Page 155 of Sin & Sapphire

“Instead of telling her I loved her, I told her that marrying her would bring peace, would bring our empires together,” I said.

“It will,” Valentin said.

“But she doesn’t care about that. All Ana’s ever wanted was to be loved for who she is, not what she is, and—” my voice broke. I had the opportunity to tell her that I loved her, and instead, I offered her safety in exchange for her freedom.

Fuck.

“We have to get her back,” he said finally, his voice cracking, the first sign of weakness he’d shown since I met him. “Merde, Angelo’s calling me.” Valentin hung up.

The sympathy in Enzo’s gaze gutted me. “I’ll send you an invitation to the wedding,” he said softly. “Tchérnov wants to make a splash to humiliate Valentin and Angelo. I’ll let you know if I hear anything else.”

“You’re in touch with her?” I asked, hating how fucking desperate I sounded. “I, fuck, I need to know if she’s okay.”

Enzo scoffed but wouldn’t meet my gaze.

“Accardi,” I growled. “You fucking owe me. Your brother?—”

“I’m not Sergio,” he snapped. “And I don’t owe you shit. But I will tell you that she doesn’t want you to interfere. And if that means stopping you from fucking up her plan, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

My phone vibrated, and when I looked up again, Enzo was climbing back into his SUV.

I held the phone to accept the video call. Valentin and Angelo’s faces filled the screen. Rapidly, I explained what Enzo had told me.

Angelo’s face went utterly blank, all the feral emotion I was used to seeing cross his eyes disappearing into the coldest expression I’d ever seen. “Boris is a dead man.”

57

VALENTIN

Tchérnov agreedto meet me for lunch. I stared at him over a meal I couldn’t stomach while Ana was in danger and suffering at the hands of this man who’d thought his rapist son would be an appropriate match for her.

When he’d finished, he pushed his plate away and leaned back in his chair, his cruel eyes missing nothing as he took me in.

“It’s a small world, Rochefort,” he said.

“Too small.”

“Why am I here?”

My fingers clenched in the fabric of my pants, my legendary self-control deserting me for a moment. His men, and Angelo’s, filled the restaurant. Leaping over the table and strangling him with my bare hands would only result in a bloodbath.

“Give me my family back,” I snarled.

“Or what?” he asked. “If you doanythingto hurt me, I’m going to hurt Ana so badly she won’t ever walk again.”

My heart stopped.

“She’s a pain slut,” he murmured. “She has a high threshold before she starts begging me to stop. I haven’t broken her yet, but I will.”

No. No! Fuck.

Boris leaned over the table, his ice-blue eyes boring into me. “I’m going to marry that slut. And Angelo’s going to help me import girls and boys from Europe to the States. And if he doesn’t, Ana will pay the price.”

Ana, why didn’t you give us time to solve this together? Why didn’t you trust us?Of course she hadn’t trusted us. Why would she?

“What do you want?” I repeated, unable to stop my fingers from fisting in the tablecloth.

“What do I want?” Boris asked. “I want you to suffer.”

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