Page 125 of Victorious Vice

“Hey, babe!” Raven knocks on the open door of my study with that smile that still makes my heart pump faster.

“How is he today?” I ask.

She sighs. “The same.” Then she smiles again. “But I just heard Belinda working on a new piece. It sounds amazing. And she was smiling, Vinnie. Smiling!”

I nod. Belinda started smiling a few days ago. It was a huge thing for all of us, but especially for Raven. She’s grown to love the girl like a daughter.

In my desk drawer is a five-carat diamond engagement ring.

I haven’t yet popped the question to Raven. I want to, more than I want my next breath. But technically I’m still married to Daniela, though my attorney assures me the divorce will be final soon. And we’ll arrange an alimony agreement to make sure she’s taken care of as she pursues her culinary dreams.

But Daniela is not the real reason I haven’t proposed yet. I don’t need to be legally divorced to get engaged.

Part of me still feels unworthy of Raven. She is goodness and light personified, and I…

Well…I’m not. Plus, I’m a genetic nightmare—the product of a father and his daughter. I even had my DNA tested, just in case Mario was lying to me.

He wasn’t.

Raven’s cheeks are rosy and they’ve plumped up, and her hair is now in a stylish dark pixie cut that she tucks behind her ears. Her latest scans and blood work were perfect.

She deserves everything life has to offer.

“Vinnie…” she says.

“Yeah, baby?”

She wiggles the fingers of her left hand toward me. “When are you going to make us official?”

I raise my eyebrows. Has she been reading my mind?

I rise and walk to her, taking her in my arms. “I officially love you, Raven. You know that.”

“And I love you. We’re safe now. You took down the Bianchi empire. You’re a legitimate businessman. And you’re a wonderful human being.”

I don’t reply.

“How can you not agree with me?” she asks.

“I didn’t say I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. By not saying anything.” She shakes her head. “Look what you’ve done for Belinda. For Daniela. For Savannah and Falcon. You’re everything, Vinnie. I want you to bemyeverything.”

I kiss her then—a raw, open-mouthed kiss—because what I’m about to tell her may send her running for the hills.

I break the kiss. “I love you so fucking much.”

“I love you too, Vinnie.”

I grip her shoulders. “I have to tell you something.”

She bites her lower lip. “You can tell me anything.”

God, I hate keeping secrets from her. She still doesn’t know the extent of her father’s involvement with the cartels. Hell, I don’t even know the extent, since Agudelo is now dead. Only Bellamy himself knows…and he’s not talking from his coma.

But one secret remains that Raven has to know before she consents to a life with me.

“I found out something right after my mother died,” I say. “Something that rattled me to my bones. But in an eerie way, it made sense.”

---