“What’re we going to do?” I worried.
“We’ll need to go to your father. Now.”
Sean was already calling my father, desperately trying to get a hold of him. His efforts seemed useless.
“Rose, if you don’t mind my asking, were you and Max ...?”
Shame burned in my gut. I couldn’t meet his gaze.
“Shit,” he muttered, the single word heavy with understanding.
“What’s going to happen?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. He didn’t just betray one oath—he betrayed two. It’ll depend entirely on whether your father wants him behind bars or dead. We’ve heard stories of the Romano son and what he’s capable of. Staying as far away from him as possible is the ultimate goal.”
Then it registered with me. My father would likely have him implicated. Max would be gone. I hated that I’d fallen for a man who’d been deceiving me for years. For as long as I’d known him.
“But I once heard you say it was impossible to leave the Romanos’ web of lies.”
He nodded slowly. “It is. Especially with Max. If he wants something, he gets it. The only thing that can stop him is death.”
My heart dropped. “You’re going to kill him?”
“No. That would cause a war with the Italians and the Russians. We can incriminate him, but it’s unlikely he’ll stay in jail. He has too many connections.”
“Oh gosh.” I panicked. “Do we need to run?”
He shook his head slowly. “If your father is smart, he’ll lay a grave with your name on it. Max won’t come back if he can’t get what he wants.”
A deep part of me wanted everything to stay the same. To ask Sean to act as if he’d never heard the truth, so we could all continue on as before.
Could I even do something like that to Max? Not only would I be sending him to jail, but I’d be telling the biggest lie I’d ever told. He’d believe I was dead.
But I couldn’t forget what he’d done to me and my family. He’d deceived us all. He was just as twisted as they said he was.
His chilling threat echoed in my mind:“Don’t kiss another man, Rosalie. I may not be as forgiving next time.”
He wasn’t bluffing.
My blood boiled.
It felt as if a thousand suns had taken up residence behind my eyeballs, threatening to incinerate everything they saw, especially Max.
I was going to kill him.
I could already see the headlines: “World’s Most Jealous Man Killed by Angry Woman.” The image took over my mind. I could see the flashing cameras, yellow police tape, reporters shoving microphones in everyone’s faces.
And it would all be because of Max. It was him the entire time.
Derik and Simon . . .
There was no curse, there was no woman in the Bayou with a voodoo doll, and there was no bad luck.
It was Max, and I was going to make him pay for his lies. Not with blood, for that would be too easy, too quick.
He’d pay with the one thing he clearly craved: my time, my attention, my very life. I would deny him all of it, leaving him nothing but the bitter ashes of his own deceit.
PART TWO
