CHAPTER 1
Tristan
Istared at the photo in my hands like I was seeing a ghost from another time. A more uncertain time. A different life than the one I led now. Because that’s exactly what it was.
The woman in the photo was Luna, but not. If I looked closely, there were a few small differences. Luna’s hair was the same shade—such a dark brown it was nearly black—but it was longer and thicker. Her lips were fuller. The shape of her face more heart-shaped than oval. She was also about fifteen to twenty pounds heavier, with larger breasts, curvier hips, and a rounder ass. Her skin was also a slightly different shade. Paler, creamier, without the olive tones of her Italian father.
The biggest difference between the two of them was that the woman I was staring at in the picture was cold and rotting in the ground and had been for the last seventeen years. Because I was the one who’d killed her.
But the hot-blooded woman in the back bedroom of my house, she was very much alive and well.
I closed my eyes. I could still feel the phantom weight of her warm, soft body pressed against my chest as I’d carried her unconscious form away from Gino's. Her head had lolled against my shoulder, her long dark hair spilling over my arm like ink. It had triggered memories I'd long ago tried to bury, a chilling reminder of the horrific nights that still haunted my dreams. No matter how hard I tried, I could never completely forget the things they'd done to me. Some sins could never be forgiven or forgotten.
And yet, even with my demons diving at me from every direction, I'd pulled her closer, my only desire to protect her from the haunting echoes of my long-ago trauma reaching her.
“Tristan.”
Dragging my attention from the photo in my hand, I met Enzo’s eyes. Or at least the approximate location of them behind the dark glasses he wore.
To my surprise, he took them off and set them on the table. We were sitting in my kitchen after he’d texted me that he was coming over. He didn’t know I had Luna locked away in my cell, and unless he walked back there, he never would. Because that room was indeed completely soundproof, just as I’d told her when I’d gotten Enzo’s text. She could be back there screaming her lungs out and neither of us would ever know.
Enzo caught my eyes with his, and I had to fight the urge to look away. Staring into Enzo’s eyes was like being swept up by a tornado of emotions, complete with flashes of intense feelings he couldn’t seem to control and hits from random pieces of judgmental debris. It was why he wore the glasses. His eyes gave everything away. I wished he’d put them back on. Having a conversation like this left me feeling unsettled for hoursafterward, and so it took me a moment to realize he’d asked me a question. “I’m sorry?”
“I asked you if what you told Luca was true. About the woman Gino brought to my wedding.”
I laid the picture face up on the table between us. “Yes, it’s true.”
“So, that’s her mother. His wife that died.”
“The woman I killed under Luigi’s orders,” I corrected. “Yes.”
“Luca told me you’re planning to take her from Gino.”
I weighed my options. I could tell Enzo she was already here, or I could leave him in the dark and make my life more difficult than it had to be by hiding the fact from both LucaandEnzo that she was locked in my cell. Gino was bound to come looking for her, sooner rather than later, and it would be helpful if Enzo was aware of the situation so he could back up whatever story I chose to tell. “I already did. She’s no longer residing with her father.”
Enzo sat back in his chair. “You took her?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“Here.” I glanced toward the back of the house.
He followed my gaze. He knew what was back there. His eyes met mine again. “Did she come willingly?”
“I didn’t give her a choice. So, no.”
I watched the myriad of emotions tangle up within his eyes right before he shoved back his chair and stood. I didn’t try to stophim as he strode from the kitchen and headed toward the back of the house. I knew it would be useless.
Sipping the glass of iced tea I’d poured for myself right after he’d gotten here, I listened as he opened the last door. Luna’s pleading voice echoed down the hallway as she begged him to release her. Then the door closed again, and I heard him striding back to the kitchen. Rising slightly out of my chair, I reached across the table and refilled his glass with the bottle of whiskey I kept here for him and Luca. I never touched the stuff myself. Alcohol dulled your senses and made you lose control, and I didn’t like it when I lost control.
A few seconds later, he sat back down across from me and swallowed the entire thing. “You have a woman locked in your cell.”
It wasn’t a question, but I confirmed it anyway. “Yes.”
He was silent for a moment as he poured himself another drink. “Luca told me of your suspicions about Gino. So, I can only assume this is your fucked-up way of removing her from a dangerous situation.”
This time, I didn’t answer. There was no need. The reasons didn’t really matter at this point, did they? She was here.
