Page 161 of Sin & Sapphire

No matter how today ended.

Boris ended the call before I could respond and called Angelo, who was embracing Nonno. The two men were bloody and beaten but standing.

“I am a man of my word,” Boris said.

“Why does he look like he just fought in a war?” I whispered.

Boris’s gaze cut to mine, amused and cruel. “I said I’d free his father. I didn’t say I’d make it easy.”

“I want to speak to her,” Angelo growled. Boris turned the phone to me.

Blood poured from a wound on his forehead, and my fingers itched to soothe the furrow in his brow as he took me in, the veil I hadn’t lowered yet, and the high cut of the dress that hid the wounds Boris had inflicted over the last week.

“Don’t do this, angel,” Angelo said. “Fight him. Fucking run. Fucking stay with me.” His voice broke on the last plea.

“BellissimaAna,” my grandfather murmured. “Coraggiosa Ana.” Beautiful Ana. Brave Ana.

“My love,” Angelo said simply, and I couldn’t hold the tears in any longer. They slipped down my cheek, and my chin trembled as I struggled to control myself.

“Thank you,” Nonno said, simply. The man had been beaten within an inch of his life. He couldn’t stand without draping his arm over Angelo’s shoulder, and I held on to that, knowing I’d made the right decision, he wouldn’t have survived any longer in captivity.

Not that I expected to either.

“I’m going to save you, Ana,” Angelo rasped, dragging his fingers over the screen over the phone.

I lifted my chin and grabbed the handkerchief in Boris’s pocket to gently pad at my face, wiping the evidence of my misery away. “Don’t,” I said softly. When he didn’t agree, I continued, “Who did you swear an oath to, Angelo?”

“Ana, I love you, don’t ask me to do this.”

I’d thought my heart couldn’t break anymore, that I’d already shattered it into a million pieces and ground them into dust beneath my heel, but Angelo was doing it here.

I’d have killed for those words.

Done anything to hear them a week ago.

“Please,” he begged.

“You will not save me,” I told him. “You’re going to save my empire.”

“No,” he protested. “I don’t want the fucking empire. I wantyou.”

“That’s an order,” I said softly. The only one I’d ever given him. The only one I’d ever dared.

“Angel, my love—” Boris cut off the call.

I steeled my shoulders and held out my hand imperiously. “I’ll fix my makeup in the car.”

His lips tilted up into a smile before he pulled my bag out of the trunk and rifled through it, handing me the small makeup bag.

“Turn around,” he ordered. I did, exposing my bare neck to him. He unbuttoned the high collar of my dress and sliced open my skin. I winced but didn’t make a sound. A moment later, he dropped a small chip on the ground and crushed it beneath his heel before applying a bandage to the back of my neck and buttoning up my collar again.

“I’ll see you at the church.” He lifted the train of my dress into the car beside me and closed the door.

I spent the ride clenching and unclenching my fists, praying that Enzo had kept his word and put everything into place, wishing I’d performed more penance as a child, as a young woman, at any point in my life prior to this point where I was putting my future in God’s hands without a second thought.

Hah.

Second thoughts. Third thoughts. Fourth thoughts. It didn’t fucking matter. I’d put this in motion a week ago before handing myself over to Boris. The only way out was forward, and alive or dead, I’d be free at the end of this.

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