Page 5 of The Cost of Corruption

“No!” The word burst from my lips so fast and loud that I even startled myself. To cover my embarrassment, I looked down at the hem of my habit. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be rude. I’m just a little overwhelmed.”

“No apology needed. This entertainment here can be…overwhelming.” His voice was unexpectedly calm and understanding…and painfully familiar. How many times had the memory of his deep, rumbling tone echoed in my head late at night as I lay alone in my simple bed?

Far too many times.

“It’s nothing personal,” I said. “But I think I should be alone right now.”

A silent pause—one that felt much longer than the half-second it took up—and then, “Of course.”

Suddenly, he sounded serious. Almost formal.

That was good.Wasn’t it? The more physical and emotional distance I could manage during this surprise reunion, the better. Never mind the heavy sense of disappointment slowly sinking into my chest.

“Thank you,” I said, already starting to scurry past him. But then, just like Lot’s wife, unable to resist the temptation of the past, I paused and glanced back to glimpse his face one last time. “It was good to see you, Mr. DeAngelo.”

My cloistered heart started hammering as a hint of a smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “You too, Miss Costa.”

“Costa?” A very loud and veryslurredvoice carried around the bend of the curved, circular hallway. “No fucking way. Which one of you dirty bastards is trying to crash my bachelor party?”

Oh no.

I knew that voice. Jimmy Santoro— Alessia’s fiancee. The man wasn’t exactly the quiet type, and I’d been forced to listen to his bellow through the halls of my father’s house all week.

There was no time to run. I’d barely managed to duck my head down and take a single step away before Jimmy and at least a dozen of his friends rounded the corner.

“Chastity?” My eyes closed as I heard my name. My head dropped down, sagging against my chest. It had been too much to hope he wouldn’t recognize me from behind. There was no hiding a nun in a sex club. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

It was a good question. One I’d been asking myself all night. I turned around, not sure what in the world I was going to say…but I didn’t have a chance to answer.

Not when the door to Alessia’s party flew open again, the sound of pounding dance music and carnal moans pouring out into the hallway as her head poked out.

“Chastity!” She shouted, her shirt now completely unbuttoned. Now, that tacky pink satin sash was the only thing holding the fabric together and keeping her from flashing the whole hallway. “Get your ass in here! Screw your vows; it’s time to?—”

“Alessia!”

All attention dropped from me as Jimmy’s eyes went wide as hubcaps. For a brief moment, his face flashed pale, then, in the next second, burned bright red with rage.

“Jimmy?” my cousin gasped. Her hands flew to the front of her wide-open shirt, pulling it closed and preserving what little sense of modesty my cousin had left. “Oh shit! What are you doing here?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” he fumed. “What the fuck were you thinking, having your bachelorette party at a place like this?”

Never one to back down from a fight, Alessia lifted her chin defiantly. “The same thing as you, apparently. What, it’s okay for you to fuck around before our wedding at La Sera, but not me?”

“That’s right,” he shot back, anger blazing out of his eyes. The tension in the hall wound even tighter. “I’m a man, after all. But you? You’re going to be my wife.”

At that, Alessia’s face grew just as red as Jimmy’s. The music inside the room quieted down, and a dozen female faces appeared at the door. Not one of them looked happy about the turn the night had taken.

“And what?” she demanded, stepping away from the door, coming out of her defensive position, and toward her fiancee, ready to confront him. “You think that means you own me? That you get to control me?”

“Fucking right I do,” Jimmy answered in a posturing tone that was clearly meant to save face with his friends.

I sucked in a breath between gritted teeth and reflexively took a step back.

Hereallyshouldn’t have said that. It might have made him sound more “manly” in front of his crew, but Alessia was far from impressed. She might have been upset before, but now she waspissed.

In a flash, she pulled back her hand and slapped Jimmy so hard that even his friends winced.

For a second, the hallways went dead quiet. No one breathed.

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