Page 72 of Borrowed Bride

“What the fuck,” Marco breathes. He’s difficult to read as a blanket of anger descends, and he’s silent as he stares off into the distance. “All this time, I don’t fucking understand. He would tell me over and over that you were dead but that your death wasn’t worth prolonging the war. I don’t…”

As he falls silent, Tara begins to detail Dante’s involvement with the Ricci family. She explains their low-level status, so low, in fact that no one looks at them twice. As she details how Dante’s kidnapping was merely a ruse, and that they’ve followed Dante several times to meetings with the head of the Ricci family. She’s halfway through when Leonardo suddenly lurches up from his seat.

He stares at the doorway, white as a ghost, and we follow his eye line to Fawn. She stands in the doorway, and as soon asMarco sees her, he’s on his feet as well. He stands between me and her, so I rise and clasp his hand.

“It’s okay,” I soothe him. “She’s on our side I promise. She won’t kill you.”

“I’m tempted,” Fawn says stiffly. “After our last encounter, I was pretty pissed you got away.”

“Didn’t have the balls to kill me while I was in a coma?” Marco snaps.

Fawn laughs. “I didn’t exactly walk away from that explosion intact. I had to take care of myself. In fact?—”

“Fawn?” Leo’s voice trembles and he steps forward shakily. “I-I’m sorry, you just…you look so much like someone I used to know…”

“You’re not wrong,” Fawn says softly, eyeing Leonardo.

“Wait,” Marco butts in. “You two know each other? I fucking knew you were behind it Leo!”

“Marco, no.” I squeeze his hand to keep a hold of him. “It’s really not what you think.”

Leo sniffles, wiping quickly at his eyes. “It can’t be,” he says. “Youdied. You were killed, I know you were.”

“Lots of people come back from the dead,” Fawn replies, then she looks at Marco. “Leonardo is my brother.”

“What?” Marco explodes. “You’re a Simone?!” His hand curls into a fist against my palm. “You better start talking before I put you through that fucking wall!”

“You lay one hand on my sister and I will kill you!” Leo yells, despite the tears in his eyes.

An argument breaks out once again and it’s only calmed after Tara and Cherry step in to keep the two raging men on opposite sides of the room. Despite my protests, coffee is replaced with vodka, and after twenty minutes of cursing and threats, we finally have everyone seated once more.

“How are you alive?” Leo asks weakly after downing his glass of vodka in one gulp.

“I was never dead,” Fawn replies. She stands in the middle of the room between the two of them and sighs. “When I was eighteen, my father assigned me my first big case. Everything before that was small targets. People were causing issues that he wanted to get rid of. He wanted me to kill Marco.”

Marco stiffens against me but doesn’t speak.

“So I started scoping him out, one thing led to another, and we fell in love. I thought my father was being generous in giving me a lot of time to kill Marco, but looking back, I suppose he was just hoping my romance with him was a way to get close and kill his entire family. I failed, in his eyes. I couldn’t kill a big target so all my training as an assassin was suddenly useless.”

“And then you died,” Leonardo says tightly. “Dad would tell me all the time as a warning. Youdied.”

“I thought the same,” Marco murmurs.

“I didn’t die. I was sold into slavery. One minute I was asleep in bed; the next, I was in a van being taken somewhere, and I was sure Marco had worked out who I was and what I was trying to do. Foryearsit fit. I was sold by Marco because everyone knows the human trafficking rumors around the Barrone family.”

“I didn’t,” Marco says, his voice strained. “I wouldnever.”

Fawn sighs. “Thanks to Gianna, I think I believe you this time.”

“You were…” Leo shakes his head. “No, Dad told me he saw your body. We had a funeral and everything, I don’t understand.”

Fawn grits her teeth. “That I can’t explain. But I was definitely not dead. In fact, one of the things that convinced me that it was you, Marco, was Dante.”

“My father?” Marco shakes slightly as we sit, shoulder to shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Not long after I was taken, maybe six months or so, I was sold for a night to a group of men having some party. They could sell me for high prices back then because I was fresh.” Her words roll with disgust. “Dante bought me that night. Your father raped me, and he definitely knew I wasn’t dead.”

There’s a sudden strong gagging sound from Marco as he clutches at my leg and sweat breaks out across his forehead. “What?” he hisses through clenched teeth.

---