“We’ll talk later,” Nixon whispered. “Good work tonight. I wouldn’t have thought that clearly… I would have pressed the green button and exposed everyone and everything—because when you love someone all you can focus on is getting them to safety. You proved something extraordinary tonight, Vic. I hope you know that.”
Vic nodded to him and carried me down the hall toward his bedroom.
Once inside, he shut the door behind him and set me on my feet. I lunged. I hit him with my fists until I couldn’t feel my hands anymore, and when I yelled at him, he let me until I stopped hitting him, until I lost all energy—until I beat the fear out of myself.
“It’s okay.” Vic cupped my face, wiping my tears away with his thumbs. “You’re safe now, it’s going to be okay.”
“It’s not!” I choked on a sob. “Nixon’s going to send me back to Angelo or or or—”
“You’re dead,” Vic said in a quiet voice. “You belong to no one but yourself.”
“But—” I sniffed. “What about you? Why can’t I belong to you?”
His lips twitched and then he full on smiled. “I never said you couldn’t.”
“But the oath—”
“Fuck the oath.” He pulled me against his chest. “I live for you now.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Vic
Her eyes lit up as more tears fell down her face. “Me?”
“Give me the choice, Renee, them or you, and it will be you every single time. Tell me to walk away and I will.”
“You would walk away from this life?”
“This isn’t living,” I said sadly. “I want a life with you. Only you.”
“But what about your family? You can’t just leave them…”
“I’m replaceable.” I shrugged.
She glared like she knew it wasn’t true.
With a sigh I pulled her tight against my chest. “I don’t want stolen moments with you anymore. I want slow…I want your body sweaty in my hands while I make love to you—I want to drive you crazy with my tongue, to make you wild with each touch. No more rushing things between us, Renee. Not anymore. Because I’m yours.”
“No.” She shook her head.
My heart stopped beating in that no. “What?”
“I can’t be yours unless you give me your word.”
“On what?”
“Give it to me first.”
I pulled away and crossed my arms. “That’s not typically how these things work.”
She smiled. “I know. But I know how stubborn you are. Your word, please.” Of course I could see the outline of her breasts and was distracted as hell with the need to just be inside her and make sure she was okay.
“You have my word.”
“Great.” She grabbed my hand and stomped out of the room with me in tow. We stopped once she made it into the loud kitchen—naturally there was wine everywhere and angry talk about not getting to shoot anything.
“Nixon.” She barked out his name like she had a right to.
Nixon’s expression couldn’t be any more stunned.
“What you did, keeping that from me was wrong.” She lifted her chin in the air like the royalty she was. “Is it true though? If there was a sort of rank in here…would I be more important than say even…Tex?”
“Watch it.” Tex stood then winked at her.
Nixon grinned. “Yeah, probably.”
“Hey!” Tex looked actually hurt.
“What’s on your mind?” Nixon seemed extremely amused.
“Well, I have demands.”
“Nannies don’t get demands.”
“Princess,” she corrected. “Right?”
Nixon full-on laughed. “Yeah, all right, your highness, what are your demands?”
“Him.” She pulled me forward. “Just him.”
The guys stared at me with such shit-eating grins I wanted to shoot every one of them.
Chase just leaned back in his chair with a shrewd smile like he’d known it would turn out this way. Yeah, right.
“Anything else?” Nixon frowned.
“And…” She gulped. “I want to cook for family dinner at least once a month.”
“No!” Chase roared. “She’ll ruin it!”
“Sit down.” Dante jerked him by the shirt.
“Family dinners, huh? Does that mean you’re sticking around?” Nixon walked toward her. “I do have a guest house, multiple rooms…but by the look in my cousin’s eyes—” He wasn’t even looking at me, the bastard could probably just smell the arousal from there. “—I’d maybe aim for more privacy…”
I gave him the finger.
Everyone burst out laughing.
“No time for that.” She smiled sweetly. “So I suggest you wear ear plugs tonight, big guy…it’s going to be a fun few hours. After all, I did just get rescued and apparently I’m worth more than you are.”
I choked on a laugh.
