“Sophie—”
“Look at these.” I pick up a fabric sample of emerald velvet and another of soft gold. “My friend sent them over this morning, samples for the linens. Aren’t they gorgeous?”
Siena stares at me. I can see her deciding whether to keep fighting.
She sighs. “They’re beautiful, this green especially. It perfectly matches the chairs. Very elegant.”
“That’s what I thought.” I run my fingers over the velvet, feeling the nap shift under my touch. Soft. Luxurious.
I may not be able to pay Vin back yet, but I can cancel the linen service he hired and hire my friend to make the perfect napkins and table cloths for me instead.
“Your restaurant is going to be amazing,” Siena says quietly, adjusting the sleeping Emilia in her arms. “Truly. I’m so very proud of you.”
I blush. Hearing this from her is everything. For the first time in a while, I feel confident, ready to step into this next phase and see what happens. “Thank you.”
“I mean it.” She stands, settling Emilia against her shoulder. “You’ve put your whole heart into this place, Sophie. Everyone who walks through that door is going to feel it. They’re going to taste it in every dish. This isn’t just a restaurant. It’syou.”
“Thank you,” I whisper again. “For being here. For believing in me.”
“Always.” Siena kisses my cheek, and I can smell that sweet new-baby scent that makes me ache. “But please,pleasedon’t hire Rocco back. For me. For your own sanity.”
I laugh. “I’ll think about it.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
56
Vin
Irun my tongue over my teeth, tasting copper from where Matti’s fist connected with my jaw yesterday. It’s swollen, throbbing. I don’t blame him for the hit. I would’ve done worse if the situation had been reversed.
To be honest, I needed it. I needed to literally get punched in the face to realize that this shit has to end. No more procrastination.
Aurelio dies today.
Tommy and Matti flank me as we enter the Edge, our footsteps echoing on concrete. Aurelio’s chained to a chair in the center of the room he’s been in for weeks now, bloodied and defiant. Even now, beaten and bound, he wears that fucking smirk like he’s in charge.
“Took you long enough,” he rasps, spitting blood at my feet.
I ignore him, turning to my brothers. “You checked in with the women? Everyone get their chance to take part if they want?”
I don’t ask if anyone checked in with Sophia. Of course they didn’t. They don’t know what Aurelio did to her and her family. But Sophia got her revenge better than any of us. Death takes him just once, but my woman made him wear her mark for a lifetime.
Tommy nods. “Giovanna says that her life is too perfect to mar with any thought of him.”
“Siena said the same,” Matti adds, his voice tight. “She’d rather focus on Emilia than the death of a shit stain.”
Their babies. I shove away the image of little Emilia in Sophia’s arms, how natural she looked holding her, before I spiral on how I’ll never see her hold our child.
“He hurt a lot of people,” I say, my voice flat. “But us? We’re the ones he hurt most. We’re the ones who take it from here.” I pull my gun, check the chamber. “We all get our shot.”
Aurelio laughs, the sound wet and broken. “You’re really doing this? Over a woman?”
“Which woman?” I ask drily. “My mother? My first girlfriend? My sisters-in-law? My—”
I stop before naming Sophia, before I have to name what she is to me. And what she isn’t.
He spits again. “I didn’t go after your little chef, Vincenzo. Is that really what made you finally grow a pair? You’re weak.” He sneers at me through split lips. “This has nothing to do with her.”
