Page 25 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

“A united front,” I repeated, a plan forming in my mind. I hardened my heart at the pain of using these men the way I would have to. Nick for his connections, Dante for his money, Lorenzo for his loyalty.

No. They didn’t have the right to my pain and my regrets. Not anymore.

“When can we go see her?” I asked, balling up my hot mess of emotions and storing it in the same chest I’d been using to hide them since my childhood.

“As soon as you’re ready,” Lorenzo said, reaching over to take my hand and stroking the top with his warm fingers. As much as I ached to take comfort in his touch, this man who was as much a part of my heart as the other two, I knew I needed to draw new lines in the sand.

I drew my hand away and met Dante’s obsidian eyes. “Sergio’s a dead man.”

“He will be,” Dante vowed, leaning his forearms on his thighs as he held my gaze. “I swear it to you.”

“Don’t bother with promises you’re only going to break.”

Dante ran a hand through his curly hair, frustration written into the lines of his face. “Kitten?—”

“If you call me that again, I will call immigration and ask them to look into your visa status,” I snarled. “I am not your pet.”

I wanted to be. I wanted to curl up in his arms, in Nick’s arms, let them hold me like Lorenzo had the night before, but softness wouldn’t get me what I wanted—it never had. My parents had wanted a perfect mafia princess. Now it was time to show them how well I’d internalized every goddamned lesson of my childhood.

“I want to see my daughter. Now.”

11

DANTE

Sofia strode up to her parents’house, the three of us behind her in a protective phalanx. I ached to hold her in my arms, to shove her to her knees and steal her tears for myself until she didn’t have any more room in her soul for the pain that Sergio inflicted.

“Sofia!” Ginevra cried, running to the door. Sofia winced at her sister’s embrace, and I had to hold myself back from shoving Ginevra away. I needn’t have. Ginevra immediately loosened her hold. Luca joined them, and the three younger Russos stood in a circle with their arms around each other’s waists, their heads bent together.

“Mamma?”

“Lizzie!” Sofia broke from her siblings to sweep her daughter into her arms, only to shake with the effort. Hiding her weakness, Sofia knelt on one knee to hug her daughter, dragging Lizzie tight against her chest.

“Mamma, I missed you!”

“I missed you too, sweetheart,” Sofia whispered. The warm feeling that had plagued me for the last several weeks as I bent this beautiful woman to my will exploded in mychest. When she was missing, I thought I’d do anything to get her back. Now that she’d returned, I realized I’d do anything to keep her.

Anything.

“Sofia?Piccolina?” Tony Russo rushed at his daughter, taking Lizzie into his arms so that he could embrace the two of them at the same time. The man was a right bastard, but he knew the only thing his daughter wanted right now was Lizzie.

Patti Russo joined them, and I watched the family coo over their lost daughter, ignoring her stiff spine and the way she arched away from their touch.

Tony’s eyes swept over the three of us—me, Nico, and Morelli. He grimaced, then stepped away from his daughter. “Come sit, sweetheart, and tell us what happened.”

Sofia stiffened, then stood, clutching her daughter’s hand. “I’d like to spend time with my daughter first. Why don’t I go upstairs and pack her bag, and then when I get down, Nick can take her outside to play?”

He was the only one of us Sofia trusted with her daughter. I hated how much that hurt, like a knife twisting in my goddamned heart. Over the last few days, my determination to protect Lizzie had grown from a promise to her mother to an obsession. I’d begun to understand why Sofia was so determined to keep her smart, determined daughter away from her parents’ casual cruelty.

“What do you mean, pack her bag?” Tony asked. “You’ll be staying here, with us.”

Sofia stepped backward, her face a mask of icy disdain. “Absolutely not.”

“Darling, Sergio Accardi kidnapped you from the street. You’re staying here where we can keep you safe.”

“I am taking my finals in a week.”

“Fine. You can take them while living here.”

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