It was quiet.
Which was rare with those two.
“I can’t keep it in,” Maksim blurted. “I tried extremely hard, but I just can’t do it, it may kill me.” He turned his perfect fallen-angel face toward me and smirked. “Tank and Tiny…How did he even—?”
Tank lunged for him.
But Maksim was fast.
Probably because he had a mouth on him and had to learn how to run away so he didn’t have to fight. Even though he could probably take on Tank, Tank was still bigger.
King busted up laughing. “He only said what everyone’s going to be thinking.”
I stumbled. “Everyone?”
“Please.” Maksim jogged back. “It’s all over your faces.” He snorted. “Especially this guy’s.” He pointed to Tank. “His face literally says, “Just got laid, five stars, one hundred percent recommend!”
“I’m killing you,” Tank said in a low voice.
“Many have tried.” Maksim just grinned. “All have failed. I’m too pretty.”
King sighed. “Pretty doesn’t keep you alive.”
“And yet, it does.” Maksim shrugged. “One of the world’s great mysteries, I suppose. Oh, and”—he snapped his fingers—“future boss of the Sinacore Family. No big…”
Tank just laughed. “If you make it that long.”
“Hey, hey.” Maksim slapped him on the back. “I was just curious. Besides, it’s not like anyone can keep a secret around here when people are having sex, need I refresh your young minds about the DoorDash incident with Annie and Ash outside, pants down at his ankles? I’m still traumatized, and I’m all for outside sexcapades.”
King shuddered. “Some things, I should never have to see. One being my cousin’s mouth on”—he gulped—“…never mind. I’m still not okay.”
“It will get better.” Maksim wrapped an arm around him. “These things take time.”
“It was so cold that night.” King put his head on Maksim’s shoulder. “And the lights—”
“There, there.” Maksim gave him a slight hug and then shoved him.
And I realized, I hadn’t stopped smiling.
Tank grabbed my hand.
And I knew as we approached the large structure housing Tex, my uncle and Godfather of the Families, that it would be okay.
I had Tank.
And neither of us were letting go.
Chapter Eleven
Tank
I don’t know what I expected.
But all the bosses lined up in the living room of the hut in the dark with candles lit all around them was not one of those things.
Sergio took one look at me holding Kartini’s hand and straight-up growled like a fucking animal.
Nixon put his hand on his shoulder and pulled him back.
Tex—the terrifying Capo—grinned like a fool.
Valerian stood next to him, arms folded, eyes lasered in on me as if telling me it was time.
And it was.
Every boss was present.
Dante Alfero, Tex Campisi, Phoenix Nicolasi, Andrei Sinacore, Valerian Petrov, Nixon Abandonato—and underbosses Chase Abandonato, Ash’s dad, and next to him, still glaring…
Sergio.
I had no clue if I was about to become a fucking sacrifice to some mafia god or if they were about ready to offer me what Valerian had known I wanted.
I’d already been made, so I wasn’t sure what the hell this was, but it must have been important because Kartini squeezed my hand extra-hard, and I could tell just by the look on her face how important this really was.
Only the older kids were there.
Ash, King, Maksim, Junior, Izzy, Serena, Annie, and Violet all stood off to the side, and then slowly Ash moved forward.
I frowned as Ash, one of my best friends despite the fact that this last year we’d nearly killed each other, moved directly in front of me.
His blue eyes nearly glowed, his whiskey-colored hair fell in a mess over his forehead, and I was reminded yet again how regal he looked when he was being serious and not pissed.
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.”
“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?”
I was already so damn hard for her that my body ached. “Absolutely.”
She sighed. “Tank, Tank, Tank, when will you ever learn? You can’t win against me.” She reached for my cock and squeezed.
“Fuck me.” I threw my head back, wanting to roar. “Kind of feels like winning right now.”
She slid her hand down, then back up. “We should probably slow down, though, so…”
With a menacing growl, I grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head. “That’s a no.”
“I kind of like being at your mercy.” She shimmied, showing off her perfect, perky breasts and tanned skin.
“Question...”
“What?” Her smile was so open, so real.
“In the mafia, do we get to pick where we die?”
She burst out laughing. “Um, that would be a no since you never know where or why…”
“That’s too bad.” I leaned down and pressed my head between her breasts. “Because I pick here.” I turned my mouth and kissed my way back up toward her neck and whispered, “And here.” My kiss lingered at the corner of her mouth as I teased her entrance with my cock. “And maybe here, too.”
She panted beneath me. “No arguments on my end, Tank. But fair warning, if you put in a request to die between my boobs, my dad’s going to run you over with his Lambo.”
