Slowly turning, Maria saw her worst nightmare come back to life. Nico was on his knees with a gun to his head. Caterina stood next to him, her grip tight on his chin as she forced him to look up at her. Another man was in the room, lounging in a chair as he stared at her with cool, dead eyes. It was her worst nightmare come to life, and she had gone into it willingly. Her body shook when Caterina released Nico and turned to her. Oh, God, please, no, not again.
Reading the look displayed clearly in her face, Caterina laughed. “Are you remembering our last time together, Maria? Basilio and I had such fun with you before he sent you to the houses.” Caterina’s smile grew at the whimper that crossed Maria’s lips before she could stop it. “Basilio was quite upset when you left his houses, Maria. He paid me a very large sum for you, and he had yet to make his money back.”
Terror filled Maria at Caterina’s taunts as broken images that had been hidden behind drug-filled hallucinations fought to come out. Turning, Maria bolted, ready to throw herself from the balcony onto the welcoming cliffs below rather than live this again, but she hadn’t gotten more than a step before Jason wrapped his hand into her hair and pulled her back. Slamming hard to the floor, she fought like a demon, but Jason never hit her. Instead, she heard the sound of a hammer being pulled back. Looking up in fear, Maria saw Nico had been pushed down to the ground. The bastard with the gun had his foot on Nico’s back, holding him there. Defeat and self-recrimination filled his eyes as he stared at her. He felt that he had failed; it was clear to see. But he hadn’t failed her; she had failed him.
Forcing herself to be still, she kept Nico’s gaze. “Let him go, Caterina.”
“Why would I do that, Maria?”
“Because if you hurt Nico, my family will kill you. They will never stop hunting you. Right now, they think you’re dead, but if you do this, they’ll know.”
“Oh, that is rich. Please, Maria, your family has been hunting me for years. They are very much aware that I’m alive. They just didn’t feel the need to inform you,” Caterina said in a mocking voice, clearly amused by Maria’s threat.
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not. Look at your brother; he knows the truth,” Caterina taunted. He did. The truth was there in his eyes that he had kept this from her, but it didn’t matter. Only Nico did.
“She will come for you, Caterina, and she’ll bring death with her. You know she will. Are you will to risk your life for his?” Maria bluffed. If Nico was right, now that she was married to Nero, Angie would leave her to her fate, but Caterina didn’t know that.
“She is no threat to me, Maria. Maybe if you spoke to your family, you would know the truth. She sacrificed everything for you. She hid you from your family to give you time to heal before she secretly married you to my brother, and for her kindness, she is a pariah within your family. Lucca was so angry with her that he told her that should she interfere again, he will cast her out and keep her children from her.”
“You’re lying. Lucca loves her,” Maria bluffed. How the hell could she know that?
“Love is just a tool like any other, Maria. It is used to control people. Angelica loved you, and what did that love get her? Nothing. You hate her for things that she could not control. She would have come for you herself at the brothels had she known. She would never have allowed you to marry Barzette had she known. Though she was the one to solve that problem for you.”
“She killed Paulie?” Maria asked before she could pull the words back. It all made sense. Of course, she killed Paulie. She needed to clear the way for Nero.
“Oh, yes, she did. Everything that Paulie did to you, she delivered back to him tenfold before finally allowing him death. Then, because she loved you, she forced Nero to marry you so that you would be protected by his name. The only thing it gave her was your hate and pain.”
Liar, she wanted to scream, but she forced herself not to say it. The only thing that Caterina feared was Angie, and as long as she believed that Angie still cared for them, they had a chance. “You let Nico go, and I’ll do whatever you want.”
“You’ll do whatever I want, Maria. That goes without saying. But I will give you an incentive. If you do what I want and do it well, you and Nico will be set free.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s quite simple. It’s not the two of you that I want.” Caterina said a smile playing around her lips.
“I won’t betray my family to you.”
“It’s not your family I’m interested in, Maria. It’s mine. You will deliver to me my sister and brother in exchange for Nico. Two people you hate and despise in exchange for one that you love.”
“How am I supposed to do that? Tori knows I hate her, and so does Nero.”
Seeing the wavering look on Maria’s face, Caterina became sly. “Ah, that is the trick, my dear, and one I’m sure that you can do. You’ll have to seduce my brother into believing that you have changed your mind and bring him to love you. My brother is a fool for those that he loves. He will do anything for them, and once you have Nero’s love, Tori will believe that you have changed. She is desperate for your forgiveness and will rush to your side when you call.”
“How long will I have?” Maria asked, seeing the pleading look on Nico’s face.
“Three months. You’ll have three months to deliver my brother and sister to me.”
“Where am I supposed to bring them? I’ll never be able to get them to come here.”
“I don’t need them to come here. When the time comes, you’ll know where to bring them. Wendy will be going back to the States with you. She’ll let you know.”
“Where am I supposed to say Nico is? My family will be worried about him.”
“Why? Nico will be back at school. Your family won’t even know he is missing.”
“Nero will want to speak with Nico. He’ll know Nico helped me to leave. How am I going to explain being down here?”
