Page 17 of Desperate Decisions

“Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that. It’s not like she needs either of us. Between Santo, Enzo, and the endless stream of capos trying to fuck their way to the top, she has no shortage of lovers.”

“Bianca doesn’t need a lot of things, but she takes them anyway,” Marco reminded me.

“Has she tried to take Gianna?”

“Not so far, but I try to keep her out of sight so Bianca forgets that’s an option.”

“How did you navigate it all?” I asked.

Marco shrugged. “Fuck if I know. I just try to get through life one day at a time. Gianna’s there when I get home, and that gets me through every bullshit thing we have to do to stay alive and stay in control in this life.”

“I don’t know anything about Amara, but I’m?—”

“Obsessed?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, that happens. Bonds do a number on your brain. I always thought it was a fucked-up lie that they became the center of your world, but it’s painfully true.”

I didn’t know what to do with a mate. Outside of the bedroom, a million worries invaded. How was I supposed to keep Amara safe? How the fuck were we going to make things work when we knew jack shit about each other and she wanted nothing to do with a mafia life? I could force her to the compound and unravel her in bed, but a life together required more than that. Marco started his research on his phone while the girls talked, squirreled away in the bedroom.

“Have you ever heard of ideal mates?” Marco eventually asked.

“If it didn’t come up in high school bio, I’ve never paid attention.”

“I don’t really want to read this entire paper, but the abstract is actually useful. Supposedly compatibility triggers short, spontaneous heats with the biological goal of forcing a bond. The people it happens to are basically never prepared for it to happen so they can’t take precautions to prevent the bond, and even if they did, there’s a chance anytime they were around each other, the omega would have spontaneous heats until the bond was actually successful.”

“Shit time to be an omega in that case,” I mused. “So, if that’s the case here, then it was a heat, just not one as we understand it?”

“Pretty much. I’d say it would be worth it to get a toxicology report to see if anything triggered it outside of biological compatibility, but I imagine anything that could have done that would be out of your system by now.”

“So, you’re saying I should have actually listened to my cousin back in Naples and had a blood test?” I snorted.

“Would’ve helped, yeah. At least to be certain.”

Anita was going to love that. I had better things to do than let my cousin gloat, though. Namely, figuring out how the fuck I was going to get my mate back to the Gallo compound without either of us getting offed by a pissed-off mafiosa.

CHAPTER 7

ELIO

I spent the next two days wrapped up in Amara, letting the bond calm down and satisfying my every urge with her body. I checked over legal paperwork while she slept, and had otherwise tried to put this morning out of my mind.

“Wake up.” I nudged my mate.

Amara grumbled and rolled over to lie face-down in the nest. “No.”

“I need you awake. Pack yourself a bag, and if you don’t hear from me within three hours, I want you to go stay with your father. Better yet, leave the city entirely.”

That got her attention, and she popped her head up. "What are you talking about?”

A yawn cracked her jaw and she hummed softly when I dropped my hand to smooth over her hair.

“I’m planning ahead just in case Bianca puts a bullet in me for bonding you while I was away. One of my legal contacts has your information, and he has instructions to transfer my accounts to you if he doesn’t hear from me by tonight.”

“Wait.” She clambered onto her knees and cupped my face in her hands. “She wouldn’t actually kill you, would she?”

“I genuinely don’t know. If she does, at least you’ll be taken care of.”

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