I had to save Francesca.
Three lives depended on it.
Chapter Twenty
Francesca
I rolled over, reaching for the warm body that had been beside me all night. My hand met cool satin sheets. My eyes opened with a snap. I didn’t have to look around to know that he was gone.
The tender, passionate storm that was Vincent Margarelli was no longer in my bed or in my house.
But he was in my life.
He would be back.
Of that, I had no doubt.
Because Vincent Margarelli loved me.
I sat up and stretched. I had a busy day ahead of me. The best day in a sea of terrible ones. Today, I was seeing my little angel.
In person. It was almost worse. I could hold her, smell her, only to have to watch her walk away, wondering if she would be safe. If she would be happy. If it was the last time I would ever see her again.
But even with all that pain, it was worth it.
Even a minute with my angel would be worth it.
Unless . . .
Unless the monster was tricking me again. He had done it before, dangled her in front of me, only to yank her away at the last moment. I had waited weeks. I had begged. But apparently, my stunt with Vincent had appeased him. Thinking that I was toying with Vincent’s emotions, that he wanted me . . .
Well, Philip ate it up. He was not a good person by any stretch of the imagination. But the pleasure he took in tormenting Vincent, or anyone who crossed him, was terrifying.
I knew from personal experience that he knew exactly where to apply pressure to elicit the greatest, most exquisite emotional pain. He knew me to my core. Or he had known me, the lost girl trying to find her place in the underground world of wealth, power, and extreme violence.
But now I was someone different, someone unrecognizable in the mirror as I brushed my teeth and got ready to face the day. Someone who had a secret reason to smile despite the pain and torment that had become a background to the daily grind.
He didn’t know the woman who had found something beautiful in this trash heap of a life. He didn’t know the woman who loved, and was loved, with a fiery passion that eclipsed any of the fumbling lovemaking he’d subjected me to during our engagement and marriage.
He didn’t know that despite my fear, I had something I hadn’t had in my life for years.
I had hope.
I was smiling as I showered and changed. I went to my office to get my day in order while I waited for Angelique.
Chapter Twenty-One
Vincent
“You can’t be serious.”
Michael was staring at me, then at Tiny, then back at me. It was almost comical, an Abbott and Costello routine. Or the Three Stooges, more like it.
The big man shrugged and shook his head. I’d never had so much guff from my subordinates. And in this family, they were all my subordinates.
Hell, on this fucking coast, everyone was my subordinate. Our family ties snaked across the country, all the way to New York. And along the way, be it a man or a woman, they all answered to me. Everyone except for her. Francesca was my equal in every way. Other than the ways she surpassed me, of course.
The woman made me feel like I had to up my game merely to be good enough for her. And I would. I would do whatever it took. I’d told her as much the night before, the last time I’d made love to her. It had physically hurt to leave her in that bed. But I had things to do. Important things. Things that would save her daughter and deliver Francesca to my bed.
Permanently.
She was mine. I protected what was mine at all costs. I would live and die for her and her child.
And now, I was going to prove it.
I needed every resource I had. Every bit of the power at my fingertips. Every brain cell. Every speck of courage.
I was going to bait a tiger. A crazy, wounded tiger who had learned long ago to enjoy the taste of human flesh.
The Discovery Channel had nothing on the mafia. It was tiger eat tiger, shark eat shark, snake eat snake, all the goddamn time. Every goddamn day.
I was tired of it. But the time I’d spent learning and observing was invaluable. It felt as though my entire life had been leading to this moment.
I was ready, willing, and able.
I just had to get everyone on the same page while keeping the whole damned thing top secret. It was need to know, only. And only the people in this room, and my brother in Italy, needed to know.
Michael was still looking confused, however.
“You want me to kill you?”