“You were never here. You, my dear, were in Miami for a day of shopping. All the tickets say it. You’ll be flying home tonight, and you’ll play the spoiled princess Nero believes you’ve been for the last two years to a tee. Now, the car will be taking you back to the airport, and our game will begin. Oh, and Maria? Don’t think of betraying me. I have people inside Nero’s organization. You remember your time among us. Should you betray us, Nico will suffer in ways that you cannot even fathom. The things that we did to you were just the tip of what can be done to a human body, and I can make it last for years.”
***
“Can she do it?” Basilio asked as soon as they dragged Maria from the room.
Smiling like the cat that ate the canary, Caterina took the chair next to him. “Yes. Soon Nero will be out of our way, and it will be business as usual.”
Chapter 8
The cab pulled up to the front gates. There was no fear in Maria when the guard came to see who was in the car. All of her fear had been frozen inside of her. The whole plane ride home, Wendy made sure to tell her what a fool she was. How she had been played from the start, and they were all in on it. Vicky, her friend who had let her use the condo, was Jason’s sister; the girls from work belonged to Jason. Everyone, everyone knew what was going on except her. She was a fool.
The guard at the gate waved her through, and the cab went to the front of the house. Climbing out, Maria went straight into the house, ignoring the angry looks being thrown her way. Nero’s men would take care of her bags. If Nero checked them, he would find clothing with the tags still on them from boutiques that would match the charges to the credit card that was used. Caterina and Basilio had planned everything perfectly.
Nero met her at the door, and he looked furious. Gripping her arm, he dragged her up the stairs to her room, pushing her inside before entering and closing the door with a sharp snap.
For long moments, he just stared at her before he asked in a deceptively calm tone, “Where have you been, Maria?”
If it weren’t for his ey
es that reflected his anger, she would have believed that tone. “I went to Miami for the day to do some shopping,” she said coolly, careful to keep all emotion out of her voice as she spoke. She couldn’t break down.
“And you didn’t think to tell me before you went on your little trip?”
“I didn’t think it was necessary to tell you my plans for the day. It’s not like I work for you.”
“No, you don’t work for me. If you worked for me, this conversation would be going like the one I had with your guards. You know, the guys you ditched before disappearing.”
“What am I, a prisoner that I need those guards?”
“No, you’re my wife, and those guards are there to keep you safe.”
“I spent two years out on my own and never had any problems.”
“You were never alone, Maria. There was someone always watching you.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not. Did you really think that we would have let you just disappear? You know our world and the dangers that are in it waiting to claim its next victim.” Reaching forward, he gripped her arm. “My enemies would love to get their hands on you. I won’t have you put my family at risk, so from now on, you won’t be leaving the house.”
“You can’t do that.”
“You’re my wife, Maria. I can do whatever the fuck I want.” He spat before leaving the room.
Stunned, Maria stood there, staring at the door. She had to meet Wendy on Friday to report. If she didn’t, they would kill Nico. Tears filled her eyes as she dropped to her knees. Angrily, she wiped away the tears and took a deep breath. Crying wouldn’t help; it never did. She had five days to get Nero to let her out of the house. Five days to plot her escape and begin his downfall.
***
That selfish little bitch. She didn’t give a fuck about the worry that she’d caused him or the chaos that she’d caused his family. When her guards called to say that she was missing, he thought the worst. He had his men scouring everywhere to find a trace of her, and she was shopping. Fuckin’ shopping. Going down the stairs, he went straight into his office, ignoring Matteo, who was already there. He didn’t need this fucking shit, and he sure as fuck didn’t need Matteo telling him what he already knew. He should have told Angelica to go fuck herself when she demanded that he marry Maria to repay his family’s debts to her. He knew, he fuckin’ knew that it was a mistake, but his goddamn honor forced him to agree, and now he was stuck with her.
Grabbing an ashtray off the desk, he threw it at the wall, finding no satisfaction as it shattered into a million pieces. Turning to Matteo, he growled, “Not a fucking word.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” he replied blandly, his tone saying what his words didn’t.
“Find out if she was really in Miami shopping. I want proof. I don’t trust her. Also, I want to talk to that little fuck Nico. If he’s still lurking around in town, drag his ass here,” Nero told Matteo before moving to the desk to sit down. Pushing down his anger, he allowed the coldness to rise. Rage bred emotion. Emotion allowed for mistakes, but cool logic allowed you to view a situation. She was lying to him. He knew it, though he had no proof. He just had to figure out what she was lying about.
Chapter 9
He was fucking tired. He had been up half the night catching up on shit that would have been done if he hadn’t had to drop everything to find his missing wife. A sour taste filled his mouth from just thinking of the word. Coming downstairs, he rubbed his face wearily when the smell of something burning filled his nostrils. Following the smell to the kitchen, he stood in the doorway, staring at the sight before him, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. His house staff stood back watching with varying degrees of horror as Maria dumped something in the garbage. Mumbling to herself, she glared at the frying pan that she threw in the sink before grabbing a clean one. Putting it on the too-high burner, she sprayed it with oil before growling, “Fuck,” and racing to the smoking toaster. She pulled out the smoking bread and threw it on the counter, adding it to what looked like a loaf of burned toast.
