“You freely admit you deliberately compromised Emme, knowing if your shadow merged too deeply with hers there would be no chance of going back?” Ricco asked.
“Absolutely. I did so every chance I got and would again,” Val said. He wasn’t about to lie to them over that. They could all go to hell as far as he was concerned, but they better understand, they couldn’t keep Emmanuelle from him. He loved her. It was impossible not to love her. Maybe if they’d taken better care of her over the years, he would have backed off, but he didn’t see that they had anything to be superior about.
Emmanuelle rolled over, heedless of his injuries, going right over the top of him, her smaller body all muscle, shockingly fast and strong, hands going for his head as if she might break his neck. There were tears in her eyes, determination on her face. Val didn’t protect himself from her. She deserved to take her shot. It was Dario who got there, anticipating her reaction, just as Valentino had. He knocked her one hand away from Val’s face with a solid punch to her forearm.
She made no sound at all as Stefano, arms around her waist, dragged her off Valentino, toward the other side of the bed. “I’ve got you, honey.”
Val caught her with equally strong arms. “Don’t, Stefano. She wasn’t going to kill me.” He pulled her back to him, bringing her right to his chest, one hand pushing her face against his shoulder. “This is hard to hear. I know that, Princess. I should have told you first. I was so in love with you, I would have sold my soul to the devil to have you. I did sell my soul to him.”
She lifted her head to look up at him, her brilliant blue gaze meeting his. Searching his as if looking for something. What the hell? Hadn’t he ever told her he loved her? Didn’t she know? He’d told Marge he didn’t. They hadn’t really talked since. When they had, it had all been about possession. The shadow.
He brushed his lips gently across hers. “I love you so much, Emmanuelle, sometimes I can’t think straight.”
“I was going to break your neck. You should have protected yourself.”
He smiled at her, because she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him. “No, babe, you wouldn’t have. You love me too much. Dario should have known that.”
“She would have broken your damn neck, you idiot. She’s lethal as hell. You fall in love with a woman like that, you’d better not piss her off.” Dario sounded exasperated. “Ask her brothers. They know.”
Valentino studied her face. Yeah. She really would have. “You know that would have taken both of us out. Not too happy you would have contemplated ending your own life just to get back at me. Let’s not go there again. If you’re royally pissed at me, take your shot, but don’t make it so fucking permanent.”
“I’m not happy with you.” She rolled off of him and sat tailor fashion, pulling her hair up to put it in a knot on top of her head.
“I’d like to continue the conversation,” Stefano said. “It’s late and I’m certain everyone’s tired. We need to get this done. How do you get your woman to spy for you? That seems a little vague.”
Val studied Stefano’s face for a long time, allowing the silence to stretch out between them. Stefano was in one of the darkest parts of the room, his pinstriped suit making it even harder to see him. All the Ferraros wore those suits, including Emmanuelle. He knew Emme didn’t wear much under her suit. He’d had years to watch the Ferraros. He’d had Dario watch them. They were careful. Very careful. Emme was careful. But he noticed how they could disappear at will into those shadows. He didn’t know how. It didn’t make sense, but they could do it. Suddenly, all the stories, all the old history, the feuds between the families, weren’t so much bullshit anymore.
“It appears that the woman we can tie to us can move about undetected in the shadows.” Val kept his eyes on Stefano. The man was stone. He didn’t so much as blink, but he was fully aware that Val and Dario both knew that the Ferraro family could move freely through the shadows, and that information hadn’t come from Emmanuelle.
Valentino could tell Dario was ready for an attack on them. He was as well. Stefano was weighing the danger to his family.
“I’ve known for certain for a year, Stefano,” Val said. “I suspected long before that. Had I wanted to use the information to harm your family, I would have done so.” He leaned his head back against the headboard. “The last thing I wanted to do was alienate Emme further.”
“If the woman is taken against her will, how is she forced to work for you?” Stefano persisted. “Had Miceli succeeded in kidnapping Grace, if she could have entered the shadows, which she couldn’t, how could he force her to work for him?”
Valentino and Dario exchanged a long, puzzled look. Eventually, Val shook his head. “I have no idea. None. Threats? Torture? I wouldn’t put anything past Miceli or his sons.”
“Is there anything in the myth that would indicate a way to coerce the woman?”
Seduction. According to the story, the merging shadows provided heightened chemistry. Val had experienced that firsthand. The sexual chemistry was explosive. He wasn’t going to mention that again. He simply shook his head.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury of asking Giuseppi too many questions. That might be the only way to get the answers you’re looking for, and I’m not willing to risk it,” Val said. “I’m not certain he has the answers anyway.”
“Why?” Stefano asked, steepling his fingers and regarding Val over the top of them.
Val shrugged. He loved his father. But. He’d grown up with him. He’d been with him, learned from him, seen and done things he didn’t want Emme to ever know about.
“He’s very old-school. I don’t altogether trust him when it comes to certain things regarding the business. Protecting Emmanuelle has to be my first priority where it wouldn’t be his. If he thought she could move through the shadows, he would be ruthless using her against his enemies. He might also think he could get away with blackmailing her by threatening her family. He doesn’t quite get that some women are capable of being just as ruthless when protecting their own as he is.”
Stefano’s expression didn’t change. Val hadn’t expected to be able to read him. He ruled his family with an iron fist, but he loved them fiercely—and he guarded Emmanuelle. All of her brothers did. Val knew he never would have gotten away with stealing her if she hadn’t allowed him to do so. That had been her youth. He’d taken full advantage.
When that first jolt of sexual awareness had hit him, he’d thought a firestorm had struck him. He’d known what those ropes tying her shadows to his meant, he just hadn’t believed it. He’d talked to her for a long time, calming her, forming a plan, deciding then on what he would do. He’d discarded his plan dozens of times, but the pull to her had been too strong to ignore.
Looking at Stefano, he could believe what he’d long suspected—her family was made up of lethal assassins. They did move through the shadows. That was another reason he didn’t want to let Giuseppi know about Emmanuelle. If his father was ever so irrational as to make a mistake and threaten her, her family could wipe them out and no one would be the wiser.