Page 156 of Sin & Sapphire

“I’ll give you anything.”

“You can’t give me what I want,” Boris said. “My son is dead.”

“So you’re going to kill my mother? Torture Ana?”

Boris laughed. “No, I’m a man of my word. When Ana’s married to me, I’ll release your mother.”

I blinked, relief sliding through me. If he intended to release my mother, he didn’t intend to kill her.

“And Angelo’s father?”

Boris smiled. “The same. But if you mount a rescue operation, I’ll take it out on Ana. And if you try to rescue Ana, the odds of your parents surviving the week until we’re married diminish considerably.”

“How much?” I asked. “How much do you want to free her?”

Boris’s eyes widened for a second, revealing his surprise. “You think you can buy her freedom?”

“I’ll give you anything. Everything,” I repeated.

Boris looked at me thoughtfully. “Everything?”

“I own a billion-euro company. It’s yours. My property. My investments. Everything.”

Boris’s lips tilted up. “This is so fucking delicious. If I asked you to get on your knees right here and beg, would you do it?”

Yes.“Would you let her go if I did?”

He laughed. “Unbelievable. The great Valentin Rochefort, titan of industry, brought low by a slut who doesn’t have a penny to her fucking name.”

I shoved back from the table, unable to take the insult to the woman I—Fuck. To the woman I’d fallen in love with.

“Don’t bother,” Boris said, misinterpreting my movement. “She’s mine now, Valentin. I’ve taken her away from you like you took my son away from me. And I don’t intend to give her back.”

58

LUCA

I lived with my father.Worked with him. Represented him to the other families. Killed for him. Ran the brutal empire he and his father before him had built with their own hands. Negotiated in his name. And we ate dinner together with my mother as often as we could.

Today’s summons felt different.

I walked into his office, surprised to find him alone, sitting behind his desk, his fingertips steepled together in a triangle in front of his face, deep in thought.

“Papà?”

“Luca, come in, sit down.”

He poured me a finger of whiskey, despite the early hour. He still drank the Irish stuff, in honor of my oldest sister’s husbands.

“Papà?”

“Don’t repeat yourself,” he snapped. “I raised you better than that.”

Right. I accepted the glass of whiskey and lowered myself into one of the armchairs facing his desk. “What’s going on?”

“The Baresis are looking for an alliance. With the Costas weakened and Angelo distracted with Tchérnov’s pending nuptials to his niece, it’s an ideal time to begin expanding.”

Donatella Baresi graduated college the same day Sofia did. The same day Ana graduated with her master’s.

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