Page 146 of Phantom Mine

“If you didn’t cheat on me, Leni—”

“Of course I fucking didn’t. I wouldnever—”

I take a deep breath, my chest settling at the bottom of a slow exhale as calm washes over me for the first time since I walked into her apartment. I’ll apologize to her for the things I said as soon as she’s naked beneath me.

“—then I’m failing to see how anything else you’ve confessed amounts to you betraying me.”

She gapes at me. “The Colombians and Italians have killed each other since Thiago established us her—”

“That doesn’t concern us,” I interject.

“We war over shipments and territor—”

“That’s business.”

“I killed your brother and now my brother has killed your father—”

“I wanted them dead.”

“Stopinterrupting me,” she snaps, losing her temper.

“Come up with a legitimate answer and I will.”

“The cartel and theFamigliaare sworn enem—”

“You won’t, by the way,” I continue as if she doesn’t speak. “Find a legitimate answer, I mean. There’s only one way you could actually betray me and you just told me you didn’t do it.”

“Matteo…”

“What do you think I learned tonight that would make me see you differently? I already knew you had lied, that you weren’t being honest about everything, that you had secrets.” I clasp her face and pull her into me, murmuring, “If anything, I learned that you’ve been showing me the real you for far longer than I thought. You could have trusted me with the truth of who you are a long time ago. I’ve accepted everything else you’ve told me, why would this be any different?” My breath comes in uneven bursts, short and ragged, then long and winded. “But I understand why you didn’t, so I want to make one thing very clear—I don’t give afuckwhat you are to them. To your brother, to your father, to the whole fucking cartel. You can keep listing names and reasons, I won’t care.I only care what you are tomeand what I am to you. Nobody and nothing else matters. That’s it.”

Valentina keeps her fists clenched at her sides as if she’s trying to hold herself back. Her eyes are uncertain, vulnerable.

“And what am I to you?”

“Everything,” I reply instantly.

She whimpers softly and shakes her head.

“I was ready to die ten minutes ago when I thought you were in love with Thiago, so yes,everything.” My hands tighten on her face, full of a desperate kind of tenderness. “Your last name is da Silva, so what? Why should that matter?”

“It’ll never work.”

I kiss her gently. “I’ll make it work.”

With my father officially dead, I need my agreement with Emiliano Marchesani more than ever. That looming alliance is the only thing keeping civil war at bay.

I can’t bring myself to think about that, not when it means I’ll have to let her go.

“Is there anything else you haven’t told me?” I ask, my tone insistent. I look into her eyes squarely.

She doesn’t flinch away from my gaze. “No.”

I kiss her again, this time as if the world depends on it. My lips move over hers with urgency, with the clawing need that’s been thrashing through me since last night, communicating every once hidden desire.

When I pull away, we’re both breathing heavily.

“Nothing at all? I know everything?” Valentina nods. “So from today onwards, we’re telling each other the complete truth? No more hiding behind lies?”

---