Page 21 of Mafia Don's Secret Twins

He’s sick.

He also has lots of children, somewhat scattered all over the world. Being Benicio’s wife, mistress, or child is one of the most dangerous roles on the face of the planet, as he seems to kill them without a second thought, and quite often.

Marisol, however, is obviously his favorite.

I nod. “I know about your father.”

“Then you know that to keep them safe I need to go.”

Just like that first night, Marisol is practical.

“No,” I say again.

“Dino. You’re being ridiculous. You can’t keep me here against my will.”

“I can.”

She starts to sit up in the bed but I put my hands on her shoulders, pushing her back into the bed.

“You will not leave. The children are safe.”

She glares up at me, and the unspoken word that I didn’t say simmers between us.

Ourchildren.

“You don’t know anything, Dino. You have no idea why my father had me in Brasilia for the last two years. Also, do you think that I escaped him just to be trapped by someone else?”

I snarl at her. “I. Don’t. Care.”

“He’s going to marry me off, Dino.”

The silence is so loud, you could hear a pin drop.

Marisol.

Marrying.

Someone else.

“He’s in debt. Like, a lot of it. Some of his fields were taken over in a government coup, and he can’t persuade the new president for anything to give them back. All of it was confiscated. Thousands of tons of product. He can’t make his payments, his shipments are all empty, and every day that he doesn’t have it, is another day that he continues to lose money. He’s desperate. I’ve never seen him like this before. He’s auctioning me off to the highest bidder, essentially, and I’m the only leverage he has.”

Her words cut through the ringing in my ears. I hear them, but I’m still not certain that I understand.

Marisol looks up at me, her brown eyes wide. “Please, Dino. He doesn’t care about his grandchildren. He’ll do anything to get me back. He has my mother, and I think if I don’t go back to him, something awful is going to happen to her. If it hasn’t already,” her voice drops to a whisper.

My blood feels like it’s roaring so loud, I can barely hear her.

“I have to. Or he’s going to hurt these people, and I can’t let him hurt the people I love. I can’t let him hurt Gia and Elio and Sal and Caterina, not when they were so nice and helped me. Not when Gia helped me escape him that first time,” she whispers.

I notice that I’m not on the list of people she cares about. It should sting.

But it doesn’t.

“You and your goddamn sense of integrity,” I growl. When she found me on the beach and told me she can’t call herself a kind person if she doesn’t act in a kind way, I thought it was cute. A little idealistic, but cute.

Now, it’s just annoying.

“It’s not integrity. It’s common decency. I can’t sacrifice people I care about to save myself. Plus,” she adds, looking down. “It’s pointless. He’s going to come for me one way or another. I might as well make it a little less damaging when he does.”

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