Page 238 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

“No,” he said. “I’m tired of running. If they want to come up in here, I’ll shoot them fucking dead. They won’t be able to get within fifty meters of this building without me knowing about it.”

So, he had people.

I grasped on to the couch for dear life, my leg hurting so terribly bad. “Do you think it’s your family?”

“No, reginetta, it’s yours.” He looked so serious that I actually believed him. “The Sicilian Mafia doesn’t give a fuck about the Americans. They’d kill the police if they got it their way. They have no use for them anyway. They want us.”

My mind was spinning with who would go to Officer William—the one cop who had been hunting them down for years—to find me. Tommy crossed my mind, but I shook my head. It couldn’t be him. He was too damn stupid. He got followed by cops so often, and he didn’t even realize it.

“Well, we have to tell my dad,” I said. “He’s not going to like that someone—”

Alessandro placed his coffee down on the side table and stepped closer to the couch. “That someone—his daughter—was talking to the police, and now, they know something?” Alessandro shook his head. “He really wouldn’t like that,” he said, mocking me.

I narrowed my eyes. “The only reason I hired that asshole was to figure out who had killed my mother because this family is absolutely useless at figuring stuff out.”

“They’re good at figuring shit out, but they’re better at hiding it.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Oh, don’t be so dense, reginetta. I know you’re smarter than that.”

But … I didn’t want to believe that my own family knew who had killed Mom. It was true that someone in the family had done it and that they also wanted me dead, but if they knew who had done it, they would have to risk their entire life to hide this from Dad. Because Dad would put seventeen bullets straight through the man’s head when he found out.

“You’re lying,” I said.

“I have no reason to lie to you … except that you’re annoying as fuck, you won’t leave me alone, you threatened to shoot me in my exposed wound.” He winked at me. “But if you ignore all those reasons, reginetta, maybe you’d see that I’m the only damn person in this family who is looking out for you.”

21

chiara

“Looking out for me?” I asked, pulling myself to my feet and staring right at him.

I didn’t want to believe it, but I wasn’t blind. He had been pushing me away to stay out of his business from day one because he knew that the Sicilian Mafia would come after me too. But I was too damn proud to admit it out loud, so I turned it back on him because he wasn’t right in everything that he did.

“You told me the wrong address that first night so I wouldn’t be able to work with you. You constantly put Tommy down and act as if I don’t know what I’m doing. You led the Sicilian Mafia here and put my family at risk.”

He stood inches from my face and smirked. “Are you done?”

I slammed my hands into his chest. Childish of me, I know. But he got on my damn nerves so much that I couldn’t help it. “No, I’m not done.”

He stepped closer to me, placing his palms on my stomach, fingers wrapping around my waist, and then he gently pushed me back down onto the couch. “You shouldn’t be standing on your leg, reginetta. You could get hurt.”

When his fingers brushed against my skin, I sucked in a deep breath. Maybe it was the medicine hitting me hard, but … something about him was so damn attractive in that moment that I didn’t have a quick comeback, like usual.

He stepped closer to me and tilted his head in a demeaning manner. He eyed my calf. “Remember you had your fun with me when I got shot?” he asked, dark brown brow raised, stepping even closer to me until he stood between my legs. “It’s my turn.”

“Oh, so you’re going to punish me now for your mistakes?”

But that didn’t stop my heart from pounding harder and making me excited. Since earlier in the rain, when he had me plastered against the car, his body against mine … I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what would have happened if nobody had come and tried to kill us.

He chuckled and grasped my jaw, standing between my legs. “I only punish women for two reasons. Either they want me to or they deserve it.” He stared down at me with those gray eyes. “And you, Chiara, deserve it more than any other woman I’ve slept with.”

I scoffed. “I am not sleeping with you.”

He reached down, his fingers brushing against the inside of my thigh. “Is that what you think?” he asked, his accent making me clench. “You think you have a choice in the matter? You won’t make it twenty feet from this couch before your leg gives out.”

“So, what, you’re going to force yourself on me?”

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