Page 118 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

Nick,Luca, and I had holed up in the quiet of Tony’s study to continue to dismantle the Costa trafficking empire, far away from the flurry of activity bustling around the Russo compound. I’d been a bundle of nerves since they’d taken Sofia into custody, and the rapid knock on the door startled the shit out of me.

“You all live like fucking pigs when there’s no one around to impress,” Ana snarled as she strode in.

“Please, come in,” Nick drawled, moving out of her way.

Her eyes slid over the takeout containers, the laptops and phones, and even the guns.

“You murdered my father yesterday,” she said, whipping around to stare at Nick, her silk dress floating in the evening light.

“I did,” he agreed, lifting his chin.

“The Sicilian branch of the family is shipping me off to France.”

Luca looked up sharply from where he worked. “France? When?”

She seemed to soften as her eyes roved over him. “Tonight. I fly out in a few hours.”

“Do you?—?

“Tell Sofia I love her,” she said, interrupting Luca. “Tell her I’m sorry. Tell her—” Her composure broke for only a second before freezing back into the same damn mask we’d all worked so hard to make sure Sofia never had to wear again. “Tell her I’ll see her again soon.”

“How soon?” Luca rasped as he stood up. She stepped away as he moved toward her.

She held up her hand, stopping Luca in his tracks.

“Angelo needs to marry me off even more quickly than my father did. The people my father owed money to won’t forget his debts just because he’s dead.”

“Why don’t you just?—?”

Ana laughed bitterly. “Run away? And do what? Leave everyone and everything I care about? Start over? Fall in love again and live in a cottage with a white picket fence and spend the rest of my life worrying that the mafia’s going to find me and murder my family? Fuck you, Luca. Fuck you for being a man. Fuck you for not understanding a goddamned thing about the lives that women like Sofia and I lead.”

She turned to me, her emerald eyes cloudy with a sheen of tears. “Lorenzo, tell her I love her.”

“Find a way to stay in touch,” I said, standing to give this indomitable woman a hug.

She allowed me to hold her briefly before moving away, her posture rigid rather than confident.

“Ana. Please,” Luca added gently.

She bit her lip and made to move toward him before whipping around to stride out the door, leaving him staringat the open space with longing even after she’d moved out of sight.

The embersof the fire pit glowed in the darkness as the three of us sat in silence, the pop and crackle of the dying fire the only sound in the backyard of Dante’s suburban home.

There wasn’t a goddamned thing any of us could do right now, and desolate helplessness turned my love for Sofia to ash on my tongue.

“Enough,” Dante barked, standing up. “I’m going to the gym.”

My eyes popped out of my sockets. I hadn’t seen him workout since the day he came, although a body like his didn’t come without hard work. Unconsciously, my eyes slid up his torso, to where his T-shirt hugged the muscles of his chest.

Dante’s lips curled in a crooked smile and let his gaze roam over the two of us. Electricity crackled between us, until he looked away, ending the moment.

I scrubbed my face. Images of Sofia in her white graduation gown, splattered with Accardi’s blood, ran through my mind.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Nick said, standing so he could lay a hand on my shoulder. “We’re gonna get her out.”

I stood abruptly, not wanting to hear another goddamned word of his reassurances. He couldn’t promise shit. Until the governor called back with her price, even Dante’s fortune couldn’t help her.

“We’re fucking useless,” I snapped.

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