Page 3 of Shadowed Loyalty

Roman’s chin went up, his dark, damp hair sticking to his forehead. “I was doing my job.” His gaze drifted down to Sabina. “I don’t expect you to understand that. I never wanted to hurt you, Sabina, but you can’t be the daughter of a mafioso and go through life unscathed.”

Unscathed? Her hand slapped his cheek before she was aware of commanding it to do so. The man called Cliff choked on a laugh. Despite the rain eager to lash her face, she rolled back her shoulders and narrowed her eyes. “Neither can a man who would tell a woman he loves her for the sole purpose of using her.”

She looked at her father, and his eyes were sad and old. He, too, knew this was all her fault. His darling principessa had just brought his kingdom tumbling down. The quaking started somewhere deep inside her and made its way to her limbs.

She had to fix this somehow. Unfortunately, only one recourse sprang to mind. “We’ll have you out by the weekend, Papa. I’ll call Enzo.”

“Not Enzo.”

She wanted to agree, to take the out he was clearly offering. But as much as she didn’t want to talk to Lorenzo Capecce right now, he was a lawyer. A criminal attorney, even. It didn’t matter that he’d only just passed the bar—he was in a prestigious firm now. He’d know what to do, or at least who else to turn to.

Papa, the family, was worth it—worth looking into Lorenzo’s cool eyes, worth all the questions, all the uncertainties that would plague her. Worth all the shame eating her up at the very thought of him. “I’m calling him.”

Papa sighed as Roman let go of Sabina’s arm and reached for his instead. “Oh, principessa.” He didn’t say more. But she could hear his unspoken words, and they rang louder than the gunfire.

She should have called Lorenzo long ago.

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