ALESSIO


    She finally fell asleep.


    I peeled a sheet of hair from my cor, which zed after hours of lying still under aforter. I would’ve been ufortable if I wasn’t in cks. She was so goddamned tempting.


    I trailed my fingers over the hills and valleys of her curves, starting with her cheek that was stuck to my chest. My touch wandered down her neck and across her shoulders to the arm that rested on my torso. I swept back, following her ribs, stomach, and hips, stroking the thigh thaty on me. She was cooking me from the inside out. I grabbed her leg, but instead of moving it, I squeezed her hip. Then I inhaled a stream of curses.


    Holding her was nice, but I hated the sexual frustration. Her bound hands and pouting lips were enough to work me into a frenzy, which had made me feel like a depraved asshole. I didn’t want to scare the woman I would marry, but that half-open mouth begged for a kiss. I could take it further. She wouldn’t stop me.


    No.


    Not worth the risk. Besides, the way forward was ridiculously easy. All I had to do was make her feel safe and keep her life free of murder. Did she think I preferred Boston’s streets running with blood? Nico’s n to unite the families would eliminate all of herints, which meant I’d have my fiancée wrapped around my finger.


    I smiled at the ceiling.


    I blocked out my schedule for the next week, assuming I’d have to fend off escape attempts. She was supposed to be an empty-headed girl, but her head wasn’t preupied with flights of fancy.


    It was filled with pain. Her cousins, uncles, and sister. All dead. Her father drank his problems away, and her mother was practicallyatose. She needed someone. She had turned to David. He must’ve given her scraps offort in exchange for blowjobs. He used her. Disgusting prick. Didn’t even have the decency to ask Ignacio’s permission.


    I wanted to hurt him.


    I peeled away theforter. Carefully, I slid from under her andnded on the carpet. Mia sprawled on the bed. Hershes fluttered, and she murmured.


    Her crying had ripped at the center of me. My stomach caved in as though she’d reached in and shredded my insides. Guilt dampened my rage as I straightened, preparing to leave. Her petite frame looked so lonely on the king-sized mattress.


    Light spilled in from the half-crescent moon. She was radiant. She had always been the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Unnaturally gorgeous. An exotic brte with wide eyes and a cute, button-like nose and a small mouth. I couldn’t put my finger on what pounded my blood, but I knew it was real.


    Something about her disarmed me.


    Thank God I didn’t have to fight this anymore.


    I leaned over and brushed the faintest kiss on her cheek. Then I pulled the bedspread to her chin so I wouldn’t be tempted. I had things to do-mainly deal with that son-of-a-whore.


    David took advantage of her.


    I’d make him pay.


    “YOU KIDNAPPED HER.”


    My sigh touched the low ceiling of the storeroom. “I picked her up several hours too early. That’s not a kidnapping.”


    Nico raised an eyebrow. “Tell that to the FBI.”


    “Like they’ll give a shit about Mia Ri.”


    Colorful shrink-wrapped packages stocked the shelves of our ndestine meeting in the back of a candy store. Nico Costa, the don, had a weakness for sweets, and it showed. He kept his overflowing gutrge with a constant stream of cold cuts and wine. When he wasn’t stuffing his face, he cheated on his wife with twoares. One was a baby-faced girl younger than my fiancée. The other was in her thirties. He was sixty-five. The man needed to slow down before he stroked out from diabetes, warring mistresses, or both.


    He had ws, but I loved the bastard.


    He’d weed me when I was a wide-eyed college kid. We hit it off, and I’d advanced quickly, which didn’t win me points with the other members. Nico gave zero fucks. He saw something in me. A knack for solving disputes between our partners pushed me into the center of Nico’s inner circle.


    “She’s safe. That’s all that matters.” I popped a saltwater taffy into my mouth. The disgustingly sweet vor coated my tongue, but I didn’t care. I’d been up all night and day with nothing to eat. “Can’t say the same for David.”


    Nico stared at me.


