Page 57 of Dark Truths

“I’m sure you would.”I reach up and grasp her hips. My mind is quickly shifting directions.

Gabriella finally notices our precarious position and quickly climbs off my lap with a hurried apology. Well, that's not what I wanted.

"Gabriella?"

"We need to talk, Dimitri."

"I know." But this isn't where, when, or how I wanted to talk to her about this.

“I don’t want to ask because I don’t want to hear the same answer,” she speaks in a soft but hurried voice that I'm unable to interrupt. “But I want to be with you, Dimitri, for real. I want to go on dates where we don’t have to be worried about someone seeing us. I want to see your home and meet your family. I want you to meet mine outside of business. I just want to be withyou and I need to know…has anything changed? Will anything change?”

I reach up and trace her beautiful and tortured face. She’s refusing to meet my eyes, afraid to see rejection in them. But if she’d only look, that’s not what she’ll find. “Gabriella…angel.” The soft tone of my voice and endearing nickname is enough to make her raise her eyes, albeit cautiously and slowly, to meet mine. “I want to be with you too, in every way you described and more.”

“But?” she whispers the word, and it’s a cruel reminder of our conversation from months ago.

What has changed, she asks? So much. I can see the ending of my assignment in sight. Before now, that meant an end to us, but after our time apart, all I can think about is fighting for this, fighting for us. If she can find it in her heart to forgive me for my greatest secret and sin when I reveal the truth to her, that’s all that matters. The opinion of anyone else can fuck off for all I care because it’s just Gabriella and me in this relationship.

“No buts,” I tell her. “I'm not leaving you ever again. I just ask that you trust me and give me time to figure a few things out. Can you do that?”

Gabriella nods, her beautiful eyes shimmering with tears as she smiles at me. “Okay.”

She leans forward and burrows into me while I wrap my arms around her and kiss the side of her head.

And so the devil fell in love with an angel.

23

Gabriella

New Year’s Day

Shortly after Midnight

It’s hard not to be jealous of your family when they have the freedom of being so open with their partners in front of others. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for them all. Finding their soul mates, their other halves…it’s something that should be celebrated and shared with their loved ones. I just wish I could do the same. Especially during the holidays, as it’s my favorite time of the year. I want nothing more than to put gifts with Dimitri’s name under the tree, decorate cookies with him, andwear matching pajamas on Christmas day. And when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, I wanted the chance to kiss him in celebration.

But that didn’t happen.

No.

Instead, my family experienced a devastating loss before Christmas that shattered our festive spirit and would leave a lasting impact on future holidays. Dominic’s death was a cruel and terrible shock to the family. I’ve always known my family leads a dangerous life. Crime breeds it. Calls for it. But I’m not involved in that side of the family business. I never have been. I never wanted to be. And I think because of that, on some level, I pushed the knowledge of the dangers to the back of my mind and locked the truth behind a steel door.

I wasn’t there when the Triads dumped my cousin’s beaten and broken body at the front gate in a bloody heap. Something I will regret for the rest of my life. Not being there for him when it mattered most. Not being there to hold his hand, to touch his face, to whisper my love and goodbyes…

Lily, Raphael’s fiancée, is a doctor with emergency training. She did everything right, everything she could, but there was nothing she could have or anyone else could have done that would have saved him.

But before my family could get their revenge on the Triads for Dominic’s death, Xiao took Lily and their daughter, Mei, hostage. He even tried to kill them both and my older brother Raphael, too. In the end, though, Xiao met his demise and rests forever on the ocean’s bottom. But just because he’s dead doesn’t mean the fight’s over. Before he died, he took responsibility for being behind the trafficking rings that Rose and Lily were victims of but also confessed that there is someone higher up pulling the strings.

“Hey.”

I look up and see Rose approaching. She’s alone but not empty-handed.

“Here.” She holds out a tall glass of champagne to me. “Thought you might need it.”

I accept the glass and take a generous sip of the crisp, sweet drink. “Thanks.”

Rose leans against the railing of the dock overlooking the dark water before she takes a deep breath and sighs.

“Everything okay?” I ask her.

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