Page 58 of Passion and Revenge

“Ale, you fool,” he’ll say, “you could never be pathetic.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, and my fingers dig into my thighs painfully. “I failed to protect you when you were still here, even though I swore to. I failed you then. And I’m failing you now. Years of accumulating power and going up the ranks, all for nothing.” My body trembles. “I should have been the one. If one of us had to live, it should have been you.”

No, it shouldn’t, I imagine him saying, a fierce glower on his face now.Everything happened exactly as it was meant to. And now all you need to do is let it go.

I jerk.

Let it go?

But what am I without my vengeance? It’s all I’ve known for years. It feels like my whole life has been building up to this very moment.

Let it go, Ale, a voice in my head that sounds suspiciously like my brother’s whispers.

I open my eyes just in time to see the dreary grey clouds that have been hanging over the city for days begin to shift away. In a matter of minutes, the sky is a soft blue again, and the world is awash with colors.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” I whisper under my breath over and over again until I go hoarse.

Even in death, Pasquale is a better man than I can ever be.

CHAPTER 19

Sienna

I’m lying in bed, flipping through a book about the rise and fall of Roman civilization because I’m too embarrassed to tell Alessandro that I read smut, when the glass door beeps green and slides open.

I raise my head from the book and try to bite back the giddy smile that spreads across my face.

My smile dies a quick death when I see the man standing at the door.

It’s one of Alessandro’s men, the one in charge of making sure I don’t leave the building. He’s also the same one who installed the new TV and set up Netflix on it.

His head is shaved clean, and tattoos cover him all the way to almost the top of his head. The first time I stepped out of my bathroom and saw him in my room, I screamed bloody murder. Until he smiled.

He smiles now. “Miss D’Addario.”

I glance down at his hand and see a huge black box tied with a bow in my favorite color. “What do you have there?”

“It’s from the boss,” he replies with a shrug. “He says he’ll be coming to get you in thirty minutes, one hour tops.”

“Get me?” I raise an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t ask questions when the boss gives me instructions.” He plops the package down on my bed, then turns and walks away. I wait for the door to shut and the light on it to blink red before I leap for the box, unable to control my curiosity.

I tear off the cover of the box and push aside the tissue wrapper. The first thing I pull out is a black Louis Vuitton sandal with four-inch pointy heels. My eyes widen when I spot the red fabric next.

Holy shit.

Half an hour later, I slide the red dress up over my hips and do some jumping and maneuvering to be able to do up the zipper at the back. By the time I’m done, I have to stop and catch my breath.

I’m slicking on lipstick when the door beeps open again.

I whirl around with a smile and then freeze as I set my eyes on the gorgeous, blue-eyed man standing across the room from me.

“Fuck, Si,” he rasps. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

I can’t speak, my eyes drinking him in greedily. It doesn’t matter that I’ve seen him nearly every day, and it doesn’t matter that he has twisted me into every position possible in this room and had his head between my legs barely six hours ago.

None of it matters because he still manages to take my breath away every single time.

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