She leans back against me, warm and solid, completely at ease in my embrace, despite the danger that still circles us. "So, what now?" she asks.
"Now we burn everything that doesn't serve us. Every rival. Every obstacle. Every shadow that dares to threaten what's ours. We make new rules. Our rules. The world will bend to us. Or it'll break."
She turns in my arms, twisting her body to face me. "And if the world doesn't like it?"
My hand cups her jaw, my thumb brushing her soft skin. "Then they can choke on the smoke, Nikki. Because we're just getting started."
CHAPTER 34
NIKKI
"Oh honey, this one is gorgeous!" Mom holds up a cream-colored dress with delicate lace sleeves, her eyes bright with excitement. "It would look stunning with your coloring."
We're in a boutique in Florence, surrounded by silk and satin and enough tulle to outfit a small ballet company. Mom's been gushing over every dress for the past hour, completely in her element. She loves this stuff. The romance, the tradition, the fairy tale moment she's been dreaming about since I was little.
If only she knew.
"It's beautiful, Mom," I say, running my fingers over the fabric. And it is. But it's also completely wrong for what we're actually doing. A secret ceremony in a hidden chapel to solidify a very real, very dangerous alliance. "But I think I want something a little more... me."
"More you?" She tilts her head, confused. "Sweetheart, you've been posting about wanting a classic Italian wedding since you got engaged. All those photos of vintage dresses and romantic venues. I thought this was exactly what you wanted."
Right.
The posts. The fantasy I curated with lighting, filters, and a side of delusion. And even my mom bought it. The irony isn't lost on me that in trying to create a believable lie, I've convinced the one person who matters most.
"Things change, Mom," I say softly. "I've changed."
She sets down the dress and really looks at me. Her expression shifts, becoming more serious, more... maternal. The way she used to look at me when I was sixteen and trying to hide something.
"Nikki, baby, are you okay? You seem different. Tense. Is everything alright with Raffaele?"
Raffaele.
She's been practicing his full name since the engagement announcement, rolling the syllables around her tongue like she's tasting something exotic. She has no idea she's saying the name of one of the most dangerous men in Italy.
"I'm fine, Mom. Probably only wedding nerves, you know?"
But she's not buying it. She steps closer, her voice dropping to that concerned mother whisper I remember from childhood. "I've been following everything online. The posts, the photos. You look happy, but there's something in your eyes. Something I can't quite put my finger on."
My chest tightens. Of course she can see it. She's my mother. She knows me better than my eight million followers ever could.
"What do you mean?"
"You look... I don't know how to explain it. Older, maybe? Like you've seen things. Experienced things." She pauses, searching for the right words. "When you were little and you'd get into trouble at school, you'd come home with this same look. Like you were carrying secrets too big for you. Eventually you would always tell me."
The boutique suddenly feels too small, too claustrophobic. I sink onto the velvet bench in the dressing area, the weight ofeverything, the lies, the danger, the incredible, terrifying reality of what I'm about to do, pressing down on me.
“Mom,” I start, then stop. How do you explain to the woman who raised you in a Florida trailer park on microwave dinners and fairy tales that you’re willingly marrying into the Italian mafia?
She sits beside me, takes my hands. Same calloused fingers that braided my hair for picture day, and wiped mascara off my face after boys who weren’t even cute made me cry.
"Whatever it is, baby, you can tell me. Is he... is he good to you?"
The question hits me harder than I expected. Because yes, he is good to me. In ways that don't make sense, in ways that probably shouldn't work, Rafe is impossibly good to me. He protects me. He sees me. He chose me over his own safety, over his entire world.
“He is, Mom. Really. He's just the kind of complicated that comes with very expensive suits and consequences.”
"Complicated how?"
