Page 22 of Vengeful Mafia Prince

But in that time, I haven't heard from anyone at the office at all. Almost as though... almost as though they believe me. And almost as though Elena hasn't told everyone what I've done.

Which is ridiculous. At the end of the day, she's loyal to her family, and nothing is going to change that. No matter how much I might like to think I had her wrapped around my little finger, she walked away from me the other night.

I can still feel the sharp pang of that memory driving into me, like a stake through my heart. Fucking her again, it had been a mess. But it had been one last chance to show her that I really meant it when I said that I wanted her, that the desire I felt for her was far from an act.

I want her.

Some deep, profound part of me wants her, and no matter how much I try to hide from it, I don't think it's going to go away that easily.

"I know," I reply. "And I'm sorry. I thought I could handle myself at the Carter business, but..."

"But instead, you got involved with that bitch Elena," Valentina spits at me. I bristle. I know she's got every right to talk about the family who killed our parents like that, but still, I hate hearing her despise Elena so completely.

I have, of course, had to come clean about the truth of our... relationship? Is that what it is, is that what I would call it? That would suggest the way I felt about her was real, after all. I've told them that she got a little too interested in me after the two of us grew closer, and it was that which led her to break my cover. It's not entirely a lie.

"Nothing's come of it yet," I point out. "So it might just blow over."

"You really think she's not going to tell her father?" Marcus demands. "You're really that stupid?"

I fire him a look. "I was doing what I could to take down the people who—"

"You don't think we've all wanted to do that at some point or another?" Valentina replies, her voice high with anger. "You don't think we've all thought about how we would make it happen, what we would do, how we would make them pay?"

"Then why haven't you—"

"Because we need to stay alive, Gio," Valentina shoots back. "We need to stay alive to take care of their legacy. It's what they would have wanted for us, and you know that. This is the last piece of them we have left, the business, and you want to gothrowing it away because you can't let go of..." She shakes her head.

I can see the tears filling her eyes, but she quickly swipes them away before we can get a good look at them.

"She's saying that we haven't been stupid enough to get in trouble," Marcus tells me, his voice low. "And you went and put yourself in the middle of a damn warzone, and now, your cover's blown. How exactly are you going to deal with that?"

I fall silent. I don't have an answer for that part, not yet. I have no clue what I'm supposed to do next, no idea how I'm going to find a way through this mess without getting my ass handed to me. When they find out who I really am, when Elena spills the truth, it's all over for me—they're going to take it as an act of aggression, and they're going to snuff me and my family out.

"Are you going back to work? Or to college?" Valentina demands.

I shrug. "I honestly don't know at this point," I confess. "I... I don't know what I should do."

"And you should have gone into all of this with a plan for how everything was going to go," Marcus cuts in. "You should have been ready for anything that came your way, but instead..." He waves his hand at me dismissively and takes a long drink of his vodka on the rocks.

I don't think I've ever seen him so freaked, and it worries me. Normally, Marcus is careful and calm in everything he does, but I've thrown him off his game enough that he's starting to worry.

And that's making me worry, too.

"You haven't been in touch with her since the day she told you what she knew, have you?" Valentina asks. I hesitate for a moment before I answer, but that's all she needs to see through the lies I'm trying to spin. "Holy hell, Gio, you have to be fucking kidding me!" she exclaims. "You thought— you thought it was a good idea to see her again?"

"It wasn't like that," I protest. "She was the one who came to me—"

"So she knows where you live in the city now, too?" she adds, her eyes widening. "Jesus. What doesn't she know about us?"

I swallow hard. "I had to give her some things that were real," I mutter. "I had to— to make the story stick. It's not like she knows about this place. Or anything about the real me, either."

"You don't even believe that," Valentina mutters.

She's right. I've done all I can to keep the truth from her, but parts of it have come leaking through, anyway. There's no way I can deny the desire I feel for her, the want, and that's more than just about the way she looks.

"I'm going to make it right," I assure them both.

Marcus snorts. "You need to keep your fucking head down," he snarls at me. "Stay out of trouble. If that's even possible for you."

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