Chapter Seven

Diego

"You cooked me dinner?" Athena eyes me skeptically, her expression screwed up like she's waiting for the punchline.

"I did. Come." I hold out my hand to her.

She hesitates for a moment before curiosity wins over suspicion. Her hand lands in mine. I twine our fingers together, leading her toward the small table on the far side of the kitchen. It doesn't get much use. Neither does the kitchen, for that matter. I'm rarely here long enough to eat a meal at home, let alone cook one.

But I made an exception for her.

I seem to be making a lot of those for her.

"Why is there only one chair?" she asks, drawing to a stop.

Ah, so she noticed.

"I only have one." I tug her arm to get her moving.

She digs in her heels, refusing. "You are so full of it, Diego Butera. You don't live in a place like this and only have one chair."

"You misunderstand. I own many chairs, but I only have one for you, bella." I tug her arm again, unbalancing her so she has no choice but to move with me. Once we reach the table, I pull the chair out and sit before crooking a finger at her. "Come. Sit."

She gapes at me, her gorgeous mouth open in a little "O" of surprise. "You are not serious."

"You're mine for the next twenty-four hours, goddess. That means I make the rules." I point at my lap. "Claim your throne."

"You are such a pain in my…"

"No insulting me unless you want to see how that works out for you."

She snaps her mouth closed, stomping toward me.

I chuckle quietly, lifting her off her feet onto my lap. She sits rigidly, her back ramrod straight. Her ass nestles against my cock, and I have to fight a groan. Christ, the hard bastard refuses to relent.

"Relax, bella. I don't bite." I press my lips to her ear. "Not unless you want me to."

"Diego, dammit." She tenses like she's going to jump off my lap.

I hook an arm around her waist, anchoring her in place. "I'm kidding, Athena. Relax."

"Easy for you to say." She squirms around. "Can you take your phone out of your pocket? It's poking me in the…" Her teeth actually click together when she realizes it's not my phone poking her.

"He's like this because of you." I brush my lips against the shell of her ear. "Watching you come for me today drove me crazy."

"Diego," she whispers, squirming again. "Please."

"Please what?"

"Can we please just eat dinner?" she pleads quietly.

I take mercy on her for the moment and reach for the covered plate, dragging it closer. "I hope you like Alfredo, bella." Her stomach growls when I remove the cover with a flourish, making me chuckle. "I'll take that as a yes."

"I haven't eaten all day."

My lips pull down into a frown. "Why not?"

"Gee, I wonder?" she says sarcastically. "First, a member of the mafia shows up at my office and flirts with me in front of everyone, and then he does inappropriate things to me in the interview room. And then he convinces me to spend twenty-four hours with him. And then my boss came to chat about why said member of the mafia was at the office. And then I had to follow up on the information said member of the mafia gave me." She blows out a breath, running out of steam. "It's been a busy day."

"Who's your boss?" I ask, reaching for the fork to spear a piece of chicken for her.

"Dennis Respert."

The name is vaguely familiar, but I don't know him. I make a note to remedy that immediately. If he's over Athena, I want to know everything there is to know about him. Just in case I need to deal with him the same way I need to deal with James Tackett.

"Do you like him?" I ask, bringing the fork to her lips.

She leans forward, wrapping them around the tines.

My dick pulses again. There's something…deeply satisfying about watching this woman eat, knowing it's food I prepared and am feeding her with my own hands. I like it. Perhaps we'll eat this way every night, with her in my lap, eating from my hand.

Her eyes widen in surprise as she chews the chicken. "It's good," she says.

I chuckle quietly. "Don't sound so surprised, bella. I haven't survived this long being unable to care for myself."

"Sorry." She swallows. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know. I'm only teasing. Do you like your boss?"

Her nose twitches with irritation. "He's fine," she lies.

"You're still a shit liar."

She rolls her eyes at me. "He's fine, Diego. He just doesn't like me much."

"Why not?"

"Patriarchy? Misogyny? Because he was born in the wrong decade?" She shrugs. "I don't know. He's pissed that I'm taking a spot that a good male field agent could be filling. As far as he's concerned, I should be behind a desk, fielding phone calls. I'm too young, too female, and too short and curvy to be a real FBI agent."

"Prick," I grunt, wrapping noodles around the fork for her.

"He's not the only one who feels that way."

"Taggert?"

"Him and about half of the other guys in the office." She rolls her eyes. "I didn't even have a chance to prove myself. They decided they didn't like me on sight."

My blood boils as I carefully feed her. Fuck each and every one of them. She's been on this case for a matter of days and has made more headway than they did in a year. If I were to talk to anyone, it'd be her. Simply because she isn't a fucking prick who hides behind a badge and thinks it makes her better. She's fierce, smart, and relentless. And she has more courage in her pinky toe than they've ever shown in their miserable lives.

