Prologue
Mia
Sometimes you have to lie to get what you want. A well-fabricated lie to Luc’s staff was exactly how I left without raising too much suspicion. Who was going to question a grieving woman who wanted to go and see her fiancé as he finalized her father’s funeral arrangements? No one wanted to upset me, and so I was able to slip into Luc’s car and drive out of the gates without looking back.
I don’t think I had ever cared so little about road regulations in my life. This head start could only last for so long before someone would come after me. My blood ran cold at the thought of Xavier Moretti finding me alone and defenseless, in much the same way he must have found Dad.
My vision swam with images of Dad lying on the floor, body decimated by bullet holes. He had been shown no mercy. My Dad, who had his faults but had never hurt a person in his entire life, had been killed in cold blood. And why? Because I didn’t know when to walk away. I had played a dangerous game, had gone all-in without truly thinking of the consequences. The bubble I had built around myself had burst in the bloodiest way possible, and I would never be able to forget it. I’d never be able to forgive myself.The guilt walked with me in everything I did.
There was no way that I could have stayed in place. How was I meant to spend each and every day in the same circles as Xavier, Luc’s Godfather, without completely breaking down? Without spilling truth that would either lead to the entire corrupt corporation exploding or to my untimely death? There was no way for me to win, so leaving was the only reasonable option. I could start fresh, keep my life, and Luc’s family would continue running with all the dirty secrets buried where they should stay.
Our lives should have never intersected. I didn’t believe in God, but I felt like I had crossed some line that He was not happy about. It had always been obvious that Luc and I should never have met, would never have met, but we couldn’t keep away. We tempted fate and believed that we could defy the odds in order to make it work. How stupid of us. How naïve.Life was not what they made out in the fairytales. People did not defy odds. They succumbed to them because the weight was too much to shoulder.
The sun sank into the horizon and the sky became inky black and the thoughts in my head became thunderously loud.How far could I go? I could only keep driving until I ran out of gas, and the needle was already wavering dangerously toward empty.What would I do? I would need to figure out how to make money and survive.What would Luc think? I blinked hard to rid myself of the image of his face in my head. Luc was the reason behind any hesitation I felt, and I couldn’t afford to falter.
Survival was now key. Survival needed to be the driving force behind every decision I made. I had no one left. The person who had guided me throughout my life was gone. I was on my own.
∞∞∞
Luc’s car was ditched at the side of the road and I had made a point to only be out in the open when the sun had set. Just a few more days of this. Just a few more days until I could get as far away as I could. I paid for everything in cash and under a fake name, hoping not to leave a paper trail that could be my downfall.
But that became an impossibility when the last bus out of town happened to be at mid-afternoon on a gloriously bright March day. The sun reflected off metallic surfaces, blindingly bright, and cut through the last of the winter chill, clearing the way for spring. I clutched my bag tightly against my body as I hurried down the street. Everything since the moment I found my Dad had felt like an out of body experience. It felt like the world was underwater and I was being pulled along with the current. No matter how hard I fought, I couldn’t escape the force that kept me under. I wondered if this was how it would always be. Struggling to breathe, to eat, to live. The stress and grief of my current situation hit me at times when I least expected it, manifesting in nausea and light-headedness.
Tugging on the peak of the cap, I dropped my head as I passed a group of people. Everyone made me nervous. I didn’t know all of the connections that Xavier had. Even Luc knew a vast number of people out of state that I could stumble upon unintentionally.The crossing was packed with more people and my heart thundered in my chest, blood roaring in my ears as I stood alongside them, staring at the ground. The heat of the sun gently warmed the back of my neck, but it didn’t bring me joy the way it once had. After I crossed this road, I would be at the station and on the next leg of my journey to safety. Somewhere in my mind, I thought leaving might be the cure to my grief. If I distanced myself away from the place and from the life that had shattered me, I would find myself again.
The movement of feet next to me signaled that the light was flashing, and I waited for everyone else to step off the sidewalk before I followed behind them. I was careful to keep at least three paces away and kept my head down. As my feet hit the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road, I heard a woman yell out.
“No!” The pure panic in her voice stirred something in me and I whipped my head around to see a little boy running out onto the road.
