“I am Severu Serpico,” he says.
“Serpico…”
The name is distantly familiar.I’m not an expert on the crime families in Canada.The only one I ever knew or really cared about was the one with the Titone name.But still, I’m sure I’ve heard Serpico somewhere before.
“Leader of the Serpico clan,” he says.
Clan.
NotLaCosa Nostra.
Camorra.
My instinct was dead-on.He is a boss.A capo.A leader of an entire crime network unto himself.I need to find out what his intentions are and where I stand.Immediately.
“What do you want with me?”
He doesn’t reply right away, leaving me to stew in the possibilities.To drown in what he might want.And what might have happened to Curse since I’ve been gone.When he finally does speak from his place in the shadows, he doesn’t answer my question.He says, “You haven’t given me your name,bella.”
I blink.My eyes hurt.My head hurts.
My heart hurts.
“You don’t already know it?”I’m sincere in asking this.Why on Earth would he have grabbed me from the chaos of that scene if he didn’t know who I was?If he wasn’t trying to gain something from me?
“I have my suspicions,” he drawls.“But no, I do not know it.”
I chew on my lip, deciding that I won’t tell him my name unless he tortures it out of me.Now that I know I’ve got all of my papà’s wealth, all of fucking Buffalo attached to it, revealing my true identity to this man – or any man who sucks down money and power and blood like wine – is not safe.
So instead, I simply say, “I’m Curse Titone’s fiancée.”
Whatever he was expecting me to say, it wasn’t that.His eyebrows notch upwards before settling back into a relaxed expression.Like he doesn’t want me to know that I’ve shocked him.
“Well, this certainly explains why Elio and his men came hurtling out onto the streets like angry hornets tonight,” he says.“Elio doesn’t tend to leave his wife’s side much these days.Given her condition.”
“Condition?”Then I remember what Curse told me.That Elio’s wife is pregnant.
But he must think I don’t know that, because he explains.“The great Elio Titone is going to become a papà later this year.He’s tied himself to that woman like a dog to a post.So when I heard that he and his men were speeding towards Union Station, well…” He raises his hands in a gesture that seems to indicate a helpless sort of curiosity, though I doubt that this man has ever been helpless in his life.“I had to come and see what all the fuss was about.”
“And insert yourself into it,” I hiss.“What do you want from me?”I ask it again, even if he won’t give me an answer.
“Can a man not simply stop to assist a damsel in obvious distress?”he asks blithely.“That man who had you in the taxi, who chased you out of the wreckage of it like a creature possessed, was not your fiancé.Nor was he one of the Titone soldiers.No, the Titone soldiers were the ones following a few steps behind.I was closer than they were.”He shrugs casually.“I liked my chances.”
“Your chances to…”
“To help you.”
“I don’t need your help!”I cry.“I need…I want…”
I want to go back to thirty minutes ago.Or maybe more.Go back and never spin that bottle.Never goad Curse into kissing me.Never let him fuck me.
If I hadn’t been basically hiding from him in the train bathroom after the deed was done, this might never have happened at all.Or at the very least, Curse would have been fucking conscious when faced with Alessandro.
The weight of that guilt pulls the power from my body, the breath from my lungs.When I don’t finish my sentence, Severu speaks.
“I will be honest,” he says bluntly, “about the fact that what you want factored very little into the equation.But I could see plainly that the Titones were looking for you.”
“So you took me.”
