Page 106 of Fortress of the Heart

I’m glad that all went down without any problems. I know Katiya will be safe back with her uncle, that is not what worries me. It’s the parts about not having a life of her own and that fucking betrothed bullshit to Vlad that makes my anger boil over.

I saw a different side to her in those vulnerable moments when she honestly did not want to leave. She wanted to run away, for fucks sake.

I wonder if she would have even come back from Italy if she had made that plane,Italy,of all places. I can’t help but feel sympathy for her plight. I wonder absently if this is how Valentina feels at times, being part of this family. I hope to God that it isn’t.

As much as we work our asses off to keep our sister safe, I’m sure it can sometimes feel a little too much. It’s for her own good, of course, but I would never want her to feel suffocated and like she can’t make her own decisions in life. Angelo can be hard when it comes to her, but he does what he does to protect her, even she knows that.

It begs the question, though, and it’s something I have not thought about profoundly until this moment and seeing the other side of the coin with Katiya.

“Just a hunch,” he tells me in true Rocco style.

I roll my eyes and slap him on the back. “You worry too much.”

He grunts, “Isn’t Angelo the one always saying that about you?”

I grin. “That he is. Which reminds me, I better give him a call and tell him Katiya has been collected, it’ll put his mind at ease.”

He nods and opens his mouth to say something but closes it again.

He knows there’s something else there, but he’s not a hundred percent sure of it. He also knows better than to question me about it.

So, it will remain unsaid for the time being. I don’t see any point in creating trouble where there isn’t any right now.

I sent her away, for fucks sake. What more does anyone want from me?

I sigh, running my hands through my hair, and he glances at me. “What?” I bark.

“You should get some rest, Marco, you look beat.”

That’s precisely what I intend to do once I speak to my brother.

I turn briefly and look back to the car, almost out of sight. She’s really gone.

I can’t help but wonder what she’s thinking because I damned well know how she’s feeling. When she was in my arms, everything changed.

Katiya Petrov has taken a piece of my heart with her, and here I was thinking it was just a cold, black thing beating in my chest.

What we did and what we shared has my mind reeling, and it only makes me want more of it. Like a fucking drug.

But I have to stop. It ends now.

It’s for the best.

* * *

“I’m glad she’s gone,” Angelo says over the phone when Dante and Fynn have left.

I’m sitting in my study, nursing another scotch.

“Yes, it’s what happens now that concerns me. It’s a fucking big week coming up with Mario’s funeral and then the casino opening,” I comment. “There’s still so much to do.”

“I have to hand it to you, brother, you've been juggling a lot of balls.” He avoids the funeral talk, but we do have to address it.

In more ways than one.

“You didn’t think I had the chops to see it through?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You always come through. It’s a big fucking project taking on what you did.”

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