“No,” I echoed the woman’s words, and for the first time it was as if the fog lifted. My bag dropped to the ground and I ran back out into the road. The tiny boy was blissfully unaware of the car hurtling toward him. I felt the sting of the gravel as it scratched up my bare arm and the presence of a small, warm body pressed against my chest as a car horn blared deafeningly, the owner driving away as if we were a minor inconvenience and not two lives. The little boy in my arms began to cry and there was the sound of feet around me.
“Santiago!” The boy was taken from my arms before a stream of Spanish cut through the ringing in my ears. All of the words were beyond my comprehension.
One set of feet next me were clad in thick black boots but the other pair was housed in a stylish set of designer heels. Slowly, biting back on the nausea that began to rise, I looked up to see a familiar face.
“Mia?”
Chapter One
Lucas
Iwas a little late when I stepped foot inside the church but there was still a small crowd of people milling around before the service started. Those that littered the aisle parted, conversations dropping, as I walked through the center of the space toward the front of the room and took a seat.
The congregation was always defined by distinct sections, families choosing to stay close to each other under the eyes of God. Across the aisle Xavier sat pin straight with his arm around Emilia, Gabriel beside them looking completely indifferent at attending the service. Vittoria had chosen our side of the aisle, parked neatly beside Dante. Their rekindled relationship lasting longer than anyone had put money on.
“Lucas.” I looked up to see Marcello Russo had twisted in the pew in front to talk to me. His snowy white hair had been brushed back and his suit jacket abandoned, leaving him in his shirt and tie. “Thank you again for the help last night.” Marcello was old blood, close to Xavier and, once upon a time, close to my father. I was willing to help him dispose of a problem when Xavier had refused. If there wasn’t anything in it for my Godfather, then he rarely got involved. Clean hands unless something valuable could be deposited into them. A survival trait that we would perhaps all be better for learning.
Holding up a hand, I stopped him from saying any more. “Don’t mention it.” I wasn’t ashamed of my day job, but it didn’t need to be discussed here, even if Father knew exactly where the money for the substantial donations originated from. It wasn’t just that. I didn’t have the patience for small talk. These days barely anyone tried to engage me in it. Not Dante or Dom or any of the rest of my men. Instead, I was given a curt nod and a wide berth before they returned to their business.
The hum of the congregation was silenced as the priest took to the pulpit. The air in the church was stifling and oppressive. Beads of sweat rolled down the back of my neck as I sat, head bowed, listening to Father Duffy deliver his sermon just as I had when I was a child. I was sitting at the end of the pew, aisle to the right of me and Dante to the left. His leg bounced, distracting me from my thoughts.“If you don’t stop, I’m going to remove it,” I hissed at him. Immediately, his leg ceased the irritating movement and I rolled my neck before casting my eyes back to the spot on the floor between my feet.
The year had slipped through my fingers and August had arrived in a blaze of heat that had me believing Hell would be a walk in the park. But August did not just mark the hottest month of the year so far. It marked six months since my world had been violently tipped off its axis and spun out of control. Half a year since I walked in to find an engagement ring and nothing more.
I had severely underestimated the damage the disappearance would do. Blinded by the pain of heartbreak, I hadn’t assessed the wider implications. Six months of fucking damage control. Heartbreak soon warped into an anger that I couldn’t contain. Everywhere I went there were whispers about how I couldn’t keep my house in order. How I’d let someone slip away from under my nose.
For the first time in my life, I’d allowed myself to be vulnerable for her. She’d placed me under her spell, intrigued me until she was all I could think about. I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea, but I couldn’t help myself. Beautiful and fiery, I had to make her mine. Even after a close call regarding her life, the moment I thought someone else would take her, the moment she told me she needed me, I claimed her as my own. No one else would ever have her. This was the woman who would bear my name and my children, and I’d have done anything she asked of me.
For all my effort, for all the love and trust I had given to her, I had been taken for a fool. The family had started by feeling embarrassed for me. They took pity on me for the fact that I had been jilted. But it didn’t take long for the mood to change. The secondhand embarrassment and pity turned into a vicious swirl of gossip. How could I have been so stupid as to introduce someone to the family only to have her turn her back on us, knowing our secrets?
