Page 64 of Cruel Love

“Is that all you’re worried about, Luce?” he asks, his voice dry and cold. “I don’t recall you having a problem with it when you wanted to kill Marty.”

I lean back. “I love you, Dante. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I do. And, you’re right, I didn’t have a problem with it. I was blinded by vengeance and anger. I couldn’t even recognize myself, but you pulled me back. I don’t want you to fall into a place that I can’t pull you back out of again.”

Dante releases my hand. “You should get some sleep.”

“Are you gonna be here when I wake up?”

He exhales hard through his nose and closes his eyes. “Yes,” he answers.

I stare at him for another minute. I haven’t seen this Dante in a long time. Dante the mob hitman. The man who bullied my father into letting him spend the night with me. I hated him then. Even if I couldn’t resist him, I hated him.

We escaped that life. After that, he was sweet and kind. He picked me up when I couldn’t walk. He held me when the pain wouldn’t stop.

The killer was dead.

But he didn’t stay that way and that’s my fault.

Dante told me that once I opened that door, it wouldn’t close again.

I should have listened.

Chapter 18

Sofia

I tip my watering can, pouring a little more into the flowerbed. A gust of cool wind tickles my cheeks as I soak the dark soil. I take a deep breath of it, feeling it warm me all the way down to my toes.

We’re going to get him.

It’s hard not to get my hopes up but I can’t help it.

We couldn’t have found Gio at a better time.

I glance over at Lucian as he reaches up to grab my garden shears off the bench beside me.

“Lucian,” I scold. “Non toccarlo.”

He obeys and drops his hands, looking painfully dejected. It stabs my heart and I sigh, setting the watering can down on the bench.

“Come here,” I say in a soothing voice.

He steps forward as I bend to one knee and takes my extended hand.

“I’m sorry, piccola luce.” I poke his nose. “Are you thirsty?”

He nods.

I scoop him off the ground and hug him against me. “Let’s go get some juice from babushka, yes?”

His smile turns up instantly and I chuckle with him as I walk inside.

The house is quiet but not eerily so as it often was back on the Zappia estate. The usual security has gathered with Luka and Yuri in the security wing, each one being briefed and updated on the Gio situation.

We’re going to get him.

I kiss my beautiful son’s head. Soon, he’ll wake up in a world without Gio in it. Memories of his former life in the Zappia family will fade away completely if they haven’t already. With Gio gone, those memories will never come back.

And I will sleep soundly again.

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