Page 29 of Sin & Secrets

“I only agreed because Claudio was in trouble.”

“And he’s going to be in a lot more if he doesn’t make his payment next week.”

I look up at Claudio, pretending to try to discern what he wants me to do. “Will you make the payment, darling?”

Claudio doesn’t look me in the eye when he replies. “No.”

Though it sickens me to my very core, I reach for his hands. “Claudio, if I need to do this, I will.”

He snatches them away before I can touch him.

“She would need to keep working,” Claudio declares, all but sealing my fate.

Rocco tuts. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that.”

“What?” I say, my voice a few octaves higher than usual.

“Cassandra will be joining me on a trip out of town,” Rocco announces before examining his nails and refusing to elaborate.

My teeth grind together. What exactly is he playing at?

Claudio, for once, seems to agree with me. “TheCandelabrawill be missing an act.”

“Things were operating just fine before Cassandra arrived. I trust you’ll be able to manage without her.”

“So what, you’ll fuck her for three months and then hand her back to me like a used-up plaything?”

Rocco goes deathly still. It’s the only telltale sign of his anger. “Are you really willing to lecture me about secondhand goods, Lazzaro? May I remind you that what I’m offering may well be the difference between your miserable life and a miserable death?”

An old kind of fury rears its ugly head within me at their words. It burns bright and hot as I will myself not to interfere, not to protest the way they’re talking about me, as if I’m not even here.

I almost break at the look on Claudio’s face.

He’s not angry, or sad, or even scared. He looks speculative. Hopeful even.

“And you will write off the entire debt.”

“On the condition that she stays with me until the hundred and one days are up.”

Claudio shakes his head in disbelief. “You really want her that badly?”

Rocco looks over at me carelessly. The way his eyes rake over me feels so dangerous. He’s exposing his feelings completely, and displaying his intentions for the world to see. “I think the real question is, do you want her enough to deny me?”

I swallow hard, knowing in my heart what Claudio’s answer will be.

“Mister Moretti, I accept your offer.”

And the tiny shred of hope that Claudio would even try to fight for me completely dies. I feel foolish for it, for even thinking he was capable of being half the person he pretended to be when we first met.

But that sweet, attentive man who whispered about the wonders of the world in my ear had never even existed.

Hell, I don’t have any idea who he is anymore. If he’s been running theCandelabraon Rocco’s behalf, taking sizable loans from this ”guild”, there is a very real possibility that Claudio has been a part of the mafia himself from the very beginning.

Was everyone at theCandelabrasomehow involved with this? Danny and Teresa had been there the other night, too.

My blood runs cold.

Mia.

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