Page 85 of Secret Baby for the Italian Mafia Don

“I want to tattoo my name over your cunt so anyone who sees it knows exactly who you belong to.” His huge hand palms between my legs. “I want to tell Sal, tell your brother, tell Thaddeus, that I’m going to take you just to see them try to fucking stop me.”

I want to believe it’s the alcohol talking, making a wild man wilder, but I know that’s not it. Nico hasn’t been subtle this past week. He’s getting more desperate, greedier and reckless, as my wedding to Thaddeus grows closer.

But I am getting desperate, too.

After going shot-for-shot with Thaddeus, the alcohol is still burning through Nico’s system. He’s drunk, unguarded, his tongue already loose and talking too much.

This is an opportunity to do exactly what Salvatore told me to do: get close to Nico and find out what I can from him. I have no desire to trade Nico’s secrets back to Salvatore. I need them for myself.

I push Nico over onto his back. He moves easily, and I settle where I can look down at him, eye to eye. His hand cards through my hair and pushes the strands back over my ears. The way he looks at me makes my stomach thump softly for him. All those rough, commanding edges soften when he’s drunk. He’s vulnerable in some way he’d never admit to.

“You’re a liar,” I say, gazing down into his face.

“Not to you,” he chuckles, too easily.

“You are. You’re lying to me right now. You don’t want me that badly.”

“Of course I do,” he insists, angry that I would suggest otherwise. It plucks at the strings of my heart. “More than anything.”

His hands roam up my body again, as if he needs to convince me of it.

“Then what’s reallystopping you from being with me? If you want me so, so badly, like you’re always saying...I don’t see the proof, Nico.”

His silence wavers. I try to read his expression, his eyes glossy with drink as he tries to think through it, to figure out what he wants to say. He tries to kiss me instead of answer me. I push him back down. He slumps back against the pillow, eyes fixed at some place over my shoulder.

“Ava...”

He’s not too drunk to realize he’s making a mistake, he’s just too drunk to stop making it.

“Am I not worth it, Nico? Or are you just using me?”

“Don’t youeveraccuse me of that,” he growls, so seriously that I almost believe him. Even hearing what I did just this morning—God, I want to believe him. He cuts my doubts thin with that piercing gaze, suddenly clear and coherent for just this moment, for something that really sobers him. I almost feel guilty for accusing him.

“Then why?” I beg, so desperate for the truth, and so torn and confused. I have to know. My entire future depends on it so much more than Nico could ever know. His hands cup my face.

“Sometimes, you just have to let me handle things, Ava. You just have to trust me.”

“Why would I trust you when that trust doesn’t go both ways? When have I ever asked you for anything before? Do I not deserve the truth? Or am I just supposed to let you fuck me, let you play with my head and my pussy whenever you want, and then get tossed aside when you’re done?” His expression tenses, and sensing weakness, I sink in my claws. “You and Thaddeus are more alike than you’d ever admit.”

The words are barely out of my lips before I am put onto my back on the bed.

“Don’t youever—”

“Then prove it, Nico!” I demand, beneath him now but still holding control. “Please.”

I watch the man’s resolve crumble in real time right in front of me. I admired Frankie when I watched her march off to handle business with just a bullet and a target. Functional. But I hate this. Nico and I are too close, our relationship cutting to the quick. I wish I had another choice. I wish I hadtimefor other choices.

I kiss him softly, trying to pry the words from him. “Trust me,” I beg against his lips.

“Christ, you think you’re so clever, don’t you?” he whispers in a moment of clarity. “Trying to get at me like this.”

I wait, sensing an answer is coming.

“You’re not the only one who made deals,” he finally admits. “I owe people, Ava. Not the kind of debts that a single cash payoff or wire transfer is going to fix. Debts that run deeper than that. They got me out of prison. And if I don’t...if I can’t make good on those promises, then...”

I try to read him, try to read that eventual outcome written there in his eyes.Would they hurt him?My fingers trail softly over the little wounds he got from the fight, the ones I couldn’t make sense of.Have they already?

“Tell Salvatore,” I urge him. “Work with him. I’m sure there’s a way to get everyone what they want, even if Marcel stays in charge. Sal already knows something suspicious happened to get you out of prison, Nico. He’ll figure it out if he hasn’t already. Don’t you want to be on his side when that happens?”

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