Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I clench my jaw and stare down at Luca now, channeling that queen.
Queen of a dead family. Queen of a broken alliance of warring crime lords. Queen of bones and ash.
Luca sits, still studying me with those clever eyes. He talks like a New York asshole, but there’s something sharp and dangerous beneath his wise-guy exterior. He’s worldly, much more experienced and traveled than he appears, and I’ve heard rumors about him and his crew.
They’re called the CC Group. On the surface, it’s a full-service corporate consulting company, but truthfully, they specialize in espionage and killings. The CC allegedly stands for Closed Casket.
Those are the stories, anyway. I don’t know what’s true and I never bothered to ask.
Now I wish I’d gotten to know my enemy better.
“I’m here to give you a choice,” Luca says after a short silence. He’s still studying me and leans forward slightly like he wants to crawl across the table, grab me by the hair, and kiss his words directly into my ear. “The way I see it, there are only two options for us now.”
“Why did you bring me here? I don’t understand what you’re doing.”
His jaw tightens and he doesn’t respond. I try to keep myself under control—in and out, breathing slow—but his gaze is like a hammer against my composure. He wants to pummel me and break me. I won’t let him.
“I made a mistake back at your compound,” he says. “I should’ve killed you, but now it’s too late. I shot Fio, made one of my own men bleed, and now I can’t turn my back on that decision no matter how insane it looks. I’m committed, and unfortunately for you, little flower, that means you’re committed too.”
“Don’t call me that.”
He ignores me and continues. “Here are your options. Little flower.” He puts both hands on the table and drops something from each.
Both objects clatter onto the wood, spin, and come to a stop.
On the right is a ring. It’s beautiful, white gold band, an enormous diamond. I know from experience with my family that a rock that size is worth a few million, at least.
It’s an engagement ring.
On the left is a bullet.
“Here’s the choice. You put on my ring and you become my wife. I take you home to my father and explain that I thought you were more useful alive. You play along, say all the right things, swear fealty to the Valverde Famiglia and renounce your old life. You promise you’ll give my father a dozen strong grandchildren. Boys, girls, whatever, so long as it’s a lot. You do all that, and you get to live. Maybe you even find some joy in whatever time you have left.”
“And if I won’t marry you?”
He spins the bullet. “I take you out back and I put this in your brain.”
“I thought you were committed.”
“I am but only to a point. If you refuse me, they’ll understand. I’ll find Fio, make sure he’s all right, and take care of his family for him if he’s not. I’ll bury you, claim temporary insanity, and move the fuck on. It’ll make my life harder, but I’ll survive. You won’t. Your choice.”
I sit there and stare. Engagement ring or bullet. It’s not much of a choice.
Both mean death.
I run my fingers over the splintered wood. I don’t move, mind working. What do I have left in this world but myself? I was willing and ready to marry a Greek man back on Crete, but that was when I had the delusion of hope. That was when I believed I might have a future with people I knew and loved, even if that future would’ve been difficult and demeaning, and there were so few of those people left.
Now there’s nobody and nothing and my future is rain-soaked ash, a blackened muck.
I reach out and pick up the bullet. “I’d rather be dead than married to a lousy Sicilian snake. Skata sta moutra sou, asshole.”
Luca’s lips pull back into a smile and he stares at me for several long seconds before shoving his chair back and standing.
“I’ll come back tomorrow. If you aren’t wearing my ring, I will put that bullet into my gun and kill you. Think about it.”
He turns and leaves, shutting then locking the door behind him.
I stand up, grab the bullet, and throw it as hard as I can at the wall. It bounces and clatters to the floor, worthless. I stare at the ring, seething, hating it so much.
That’s all I am. All I’ll ever be and all I ever was. A pretty little doll for men like my father, like the crime lords, like Luca Valverde. He thinks he can have me, he thinks he can buy me with my life.
I won’t sell myself. Not to him. Not after what he did to Perico and the rest of my family.