Page 67 of Cardinal House

“Of course,” I nod, as though she’s already said yes, like I’ve already asked. “Unless she doesn’t want that,” I cock my head slightly, watching as his fingers tighten once more, creasing the fabric of his slacks as he does. “She does whatever she wants, she gets whatever makes her happy,” I tell him blankly.

He purses his lips instead of scowling like I’m sure he wants to, but then he nods, “Good.”

Vito stares at me, and there are so many things that either one of us, both of us, could say.

Instead, Vito lifts his chin, glances over my shoulder, and then pushes to his feet. Moving to a wet bar in the far corner, he ducks down behind it, and then pops up, crystal decanter in hand. Amber nectar flows into the glass he offers me as he sits back down, and I take it with eager fingers, not needing encouragement.

“I’ve always liked you, Wolf,” Vito tells me, flicking his tongue over his lower lip as he brings his glass back down to rest on his thigh. “I respect your family, the work you do. I enjoy discrete.”

“Well, we’re nothing if not discrete,” I say with a flick of my brow, swirling the whiskey around in my glass, and biting down on my smirk as I think about the decapitated body left in the shrubbery outside of Nolan Beaumont’s mansion.

“Yes, so if anything should befall my niece…” he leaves the statement hanging for a moment. “Well, you already know, I know how to aim.”

It pounds, my heart, as a smile curls my mouth, showing all of my teeth. One predator staring down another. There’s a moment where we hold each other’s gaze, and I want to tear his throat out for even daring to insinuate that I would ever do anything to hurt my Luna. But, equally, this really just means that Luna has an extra layer of protection now. The entire muscle of the Italian mob. Niece to the Don.

But then her mother had all of that and still ended up dead in a river. Her daughter stolen, and somehow winding up living with a paedophile rapist for over twenty years.

“I don’t think this should be something advertised,” I say next. “In order to keep her safe, from your enemies, she needs to remain unknown. Just mine. A Blackwell.”

He doesn’t like it, the way a green vein protrudes in his temple, pounding as rapidly as his pulse, it’s obvious that he didn’t expect me to say that. That perhaps he hadn’t even thought of it, but it’s the only thing that makes sense.

I won’t ever let her be put in danger again.

“Fine,” he eventually grinds out, “but I want her to meet my brothers, her other uncles when they come over from Sicily.”

“If that’s what she wants,” I agree, and he hates it, but he doesn’t argue.

Both of us reach forward across the low table, nodding in agreement as we clink our glasses together and take a sip. The alcohol burns on the way down, but we’re both smiling when I shake my head with a gruff laugh.

“We’ve had many drinks in the past, Wolf, but I never thought we’d be having a discussion quite like this one.” Vito sighs, blinking down at his hand cupped over his glass, “I could think of worse for my niece.”

I think of the early days at Cardinal House. The nightmares, the screams, the bed wetting. She never once hid herself from me, she never cowered away. I was her comfort, even when she couldn’t remember me, didn’t know me, a stranger who closed her in a coffin, she felt safe.

With me.

My eyes come up then, to where she went to sit outside, the sun almost set now. I’m climbing to my feet, my glass thudding down on the table as I round the sofa Vito sits on.

The cool wind whips at my skin and my feet are pounding over the stone pathway as I follow it past where she was when I last looked.

“Luna!” I bellow, real, true panic in my voice. I hear it in myself, as my heart pounds and my lungs squeeze, fear. “Luna!” The trees are dense, the path ending as it reaches the thick woods, shadows dancing, foliage ruffling. “LUNA!”

It’s useless, the shouting, she wouldn’t venture far, she wouldn’t go anywhere without me, not on her own. Not like-

She’s been so quiet since the night of the engagement dinner. After she fell, bumped her head, came to with the frightening realisation that she was remembering things. I should have seen it. The plotting. The carefully curated questions about my plans, what I was going to do to her abuser.

I spin on my heel, smacking straight into Vito at my back. His eyes wide with panic, “What is it, where is she?” he rushes out, scanning the dark trees surrounding us.

And I don’t know what to say, how to tell him that she’s willingly gone back to the place of her terror, so instead, I just tell him what we need, “Get a car.”

Chapter 31

Luna

Staring up at the house, you wouldn’t know what horrors live inside.

That the man who lives here is smart and neat and tidy but is really a demon in disguise. A fancy suit with soft eyes and cruel smiles. A man I still sought comfort in, even after he was the one defiling me.

Goosebumps tear their way across my flesh, the sky is dark, the trees and bushes rustle around me in the cool wind as I stand on the red brick pathway. My black dress lifting high, my pale blue cardigan with the white buttons doing nothing to keep off the chill of the night. It might just be me though, that’s feeling the cold, and it has nothing to do with the weather.

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