The mont the door of Jace’s penthouse shut behind , my lungs finally rembered how to work.
I didn’t care if I left in a storm. I didn’t care if his n were staring, whispering about how I shoved the Don’s words back in his face. I didn’t even care about the car ride that brought here, back to this temporary cage that wasn’t really mine.
What I cared about and what wouldn’t stop thundering in my chest was what I had just said.
Your father killed mine.
The words had spilled from my mouth like venom, unplanned, unrestrained. For so long, I’d guarded that truth like it was my last weapon, sothing to wield when the ti was right. But the way he tried to order , cage all over again, it cracked open.
And now... now Jace knew. He knew that I knew the truth and I didn’t know how to go from there.
I dropped my bag the second I stepped into the apartnt Massimo had given . It looked the sa as always but right now it felt more helpful. His kind of generosity always ca with invisible strings, but right now, it was the only safe place I had. Or at least it was supposed to be.
I pressed my back against the door, sliding down until I hit the floor, my knees curling to my chest.
"Shit," I whispered into the empty space. "Shit, shit, shit."
The chandelier light above threw shadows across the room, but I couldn’t focus on anything except the mory of Jace’s face when I said it. That split second where his entire body froze, his gray eyes widening, nt with rage, not with arrogance, but with sothing else. Sothing raw.
Shock.
Maybe guilt.
Maybe... recognition.
I squeezed my eyes shut, digging my nails into my palms.
For years, I had carried the pieces of that night like jagged glass in my heart. My father’s body, bloodied and broken. My mother’s screams. And then, silence. Nothing but silence.
I rembered clinging to my brother. His hand shaking as he pulled away from it all. Two kids shoved into the world with no safety net, no parents, nothing but fear gnawing at our bones. It was a very tough experience, one words cannot fully describe.
And now I knew it hadn’t just been so random act of mafia violence. It wasn’t fate or bad luck. It was calculated. Ordered. Carried out.
By Don Vittorio Romano.
By Jace’s father.
I pressed a fist to my mouth, as if I could stop the bile rising in my throat. The man I’d once called my husband (he unfortunately still was), the man whose touch could both burn alive and break apart was the son of my father’s killer.
And I had just told him I knew.
The question clawed at now: what would he do with that information?
Would he deny it? Try to bury it like his family had always buried the truth? Would he co after harder, try to lock down until I couldn’t speak another word?
Or would he... admit it?
A part of trembled at the thought of his silence. At the way he had looked at , stunned into speechlessness. For a man like Jace, silence was never a good sign. Especially silence as eerie as the one I had just experienced from him.
I pushed myself off the floor and paced across the apartnt, bare feet hitting the cool tiles. My reflection caught in the glass window overlooking the city, and I hated the look on my face. It was haunted, conflicted, tired and everything you can think of.
I should feel empowered. I should feel like I’d just landed the first blow in a war that was long overdue. But instead, I felt... shaken. I was terrified.
Because no matter how much I told myself otherwise, there was a part of that still craved him. Still wanted him to reach for and tell none of it was true. Still wanted to believe that the man who made laugh over dinner, the man who kissed with so much uncharacteristic gentleness just hours ago, wasn’t the son of the monster who destroyed my family.
But wanting and reality were two different things.
I walked to the counter and poured myself a glass of water, but it did nothing to cool the fire in my chest.
Massimo’s last words to echoed now: Find the docunt. Use what you know. Get your revenge.
Revenge.
That was why I was here. Why I’d let myself dance this close to Jace again. Not because of love. Not because of lingering desire. But because I owed it to my parents.
And yet, as much as I repeated that to myself, my body still rembered what it felt like to lt beneath his touch. My lips still tingled from the kiss we’d shared earlier. A kiss that had been different....
I pressed my forehead against the window, staring at the glittering sprawl of Los Angeles below.
"What the hell is wrong with ?" I whispered.
My phone buzzed on the counter.
Massimo.
I ignored it. I wasn’t ready for his questions, for his pressure, for his calculating smirk. He didn’t care about . He cared only about the leverage I could bring him. If he knew I’d already spilled my hand to Jace, he’d see as useless. Replaceable.
But Jace... Jace was another problem entirely.
If he ca after tonight, I’d have to decide if I would double down, force the truth between us like a wedge, or did I run again?
My chest tightened. I was so tired of running.
Tired of being pulled between two powerful n who saw as sothing to win, to use, to keep.
Tired of hating and still aching.
I went to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, burying my face in my hands.
I should call my brother. He deserved to know that I was safe. That I was here. That I wasn’t alone in this anymore. But how could I say the words out loud? How could I tell him I had just admitted the truth to the one man who had the power to shatter completely?
I wasn’t sure if he even knew the truth. If he did, that could complicate my problems even more.
The silence of the apartnt pressed in on , thick and suffocating. I laid back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, replaying every second of the confrontation. His voice, low and commanding: You’re not leaving. My own, sharp and trembling: Your father killed mine.
God.
There was no taking it back now.
And maybe I didn’t want to.
Maybe this was the beginning. The first step in bringing everything into the open, no matter how ssy, no matter how dangerous.
I turned to my side, pulling the sheets up to my chin. The city lights painted the walls in silver streaks, but I couldn’t close my eyes. Because I knew sowhere across this sprawling city, Jace Romano was still standing in that apartnt, still reeling from my words.
And when he recovered, because he always recovered, he would co for .
He always did.
The question wasn’t if.
The question was how.
~
Hours later, after I forced myself into a nap, I woke up and saw that Jace had texted .
He sent the unaware video he made of when I was walking towards him as we t up on the day of the wedding. I had no idea he was recording but it was so beautiful.
For the first ti in hours, I let myself smile.
But my smile dropped when I realized I had no idea what this ant. He had been quiet. I wondered if he was processing the news or just trying to let think.
Him sending a video of was so random and out of the blue.
I thought of a response as my thumb hovered over the screen but I couldn’t think of anything.
Suddenly, I felt goosebumps trail my skin.
Sothing was wrong.
Very wrong.
Quickly, I opened my laptop and saw that my security cara had been tampered with.
"Shit," I cussed under my breath.
Soone was coming to get . But sohow I knew that it wasn’t Jace’s people.
Quickly, I picked up my gun from my drawer for protection. But I knew escaping was the best option so I grabbed everything I needed to.
I slipped into my closet. Massimo had a secret passage that he probably thought I didn’t know about but I figured it out and pushed the button willing the doors to be quieter as the opened.
I could hear footsteps. They were in the house already.
I slipped into the passage and willed it to close up faster as I sped down the stairs. It was dark. I put my phone on airplane mode so it couldn’t be tracked but my flashlight was on.
I took one step after the other until I got to the last floor. When I opened the door, I found myself at the back of the building.
There was a possibility that these n mounted their guards around the entire space.
Just then I heard footsteps padding down the stairs. Purposely I pushed the back door open wider. That was when I heard their steps quicken.
I slipped under the staircase, holding my breath and hoping they would not find behind all this garbage.
About three of them ran outside the door and looked around.
I stayed until I heard their conversation about not finding and that I escaped before they could find to whoever sent them.
They went up the stairs again in a hurry. That was when I could finally let myself breathe.
But as they left, it dawned on .
If they found the passageway, it ant only one thing.
Massimo sent them.
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