Then I see her.
A woman walking toward us with the warehouse blaze at her back and her body outlined in flames. A vision so beautiful that I can’t breathe.
An angel.
Made from pure fire.
The men surrounding me have no idea she’s behind them. She raises her hand, and for a split second I wonder if she’s beckoning me. If she’s come to take me to heaven.
But I’m not dead, and this isn’t the rapture.
She’s got a gun.
Shots burst in the night. Two of the men crumple to the ground. The third, the Sokoli I warned never to set foot on Barone territory again, starts to turn and raise his gun. To point it at my angel.
With a roar, I ram my fist into the man’s stomach, and then several times in the face, slicing open my knuckles on his teeth. Wrestling the gun from him, I shoot him twice in the chest. My whole body is shaking. The fire, the explosion, and the terrible memories have sent adrenaline racing through my body.
There’s a broken bottle on the ground. I snatch it up, hold it by the neck, and thrust the jagged end into the man’s mouth.
“I warned you I’d take your fucking tongue,” I seethe, twisting the broken glass in his mouth. I slice his cheeks and his tongue, grinding the glass into his face.
I feel a hand on my back. A voice I love dearly calling my name. I want to obliterate this man from the face of the earth. I pull the broken glass out, then stab him again. The Sokoli screams and stops moving, but I keep slamming the jagged glass into his face.
“Damiano, he’s dead.” A slender hand touches mine, and finally, the red mist recedes.
I throw the glass aside and snatch Lucy into my arms.
“Lucy. My love. My love.” My arms are locked around her as my body shudders in relief. She’s all right. She’s here.
Lucy presses kisses all over my face. Her cheeks are wet with tears. “You could have been killed. I nearly lost you. If you had gone into that warehouse as well…”
We can’t hold each other tight enough. Our hearts are desperate to be inside each other’s bodies.
She was the one hiding behind the pallets. She followed me here. I seize her upper arms. “You could have been killed. Why did you come here?”
“Because here is exactly where I need to be,” she says fiercely. “I know we’re in the mafia. I’ll work with you. We’ll protect each other. I’ll never leave your side ever again. Never.”
I sit down on the edge of the open van with a groan and wrap my arms around her waist, burying my face in her breasts. She’sall for me. All for me, and no one else. My beautiful, untouchable secret. “If only that could be true.”
“Damiano, remember who we are. We can have whatever we want.”
“It’s too dangerous. Dad won’t allow it.”
“Dad doesn’t have to know.”
I open my eyes. A thrill goes through me. Are we talking about work, or are we talking about something else? One of my hands is curved around her waist. The other—fuck, my hand is on her ass. I should pull away. But after four years of denying myself, I can’t. Not yet. She eases herself onto my lap, her knees straddling my hips, and any remaining willpower I had evaporates.
“I’m stronger than you think, and you want me with you,” she whispers.
I smooth her hair back and look deep into her eyes. Want her with me? Or just want her? As I hold her tighter, she pants softly, and I feel myself getting hard. Lucy smells like gunpowder and sweet, forbidden fruit. She didn’t pull away the first time I kissed her. I wonder if she’d pull away if I kissed her now.
I swallow hard. “We can’t. That kind of talk is dangerous.”
“We’re the dangerous ones. I killed for my brother, just like you’d kill for me.”
I look past her at the dead men. At the bullet wounds. Headshots, clean and precise. I didn’t know Lucy had the nerve to fire a gun, let alone kill two men. No hesitation, and with a single bullet each.
Lucy is incredible.
