Page 20 of Sin & Secrets

“I’ll do it,” I say before I can talk myself out of it.

Everyone freezes and turns to me.

“Have some self-respect,” Teresa mutters.

But I ignore her, staring only at Rocco, registering the confusion that flashes across his expression as he shakes his head. “No,” he says, his voice quiet, almost pleading. I don’t take the time to ponder why he sounds like that. I’m too angry.

I put my chin in the air. “I’ll do it.”

“See? She’s fine with it,” Claudio says from the floor.

Rocco kicks him, and I try my best to keep my face neutral. But I can’t hide from Rocco. His eyebrows raise slightly at the sight of my concealed glee.

Please. I have a plan. Please. Trust me,I try to beg with my eyes.

He doesn’t owe me anything, so there’s no reason for him to agree to this. I have nothing to offer him beyond my gratitude. We might have flirted earlier, but we don’t know each other. And he might well be the most dangerous person I’ve ever met.

It says something about my current situation that I am eagerly considering someone from the mafia to be my best hope of salvation.

“Are you sure?” he asks me softly.

Relief washes through me as I nod.

Claudio exhales when Rocco steps away from him. Not breaking eye contact with me, Rocco steps forward and holds out his hand.

To pull me out of a mess of my own creation.

When our hands touch, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. The fire brimming within me cries out to his. Like calling to like.

“You will not lay a hand on another woman. Do you understand me?” He’s addressing Claudio, but he holds my stare like it’s somehow tethering us together.

“Crystal clear.”

Vaguely, I’m aware of Claudio keening in agony as Rocco leads me from the room. But it’s hard to concentrate on anything beyond the man before me as we pass the giant man at the back entrance and walk down the sterile corridor.

After a moment, Rocco pushes open another door, and we find ourselves in an identical room to the one we were in before. Only this time, we are entirely alone.

“Despite what I might have implied earlier, I am not in the mood to fuck you tonight,Angioletta.”

I snatch my hand from him, moving as far away from him as I can to prove my next words. “I only wanted an audience with you. I swear.”

He looks at me incredulously, and I realize just how much he was masking over drinks. There is little kindness in his eyes anymore, and violence seems to simmer under his skin to be called upon at his leisure.

He’s a predator through and through, assessing me with sharp instinct to determine the kind of threat I might pose to him.

No, I’m not a threat to him. I’m his prey.

“You have about thirty seconds to explain before I go back in there and toss Lazzaro out the window.”

I swallow and take a second to steady my racing heart. “Are you a part of the Italian Mafia?”

He blinks at me in surprise before that crooked grin spreads across his face. It still makes my stomach flip despite the danger so evident in his eyes.

“Oh, Miss Cassandra. Iamthe Italian Mafia.”

The terror his words evoke is enough to silence me for another moment.

Mia is going to fucking kill me.

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