Page 71 of Sin & Sapphire

“Ana,” I said before cursing inwardly.Stupid, stupid, stupid.“But I …” I trailed off. “Guess I better come up with a fake name quickly.”

Cindy looked me up and down, taking in the bruises on my face, my lack of makeup, the fact that a woman dressed like me was in a hostel like this, ready to beg a stranger to swap clothes.

“Deal,” she said.

“Let’s swap in the showers,” I said. “I’m dying my hair too.”

To my surprise, Cindy offered to help, guiding my head over the sink and helping me to rub the dye into my blonde hair. She kept up a cheerful monologue as we waited for the dye to set, me in a borrowed towel I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt about ruining, and her in clothes that looked as worn as the set I’d traded her mine for.

By the time the sun set, my hair was a deep sable, and I looked nothing like the polished, rich, Italian American woman who’d escaped from Valentin’s chic apartment that morning.

Cindy eyed me critically before unwrapping her faded scarf and draping it around my neck.

“You still look rich,” she said with a laugh. “Like you’re slumming it for a day, trying to fit it.”

I didn’t tell her that her words were both absolutely true and completely false at the same time.

“What’re you running from?” she asked softly.

“A man,” I said. “Men,” I corrected myself with a quiet laugh.

“Yeah, buddy,” she said, slinging her arm around my waist. “Let’s see if we can get someone to trade you a backpack too.”

I stepped out of the hostel ready to take on the world.

I’d done it. I’d escaped them. Pride suffused me. I’d gotten away from Grégoire, and now I’d gotten away from Angelo and Valentin. Spoiled rich girl my ass—I could do this. I could escape. And I could be free.

I stood on the doorstep of the hostel, grinning as the sun set over the city. The world was my fucking oyster.

28

ANGELO

Dario Fontana tappedhis fingers on the table in a pattern that made me want to leap across and strangle him. I didn’t, only because he’d flown in from Rome to see me so I could tend to my angel and close this deal.

“Half up front,” he said.

I snorted. Going legitimate was bullshit, but there was as much money in oceanfront real estate as there was in drug trafficking, and real estate sure as fuck made it easier to launder ill-gotten gains. When Gio was alive, this deal had seemed like a way to start building a future for myself—my father wouldn’t live forever, and I needed something other than killing in his name to keep me busy as I grew old.

“For a controlling interest,” I answered. The fucker thought I was a fool because I was my father’s muscle, and not for the first time, I wished I’d taken a greater interest in how my father actually ran his fucking empire. Negotiations were Valentin’s forte, not mine.

Ana would know exactly what to do here. She’d been helping her father make deals her whole damn life. The thought stopped me in my tracks.

Dario’s lips twisted. “If your father were serious about this deal, he’d have met me in Rome.”

“This is my deal, not my father’s,” I reminded him. “If you weren’t desperate for investment, you wouldn’t have flown to Nice to meet me,” I retorted, already bored of the conversation. “The Turkish construction firm you hired fucked you over, and now you’re desperate for a cash infusion to get it back on track.”

A faint flush spread over Dario’s cheeks. He was so fucking young. What was his father thinking, sending him out for this negotiation? Younger than Ana, even. The idea of my fiery angel by my side, or better, making deals in my place, building an empire with Valentin and me, took my breath away.

“Half up front, and controlling interest in the entire development,” I continued. “And the second half when construction is back on track.”

“And using your construction company,” he said, bitterly.

Valentin’s, really, but it wasn’t worth correcting. The terms weren’t perfect, but he wanted a foothold in Rome, and this deal would allow him to shoulder in on the mafia families that gripped that city without causing too much ire. And allow me a legitimate base of operations to launder funds through.

I set both of my hands on the table and waited.

Dario looked at me, then looked at the older man to his left—his father’s attorney, and family’s consigliere.

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