Page 85 of Inferno

“What about Tatiana?” I ask as I pull back.

“What do you mean?” He frowns.

“You’d still betray her, even now? While she’s recovering from a bullet in the skull.”

He looks down at his loafers and sighs.

“Tatiana isn’t a monster like them. She’s a lost soul, Charlotte. Just like you. I’m helping her, just as I am you. This isn’t a betrayal, it’s helping you both. Okay? That’s why I can’t tell her about you or Isabella, the threat is real to you both. You have to trust me on that.”

I process the information.

She’s our leader. How is she lost?

I don’t bother pressing. He gives nothing up about her. She’s a mystery I won’t ever solve.

I know parts. Things I’ve overheard from Vlad and Emil.

“She needs to remember who she really is, the same way you need to remember who Charlotte really is.”

With a gentle tap on my shoulder, he silently leaves.

Which just has my mind spinning.

Chapter 28

DECLAN

The door to my office inside Inferno flies open with a loud bang, making me sigh in frustration.

This club is our haven inside Decadence.

Hidden behind the factory is four floors of sin—only for the elite. And the only way to get to Enzo, Mikhail Volkov, and Frankie Falcone.

Between us, we run the largest Mafia operation in the States. Those who aren’t part of Inferno want to be part of it.

In fact, they’re so pathetically desperate they’re willing to sacrifice their wives and daughters for just a chance to rub shoulders with us.

If you know about Inferno, you’re invited in, or it will be the last thing you learn before you’re six feet under.

“You look stressed, bro,” Conan tells me as he heads straight to the cigar cabinet.

I am rattled. It’s the same every year. I go to Italy and come back and immerse myself in the Decadence games.

Part of me believes one day she will turn up and I can taste her again.

There isn’t a chocolate that could even be invented that would taste anywhere near as good as her cunt.

And our chocolate is good. The best even. With some of the wildest flavors on the market.

I can’t satisfy myself anywhere else. And God, I’ve tried. That’s how Inferno was born.

Yet no matter who I indulge in. There’s always only one woman on my mind.

A fucking thorn in my side at this point.

Rubbing the tattoo on my chest, I swear it burns every time I think of her.

With every year that passes, my lust is replaced by fury.

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