Page 34 of Corruption

I tap my fingers on the counter. “For a supposed mafia princess, she is very sheltered.”

“Most mafia princesses are sheltered.”

“Yes. But her more than usual.”

Kiya Fantoni is a puzzle to be solved, and the more I think I have her figured out, the more pieces are added to be clicked into place.

“Warm up dinner, my love. I’ll go talk to Pretty Girl and be right back.”

Kiya’s room door is only cracked when I get there, and she’s sitting on her bed clutching a pillow and watching a cartoon.

“Long day?” I ask.

“Are you upset with me?” she asks without taking her eyes off the television.

“Why would I be upset?”

“Because I kissed Alik. He told you. Didn’t he? You wouldn’t be up here otherwise.”

“No. I would have come to check on you regardless.”

Kiya looks at me like I’ve grown a second head. Like no one’s ever told her they wanted to make sure she was okay.

“That may be true. But he also told you.”

Sheltered, but with a keen sense of awareness when it comes to people and predicting what they’ll do. A good skill for a mafia princess to have, but something tells me that she didn’t get it there.

“He told me,” I reply.

“I’m sorry. I swear I’m not trying to—”

“You need to stop apologizing when you’re not sorry. Especially when you have nothing to be sorry for.”

“Nothing to be sorry for? But I—”

“I am upset, Pretty Girl. But not with you. I’m upset because Alik got to kiss you first.”

She frowns. Opens and closes her mouth multiple times. Then, “Nadia. What?”

I laugh and explain, “My husband and I are open to having a third person in our relationship every now and then.”

“Isn’t that cheating?”

“It’s only cheating when you don’t play by the rules you agreed to play the relationship by. This is within the rules of me and Alik’s relationship. Why else do you think I could flirt with you so openly in front of him?”

“I guess I thought flirting was fine in some relationships. Between two people, that is. I’ve seen that before.”

“Depends. Just know that if kissing you wasn’t fine, flirting with you wouldn’t have been fine either and… well… Let’s just say you don’t want to know howthatwould have ended.”

“I’m assuming you mean for me. I’d end up in a ditch somewhere, right?”

“Heavens no,” I say dramatically, and then smirk. “That’s so uncreative and easy. I’m thinking grinding your bones into fine dust and making it the rosin for my bow when I play my violin.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’ve done that to someone?”

I smile. “Scared?”

“I should be. But you make it hard to be afraid of you, Nadia.”

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