Page 86 of Princess of the Mafia

My heart skidded to a halt. One second. Two. Then it started pounding like a racehorse on a track. My vision blurred, and the trees and the buildings far away merged into one. I knew I shouldn’t have asked, but I did it, anyway. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh… I thought he told you… we fucked… didn’t he tell you?”

“Yes,” I snapped. “A few years ago.”

“No, a few weeks ago.”

My vision colored black. An urge wild but prepared took over me. Hadn’t I always known it would come to this? Sooner rather than later.

You’re always a Di Matteo, Daria. Vitale’s words ran in my head on a loop. The instinct to drop everything and run home hit me hard. Before I knew it, I had mirrored my thoughts. I leaned forward to jump off the bench and get the hell out of that place. Something churned in the pit of my stomach. It was unexpected and jittered like jelly. I twisted to look her in the eyes.

“You fucked, recently?” I choked out.

Her face paled, but I didn’t trust it. “I’m sorry, Daria. I thought he told you. I didn’t want to…” she clutched her heart, “I swear, but heavens, you know how he looks. Those charms… I didn’t have the will.”

Of course not. How many times had he turned my resolve into a puddle with a single look?

I’ll give you my life. If that’s what you want.

My blood rushed to my ears. Just like that, I had come to my first crossroads. Faster than I had prepared for, but it didn’t matter. There was a first time for everything. I had thought marriage had taken me from a girl to a woman. I guess I was wrong.

LORENZO

“What the fuck do you mean you don’t know where she is?”

Martello blood boiled in my veins, and the nicotine in my lungs did nothing to dull it. Rage as I had never known coiled in my chest but it was dread that slithered all through my veins.

The she’s gone of Danilo’s words echoed underneath my rib cage like the drumbeat of a fucking tribe. No, she isn’t. This was the fucking reason I’d put my own bodyguard on her. Because strangely, she was more precious to me than my own fucking life. Now my ex of a few years had tainted her with venom, and I couldn’t cure her of it when I didn’t know where she was.

“She looked sick, and she said she needed the toilet.”

Jesus! I needed a new fucking army because how was this man going to protect anything if he fell for the age-old trick?

“And it didn’t occur to your fucking brain that she was lying?” I strode out of my basement office and stalked up the stairs.

“She really looked sick, boss. All green on her face.”

I glared at my brothers following me like they could undo what was done. What had fucking Emily done?

“Where will she go?” Nico asked darkly.

He might not have agreed with all my choices, but he would always be the first to drag me out of my own shit.

“I don’t know,” I barked.

I couldn’t think. The blood-curdling in my ears wasn’t allowing it.

“What do we do with the woman?” Danilo’s voice cut into my agony.

There was that, too. I didn’t trust myself near her. Didn’t trust myself not to tear her apart, limb by limb, and feed it to the dogs. I had never killed a woman, but there was a first for everything.

“I’ll go,” Nico said, with a silent look thrown at Stefano. My eyes followed him as he got in his car and screeched off.

Just as well that Nico handled her. I stood on the footpath with Stefano, the phone hanging limply from my hand. I didn’t know where to look. Daria’s voicemail message blaring from Stefano’s phone, sirens wailing in the background, the toot of a cab in the foreground. I’ll show you I trust you rang in a loop in my head. She lied. She fucking lied to me.

“The doorman said she hadn’t come home.” My brother’s voice broke through. I had wanted her. She was my fucking home. She was supposed to be my soul. The one who got me, no matter what. Malice and rage fueled me. My eyes fixed on my car across the street. It seemed not that long ago when I’d locked her in it to stop the agitation rolling off my body. I wished I’d kept her locked in. We agreed to talk it out. Why would she take off like that? I hadn’t thought her to be an idiot, but her actions screamed gullibility.

“Let’s start with the airport.”

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