By Fate I Conquer (Sins of the Fathers, #4)

by Cora Reilly

“Maybe you are blind to the truth, Angel. But I am not. Maybe you cannot see or won’t see that our son is a monster. I don’t have to turn him into one. He’s messed up and I’m trying to channel his monster before it goes rampant in a way none of us want. For fuck’s sake, look at him.”

I looked at Nevio, at the dark eyes that were mine too, only the look in them was different. Where my face was soft, Nevio’s was harsh. Where I was thin and short, he was tall and already muscled from fight training and parkour. Where I despised violence, Nevio needed it.

“I fear what you’re capable of. I fear for the people who’ll cross your path in an unfortunate moment.” “That’s how nature works, you know?” he murmured. “There’s dark and light, there must be. Maybe it’s the same with twins, but it wasn’t split evenly between us. I got all the darkness and you got all the light.”

“That’s too much of a weight to carry, so much darkness,” I whispered, my heart aching for him.

He smiled sardonically. “I like the dark, Greta. ...

“Very few people can bear what I am,” he said quietly. “I can.”

“I won’t ever run from you, Nevio. I’ll always be at your side, no matter what.” “You swear?” “I swear.”

“How does it feel to hurt someone so badly that they pled for death when you could save them with your abilities instead?” I asked softly. Nino’s fingers halted on my foot. He glanced up at me then at Dad. Whatever passed between them, they obviously decided Dad should answer. “He deserved death.” “By whose standards?” I asked. “Mine. They are the only standards that matter.”

Silence settled in the room. Nino closed the kit and looked at Dad for a moment whose expression was a mask of control. Their silent interactions often reminded me of Nevio and I, but Dad and Nino’s thought process was more similar than mine and Nevio’s.

“I love you, Dad.” Dad pressed a kiss to my temple. “I love you more than life itself, Mia Cara. Never forget that.”

“There’s darkness all around you, pitch-black like hell itself, and no matter how hard I try to protect you from it, some of it will inevitably touch you because you are part of this family. But I swear I’ll make sure no other darkness comes close to touching you.”

The men in my family were bad men. Nevio, my other half, was possibly the worst of them. But this love was inevitable.

It was only fitting that I should fall in love with a man who was just as bad, as brutal, as cruel as the men who’d raised me.

“Fuck!” Had I just terrified Greta Falcone enough that she was running away screaming? Remo Falcone wouldn’t give me a chance to explain. He’d just put a bullet in my head. If Dad didn’t kill me first.

But unlike them, she didn’t know me except for my reputation, which was probably why her brother hated me so much. I stole his show in the brutality department on occasion.

“You don’t have to be scared of me,” I said quietly, softening my voice, something I never did for anyone, and I wasn’t sure why the hell I did it for her, but I simply didn’t want her to be scared of me.

This was Greta Falcone. Twin of the guy I’d one day kill. Daughter of the man I’d probably have to kill right after. She was off limits. I tried to find more reasons to stop thinking about her like this, but her age wasn’t one. She was eighteen and I was only four and a half years older.

But Greta wasn’t a girl who deserved to be an affair. She was a woman who deserved to be someone’s number one, their one and only queen.

“You’re freezing, Greta. We need to do something about it.” I sat up straighter, weighing my options. “Would you feel comfortable putting your feet on my lap? I swear on my honor that I won’t touch you inappropriately in any way.”

She tilted her head. Her expression was strained as if she was trying to solve a difficult equation, then she put down her chin on her knee again and drew in another deep breath of my shirt. Fuck me.

Her eyes settled on my face. “I never thought about kissing someone. But I think with you I could imagine having my first kiss one day.”

“Considering what kind of man I am and the sins I’ve committed, I don’t know why I deserve a daughter like you.”

“Why did you say you wanted to kiss me?” I asked the question that had been haunting me since yesterday. Greta tilted her head to the side, watching me quietly for several seconds. “Because I like your face.” I almost choked on laughter. “Only my face?” Her dark eyes took in every inch of my body, slowly, meticulously, as if she really wanted to make up her mind. This girl was out of this world. “I like your body as well.”

“I like how you make me feel.”

I was bound to marry Cressida, and quite possibly falling for Greta Falcone.

What I wanted from Greta was far more than physical. I wanted her in every regard. I was a condemned fucker.

My feelings for Amo? They had the potential to leave behind wreckage. And yet, I’d go to New York in a week to see him.

Greta’s smile brightened. And fuck, seeing it, I would have promised her the world. What was this girl doing to me?

wished I knew what was going on in her mind, if she felt as unhinged when I was close as I did whenever I saw her.

“If you don’t say something…” I trailed off and lowered my lips to hers. I wanted to claim her as mine. I wanted her with every furious pump of my heart.

The moment our lips touched my body flushed with heat and my pulse raced in my veins, and everything fell into place. Her lips were the softest I’d ever felt. I wanted this kiss, this moment, to last forever.

“Am I your dirty secret?”

What was she? Fuck me if I knew. She was everything I wanted. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I could hardly breathe when she was gone and I could hardly breathe when she was close. Her dark eyes sucked me into their abyss. With one look out of those doe-eyes she held me captive. I’d never felt this way. Did she even realize what she’d done? She’d pried my ribs open and held onto my heart with her elegant fingers.

Greta wasn’t a girl that should be kissed in the shadows, like a dark secret. She deserved to be center stage. Guilt had no place in my life, but kissing Greta in the dark as if she were nothing but an affair made me feel like dirt. This woman before me deserved so much better than what I could give her.

The kiss we’d shared today? It had awakened something in me that terrified and excited me. And suddenly I realized that only Amo could fill the void in me that I’d never known I had.

Do you trust me?”

“Is this the abandoned Yonkers power plant?” I’d read all about it in the handwritten chronicles in our library. Surprise flitted across Amo’s face as he touched the small of my back to lead me toward the steel doors. “It is.” “That’s where the last bloodbath in the history of the Famiglia took place, right?” Amo grimaced and stopped in his tracks. “I’m not used to being romantic. I guess it shows,” he said with a deep laugh that made my belly flip. “Would you prefer if I took you somewhere else?”

Amo crossed the distance between us and cupped my cheeks, his lips coming down on mine without warning again. I tensed, surprised by his vehemence, heat and touch. Amo pulled back slightly, his eyes searching mine. His thumb brushed over my cheekbone. “I would never hurt you.” “I know.”

“What we’re doing here is wrong, isn’t it?”

“Do not ask a man like me about right or wrong, Greta. The only thing I can tell you is that nothing has ever felt as right as kissing you.”

way. How could something that felt so right be wrong?

“I’m a very bad man, Greta. Do not mistake me for anything else.”

“Don’t you ever dare thinking this. You are everything.” “How can I be everything if you still need other women?” “I don’t.”

“I can’t ask you to stop being with other women. It’s not my place. Because I can’t give you what you’d give up.”

“You can ask anything of me, Greta, and I’d g...

“When is love wrong?” Nino’s brows snapped together and his scrutiny intensified. “You’re referring to romantic love?”

“Love and logic don’t go together, do they?” “Logic told me it was useful to love my wife so I did eventually.”

“I think I fell in love,” I whispered. Nino shook his head. “Greta—” I touched my heart. “No,” I said firmly. “I can feel that it’s true. I fell in love, and it felt wondrous.”

“I’m crying because my heart’s already broken before it ever really got the chance to experience love.”

“Your brother would definitely see it as betrayal if you left Las Vegas for Amo. And I don’t have to tell you that your father won’t ever allow it, for nothing in the world.”