"You promised to tell me why Genovese wanted Valentino to think you were the one behind the murders," she reminds me, clearly ready to change subjects.

"I did promise, didn't I?"

"Yes."

"He found out I was talking to the FBI."

"That's it?" Her brows furrow. "That was his reason?"

"You think that's a small thing? It's the one rule you don't break in the mafia."

"So why break it?" Her gaze flits across my face. "What did you want so badly that you were willing to risk it?"

"Rafe Valentino in a body bag," I say bluntly.

She flinches.

"You asked. This is who I am. I won't pretend to be something I'm not. My world is vicious and ugly and bloody. I do what I have to do, and I won't apologize for it, Athena. If you're looking for an innocent man, you won't find one here."

"Tell me what happened," she pleads.

So I tell her. "I happened."

"I don't understand."

"Rafe Valentino's father murdered Amalia's parents."

Her eyes widen in shock.

"It was a revenge killing, bella. Her father killed his mother and shot him. Amalia had nothing to do with it. She wasn't even born when it happened. She was two when Valentino finally got to her parents. He killed them in a housefire. Alvise found her in foster care when she was a little girl. When he brought her home, we both knew what would happen to her if the Valentinos ever found her. They'd already killed her parents. Rafe had killed my father, too. I wasn't going to let them kill her. She was innocent."

"She was just a little girl," Athena whispers.

"Yeah, she was. And she grew up safe because we kept her hidden. But I knew the only way she'd ever be free was if Rafe was dead and gone. I wanted him that way anyway, so I started talking to the FBI. Genovese found out. He thought he could use me to get Rafe out of the way."

"You guys teamed up?"

"Fuck no," I growl. "He was going to tell everyone about my chats with the FBI. I couldn't let that happen. It would have left Amalia completely unprotected. So I reluctantly agreed to help him bring Rafe down. Except I couldn't do it alone. Genovese had already ensured that by trying to pin those fucking murders on me. I had to ask Amalia to help.

"It was all downhill from there. When Rafe came looking for me, he found her, exactly like we'd planned. It was a risk, a huge fucking risk, but it was one we had to take. She was supposed to find his books and smuggle them out to me. I'd turn them over to the FBI, and the Valentino empire would fall, freeing us.

"Except we didn't fucking know Genovese knew who she really was. As soon as he had a chance, he grabbed her, trying to lay claim to the Cerrito fortune. And I had to make a choice…let my shit with Rafe go, or risk losing my sister because I fucked up."

"Diego," Athena whispers, her expression soft.

"Had I known Genovese wanted her too, I would have done it differently. She ended up under his thumb because of me. Every goddamn thing that went wrong was because of me, bella."

She licks her lips, watching my face. "You're leaving things out."

"Yeah, I am," I freely admit. "I'm leaving it out to save your life."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. There are things I'm not telling you because the minute you know them, your life is over." I laugh abruptly. "The life you knew is already over."

"What are you talking about?"

"What do you think happens to you now, bella? You think you walk out of here in twenty-four hours and go back to your life as if nothing has changed?" I ask, brushing a curl away from her face. "You aren't that na?ve."

"I…" She exhales a breath. "My boss knows I'm here, Diego. If I go missing, they'll know it was you."

"You think I'd put my hands on you? Hurt you?" I push our plate back and then lift her from my lap to set her on the table. "You know nothing, bella. Nothing," I growl. "Everything I do, I do for you."

"Except give me a choice, right?" she demands, staring up at me with a stubborn tilt to her jaw.

"I gave you a choice the first day. I warned you to walk away. You decided not to heed it." I wrap my hand around her throat, tipping her head back. "You should have run, rabbit," I whisper. "Now, it's too late."

She stares at me with wide eyes. Even now, she isn't afraid. Even now, when I deserve it less than ever, she wants me. I see it written all over her face. Whether she wants to or not, she feels me in her soul. It's right there in her eyes.

"Christ, the things I want to do to you when you look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you'd rather go up in flames than run."

"M-maybe that is what I want, Diego. To burn."

"Don't say it if you don't mean it," I warn her. "I won't let you take it back, Athena. Once you give me that part of yourself, I'll burn you completely out before I let you take it back." I tighten my grip on her throat, dipping my head until my lips are inches from hers. "I'll burn everything to the fucking ground before I let you go."

"Then don't," she whispers, her voice a mere scrap of sound. "Don't let me go, Diego."

She doesn't know what she's asking. I haven't even told her the worst parts yet…the things guaranteed to make her hate me. But she's sitting here, offering me a taste of heaven. And I'm bastard enough to take.

I press my lips to hers, claiming her soul.