me, but Rome’s had always been dark. That man only saw my jagged edges, the ones that were so broken he thought I was a lost cause inside. He saw the ugly under the beauty. Still, he wanted me. Maybe that’s why I wanted him too.
“I’m not asking you to be anything to me.” “And yet I’m yours and you’re mine.”
“Did you know he told me to choose if I wanted you in that boutique, Katalina? Me. Not you.”
“Shouldn’t Bastian know by now it’s not my choice, but yours? Me or him, right?”
“Choose me, Katalina,” he whispered. “Let me consume you. Pick our destruction, not his safe haven.”
“I don’t want just little corners of darkness. I want it all. I want your darkness and your light if there’s anything left. And if not, I want the monster in you because it’s the only thing that saved me so long ago. If I can’t have that, I’ll take a dream with Bastian.”
“Like she’s your heaven and your hell. A dream and a nightmare all wrapped up in one tiny little warrior.”
Armanelli blood was still king, and they were mere pawns not looking to rock the boat. We pushed past them, and Bastian let out a breath.
Men, by nature, had to be stupid. I was sure of it.
Rome stared at me, eyes glistening as black as the sky. “I think a ruler does what has to be done so their empire can thrive. If blood must be shed, let it be the blood that tainted the empire in the first place.” “Spoken like a man that kills for a living.” Bastian chuckled.
I wanted him to understand that if that’s what he lived for,
that’s what I would live for too.
Yet tonight he was asking me. Like I was his ruler, like I wore the crown, no matter how broken it may have been.
“I don’t stop you from anything, Katalina. I’m just here to keep pushing you farther and farther down whatever damn path you decide to take.”
I only had to test which thirst was greater—love or power.” “Power?” “I run this city.
“It takes someone being powerless over and over again to make them crave power like I do, Bastian.”
“Yeah, but when I’m with you, the monster quiets. I’m starting to think his loyalties are different to mine.”
“You were born for something bigger. And you’ll still reach the place you want to be, even if it’s not where you are now.”
When he finished the story, he grumbled, “I think Poe killed people.” “Like you?” “Somehow. He writes like he knows.” “Do you ever wonder what it would be like if you hadn’t ever killed anyone?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe I’m scared of what the monster will do to you . . . or what the monster in me will do for you.”
“The monster in you saved me,”
“I’m starting to think my monster loves you.”
“And I’m scared at some point I won’t be able to control it.”
I was isolated with the man I knew I loved for those few days in an ignorant, stupid bliss. I shouldn’t have been so blind, and I shouldn’t have turned the other way. I regretted those days and longed for them all the same.
“There’s no arguing your place. Your blood is mine. We bleed together, woman. Always. Remember that.”
I thought I could navigate it all just fine. I thought I had this city by the balls. All these men, my relationship with Rome, all this mafia—I thought I had a handle on it. I was wrong.
“You’re fucking beautiful. And one day—not today, but one day soon—I might have to tell you I love you and watch the chaos that ensues.” “Why does it have to be chaos?” “Because I’m the protector of the mob. I can’t have distractions.” “I’m a distraction then?” she asked, head tilted with pain in her eyes.
“You’re the biggest distraction because I may put you before everything, even the family.”
“My heart all of sudden doesn’t feel so lost. It feels full. Full of anger and revenge and longing to know what the hell happened to my mother, to my father, to get the real story beneath it all.” “Katie, stay fucking lost,” I growled. “We can be happy with that.”
After this, I wanted to help her. After this, I was taking her. Katalina, in the light and the darkest of the dark, was mine. And there went that bomb. Tick, tock. Boom.
“Each of these losses prepare you for the one thing you have to learn. Every fall makes you stronger than the one who’s never fallen before. Get back up, face them again, and beat them.”
lion’s den and then coming home to us all without our help. I fell to my knees and let the damn tears roll down my face. Dante and Bastian laid a hand on each of my shoulders. I knew that it might be the last time I ever saw her breathing, alive and well. And even if I did, I knew she’d never come back the same.
