Within only a week, I’d followed my heart, and everything I knew, or thought I knew about living proved wrong. The desire to grab Allie, her sister, drag Ringo with me into exile, and hide from the assassins the Conti family and my own would send after us was calling me to ruin.
We’d last a month at most.
Don Conti knew precisely how to corner me. He embraced death by taking my grandfather. Everyone who’d been in this room knew his remaining days were counted on two hands only. No iron walls or modern security would stop the family from sending someone in. But moving quickly was a mistake.
A knife to the heart was much more effective than a war. And Allie had just handed me the weapon. I wanted to be the one who’d stab it into Don Conti’s chest. Before he died, I’d tell him exactly how his oldest betrayed them all. She might believe she was ruthless, but she knew nothing of the word.
To kill her brother? It was a crime beyond dignity. The most brutal betrayal. And one our family would avenge. When the dust settled and the accusations silenced, my family would survive like they had for thousands of years. There was a reason the right hand needed the left. They washed each other clean.
I sent the images to my eldest uncle. He would see to it that the families knew. In my message, I added the name of Ellie’s lawyer so the network I’d built abroad would corroborate everything. There were two more attachments. The first was an amendment to my will.
I held up the marriage certificate so I could see Allie’s gentle handwriting clearly. “I have a wife.”
One I needed desperately.
Ringo stood outside Ellie’s room. “They’re inside.” He slipped away as I knocked lightly.
“Allie?”
“Go away.”
Funny how I knew that was Ellie’s voice. “Send my wife out, Ellie.”
The door flew open, and Ellie stuck her face between the gap. “What if I don’t?”
I stared over her head at my beautiful bride. Our eyes met. Hers were rimmed with red. “Please?” I begged her, not her dragon-like twin.
Allie approached Ellie from behind and set a quiet hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t. None of this is okay. You’re all a bunch of f?—”
Allie’s hand covered her sister’s mouth. She whispered in her ear, hoarsely, “He’s my husband. Let it go.”
The mutiny in Ellie’s eyes was plain. “Never.”
Allie hugged her from behind. “That’s why I love you.”
Ellie patted her sister’s arms as she glared at me. “Fine. Tell that bastard, Ringo, if I smell his cologne in this hallway one more time tonight that Loppa gave me a knife and I’m not afraid to cut his nuts off.”
A shadow moved at the end of the hall. “I’m certain he already knows.”
Ellie shook her head but let Allie join me in the hall. She spoke directly at me. “Seven A.M., she’s mine again. Got it?”
“Understood.”
She shifted her gaze to Allie. “Don’t think tonight.”
Allie smiled at her sister with more sadness than anything else. “That only makes me want to think?—”
Ellie shook her head but smiled back. “Nope. Not tonight. Mañana, hermana.”
“Bananny, hermanny.”
With that, they hugged quickly before Ellie shut and locked the door noisily.
“Bananny?” I asked.
“Twin talk.” Allie’s eyes met mine. “Get used to it.”
