Page 60 of Assassin's Obsession

"Yeah, no. My sperm donor and his random affiliations have nothing to do with my life."

Angelo smiles at me. Again. This guy. Shouldn't Death be the cynical one between us?

"There's nothing random about his connection tola famigliaor yours either," he explains patiently. "Cosa Nostra blood runs in your veins. You are under our protection."

"It didn't feel like protection tonight when my sperm donor told Freddy to off me." It was such a cruel thing to do, which only increases my disdain for Stefano Bianchi.

What if it had been another dancer who came into the alley when I did? What if it had been Piper? Would Freddy's crush on her have saved her? What if it was one of the dancers that didn't have a connection to any of the guys in that alley? Would she be dead right now?

The very thought nauseates me.

Knowing about how Angelo exacted retribution against Ronnie and Gino, not to mention that guy whose hand he skewered, and really who knows how many more men tried to touch me over the year that Angelo was watching me?

None of that bothers me like knowing my sperm donor would have ordered the death of an innocent woman. Someonewho, even if she's not my friend is someone who didn't deserve to die tonight.

"Do you want me to kill him?" Angelo asks with a little too much enthusiasm.

"No. I'm not Stefano. I don't order people's deaths without a care to the people they leave behind." Okay, I did do that earlier, but not on purpose.

How was I supposed to know Mario would take my words literally, much less act on them?

I'm not riddled with guilt about it though. Not after Gino was so intent on killing me. He dismissed my life as worthless because I saw something I shouldn't. And whose fault was that? I wasn't the one doing criminal business in an alley used by more than one business open until the wee hours.

But Gino decided I would pay the price for his poor planning. Just like Stefano Bianchi before he found out who the witness was.

Not that I trust him to have given up on the idea of offing me. It would take care of two problems for him. My existence as his biological child and as a witness to criminal dealings related to him.

Regardless, whatever this is going on between me and Angelo, I have no doubt that if I said, yes, Death would claim another soul. Unlike my ignorance with Mario, Iknowthat and I'm not about to act on it.

I might not feel any real guilt about Gino's death, either of the Gino's deaths if I'm honest with myself, but that doesn't mean I'm going to order another execution.

Their own predatory actions cost both men their lives. That's not on me.

I guess that viewpoint is evidence of Stefano's DNA showing in my character. Mommy was never that pragmatic abouthurting others. She was the true romantic, believing Stefano Bianchi was Richard Gere to her Julia Roberts.

But Mommy's life wasn't a scene out ofPretty Woman. Not ever.

"You sure?" Angelo presses.

"Positive." I might carry Stefano's DNA but that doesn't make me a carbon copy of him.

If I put Stefano in Angelo's crosshairs, thatison me. And it's not a reality I'm willing to live with.

"I had a feeling you'd say that." His disappointment is real.

"Wouldn't you get in trouble if you killed a capo?" There's got to be a rule against that kind of thing.

Angelo shrugs. "I'm an assassin. I know how to make it look like an accident."

"You're too arrogant to hide it from your boss and you can't tell me the godfather would be okay with you killing one of his capos."

"Although technically, every member of the Cosa Nostra belongs to the godfather, Miceli De Luca is Stefano's don," Angelo informs me apropos of nothing.

"Why take the risk though?" I ask, smothering another yawn.

"You know why."

"Thatlove at first sightandyou're the soul I never hadschmaltz might work on another woman." Especially when a guy as sexy as Angelo says it.

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