Chapter 21

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ELENA

B ack “home,” I stand at the edge of my bed and look at the suitcase I packed before we left for the date. That was the bad thing I did. I went around the townhouse collecting every valuable I could get my hands on: ornaments, silverware, and even some of Dario’s jewelry. I stare at it, wondering what to do. During the car ride home, I felt closer to him than I could’ve imagined earlier today. His kiss still lingers on my lips.

I spin quickly when there’s a knock on my door. “One second.”

“It’s me.” Dario’s voice is urgent. “Can I come in?”

“I …” I’m hiding the suitcase, but I don’t want to lie to him. He’s shown me every aspect of his existence, even the ugliness. I drop onto the bed next to the suitcase. “Sure.”

He hurries into the room, clearly about to say something. Then he stops when he sees the open suitcase glimmering with valuables. “What’s this?”

“My contingency plan,” I say. “I packed it earlier, before the date.”

“You …” He narrows his eyes. “You were going to leave me?”

Something in his tone sends me surging to my feet. I grab his arms, feeling his strength, his throbbing muscles like he’s burning up at the idea of me running away from him. “This is all an act, remember?”

“No,” he snaps, wrapping his arms around me. At the restaurant, he was respectful about kissing, but now he pulls me right up against him and crashes his mouth fiercely against mine. I gasp at the suddenness of it, and then something deep inside wills me to sink against him.

He growls through the tight press of our lips. We collapse onto the bed together, the suitcase slipping off and the clatter of jewelry sounding on the hardwood floor.

“You taste perfect,” he growls, his eyes flooded with the same intensity I saw in the farmhouse. It makes me wonder what he came in here to say. “You taste like mine .”

He kisses me again. I can’t ask him to stop. I don’t want to. Even if I did, the lust pulsing through my body wouldn’t let me. His firm chest grazes against my nipples as his hand slides up my leg. I open my legs, the physical sensation burning away the nerves, doubts, and memories for now.

When he reaches my sex, I grip onto his neck, digging my nails in. “Not yet,” I say breathlessly in a stolen moment between the kiss.

He stares down at me. “Were you going to leave me?”

“I was just being smart,” I tell him. “I didn’t know I was going to?—”

“Say it,” he snarls. “ Say it , Elena.”

“Want you again.”

“I never stopped wanting you,” he says, his lips feeling electric.

I wrap my arms around him, and this time, I initiate the kiss. I bite his lip as pure passion swells inside of me, the heat and the closeness making me oh-so wild. It’s as if I’m going crazy, like he’s making me crazy. We only stop kissing when his cell phone rings. He answers it. “Yeah, okay. Soon.” He ends the call.

He stands up slowly as if it’s difficult for him—like being apart from me causes him physical pain. “I didn’t come here for your perfect body. I didn’t come here to claim my perfect virgin.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I came here to tell you you’re going to join your aunt and friend in a safe house outside the city.”

I jump to my feet. “What’s happened to them? Are they okay? Is Aunt Rosa safe ?” My mind swirls with sickening images, the most grotesque, nasty things. It’s the sort of thing I would’ve found difficult to imagine before the slaughter at the farmhouse. “Dario!”

“They’re safe,” he tells me, taking my hands. “They’re on their way there now. My men have found the leader of the Romanos location. We’re getting ready to move in and wipe the bastard out once and for all.”

“Wipe him?—”

“ Execute him,” he growls with wildness in his eyes. “I’m going to kill him, Elena. If that means you can’t look at me, kiss me, or …”

“Say it. Say you won’t care. Say you’ll do it anyway.”

“It will destroy me,” he snarls. “I never knew how much I could care. I never knew I had it in me. If you told me that, it’d wreck me, but I’d do what I’ve done my whole life and ignore what I want. I’d do the right thing by the Family. This bastard, his location wasn’t the only thing I learned.”

He turns away, shuddering, looking for a heartbreaking moment like a lost little boy. “Dario?” I murmur, walking around him so we’re facing each other. I take his face in my hands so he can’t look away. “You can talk to me.”

“I don’t want to burden you with this.”

“ You’re burdened with it.”

“That’s my job,” he growls. “It’s not yours.”

“Well, I’m asking. No, fuck that. I’m demanding, okay? So you better spill before I go feral on you .” When he smiles, I snap, “What’s so funny, smart guy?”

“You, Elena. Your sass is coming back.”

A thrill dances through me, everything inside glowing and shimmering at his words. It makes me feel so special on a level I don’t quite understand, like I’m his prize, and I’m the only one who can make him smile when the world drags him down.

“I mean it,” I say.

“We found Vincenzo through a whistleblower in his organization. It turns out he’s been hiding at one of his girlfriend’s houses. The informant showed me a photo he’d taken of the girlfriend. Her face is a mess. He’s used her as a goddamn punching bag.” He grits his teeth, then leans in close to me. “Do you see why I have to be a monster? Do you see why I can’t let any softness into me, not with this crap? You’re my refuge. You’re my safe place, but I have to act when it comes to this.”

“Then you better go,” I whisper.

He hesitates

.

“What is it?” I ask.

“I don’t want you to hate or think less of me, but I must be upfront. I may do worse to Vincenzo than I did to the lowlife who tried to drag you into that cellar. Maybe it’s unfair of me to ask this, but I need you to be okay with it. When I’m out there, I can’t think of you here, judging me, hating me.”

“I want you to show me the photo.”

“What photo?”

“Of the woman, Vincenzo’s woman.”

He swallows, putting me at arm’s length and tilting his head down at me. His expression has far more affection than I ever would’ve anticipated from him before we started this romance. It was supposed to be fake, but this is the realest thing I’ve ever felt. “Are you sure?”

I almost sass him again, but he’s only asking because he wants to keep me safe. He’s only asking because he knows how fucked-up I still am, but I won’t stop fighting. “Yes. Show me.”

He grabs his phone, taps a few times, then shows me the screen. I gasp, instinct trying to make me look away, but I force myself to stare at the screen. I won’t cringe from this life. I won’t hide when he has to face it.

“Jesus Christ,” I whisper.

“It’s not even a closeup,” Dario growls. “Do you see why I have to do this?”

“Yes,” I say. “They would’ve done that to me.”

“Or worse, and sure, I got carried away. I let my savage side win, but it was either the savage in me or the savage in them .”

I sink against him, wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders and standing on my tiptoes to kiss him. He moans and pulls me even closer, and then he stops the kiss, shuddering. “I have to leave.”

“Are you going to be safe?”

“I’m going to do my best,” he grunts, “but I won’t lie. Every time we roll out like this, even if we have the advantage, there’s a chance I won’t return.”

“Dario,” I say, my voice quivering. How could I have been so selfish? I’ve been so worried about what he’ll do to his enemies. I never stopped to think about what they might do to him. “Promise you’ll come back to me. Promise you won’t leave me.”

“I can’t promise that,” he snaps. “I wish I could. I wish this were easy, but I’m rolling out to kill an armed, dangerous bastard. He still has men loyal to him. It doesn’t matter how tough a man is. A bullet’s a bullet.”

“Then send your men,” I whisper.

Pride swells in me when his expression turns to disgust. “Send my men but stay behind myself? No. Damn. Way. I won’t risk them while sitting pretty in a safe house with the woman I love. It’s not fair.”

“The woman you …”

When his cell phone rings again, he surges against me for one final kiss. It’s our most passionate yet, somehow healing all the rifts between us, all the pain. Then he turns away and answers his phone. His tone and demeanor instantly change to Mafia boss. “Speak,” he growls into his cell.