Page 161 of Tempting My Mafia Monster

A small giggle slipped through my lips anyway. Her head snapped towards me, eyes wide with disbelief.

“A big-eyed stacked scarecrow? I love you, Lili, but you need to get better at being mean.”

She folded her arms across her chest and huffed. “Well, I have thirty-five days left to learn.”

The rest of the day was truly beautiful. We had a huge family meal, drank Gio’s favourite whiskey and shared our favourite memories. We laughed, cried and danced to his favourite music before the day’s emotional exhaustion finally took its toll on most of us, and people started heading to bed.

Maddox and I lay on our backs on the pool deck, swinging our legs through the water and sharing a bottle of wine. It felt surreal. So much of my life had changed in such a short time, and it must have been even more overwhelming for Maddox.

“I didn’t know funerals could be like that,” he said as we stared at the stars against the black sky. “It was a nice send-off.”

“It was,” I breathed, finding his hand and threading my fingers through his. “I think funerals should be a celebration of life, not of death.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “It’s mad to think that after all the death that surrounded me, that was the first funeral I’d ever been to. It makes me think differently about death.”

“How so?”

“Death used to make me think life was pointless. It could all end so easily or so quickly. I didn’t value anyone’s life because I wasn’t livin’ mine. I was merely survivin’ it. After today, seein’ how much your brother had built for himself and how loved he was, I realised it’s only what you make of your life that matters. What you do with the time you have. It’s only pointless if you don’t live it the way you want.”

I smiled, leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “So we live it.”

He nodded. I twisted onto my side, propped myself up on one elbow and stared down at him.

“What do you want, Maddox? You’re a millionaire now. You can do whatever you want with your life. What do you want to do?”

He shook his head slightly, staring at the stars. “No one’s ever asked me that before.”

“I’m asking you.”

He looked at me. “I just want to be with you, wherever you are. I want to stay here in Italy with your family. I want to help you with your mamma and Olivia. I want to teach Raff how to defend himself. I want to get the help I need to deal with my trauma so I can get on a flight to visit my sister in Australia with you. But first, I want to kill McKenna.”

I placed my chin on my hand, resting on his chest. “Are you ready?”

“It was never a matter of being ready.” He met my gaze. “It was a case of priorities. You needed me. You before Sean. You before revenge. That’s how it is.”

I smiled. “Grazie.”

He lifted his tattooed hand to my face, brushing a curl away from my eyes.

“You never need to thank me, Darlin’. Just kiss me.”

So I did.

Back To Hell

Perched on the wall outside the underground Buccini cells, I lit a cigarette and watched the steel door with surprising patience.

McKenna had been locked beneath my feet for nine days, yet I still hadn’t been down there. Not because I didn’t crave his blood, but because Raya needed me more.

Christ, talk about personal growth.

She’d barely left my side since Giovanni’s death. Today, Aria had organised a girls’ day upstairs, with spa treatments for her, Raya, Lili and Olivia. A few hours to be together and pretend their world hadn’t been turned upside down. Olivia amazed me the most. She’d lost the love of her life, her husband and the father of her children. She was distraught. Yet every morning she got out of bed, put on a brave face for her kids, and only fell apart when they couldn’t see it. Now, I knew where Soraya had learned her strength from.

Plus, it helped to know that McKenna wasn’t having an easy time. The Buccinis had taken their anger out on McKenna and Oscar daily. Even Olivia and Raya had been down there to make them bleed. Yesterday, Alessio and Max went a little too hard on Oscar, and he hadn’t made it through the night. McKenna was different. They knew they could do whatever they wanted to him, as long as he stayed alive.

His death belonged to me.

The steel door groaned open, and Raffaele stormed out into the sunshine. His shirtless chest was streaked with fresh blood, and his permanently scarred face was twisted with a rage that hadn’t existed in him before the attack.