He looked me straight in the eyes then held a card up between us. “Do you know what this is?”
It was a white piece of paper. Written on it…in what looked like blood, was a name. St. Christopher.
I gulped. “The name of a Saint?”
Ash nodded. “The name of yours. St. Christopher is believed to be a protector. From hurricanes, floods, sickness, and danger. The bosses voted and gave me two options for your ceremony. Ever since we met you two years ago, you’ve protected us. Whether from the outside FBI threat, or the threat from within the Family.” My heart pounded in my chest. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. “This is your marker. This will always be your marker from this day forward, Tank De Lange.” He said my real name. My real bloodline. The one I’d originally hidden from everyone.
The bosses didn’t even flinch.
Not even Chase, the man who’d killed so many of my family that it was downright terrifying.
They knew I had De Lange blood somewhere down the line.
“Your grandmother was a De Lange,” Ash said with a smile. “We finally found some records the FBI had on lockdown. You can thank Sergio for that hack.”
Could I, though? Did I even want to go down that road? Know what my family had done in the name of the De Lange bloodline? No. Because I had a new Family now—the ones standing in front of me.
I lifted my chin, my eyes focusing in on Ash. “What do I need to do?”
“Take it.” With a shaking hand, I took the piece of paper just as Ash lit a match and held it out. “Repeat after me… As burns this saint, so burns my soul. I enter alive and will have to get out dead.”
“As burns this saint”—I gulped—“so burns my soul. I enter alive and will have to get out dead.”
“Now burn,” Ash said.
I held the paper to the flame and watched it turn into ash between my fingertips.
“Sangue en, no fuori,” Ash said.
Blood in, no out.
Everyone repeated it at once, causing chills to run up and down my spine as Ash then put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me in, kissing my right cheek, and my left. “You chose this. You chose blood.”
I lifted my head high. “There was never a choice, Ash. And if there was, I made it two years ago.”
Tiny stopped in front of me, her smile so perfect and wide. The girl I’d always promised to rescue, now in love with a mafia prince.
“You did good,” she whispered before kissing each cheek and then hugging me.
The bosses went next, most likely seeing the pride glistening in my eyes as I held my head high, taking on what should have been my birthright. What should have been my throne.
Sergio was last.
He was either going to kiss me or kill me.
I tensed when he stopped in front of me.
All I could hear was the buzzing in my ears as he turned to Tiny and said, “Are you free?”
A tear slid down her cheek as she whispered, “Yes.”
“Then I won’t kill him,” Sergio said so matter-of-factly, I wanted to hurl as he turned his face back to mine. “Hurt her with your hands, I cut them off. Speak any ill of her with your tongue, and you’ll never speak again. Betray my Family, and I’ll make you blind so the last thing you see before I slit your throat is the very darkness you’ll be damned to. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” He leaned in and kissed both cheeks, then slapped me on the shoulder. ‘“We’ll talk later. Tonight…” He eyed Kartini. “I don’t want to know what happens tonight, just keep her safe.”
“Always have. Always will,” I vowed.
“This…I know.” His smile was small, but it was there.
I was still stunned into silence as the rest of the cousins and I walked back toward our bungalow.
Until, of course, Maksim interrupted. “I think you’re the first De Lange to be welcomed in like…years.”
“No pressure, though, really,” King added.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s not like he’s going to die now…” Junior joked and then gave me a playful shove.
Kartini shoved Junior back.
Junior’s eyebrows shot up. “The small one came out to play.”
Kartini shoved him again. “I may be small but—”
“She killed a guy. I would tread lightly,” Maksim grumbled.
Kartini gasped.
And then everyone paused.
He paled. “Shit. Sorry. I’m still slightly drunk.”
King smacked him. “You were drinking without me?”
“Serena’s fucking ruthless. Drank me under the table.” He stumbled a bit.
Serena pulled at least a few hundred dollars out of her pocket. “Miss this, Maks?”
Maksim flipped her off.
Izzy just burst out laughing because she enjoyed Maksim’s pain.
And then, out of nowhere, a body barreled toward me.
And my body flew into the pool.
I surfaced and then dove after Ash, who laughed like he’d just accomplished the impossible.
Taking me by surprise.
“You little shit, stop swimming away!” I grabbed his shirt.
And then, more splashes happened.
Clothes were yet again taken off and discarded in the moonlight as we all laughed and swam.
“You know, now that you’re part of the Family, it’s kind of weird that you guys were screwing in the cabana.” King floated by me.
Everyone paused.
Maksim sighed and then shoved King to the bottom of the pool. “Should I drown him? Tell me the truth, Tiny?”
She just threw her head back and laughed. “No, let him breathe.”
“Soooooo…” Izzy, Serena, and Annie swam headfirst toward Kartini. Her grin was huge as they all started whispering and pointing.
And then Ash and Junior were next to me.
“Those girls terrify me on a daily basis.” Junior sighed. “But I love them.”
“They’re the best,” Ash agreed.
Maksim floated by. “All but one.”
“Last year, it was you sneaking into her house,” I pointed out.
He sighed. “A lot of good my love did me.”
I shared a look with Ash that said let it go, and King was already changing the subject yelling about drowning and how could we not care about his life as the next Capo?
I tuned him out.
Because I was going back to my bungalow with that woman. A smiling woman, no…not smiling, beaming.
Like she’d just been healed.
And I’d like to think I had a small part in that.
Chapter Twelve
Tank
It was like once I unlocked the sex goddess inside Kartini, she was insatiable…We stumbled back to our bedroom and slipped out of our wet clothes, falling into bed like it was normal.
She kissed me first.
And I wanted to tell her that I loved her first. Even when I wasn’t supposed to, I did.
And now, now it felt like my heart might explode as I rolled her to her back and kissed down her neck, tasting the saltwater from the pool there.
“This was a good night.” She wrapped her arms around me.
“The best.”
Her eyebrows arched. “Is that a challenge?”