“That’s fair.” Nixon chuckled and then held out his hand. “Are we shaking on this?”
“Blood oath.” She lifted her chin into the air again.
Damn it. The woman was going to cut herself over this? Over me?
“You’ve been paying better attention than I thought,” Nixon muttered as he took out his knife and sliced down the middle of his hand then grabbed hers and did the same, much lighter. He pressed his palm to hers. “I swear on my life that Vic is released from his oath, that he’s yours in every way—that you’re his—” She cleared her throat. “—and,” expression weary, he added, “that you can cook family dinner at least once a month.”
“Son of a bitch,” Chase muttered from his spot at the table.
Renee sighed, pulled her hand away, then leaned up and kissed Nixon on both cheeks. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” he said in a serious tone as he held her gaze.
“Just had to fall for the nanny…” Tex piped up.
“Bet she’ll kiss his boo boos and make him the best mac and cheese—”
That comment earned a slap from someone, and then knives were pulled, and guns. Wine was spilled.
It was a typical day in the life. I didn’t respond, just grabbed the med kit and pulled out some antiseptic and started working on Renee’s hand amidst the continuation of everyone drinking. When I was finished I squeezed her hand and led her back down the hall.
The minute we were in my room, I slammed the door shut.
And didn’t lock it.
Let them see.
Let them see who I loved.
Who I would die for.
Who I’d made an oath to live for.
“I love you,” she whispered between kisses as she pushed me against the door, stretching her soft body against mine. “Thank you for saving my life.”
“It’s you—” I pulled back and looked into her eyes. “—who saved mine.”
Our mouths collided. I pulled back and laughed. I laughed hard because I was happy. Because she made me happy.
Because for the first time in a long time—I knew joy.
And when I tossed her onto the bed and kissed every inch of skin, when I tasted her body, when I thrust into her slow and smooth and let myself feel the rhythm of her body…
I swore that I would do everything in my power to make sure she was never hurt or threatened again.
I rose over her, my breathing ragged. “You’re my joy.”
Her eyes lit up as she wrapped her arms around my neck and moved her hips against me. I coaxed a slow burning fire between us, ripples of pleasure sending shock waves through both of our bodies.
Nobody would ever love her the way I loved her.
“Vic.” She locked eyes with me. “My Vic.”
Epilogue
He was watching me again.
I could feel it in my body, in the way I burned for him, from my fingers all the way down to my toes. I licked my lips in anticipation and tried to focus on the conversation with my mom.
“Those were dangerous times,”
she said with such heavy sadness that I was convinced if I reached into the thin air I could grab it, stare at it, taste it, and see every single mental picture she had painted and feel pain all over again. “But your father, your biological father,” she corrected. “He sacrificed his life for us.”
I reached for her hand and squeezed. “Did he suffer?”
I felt the room pause as eyes fell to me, as the people standing around acting casual after our wedding showed their true colors. Eavesdropping. Maybe they paused, maybe they reacted because they knew the truth.
In the mafia there would always be suffering.
It came hand in hand with finding true love.
It was a sacrifice we were all willing to make—to find the one that made our heart beat when we faced death on a daily basis.
“No.” She smiled down at our joined hands, at the small brown photo album with its five pictures and torn plastic pages. “Where there is love—suffering cannot exist, only love. Love casts out all fear where suffering resides, there is only determination, protection, there is only sacrifice. That is what love truly is, dying to yourself regardless of the cost.”
I didn’t realize I was crying until my mom released my hand and touched my cheeks with both of hers. “Your biological father loved you as much as the father you knew. Both saved us just in different ways. And now—” She looked over my shoulder. “Now you have found a man willing to do anything to keep you safe. In our world, that bravery runs deeper than love. It is life. And he is willing to give his, for yours.”
She kissed me on the cheek and stood, walking off toward the kitchen like the air wasn’t heavy with her words. Like I wasn’t still staring at the pictures in my hand.
I swallowed the ball in my throat and looked up. Vic had snuck up on me, again.
Surprise, surprise.
He was way too talented at making no noise. Sometimes I asked him if he practiced not breathing.