Moving behind her into the kitchen, Nero went to the frying pan that had tiny flames dancing in it and turned off the burner before putting a lid on it.
Maria was so caught up with adjusting the knobs on the toaster that she didn’t notice him, so she jumped when he asked as calmly as he could without a cup of coffee, “What are you doing?”
Swinging around, she brought the toaster, which flew out of her hands and banged against the cabinets when the cord came up short. “What are you doing here?” she blurted out instead of answering him.
“It’s my house.”
“I mean in the kitchen,” she said, glaring at the staff like it was their fault.
Jesus. Grabbing a cup, he poured some coffee in it. It was a mistake. As soon as it hit his tongue, he was spitting it back into the cup. What the fuck was in it? Swinging around to ask his cook, he stopped when she quickly pointed her finger at Maria, who looked a little worried.
“You don’t like it.”
Like it? Was she fucking kidding? “What are you doing? Trying to poison me?”
Twisting her hands together, she looked down at the floor. “I was making you breakfast to say sorry,” she whispered before hurrying out of the kitchen.
Looking around at the burned food, Nero shook his head and prayed for patience. Setting down the cup, he ignored the disrespectful glares that followed him out of the room and went to find Maria. Seeing her guards by the doors leading outside, he nodded and went through. Following the path into the garden, Nero found Maria sitting on a bench with her head down.
Sitting down at the other end of the bench, he waited for her to acknowledge him, but she didn’t, which caused him to sigh. “You don’t have to cook, you know,” he finally said into the silence. Frustrated, he watched her nod her head that she heard him, so he tried again. “It was nice that you tried. Did you cook often at home?”
When she shook her head no, he wasn’t surprised. The whole Salvatici line would have been wiped out from food poisoning if she had. Ready to just walk away, he stopped when she whispered, “Angie tried to teach me how to cook, but I never got the knack of it. She and Sal used to try what I made when no one else would, so I wouldn’t get my feelings hurt.” There was a hitch in her voice.
Nero knew that Sal had been her guard that had died. He had been a second father, and she had been devastated by the loss. He could see the grief in Maria’s face that she still carried. Guilt was a heavy burden, making you do things you wouldn’t normally do.
“Maria, you don’t need to say that you are sorry. You just have to do what I tell you.”
“Because you’re my husband,” she said with such bitterness that it caused his teeth to clench.
“Yes.”
“I’ve already had a husband, Nero. The last one my family chose for me, and I did everything that he told me to do. Do you know what it got me?” she asked. Pulling up her shirt, she showed him slightly raised marks on her skin. “More scars.”
Nero recognized the scars. How couldn’t he? His mother had collected them all through his childhood. Whip marks. Reaching forward, he gently pulled the shirt back down. “Maria, I can’t promise you much, but I can promise you this. No matter what you say to me or what you do, I will never hurt you like that.”
Slowly, her face came up at his words until she was staring into his eyes. Capturing them, he held them with an intensity, needing her to understand what he was about to say. “I’m not a good man, Maria, but I don’t need to beat my wife to prove anything. I know neither of us wanted this marriage, but that doesn’t matter. You are my responsibility, and I take my responsibilities seriously. You will always tell me where you are going. You will always have your guards with you when you leave this house.”
Knowing that he might regret this, he said it, anyway. “I have enemies that will take you because you are my wife. My family is currently at war with the ca
rtel. It was kept quiet, and since you stopped speaking with your family, you wouldn’t know that a faction of the cartel killed my Grandmother Rose. I had been doing a job for them that went bad, and Rose paid the price. My sister Caterina was involved.” He watched as her eyes blanked and a shiver moved through her body, hating that he was doing this but needing her to understand the seriousness of the situation. “Do you understand, Maria? Caterina is alive and more insane than ever. The two greatest threats to my family have joined forces looking for any weakness that they can find to use against me.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“Yes, Nero, I do. I have no desire to be used as a pawn ever again.”
“Maria, I never meant…”
“I know what you meant. There’s no need to explain it. I just have one question. What is our marriage?”
“How do you mean?”
“What are the rules besides safety? You never wanted me, so I’m sure that you find companionship elsewhere, but what about me? Am I to remain alone, only to be brought out when you have need of me?”
“I don’t expect you to be alone, Maria. There is a house full of people that you can talk to. Also, there is your family when you’re ready to see them.”
“That’s not what I mean, Nero.”
“I know it isn’t, but it’s the only answer I can give you. You’re my wife, Maria, and no matter how unfair it may seem, there is a different standard for men and woman in our world. No matter how discreet you might be, something always leaks, and a man in my position cannot have it look like his wife has cuckolded him.”
“What about children?”
“There will be no children, Maria. I have no intention of passing on the madness in my blood to an unsuspecting child.”
“I see. So, where does this put us?”
“Where would you like it to put us?”
“As friends, I think. I’d like us to start over and try for friends. After all, we’re going to be together for a while.”
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