10
Charlie
I’m shocked by the brutal truth that Luciano throws at me. I was not expecting this. Yes, I did have an inkling that my mother was into something dangerous, but I wasn’t expecting the Cosa Nostra. But it’s all starting to make sense now.
“I want to go home,” I snap back at Luciano, my voice shaking once more with fear. “This world, it’s not for me.”
His cold, piercing blue eyes don’t waver for a second. “You don’t have a choice anymore. This will be your life. You are now Charlotte Carlisi, not O’Reilly.”
Panic starts to claw at my chest, sharp and relentless. I can’t do this. I can’t be part of this world, not after what has just happened. I try bolting for the door, desperate to escape the suffocating walls of this mansion that’s starting to feel more like a cage than a home. But Luciano is faster—why are they always faster?In a heartbeat, he closes the distance between us and throws me over his shoulder. I thrash, punch and kick him, but instead of loosening, his grip tightens.
“Let go of me, you arrogant son of a bitch!” I hurl at him.
“NO! You will learn your place.”
“I hate you, Luciano. I hate this place. Let me go NOW!” I scream at the top of my lungs.
But he doesn’t listen. He continues marching me to my room, not caring if anyone sees or hears me. He sets me down in the center of my room, and fear and frustration fuel me. I swing a punch at his jaw, but he just lets out a deep, rumbling laugh that echoes off the walls, mocking me.
My frustration turns to anger exploding inside me, and I unleash a barrage of punches at him, but he doesn’t flinch. He catches my wrists and pins them behind my back, backing me up until my legs hit the bed’s edge, and I collapse backward. My breath catches in my throat.
His eyes turn dark, chilling me to the bone. “Are you done?” I look down and see my shirt is still ripped, exposing my tits. I am vulnerable once again, covered in blood, unsure if it’s mine or the dead guy’s—a stark reminder of everything that just happened. The tears spill freely down my cheeks.
“You will stay here until you realize you have no choice,” Luciano says before releasing me and walking out without another word. The door slams shut and locks behind him. The cold click of the lock echoes in the silence, and I cry harder, the weight of my new reality crashing down.
Finally, I realize what and who my father was trying to shield me from, and I wonder what my life will become now as Charlotte Carlisi.
11
Luciano
Apiercing scream shatters through the silence of the night. Snatching the gun from behind my bedside table, I rush out my bedroom door. The soldier stationed outside Charlie’s opens it straight away when he sees me. Walking into her room, what I see stops me cold in my tracks, which doesn’t happen often.
Charlie is tangled in her sheets, thrashing violently, her voice breaking as she pleads, “Please… stop.”
Tears carve silent trails down her cheeks, her body trapped in the middle of a nightmare that’s dragging her back to the torture. I climb onto her bed and pull her against my chest. She tries to fight me, clawing at my face, desperate to push away from me or who she thinks is torturing her.
She screams, “Stay away from me!” as a slap lands across my face. I should be furious, but I know she isn’t herself right now.
I seize her wrists, pressing them flat against my body. “I’ve got you, Principessa,” I whisper, my fingers threading through her long brunette hair with the softness she deserves, and not my usual anger.
Her whispered pleas continue in her sleep, “Please stop,” haunted and fragile.
I keep stroking, murmuring, “You’re safe,” repeatedly into her ear, grounding her in the present even as her mind wanders. She doesn’t wake, but the trembling in her body eases as she curls into my side, her head against my chest, her leg draped over mine. I lie beneath her, on high alert and restless, waiting for her nightmare to return. But it doesn’t.
For the next three nights, the same horror haunts her, and every night I slip quietly into her room, holding her until the storm inside her calms. With each passing night, exhaustion starts to pull at me, and I’m unable to stay awake when my body gives in and I drift into sleep beside her. I slip away silently in the mornings before she wakes up because if she knew I was there, guarding her through her darkest moments, she would be furious.
Charlie may put on a brave face during the day, but I’ve noticed when she’s alone, her fears unleash, and beneath my hardened exterior, the guilt keeps eating at me. I vowed that I would protect her—keeping her hidden at the estate where I thought she was the safest turned out to be the most dangerous. I failed. And every time she suffers from a nightmare, I feel it deep in my bones: the oath to Caterina that I broke.
12
Charlie
Nearly three weeks have passed since Luciano locked me away in my room and turned me into a prisoner in my mother’s home. Three weeks since Marco and Nico dragged me through their merciless torment. The walls close tighter each day, leaving me alone with my thoughts and fears.
The first week, I lay mostly in bed, wrestling with the dark urge to find an end to this misery. My only lifeline to the outside world came in the form of Rosa’s gentle footsteps bringing food and fresh clothes.
“Please help me, Rosa,” I begged her one morning, trying to block her from exiting my room. “Please, I need to escape.”
