Page 99 of Lies like Rubies, Part One

“Miss Russo, you have to come back to the compound. Luca and your father will keep you safe. Jesus. If you tell them that Sergio beat you, they’ll never—”

“Luca and my father will lock me back in my cage, you mean. Then I’ll never fucking get out of Yorkfield,” she snapped.

My heart shattered. “You want to leave Yorkfield?”

Sofia raised an eyebrow, every inch the elegant mafia princess despite her damp hair and casual clothes. “That’s neither here nor there. Work with Dante to come up with a plan to keep Lizzie safe.”

When she stood, she wavered. Dante caught her with a swift hand around her waist, and she leaned into him, pressing her hand into his chest. What the hell?

“Kitten, order food,” Dante told her.

“I’m not hungry,” she said.

“Would you like me to bring the cage over here?”

She blushed, delicate pink flooding her cheeks. “I’ll order dinner.”

“That’s my good girl,” he told her and squeezed her against his side, his affection apparent. “Go grab your books while Lorenzo and I get to work.”

Her lips twisting into a reluctant smile. “Don’t push it, Dante,” she said over her shoulder as she disappeared into one of the bedrooms.

I pressed my lips together in a tight line. “When you leave, she’ll pay the price for your relationship. You know that, right?”

He sat on the couch across from me, his legs splayed, the casual posture belying his predatory nature. “Who are you to her?”

“Who areyouto her?” I shot right back.

“I’m someone who makes sure she eats a full fucking meal a few nights a week.”

“And fucks her,” I said.

“Sofia isn’t doing anything she doesn’t want to do.”

She emerged from the bedroom with her laptop and some notebooks.

“Isn’t that right, kitten?”

“Isn’t what right?”

“Isn’t what right,what,kitten?” Dante said, his voice stern.

Sofia froze mid-step. Her eyes jerked to mine, vulnerable and hurt, before she slammed her mask back down.

“I guess we’re doing this now,” she murmured, setting her books down on the table before turning back to face the two of us. Dante’s smile was satisfied and smug, like a cat who’d just finished a big bowl of cream.

“Lizzie,” Sofia said, handing her daughter a tablet. “Would you like to watch cartoons?”

Lizzie’s eyes ping-ponged between her mother and everyone else in the room, as if she sensed the trouble brewing.

“You can watch your favorite pig.” Sofia sweetened the pot. Once Lizzie nodded and made her way out of the living room, Sofia turned back to Dante. “Isn’t what right,sir?” she asked.

What the hell?

She watched me, that damned vulnerability peeking through in her shaking fingers before she linked them together in front of her, waiting on my judgment.

Five years ago, I’d called her a whore when she threw herself at me in a misguided attempt to keep her from fucking up her future by fucking the boss’s bodyguard. It was the biggest mistake of my goddamned life. She’d walked right out of my arms and into a club where she’d met Sergio Accardi.

Never again.

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