I gritted my teeth and paused, not liking the delay. I wanted to get back to Allie, to have her look at me like I was her savior again. Having her wide, trusting green eyes on my scarred face felt even better than the darkly intoxicating power that flooded my system in the wake of my triumph.
“Max, wait.”
I turned, keeping my head high as I faced my grandfather with pride and a thread of contempt. He’d given up on this family, but I hadn’t. I was responsible for our resurgence. We would take back everything we’d lost, and one day, it would all be mine. I’d be the head of the family. Powerful. Untouchable.
“What?” I demanded, my fingers flexing as the need to return to Allie tensed my muscles.
He finally reached me, his hazel eyes drawn with something like sorrow. “You don’t have to do this. You can make another choice.”
Shock rendered me mute for a second. After everything I’d endured to achieve this triumph, he thought I’d walk away?
“Prison broke you,” I sneered, pushing his concern away with cruelty. “I haven’t broken. Not in the years since you went to jail. Not since the fire. I’m stronger than you, old man.”
“You don’t have to live this life,” he said, the gentleness in his tone stoking my rage. “You have a good heart. I know you, Max.”
I know you, Max. The echo of Allie’s words set my teeth on edge. She wanted to believe I wasn’t a monster, but she was wrong.
“You don’t know me,” I flung back at him. “You haven’t known me since I was thirteen years old, when you went to prison. You don’t know what I’ve done, what I’ve sacrificed to get here. To be worthy.”
His lips thinned. “And what else will you sacrifice? This girl, Alexandra. You care for her. How do you think she’ll react when she finds out that you blackmailed her father?”
My stomach dropped, but I clung to the power of my fury. “My relationship with Allie is none of your business. I don’t want to hear you say her name ever again. I don’t want anyone in this family going anywhere near her.”
His gray brows lifted. “And what about you? You want to be head of this family one day. Do you really think the mayor’s daughter will accept that? No matter what she believes about her father’s corruption, she’s not part of this world. And you shouldn’t pull her into it.”
“I’m protecting her from it!” I thundered. “Everything I’ve done tonight is to protect her. Paulie and John won’t dare come after her again.”
He scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. “No. Everything you did tonight was for you. You’ve let your anger rule you. You chose this path of vengeance out of weakness, not strength. You want to be worthy, but no worthy man would betray the woman he loves in exchange for power.”
The dark power that suffused my chest solidified in my lungs, and I struggled for my next breath.
I did love Allie.
The thought that I’d betrayed her was so abhorrent that I refused to accept it.
“You’re wrong,” I seethed. “I’m keeping her safe.”
“And who is the danger to her?” my grandfather challenged. “The very organization that you were so keen to join. You think what you’ve done makes you a man? I thought you were smarter than this, Max. It’s not too late to choose differently.”
I shook off the insane lies he was spinning. “There is no other choice,” I ground out. “This is the only path open to me.”
I’d been born to be Maximus Ferrara, head of a powerful crime syndicate; an untouchable King over my own domain.
My grandfather was wrong. My power would protect Allie.
She was mine, and nothing would change that. I wouldn’t let her go.
I turned my back on the old man before he could say more maddening lies. I had to get back to Allie and promise her that everything would be okay.
I had to get back to the woman I loved.
MAX
“Max!” She cried out my name as she flung open the door, immediately wrapping her arms around me and pulling me close. “You came back,” she murmured against my chest.
“Of course I came back.” I kissed the top of her head and breathed in her floral scent. Usually, that scent brought me peace, but something gnawed at my insides.
I ignored it and crushed my lips to hers, claiming her with fierce strokes of my tongue. She shivered in my arms and tipped her head back, inviting me to take everything I wanted.
And I wanted all of her. I wanted to possess every inch of the woman I loved.
I cupped her cheeks in my hands to trap her in my possessive kiss. But I’d forgotten about the bloody handkerchief around my palm, and she jolted when it touched her cheek.
Her delicate brows drew together, and she tore her mouth from mine to inspect my hand. As soon as she saw the drops of red that’d bled through the white cloth, she sucked in a gasp and captured my fingers in hers.
“What happened?” she asked. “You’re hurt.” Her eyes flashed. “Did your family do this?”
“It’s not what you think.” My insides twisted, and nausea curled in my stomach.
I couldn’t explain what’d happened. I couldn’t tell my sweet Allie that I’d become more tightly bound to my Mafia family than ever.
Why are you loyal to them? Your cousins are awful. Your sister is cruel to you. And you… You’re not like them. Her desperate words echoed through my mind.
I was like them. I was truly one of them now, irrevocably part of our criminal family. The heir to the resurging empire that my father would control. Once I blackmailed Allie’s dad.
Once I betrayed her completely.
My grandfather’s hard questions hit me like a punch straight to my heart: And what else will you sacrifice? This girl, Alexandra. You care for her. How do you think she’ll react when she finds out that you blackmailed her father?
“Max.” She caressed my cheek. My skin was strangely cold beneath her warm touch. “Did they hurt you?”
I tried to harden my bruised heart. “No, Bambi. They didn’t hurt me. I’m fine.”
A small frown tugged at her lush lips, and her gemstone eyes flashed, incensed on my behalf. “You’re bleeding. That’s not okay.” Despite her fierce tone, her fingers were achingly gentle as she unwound the bloodstained cloth from my hand. She hissed in a breath when she revealed the angry red slash across my palm.
The mark of my triumph.
But the searing heat in my cheeks felt more like shame.
For years, shame had been my constant companion. I thought I’d overcome it tonight when I’d earned my father’s respect. But now…
“Who did this?” she insisted, righteously angry. “Your father?”
I managed a tight nod, at a loss for words. My father had cut me, but he hadn’t hurt me. At least, it hadn’t felt painful at the time.
My palm stung with a sudden searing heat that matched the awful warmth in my face, and my stomach lurched.
Her pretty features softened, her eyes glowing with compassion. “I’ll get this bandaged. Come on.” She took my uninjured hand and gently led me into her bedroom before briefly stepping into the bathroom. She returned with a small first aid kit and gestured for me to sit on the bed.