Page 9 of As Angels Sin

“What about Crue?” she asks casually.

“Shh.” I stare at her with big, wide eyes as if she’s just exposed an enormous secret. Maybe because, in a way, she has. No one in this house knows about my relationship with Crue, or anything about his wanting to kill me or otherwise. They believe that we met here, when Father called that meeting with Matteo Baronne and that was the end of it. “You can’t say it so loudly.”

“Why not?” She swishes her head to the side and her ginger hair flies over her shoulder. She makes the action purely to emphasize the confusion on her face.

“They don’t know about him.”

Neither does she. Not really. However, as much as I hate lying to Simone, I can’t tell her that Crue tried to kill me. If she can’t understand why saying his name is a bad thing, she’ll never be able to understand my trying to keep him out of Father’s sights.

“Not that it matters, anyway. He’s been missing for weeks.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” her face hardens, while her voice softens. She doesn’t have to say the words outright for me to know what’s going on in her head.

“No, I don’t think he’s dead.” Father would’ve told me immediately had they figured out it was him. “He’s just missing.”

“How long ago did he gomissing?”

Absolutely not. You’re not going to try and sleuth your way into figuring out he’s the reason I’m here.

“Two weeks, maybe three.” Another lie I’m going to feel bad about later.

We enter Father’s office, before she can ask any other questions I don’t want to answer, and it’s almost a relief. But when I see Father standing behind his desk holding a ten-o’clock-in-the-morning whiskey in hand, and Tomas sitting in the visitor’s chair opposite him, I know this can’t be good.

What’s worse, a little black box, lined with thin strips of gold, is sitting in the middle of his otherwise empty desk. Simone gulps before looking into Father’s eyes, and then at Tomas, who grins wickedly back at her. Finally, she looks at me.

“I’m gonna go,” she says, hurriedly.

“Yes, you are.” These are Father’s first words to her, and they come out dripping with malice. “And close the door on your way out.”

“I’ll chat to you later.” Simone’s already at the door, pulling it shut.

“You wanted to see me?” I haven’t taken my eyes off the black box since I walked in. Even Father’s rudeness toward Simone doesn’t manage to pull my eyes away from it. By all accounts, it can only be one thing. And I hate the implication, of Tomas’s sitting at the desk.

“Fiametta, we live in unsettling times.” The fact that Father’s using my full name does not bode well as concerns where this conversation’s heading.

“There’s danger around every corner. Bad men are vying for power over a city that’s rotten to the core. Even you, my sweet daughter, have found yourself at the mercy of fate. She smiled on you the night you were abducted; but, as your father, it’s my duty to ensure I don’t rely on the supernatural to keep you safe.”

I don’t say a word. I can’t. The tiny square on his desk has taken control of my ability to think, let alone try to converse.

“That’s why I’ve offered your hand in marriage to Tomas, in the unlikely event that I... perish before my time,” he finishes with calm, careless ease. He finally reaches for the black box andopens it with a single hand. There, resting on a dark blue pillow, sit two rings. One has a fat diamond in the center, the other is a completely ordinary circlet of gold.

How can something so small be such an enormous token of treachery?

“You can’t be serious.” The words spew out of me before I have a chance to think about what I’m saying.

“I am. Very serious.”

I’ve never fought against Father’s wishes. I never wanted to, because I’d be beating my head against a wall, hoping it would bring about world peace. But I can’t take this one lying down. After all the bullshit that Tomas tried to pull, while he was living in my apartment, and all the disrespect he showed his superior, heisn’tthe right man for this job.

Hell, he’s one of the very few people on this planet I don’t think should be drawing breath.

“It’s my duty to protect my family—”

“And you do a great job of it, but you’ve made it clear that I’m not part of thefamily.” Maybe if I cut deep enough, he’ll chase me away. Go back to how things were and pretend I’m not his daughter anymore. I hated it while I was happening, but now I can’t stop dreaming about the life I used to have.

Who needs family when they’re all a bunch of monsters?

“It hurts me that you think like this, Fiametta.” Father removes his hand from the box before tucking both behind his back. “Everything I do, everything I’ve done, is to ensure you survive.”

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