Page 64 of Under His Embrace

“It was hard. So many times, I talked myself into looking for you, but I refrained from messing it up. I figured that you made your answer clear, that you didn’t want me.”

“No, Franco. Not at all. And in your not fighting for me, not chasing me, I was ‘free’ to experience the opposite. When I broke it off with Wes after only a few months, he couldn’t let me go. He was deranged. Obsessed. And in that difference, I saw how stupid I was to ever let you go.”

“You’re stuck with me now.”

She nodded, seeming excited to cling to that promise.

“But I need to know ifyoucan be stuck with me.”

Her face changed to a deep frown as she reared back to look at me fully. “What do you mean?”

“Can you adjust to living with me? Living here and knowing what the family does?”

She’d always known. We started and built our relationship when she was a senior in high school, aware that the Constella name represented the Mafia. Her parents did their best to taint her views of what such an organization was like. That if it was acrimefamily, every member was automatically evil to the bone and the default enemy of anyone on the right side of law.

That was erroneous in so many ways, but most of all in the manner that grayness was unaccounted for. Supposedly, good people like cops, such as Wes Morrison, could do very bad things like abusing power and stalking defenseless women. Whereas, reputedly bad people like us Mafia men could do heroic things like killing true sinners and saving those who needed security.

“Can you try to adjust to this sort of life? Where sometimes the danger is higher and we need to lock down in the houses? When you’ll need to have bodyguards around you and Caleb at times?”

She sucked on her lower lip.

“It’s not always a world of high stakes like it is right now. It’s not always a constant of danger right on our doorstep. We do all we can to keep our homes as safe and free of business as possible.”

“I can see that,” she replied. “Nina, Tessa, and Eva have tried to explain a lot of this.”

I was glad that she had them. And that they had her. All four of them clicked like sisters.

“Most of the danger at the moment will be over soon.”

“With… the Giovannis?” she guessed.

“Yes. Dante, Romeo, and I, Liam as well, we’re very confident that our two top enemies will cancel each other out. The Devil’s Brothers MC and the Giovanni Family. We’ve been monitoring them and investigating both groups. It’s been a waiting game, because if we were to attack both, we’d be outnumbered. But any day now, we’ll get the news that they’d eliminated each other as they’re equally prone to infighting and making stupid, rash decisions that get people killed.”

Her sigh was soft against my face, and I was glad that she didn’t break eye contact. I knew this was hard for her. She was soft and light and all things that were good. I would always keep my darkness from her, but I had to know if she could compromise.

“What about Wes?”

I frowned. “What about him? I’ll kill him.” Coming out with that fact as bluntly as possible was the best method to discuss it. To the point and honest. Wes Morrison would be dead for all he’d done.

“Even if he wasn’t the one who put the hit out for those men to shoot the deli?”

“Of course. I will not let that man be a threat to the woman I love.”

To her credit, she didn’t flinch. Here I was telling her, point blank, that I intended to murder a man, and she didn’t blink or wince.

“I wished so many times that he’d die.” Her admission was a weak, carefully given whisper, and that surprised me even more. It was proof that she could lean between the black-and-white rigidity of good versus evil.

“So many times,” she repeated, firming her expression into one of pain and anger. “He was a monster to stalk me, to try to con me and trap me.”

“And we don’t need monsters like that in the world.”

She nodded. “So long as I remember that, that some monsters will get what they deserve, it’s nothing more than a reminder that Karma is at work.”

I exhaled a breath of relief. I wanted her to keep her goodness, her innocence, but it soothed me to know she was flexible with her moral compass, too. The last thing I needed was for her to assume I was a perfect hero who did no wrong. I never wanted her to view me as a villain, not completely.

“What’s your answer, Chloe?” I was determined to steer this conversation back on track. “Will you marry me?”

She nodded. “Yes, Franco, I’ll?—”

---