Page 154 of Sin & Sapphire

“Your wife?” Enzo spat, his lips twisting up in amusement. “Did you grow some balls and ask her to marry you when I wasn’t paying attention? Last I heard, I don’t owe you a fucking thing.”

“Where is she?” I growled, drawing my gun, ignoring the busy thoroughfare, uncaring if anyone saw me. I stepped back, loosening my hold but keeping my gun trained on his chest.

“She’s with Boris Tchérnov.”

I couldn’t identify the emotion that washed over me, leaving me numb, unable to think or feel.

“And if you fuck this up, Rochefort’s mother and Angelo’s father will die,” Enzo continued, “and her sacrifice will be for fuckingnothing.”

Her sacrifice.Ana, you brave, sweet woman, putting others’ needs above your own even now, even after three men promised to give you everything and swore we’d protect you.

“Is she—is she okay?” Was he treating her like she deserved to be treated, is what I wanted to ask.

Enzo snorted. “She blew up his boat, and he’s been chasing her for revenge ever since. I don’t think okay even comes into it. She’s agreed to marry him in exchange for freeing the two captives.”

“And how do we stop that?”

Enzo lifted his chin and straightened his shoulders, peering at the gun aimed at his chest with contempt. “We don’t.”

That couldn’t be true. There had to be an out. A way we could prevent her from throwing her life away. She’d left me once, and I would never allow her to do so again.

Enzo watched the expressions that crossed my face with sympathy. “Don’t worry, you’ll get your invitation to the wedding. Along with every other major family in Yorkfield.”

“Fucking traitor,” I growled. “You’ve been working for Tchérnov this whole time.”

To my shock, he laughed. “You fucking idiot. Gio Costa was an asshole who didn’t care about anything but making himself rich. Angelo is an asshole too. He doesn’t care about an empire—he cares about his ego. But Ana? Ana would do anything to protect the people she’s responsible for. She might be a stupid slut who’ll spread her legs for any man who’ll give her a little attention, but she’s the heir to the Costa empire. That might mean nothing to you Russos, but for me, it’s everything.”

“And this is what Ana wants?”

“What the fuck do I care if it’s what she wants?” He gently pressed down on the muzzle of the gun until it pointed at the ground. “She gave me my orders, and I’m going to follow them to the letter.” His face softened. “She didn’t take out her chip.”

“I know,” I whispered, despairing as I called up the app on my phone that would show her location. My future wife. Boris Tchérnov’s fiancée now. I traced my thumb over the red dot, then holstered my gun. “What now?”

“Call off her dogs,” Enzo said quietly. “She wants peace this week.”

“Peace?”

Enzo poked his tongue against the side of his cheek, the first sign he disagreed with his mistress. “She wants to show Yorkfield that this alliance doesn’t mean war.”

Angelo didn’t pick up when I called.

Valentin did.

“She traded herself for your mother,” I said, not bothering to soften the blow.

“Elle a faitquoi?” She did what?

“She’s going to marry Boris Tchérnov in a week.”

The silence on the other end of the line matched my shock.

“She chose him,” he said—a pronouncement, not a question. “Because she doesn’t trust us to get our families back and protect her at the same time.”

No. This wasn’t about Ana’s trust. It’d never been about trust. It was about her fucking heart, and I’d been too stupid to see it.

“It’s because we told her she was going to marry me last night,” I said, certainty threading through me. “I fucking should have?—”

I was as big a coward last night as I’d been the first time I’d let her slip through my fingers.

---