    I didn’t fly into rages over women, but it got to me when she told me her reason for running. She deserved better, and David knew it. So I went to his ce and beat the shit out of him. I’d listened to enough of that disrespectful asshole spreading intimate details about Mia to turn my stomach, so I didn’t regret breaking his arm.


    The asshole would have a long, painful recovery.


    Nico gazed at his blinking cell. “Her dad’s blowing up my phone.”


    “Shit, my future father-inw is lucky to be alive. He needs to be reminded that there’ll only be one CEO.”


    “Alessio, go easy on him. He just lost his daughter.”


    “Rx. I will.”


    I was all for Nico’s master n, even if nobody believed it’d pan out. He was the most forward-thinking leader I’d met. No boss had ever attempted to do what he proposed. Until now, the gangs fought each other for turf, respect, money, whatever. The streets were a battleground.


    Wasteful.


    The days of cracking heads were over. Everyone had cameras. Bystanders uploaded incriminating videos to every social media channel in seconds. Getting away with the same old tricks was a fantasy. We could die young or spend our years in jail.


    Or we could work together.N?velDrama.Org content rights.


    “I gave you that woman because you deserve a reward. I am in your debt for everything you’ve done for this family, for my son.”


    “I’m grateful, Nico.”


    “You’re one of us. Your name might be Salvatore, but in here you’re Costa.” He tapped his broad chest.


    “As long as I’m not in your ass.”


    “Such a smart mouth.”


    I sank into a chair. “How’s the kid?”


    Nico made an exasperated motion. “Anthony’s all over the ce. His mother wanted to kick him out, so I put him in rehab. He hates me.”


    “He doesn’t. He’s just… lost.”


    “I’ll never understand where I went wrong with my son.”


    Nico would never admit it, but he wished his boy was his mirror image. Anthony inherited his father’s addictive personality,bined with recklessness and ack of sense. The tatted heroin fiend was a stranger, but love prevented him from cutting the cord. I’d dragged Anthony out of dope dens. I’d babysat him, caught him trying to score smack, stopped him from killing himself. The kid was a mess.


    Nico admitted once, while drunk and tearful, that he sometimes thought Anthony was better off dead. A father’s disappointment was every man’s worst nightmare.


    I’d seen it on my dad’s face too often and loathed it on Nico.


    “I’m sorry.”


    His eyes shone as he stood, patting my cheek with his meaty palm. It was a gesture I only tolerated from him. “You’re such a good kid.”


    “When will you stop calling me that?”


    “When you get married.”


    “We should talk about the meeting. When we’ll contact the bikers and where.”


    “No. You have enough going on.” He nced at me, brows furrowed at my split knuckles. “Anything I should know?”


    I tightened my fists, the flesh whitening. “I visited David after I dropped her off. She was at his ce.”


    “Diplomacy, Alessio. Not more shit to clean.”


    “I needed to scare him. None of this works if people aren’t terrified of breaking the rules. Can you imagine if anyone found out?” I seized the empty wrappers and tossed them in the trash.


    “Don’t touch him again.”


    “I won’t, as long as he stays away from her. We can’t tiptoe around incidents like these. Anyway, he knows he fucked up. He took his beating like a man.”


    “What am I supposed to tell her father?”


    “I’ll smooth it over. I’ll say I spotted her wandering the streets. David will back me up. He’s got everything to lose by telling Ignacio the truth.”


    “Don’t underestimate the overinted ego of young men.” Nico groaned as he stood, yawning as he headed toward the padlocked door. “I’m heading home. You’re wee toe for Sunday. You and your teenage bride.”


    “She’s twenty-three, asshole.”


    Laughing, he waved me off. “Go. Your girl’s waiting.”


    Yes, she was.


    I hadn’t eaten all day. I was beyond exhausted. It’d been a while since I made an example of someone, and the adrenaline thrummed in me like cocaine. I couldn’t avoid her forever. Nico needed this marriage to work.


    So did I.


    I wanted to build a life that struck empty hearts with envy-kids clinging to my knees when I strode into my house, the devotion of a beautiful girl, a picture-perfect family that’d convince my parents I’d changed.


    And I couldn’t do it alone.