He said he was just skilled.
Right.
Skilled at silence.
“What are you doing?” I tilted my head and set the small plastic album down on the couch.
He just smirked, in fact his smirk grew into a full-blown smile as he knelt down and grabbed my hands, then whispered gruffly against my neck, “What I do best.” I sucked in a breath. “I’m watching the nanny.”
“Like what you see?” I bit down on my lower lip.
“Love it.” He pulled back and cupped my face then pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of my mouth. “Love you.”
“I love you too.”
He stood and pulled me to my feet, then jerked me against his chest. “Guess you’re just going to have to prove it again.”
I didn’t miss the sly wink Chase sent our way as we casually walked to the hall bathroom, just like I didn’t miss Andrei’s blank expression as if he wasn’t even in the room with us.
But somewhere far away.
Somewhere dead.
And my gut clenched even tighter because I knew—unless you had light to balance out the dark—you would not survive.
Not in this life.
“He’s fine,” Vic said, closing the door behind us, pushing me against it. “Some of us feed off the darkness—so I say let him feed, let it grow, until it gets so big he has to fight it himself.”
“The monster?”
“He is the monster. We all are. Let it get big enough to where he has to make a choice…”
“What’s that?”
“Fight or succumb.”
“You fought.”
He brushed a kiss across my lips. “You gave me a reason to.”
I gripped his biceps and held us there. In that moment, I could have sworn I felt the beat of his heart as it sang my name as my heart joined its cadence.
Forever. I was his forever.
Until death do us part.
Or until this cruel world rips us from each other.
I was his.
He was mine.
“I watch you too.” I whispered. “Every day.”
“I know.” He grinned. “I’ve always known…it’s the first thing I noticed about you, your intense stare… I found love in that stare. I knew the only way to get your attention…was to stare right back.”
“I love you,” I said through streaming tears.
He just grinned and repeated what he’d said before. “Prove it.”
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Hey readers! I hope you enjoyed Envy! If you want to dive into the series where things start getting gritty and oh so sexy, I always personally recommend readers start with Elicit! The first few books have a very YA feel to them and since I started the series in a college location, some readers prefer to start where you get all the hot tension and all the sexy times!
* * * *
Cursed, numb, rejected, scorned, wicked, sinister, dark, twisted...my name is Tex Campisi and this is my legacy. I killed my father in cold blood and lost my soul right along with him.
I crave war more than peace, and I'm about to take my place in history as the youngest Capo dei Capi in the Cosa Nostra...that is until someone stops me, saves me from myself.
But the only person able to do that...is my best friends sister, Mo Abandonato, and she just ripped my heart out and asked me to hold it in my hands while she put bullets through it.
Im cursed so I did it.
I'm numb so I held it.
I'm wicked so I liked it.
I used the pain Mo caused as a catalyst to turn into my biggest nightmare--the five families greatest enemy. It's my turn to take a stand, knowing full well I'm going to lose my mind to the madness that is the American Mafia. I've always been told Blood is thicker than life. I wish I would have listened. Because regardless of who you love? You will betray. You will kill.
Blood Always Wins.
The only way out is death...yours.
Welcome to the Dark Side of the Family.
* * * *
“Eight minutes where I'd rather time didn't exist.” I whispered watching pain roll across his face in a wave. “Kiss me again.”
With a soft exhale, he brushed his lips across mine, little feathery strokes that tempted me with promises of something more. He used his tongue to trace the outline of my lips before sliding inside, past my teeth, tasting every inch of me, giving me every inch he could of himself. Living in the moment, both of us knowing that it would soon be over.
“Seven.” I whispered against his mouth.
“Go to school,” he urged for a second time. “Make mistakes, Mo. Get in trouble, let Nixon find you sneaking wine into your backpack. Get sent to the Dean's office, make mistakes,” he said again then licked his lips. “Let someone pick up the pieces of your broken heart, let someone fix what I destroyed.”
“What if I want to drop out and hermit myself in my room?” I refused to look at him.
Envy: An Eagle Elite Novella Page 15