Page 15 of Hustler in the Mafia

A vase standing on a console at the bottom of the stairs crashed and shattered into a million pieces just before I hit the floor painfully, hitting my hip against the jagged edge of a table leg.

“Show me your fucking hands.” His tone was quiet, lined with danger, and I was stupid, so I shrunk further from him. I had wanted to show Marco what I could do. So he would see that I wasn’t worth it. I wasn’t the one he imagined me to be.Not this. Never this.Girls who played with fire were sure to get burned one day. I guessed I would scatter into ashes today.

“Show me your fucking hands.” This time, he roared so loud the cracked pieces of porcelain around me shrivelled further away. The joy from the kitchen stopped, followed by the soft patter of feet. The door swung open, and an “Antonio” floated through to the hallway.

Antonio Capizzi’s face softened for a moment, and I mistakenly thought it was for me. But he ruffled his hand through his hair and muttered. “Not now,mia cara. Stay in the kitchen and keep the kids there.”

I couldn’t see her, but I knew she hadn’t moved. He knew it, too, because he turned and imploded,“Per favore, tesoro.”A heartbeat of silence, soft feet pattered away, and the kitchen door swung shut.I guess she listened. For some reason, I didn’t want the pretty lady to see me like this.

She was so pretty, and she listened to her husband. I would, too, if someone said please and darling in one sentence.But wasn’t that what Marco did when he called me his la mia cocco?

Guilt ate at my heart. It hurt more than the fear when Antonio Capizzi directed his gaze back to me. “Now open up those fucking hands.”

My back was towards the table, and I caved half underneath it as he approached. Even when my wobbling hands opened to reveal the treasure I’d stolen, he didn’t stop his stalking towards me. He halted a few feet away, but it was enough to put the fear of death into me. The second time I’d come close to it with him.

“Do you know how precious those earrings are to my wife?” he asked like I was an idiot not to know this. “Anything else you could have taken, and I wouldn’t have cared. But you had to take this.” He took a step further. “Drop them,” he ordered, and I did it instantly because the tone in his voice commanded it. He leaned down, snatched them, and pocketed them with a tight look on his face. His movements were so elegant it was like watching a lion preying on its kill. “Now.” He whipped a hand over his jaw. “What should I do with you?”

“Nothing.” Marco’s voice darted from behind him and shot right into my heart.Shit.

The silence in the hallway was so deadly it screamed like the aftermath of a war. The eeriness of disaster swirled in the room. Only the slight stiffness in Antonio Capizzi’s shoulders gave away that he’d heard him.

My plan had been simple. Go into the house, steal something, throw it in Marco’s face, piss him off, and get the hell out of here.

But I didn’t foresee this. I thought I was smart. Turned out I wasn’t even that. The little dignity that I had died when he walked into my line of sight. I couldn’t bear to see the anger in his eyes. Mine burned hot with unshed tears. Suddenly, all I wanted to do was to go back to this morning. To how he waswhen he took me in the shower. He had looked like I was his heaven. But it was too late now. All because I had to go and ruin it.

I swallowed the bile in my throat and pulled my gaze to find the rage in his eyes. Instead, all I saw was pain. I might have preferred a bullet to my cracked heart than the look in his eyes. I was truly broken now.

“Come here,la mia cocco.” He offered his hand, but I refused to take it. I didn’t understand. He had to be mad. Why wasn’t he mad? With a sigh, he wrapped his hand around my wrist and pulled me off the floor. The laser beams prowling across me watched as Marco tucked me under his arm almost possessively. This must have been a dream. And a nightmare.

“So…” he drawled, a lazy tone to his voice, so different than his tone with me, “who is she?” He nodded towards me.

I don’t know what I expected. But Marco saying, “My woman” wasn’t it. I was more shocked than the man across from me because his eyes glinted with darkness, but there wasn’t a shred of shock to be found in them.

“I knew a woman was the reason for your itchy attitude.”

Marco stayed quiet. I shrunk further away and tried to hide behind him. He refused to let me and kept me pinned to his side like he was proud of me or something.

“You know she’s—”

“I know.” He didn’t allow Antonio to finish his sentence. His tone was so full of defiance, as if he was on his feet, ready for a fight.

Antonio Capizzi’s eyes followed us both like he was watching two specimens under his microscopic eyes. “She fucking took Divya’s earrings.”

“I know.”

“You going to keep her in line?”

Marco stiffened next to me. “I am giving you my word.”

I looked at the man next to me with a thump in my heart. Why would he do that? He knew he couldn’t control me. But he gave his word to theconsigliereof theCosa Nostra. He wouldn’t be able to keep it.

But Antonio Capizzi seemed to think he would. “Don’t make me fucking regret it, Marco.” With that, he swung past us and walked towards the kitchen.

CHAPTER NINE

MARCO

Icouldn’t pull her fast enough from the house. Couldn’t hide her deep enough, away from dangerous men. Antonio was a lot of things, but he kept his word. His men, I didn’t trust. I couldn’t.

---