Page 19 of Secret Baby for the Italian Mafia King

“…What?” I breathe, stunned, as the realization settles. On reflex, I look at the picture again, my head all twisted up.There’s a difference between killing a mob man’s henchman and murdering his own flesh and blood.

“His name was Arlo Dellucci,” Ren continues, tonelessly. “Jon’s eldest. We’re beyond the point where I can make your debts just go away, Nadia.”

“I never asked you to—”

“You didn’t. But I need you to understand the situation you’re in.”

“…So, what then? You’re not going to kill me, you’re just going to hand me over to Dellucci, let him do the job for you?”

“Wrong again,” he says slowly, pushing off from the desk and rounding it. He puts himself in the space between me and the desk; he leans back against it. He makes me look up at him. My heart pounds as he touches my jaw, fingers tracing the bone as if committing it to memory. I feel claustrophobic. Cornered. I can’t breathe when he touches me.

“I’m the only who deserves to punish you.”

An involuntary shiver wracks my spine and settles in my gut.

“Just tell me what you’re going to do, Ren,” I demand, furious, being strung along like this all night and day.

“I’m going to marry you.”

Of all the things I had prepared for him to say, this one wasn’t on the list. I’m so unprepared for his answer, I can barely register it. I almost laugh, except, by the look on his face, it isn’t funny at all.

“…What?”

“I’m going to marry you,” he repeats, saying it the way other people say,I’m going to kill you. “I’m your punishment, Nadia. Till death do us part.”

My heart takes up a thunderous beat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about—”

That hand on my cheek drops to my throat, squeezing just tight enough to threaten. I curl my hand around his wrist, a useless attempt to hold him back as my breath stutters.

“You came here because you were forfeiting your life to me, right? Well, consider it taken. Just because I’m not killing you, doesn’t mean you still get to go on living. You belong to me, Nadia,” he snarls. “I own you; do you understand? Every inch of you is mine now.”

My breath scrapes the edges of my throat.

“Why? Why the fuck would you want that?” I demand. “How is that some punishment—”

For the first time in six years, I see Ren smile.

“How is it not? I’m not the boy you knew before, Nadia. You and your family made sure of that. And the only person who deserves to be married to someone like me—is someone like you.”

Someone like me.

Nadia’s fun, but she’s not wife material.

Ren’s mouth crashes against mine like a fight instead of a kiss, claiming and bruising. My mouth opens helplessly against his. I’m pinned against the chair. He gasps like he’s never tasted air before, every muscle in his body wracked with tension.

“For every minute my parents burned, I’m going to takedecadesfrom you—”

He’s insane.

“Ren…” I try. His fingers threaten to rip the neck of the shirt he just bought me.

“You’re going to be my wife. That’s your fate, Nadia, what you almost escaped all those years ago.”

My attempts to pull away are cut short, my heart shattering and flaring with anger as the boy I’ve missed so badly kisses me again and again like he wants to kill me. Like it’s abad thing.

And maybe Ren really is clever, maybe he knows just how to destroy me—because this hurts worse than death.

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