And why does it bother me so much?
I glance at his hands. Large, tattooed hands, strong and graceful at the same time. I don’t know much about desire, but I know I enjoy feeling his hands on my body. Caressing me. Possessing me.
I risk a glance at Vincenzo. He’s eating, but his eyes keep drifting to me. Every time our gazes meet, heat flares inside me, and I look away.
The conversation between Sofia and Matteo flows on, easy and warm, punctuated by laughter. Gradually, the tension between Vincenzo and I eases into something more comfortable.
“You free tonight, doe?”
The question catches me off guard, and I look up in surprise.
“Why do you call her doe?” Sofia asks.
Vincenzo hesitates, his eyes caressing my face. “It reminds me of the first time I kissed her.”
Sofia beams at him. “You are sweet. She’s dear to you, like a deer?”
Vincenzo glances at me over the rim of the glass, amusement glittering in his eyes. “Something like that.”
We both know it’s short for Jane Doe and therefore not sweet at all, but it’s somehow become that way. Or maybe I just have a twisted sense of what’s romantic these days.
“So are you?” Vincenzo asks, and I realize I haven’t answered his question. “Free tonight.”
“Oh—yes. I’m free tonight. Why?”
“I want to take you out.”
Despite his casual tone, there’s sharpness in his expression, and I suspect that this isn’t an invitation to dinner and a movie. “Where?”
He glances at Matteo and then back to me, and there’s heavy significance in the look they exchange. “To a bare-knuckle fight in north Malus.”
“You’re shitting me,” Matteo says. “You want to take Adora Montoni to Dashamir Dervishi’s birthday party?”
Cold prickles along my spine. I’ve heard of this man. Dashamir Dervishi is a cold and ruthless torturer and interrogator for his brother Aleksander, thekrye, which is what the Albanians call the head of a mafia family. Dashamir is infamous even in a brutal city like Malus. He once used a chainsaw to dismember three Lucania soldiers. ThreelivingLucania soldiers. Attempts by my father’s men, and presumably Barone, Lucania, and Vici soldiers, to throw the Dervishis out of Malus have been met with pitiless violence.
Sofia sits up, outrage writ large on her beautiful face. “Vincenzo!”
She must know about the chainsawing.
“The Dervishis don’t know Adora’s face. They barely know mine.”
Matteo levels a doubtful look at him. “Cuz. They know your face.”
“I’ve killed every Dervishi who’s ever got a good look at me, or doe for that matter.” Vincenzo turns to me, and I feel the fullweight of his attention. “It will be dangerous, but I would never take you on a suicide mission. The Dervishis stole weapons from me. Expensive weapons that I promised to Rafiel Lucania, and I need to get them back before the Dervishis sell them or distribute them among their soldiers to use against us.”
“Okay,” I say slowly, understanding the urgency. “But what does that have to do with me?”
Vincenzo’s mouth curves slightly. “The Montonis might expect their women to stay home and look pretty, but the Vicis are different. My mother’s body count was twenty-three. Valentina was learning about explosives. Sofia here can throw knives with deadly accuracy.”
“I prefer to use them to chop garlic these days,” Sofia tells me when I turn to her in surprise.
“Malus is your home,” Vincenzo tells me. “Don’t you want to defend your home? I suspect my bride has a taste for danger and adventure.”
A few weeks ago, I would have said he was completely wrong, but that was before I saved a Vici assassin and stabbed a man to death. Maybe I do have a taste for danger. Or maybe danger just keeps finding me.
But the smile glimmering around his lips makes me certain there’s something he’s not telling me. “What’s the real reason you want me with you tonight?”
He smiles wider, showing his gleaming canines. “I speak no word of a lie, but I admit that I’ll have a better chance of getting close to my targets if I seem like any other Malus man taking his woman to a Friday night fight.”
