He rolls my clit until I cry out, my release hitting like a tsunami, my pussy twitching around him as he thrusts up into me.
I force the words out between gasping breaths. “This isn’t permanent, Dante. We are not permanent.”
We can’t be. He bites my neck again, a silent punishment as I pull my head away. “We could be. If you’d stop fuckingfightingit, you infuriating female.”
It’s the teasing undertone in his words, the unspoken assumption that he’s going to get exactly what he wants, that makes me snap.
I pull away from him, staggering upright and yanking up my leggings. He sprawls back, full of lazy satisfaction and male expectation.
My hand doesn’t shake as I dig into my bag and pull out the Glock. When I turn and point it, the smirk disappears from his face. “Caterina.”
My steps are steady. Steady as I walk right up to him, pressing the barrel into the middle of his head as he meets my gaze.
“I am not just a female,” I rasp. My throat feels dry, the consequences of my hangover and Dante’s grip. “I am a goddamned fuckingheir, Dante. My father is thecapo dei capi, and one day I will take over from him as leader of the five.”
“I know that.” His voice is steady. Certain. So certain.
“I can never trust you,” I say plainly. When he starts to argue, I shake my head. “For fuck’s sake, Dante, you know it’s true. We don’t live in a world where two heirs can be together. We belong to our families first. I could never trust you not to stab me in the back, and you could never trust me.”
Because if I’m ever ordered to put him down, I would do it.
It would kill a part of me, snap away another piece of my soul, but I would do it.
He will always be a V’Arezzo. And I will always be a Corvo.
“I know my duty,” I say softly. “It’s about time you learned yours. We don’t have the luxury of deciding what our future will be, V’Arezzo.”
That’s something I’ve already learned, and the lesson was a harsh one. Our fates are already set in stone. Violence, politics, and a shorter lifespan than average is to be expected. But the details, the twists and turns our lives will take? They belong to our fathers. The heads of our families.
Not to us. And every time I look into Dante’s eyes, it’s another fucking reminder I don’t want.
“This is it. Leave me alone,” I whisper. The gun is still pressed to his head. “Please, Dante. Leave this alone.”
The pain in his face is fleeting, but his eyes harden. “So that’s how it is? All that fire in your soul, but you won’t raise a single fucking finger to fight for us.”
The barb is a direct hit to my chest.
“I am fighting for us.” My voice turns icy, as cold as my face when I turn away from him. “And one day you’ll understand why.”
I leave him there, sprawled on the floor. My heart hurts as I unlock the door, stalking out and across the campus to my apartment.
Shower. Make-up. Hair. Dress.
Building myself back up, again.
Taking those pieces and rearranging them until nobody would notice the pain underneath.
Chapter eight Caterina
Iglance down at the dark screen of my phone as some of my senior Crows filter in. Once we’re all seated, gathered in one of the rooms allocated to us in the same redbrick building we used to sentence Anton to death, I place it down on the smooth wooden table and look around. “You’re all quiet this morning.”
Dom catches my eye and subtly shakes his head. Tony, Vincent, Nicolo and Danny are his direct reports. Answerable only to Dom, and through him, to me. Taking the hint, I settle back, letting it slide – for now. “Let’s get started.”
Dom launches into a brief breakdown of our current activity. Nothing stands out – at least, not until something catches my ear. “The Fusco funds are low?”
Dom flicks through the paperwork in front of him. “They didn’t make their last deposit. It was due this week. Could just be an oversight.”
My fingers tap on the desk. Establishing the so-called mafia university, a highly exclusive, private educational institutionwithsignificanttuition fees, comes with several benefits for the five families. One of which is the ability to launder dirty funds through the books, turning it into clean hard cash. Several agreements are in place to make sure all of us benefit equally, but if the Fuscos have stopped paying their share, it’s not a good sign.
