Page 159 of Sin & Sapphire

Even if it meant giving up everything I loved in the world.

I dialed Tchérnov’s number.

“Angelo,” he greeted me.

“What do you want in order to free Ana, my father, and Valentin’s mother?”

He laughed. “I have what I want in exchange for your father’s life. Your sweet, masochistic slut delivered herself to me and promised me her hand in marriage if I agreed to free them.”

My gut clenched, and I prayed she was nowhere near him for what I was about to say.

“So what? You’ve got an ill-behaved slut who’s been fucked by half of Europe. And a promise to release my parents. What does that get you, Boris?”

He was silent. “Ana? Do you hear what he thinks of you? Is this the man you’re giving up everything for?”

My heart galloped, desperate for the sound of her. “I didn’t give up a goddamned thing for Angelo,” she rasped, and I heard the physical pain in her voice. “I did it to save my grandfather and Valentin’s mother.”

“You’ll never have to give up anything for me, angel,” I said, ignoring the fact that Boris was on the line. “I swear.”

“What a perfect segue into my next request,” Boris said. “I have a shipment of girls coming in two weeks, and I want them to come down through Canada. I need the Costa’s network to get them to Yorkfield.”

“Fuck you,” I snarled.

Ana screamed in pain, and I immediately regretted my temper and inability to keep my goddamned mouth shut.

“No,” Ana whimpered when she was able to form words again. “Don’t do it, Angelo.”

“You can have anything you want, if you let her go,” I said. “I’ll sign over the Costa businesses. Order Gio’s men to follow you. Do whatever the fuck you need. Just let her go.”

“And you’ll tell your father to open up trafficking through Sicily to me,” he said. “So I can run slaves from North Africa through Italy.”

“Anything,” I remised. “Just let her go.”

“And if I won’t?”

I heard a deep breath on the other end of the line. “Boris, I will slit my wrists before I allow you to drag Angelo into a trafficking ring.”

“I’ll do it,” I said in a rush, my heart cracking in two as I could feel my mother’s frown from heaven. She’d understand. She’d forgive me. She’d know that life wasn’t worth living without Ana by my side and that I’d give up anything to have her back. No matter what it took.

Boris’s cruel laugh cut into my misery. “You’ll do it anyway, to keep her safe in my care.”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me through the phone. “I will.”

“Amazing what a man will do for love, isn’t it, Ana?”

Love? This wasn’t love. This was obsession. This was need for her that was stronger than my next breath. This was my inability to live without her. She was everything.

“I’ll be in touch,” Boris promised and hung up to the sound of Ana’s whimpers.

Sì, I loved her. And I had to find a way to get her back.

60

ANA

The wedding dressthat Boris bought me covered my chest and my upper back. He’d been careful not to slice into any part of me that would be visible as I walked down the aisle. The heavy brocade weighed on me, sweat leaving a stinging path down my skin as it dripped over my wounds.

He took my hand as I climbed into the SUV that would take me to the church for the ceremony, controlling to the end. Boris would follow me in a separate car, but I wouldn’t be out of his sight for a moment.

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