Page 19 of Sin & Secrets

My heart stops as I turn to see a figure at the door. Somehow, she’s even more beautiful than I remembered, despite the fact she’s swapped out the devastating black dress for sweats.

I harden my heart as I look away from her. “This does not concern you, Miss Cassandra. Walk away.”

“You’ve hurt him.”

I can’t bear how startled and disappointed she sounds, as if she might have once thought better of me.

Well, it's better to rip that BandAid off now. I suppose it was only a matter of time before she ran away screaming.

“Wait, wait!” Claudio croaks from the floor. “You…you want satisfaction? Take her. Take her for the night.”

6

CASSANDRA

“You offer your girlfriend up to me on your behalf? You spineless fucking coward.”

My mind reels at the scene before me. A man the size of a damn house is blocking the back exit. Danny and Teresa are cowering in the corner. Claudio is on the floor, half-undressed, clutching his disfigured hand to his chest.

And Rocco…

Any doubts I had about Mia’s claims vanished at the sight of the man before me. Gone was the charming billionaire that I drank whiskey with earlier.

This man was murder incarnate. There is nothing else behind those gray eyes as he looms over Claudio as if he is calculating the most excruciating way for him to meet God.

I know at that moment, I should have taken the opportunity to run. I should have run before my fear had a chance to catch me in a chokehold. I’m frozen with terror, afraid to move or speak.

“You demanded satisfaction. She is my peace offering,” Claudio half-grunts.

“You do not speak for her.” Rocco’s voice is like ice slicing across my skin.

Something must have happened. Claudio must have gotten himself in trouble with the mob, and now Rocco has come to collect what he’s due.

I want to scream at Claudio for being such an idiot, for even thinking he was smart enough to outwit someone as dangerous as a powerful man in the Italian mafia. A thousand questions bubble up within me, but sheer terror keeps them all down.

“Ask her then,” Claudio cries. “She’ll do it, won’t you, darling? She loves me.”

It takes an embarrassing amount of time for the pieces to come together.Take her for the night,he’d said.

He wants me to sleep with Rocco to atone for whatever he’s done.

Are youfuckingkidding me?

That too-long dormant flame of anger within me roars to life, spreading through my body and burning through the numbness that had taken its place. For the first time in what feels like months, years even, I feel true anger.

Deep, wounding, unchecked anger.

And it feels so damn good.

“She won’t do shit for you,” Rocco growls, taking the words right out of my mouth.

I want to destroy Claudio. Completely and thoroughly, for taking an innocent girl from her hometown, for seducing her with promises of fame and fortune, for belittling her, gaslighting her, andstealingfrom her from the moment she arrived.

My embarrassment is nothing compared to the rage roaring joyously through my veins.

“What would happen, do you think? If you broke up with him?”

Mia’s voice of reason grounds me. I need to be smart about this, or else I risk losing everything. Which is a surprising consideration when you have nothing to begin with.

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