We both fell into fits of laughter as I surged forward, causing the headboard to slam against the wall.
“Whoops.” I cursed.
“We’ll pay damages.” Tiny groaned. “Just don’t stop.”
So, I didn’t.
We screwed.
We made love.
We kissed.
We laughed.
And the next morning, when she was still lying there, looking well and truly loved, I dressed and made one last walk of my old life.
My badge and gun both burned holes against my body as I took the trails back up to the main lobby and bar.
I dialed the number.
I wasn’t surprised to hear a sigh on the other end as Thompsons answered. “Any news?”
“It wasn’t them,” I lied.
Thompsons was quiet for a few minutes while my heart raced, wondering what he would say until he finally broke the silence. “So, you’ve chosen.”
“Was there ever a question what side I would choose? Family or FBI?”
“And you’re positive they had nothing to do with my agent’s murder?”
“Positive,” I lied again. It was easy to, knowing what had happened with Kartini. “But, sir, you need to know, he didn’t back down that day. None of my team backed down when I asked them to leave it. So, either you gave the order to continue, or someone else did.”
“The hell?” he roared. “Tank, it was your team. Your call to make, not mine.”
“It was a shit idea in the first place,” I reminded him. “They’re Family. They’re loyal. Creating war after they worked so hard to have peace, it does nothing to help us. It only makes us their enemy. You have to see that. The Petrov Family isn’t weak like we thought, not under Valerian’s rule. And you do not want to piss that son of a bitch off—trust me.”
“They’re too strong, Tank. May I remind you that the minute the Russians and Italians joined forces, they became a nightmare?”
“They’ve been quiet, and you know it. You’re just afraid they’re too strong. Powerful. You’re afraid they’re a fucking mafia monopoly, but hurting an innocent person just to get them to fight doesn’t make you better, sir. It makes you worse than them.”
“Anything else?” he snapped.
“Yeah.” I paced. “I’m handing in my badge and gun to Giana once I find her.”
“What the hell is Giana doing down there?” he roared. “Are you sure?”
My body went cold. “She said you sanctioned it. That you didn’t trust me to get intel on my own.”
“Tank, Giana was fired two days ago for insubordination.”
“Fuck!” I roared into my phone. “I left her alone, I left her alone!”
I hung up the phone as he was talking and ran back down the pathway to my bungalow, hoping to God I wasn’t too late.
Because Giana was clearly unhinged.
And if I knew her…
She was here to finish what she’d started.
Chapter Thirteen
Kartini
I woke up and stretched my sore body, throwing my arms over my head and wondering how the hell I’d put off confessing everything to Tank for so long. Oh, I was sure we’d argue like crazy despite the sex, but that’s what would make our relationship so fun.
The
arguing.
And the making up.
And I had a feeling we’d have a lot of making up to do in the future since both of us had serious issues with backing down.
I reached for my phone and saw a text from Serena.
Serena: Hey, lover, going to the pool. When you pull that sore body out of Tank’s arms, come join us. Then tell us all the details! Izzy wants to know if he almost broke you in half, how are you walking? Okay, okay just meet us asap!
I laughed out loud. The text was only sent a few minutes ago. I fired one back.
Me: Tell Izzy I might need crutches after last night, but it was worth it. And if he broke me in half, I’d ask him to do it again.
Serena: You WHORE!
Me: Izzy’s just jealous because Chase cut down the tree Maksim used to sneak into the house and threatened bodily harm.
Serena: Um, he threatened decapitation but sure, same thing.
Me: Ughhhhhh, I’m tired. Okay, give me five minutes?
Serena: I’m ordering you booze, so you talk.
Me: That’s to be expected.
I threw the phone onto the bed and winced when I really did feel a bit of pain between my thighs. Geez, the guy had lost his mind last night.
Then again, I had, too.
I’d lost count after around six a.m.
And then I realized that I didn’t need to count, did I?
Because what I had with him, it felt…real. Like forever.
Still grinning, I put on my black bikini then grabbed my Airpods, sunglasses, and keycard.
I was still smiling as I pushed open the suite doors and lifted my head, only to see a complete stranger sitting on my couch, a Glock 17 in her hand as she watched me with hatred dripping from every pore of her body.
I kept my head high. “You the maid?”
Her nostrils flared. “Do maids typically carry guns?”
“Good question.” I crossed my arms and tried to memorize every detail of her face from her dark hair in a severe, tight bun, to her green eyes, to the way her pale skin seemed to glisten with sweat.
She was either nervous or unhinged.
Dressed in black leggings and a tight, matching t-shirt.
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