Leo smiled at me, but nothing would reassure me at the moment. “I’ll be right outside.”
My chest heaved as the door closed behind him. I scampered to my feet, trying to stay as far away as possible from Tino, but he grabbed my wrist before I took a single step.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
“Nowhere,” I barely said.
He pulled me back down on the couch. “That’s right.”
I tried to swallow again but my mouth was as dry as a rock. I bent my head down with guilt.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
I did as he said. As always. I might tease him sometimes, but I always obeyed him in the end.
“I’ll ask you the same question I’ve been asking you since I knew about you and Leo. Do you love him?”
I’d been asking myself the same question, but the answer had never been a yes or a no.
“Do you love him?!” he roared.
Trembling hard, I just leaned back, tears threatening to spill from my eyes.
“Answer me, goddamn it!”
“He loves me! That’s what matters.”
“That’s not my question.”
“Then yes. Leo is the only person that truly thinks I’m worthy of having any man I want. He believes I’m good enough for him. Yes, I’ve started to love him, and I know with time I’ll love him with all my heart.”
The fury in his expression turned into something morbid, something that made me feel like the worst of traitors; I betrayed Tino’s trust. I stole his son away from him.
“I warned you he’d make you fall for him,” he mumbled.
“You shouldn’t have left us alone then.” I regretted the words as soon as they fell off my mouth. Why the hell would I say that?
I knew why. I was angry at him even if I had no right to be. I was angry he used me. I was angry he pretended to care. And above all, I was furious that he ignored that moment we had together.
But he was doing the right thing, and so should I.
“If the wedding is too soon, we can wait after my graduation. Either way, I won’t marry him without your approval. You have my word,” I said quickly in a feeble attempt to fix what I’d just done.
“Well, here’s my word, Angelina,” he whispered, but his voice thundered through me, bringing up a feeling I’d only experienced with…Marciano. Why would Tino’s whisper remind me of Marciano’s? Why did they sound so alike?
Why did my mind play those tricks on me? In this moment when I’d never needed clarity more?
My breath quivered as I exhaled, blinking away the tears and the confusion. “I’m all ears.”
“Congratulations.”
“Wha—”
He jutted up, leaving the whole office, leaving me behind in a pool of sweat and shock and disbelief.
Don Bellomo had just agreed to the wedding.
I was gonna marry Leo Bellomo, the Mafia boss’s son.
Chapter 39
Tino
Halloween Eve. The night before she turned eighteen. The night I’d been waiting for for years. The night I’d imagined a thousand times but not once had I pictured it to become this agony. To become the night before she married my own son. The last night I’d be able to sit in this chair and watch her in her sleep.
Tomorrow, my sweet Angel would never be mine again.
She’d belong to Leo. My son was going to taste her lips, touch her beautiful body, watch her bend under his hands, savor her moans while he made love to her.
There were no words to describe the blazing pain corroding me. The thought of another hand on her was enough to bring out the demons to play.
“Why did you do this to me, Angel?” I whispered. “I did everything for you. How could you betray me like this?”
I tiptoed to her side of the bed and felt the softness of her hair one last time, moving it off her peaceful face. “How could you sleep like that, tonight of all nights?”
The back of my hand brushed her cheek and feathered on her lips, her breath kissing my skin like a whisper. “How could you let me go?”
How could I ever let her go?
A wet drop smeared my hand and another plopped down on her face. My…own tears? I never cried. For the past twenty years I didn’t remember a time I cried except when my wife died. “Look what you’ve done to me, Angel. Look at how much you’ve hurt me. Look at how weak you’ve made me.”
I wiped my eyes fast and yanked the sheets off her body. “I’ll have you right now and ruin this fucking wedding before it starts.”
She’d broken all her spoken and unspoken promises to me. Why should I keep mine? I stripped her with the patient speed I used every time and knelt naked between her legs, my cock ready to take what had always been mine.
I put my knees on either side of her parted thighs and braced on my palms.
Do it. She belongs to you. You didn’t wait all this time for someone else to sink his cock into her virgin pussy.
She’s ready for the taking. Your taking. Do it.
Why should you be the one sacrificing her? Why shouldn’t Leo? You had your eyes on her long before he did. He’s the one who should step down. You’re not stealing her from him now. You can’t steal what’s yours. He’s the one who should have never stolen her from you.
It’s time for him to pay. For both of them to pay.
Do it. You know she’ll love it. You know she’ll beg for it.
Do it.
DO IT!
Her innocent face stared at me in the dark, oblivious to my presence, yet begging me to shelter her from all evil, tugging at my heart like it always did. Then my son’s face flashed in my head, slicing me open with a blunt blade.
Do it.
Do it.
DO IT!
I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a silent scream at the ceiling. “I can’t do it.”
Not to him. Not to her.
I got off her and put my clothes back on. Then I took my gun, felt its weight in my hands as if for the first time. Then I took a pillow and pointed it with the gun at her head.
“You leave me no choice, Angel.” If I couldn’t have her, no one else could. Not even him.
She stirred in her sleep, and the moonlight hit her stark naked body. I’d forgotten to put her clothes back on. I couldn’t kill her while she was naked and leave her for everyone to see her body. Not even in death.
I set the pillow back in place and waited for her breath to gain its steady beat. Then I fully dressed her. She moaned, blinking as I fixed her shorts in place. Swiftly, I straightened and grabbed the gun.
Her eyes opened, and my heart thundered in my ears. “Tino? Is that you?” she asked, her hands quick with the lights.
As she sat up and saw the gun pointed at her, her gaze widened. “What are you doing?”
Yeah, what the fuck was I doing? What the fuck was I doing to my sweet, little Angel? My shoulders slumped as I put the gun down. “I…I thought I heard something. I came straight to your room. You know, with the wedding tomorrow, and the Lanzas not pleased…”
Her eyes darted around in panic. “Is someone here?”
“No. False alarm.”
She jumped out of bed and threw her arms around me. “Thank you, Tino.”