Achilles didn’t miss a beat. “Still the most beautiful girl in the world. The one I walked through fire for and would gladly do it all over again just to win her smile.”
His words, which I had craved for over a decade, brushed right past me. Like a stranger on the street. I couldn’t bear the numbness.
“You lie,” I croaked.
“It’d be my honor.” He bowed his head.
“I’m sure your future wife won’t like to hear it,” I croaked out.
“There’s not going to be a future wife for me, Tierney,” he said quietly. “Unless it is you.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m broken.”
“I’m patient.”
“Are you serious right now?” I peeled my eyelids open to catch him nodding.
“I told Don Vello I wasn’t going to marry Katya sometime between breaking his nose and dislocating his jaw. It’s you that I want. It’s always been you. Fuck, Tier, it took me eleven years to come to terms with it, and watching you almost die to cement it. But I’m done fighting it. And I’m willing to wait.”
“It’s too late.” My throat felt tight, and I clenched my teeth to keep my tears at bay. “Too much has happened. Separately, and between us.”
“I made some mistakes?—”
“No, Achilles! You made my life a prison of your own making for half of my existence. Even after I escaped the gulag, you made sure I’d never be truly free. You murdered my lovers, broke into my apartment, assigned bodyguards to tail me, and refused to allow me to move, date, or marry. To move on from this, from us.”
“I know.”
“You made me yourwhorefor a weekend, knowing my past and what I’d been through. You fucked me every three hours on the dot for the privilege of not marrying me off to a complete stranger.”
“I know,” his voice cracked.
“And then, the cherry on the shit cake, you tried toassassinateme.”
His eyes, so dark, so brutal, fastened on my own. No words left his mouth.
“And you think, after everything that happened, that I’m going to forgive you?”
“Yes,” he said with conviction.
“Why?” I spluttered. Achilles was many things—shrewd, vicious, a prolific assassin, and an impeccable, unhinged mobster. He was not, however, delusional.
“Because I’ll do anything to make you mine.” Rather than desperation, determination dripped from his every word. “Even at the price of obliterating my own life for your entertainment.”
“Too much has passed between us to make this happen,” I said.
“A lot more will happen, as you’ll soon see.” He stood, seemingly unbothered by my words.
“Mark my words, Piccola Fiamma. By this time next year, we’ll be married.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Tierney
In the ensuing days,more memories flooded to the forefront of my mind.
Every moment awake was excruciating, every recollection a deep slash in my already bleeding heart.
Lila and Tiernan came every day. I barely responded to them. The doctors wanted to run more tests. They thought they must’ve missed something. They hadn’t. My body was healing just fine. It was my soul that was in critical condition.
