Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72973 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72973 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Milania.
“What’s wrong?” Dario asks, concern lacing his words.
I suck in a deep breath of his scent, then say, “There was a woman with me. Milania. She died.”
He presses another kiss to my hair. “I’m sorry, Tesoro.”
“She was so scared. She kept crying,” I whisper. “After they captured me again, we were given drugs. I had this crazy high where I saw Mandy, my mother, lying in front of me. We were face-to-face. When she started choking, it looked like the bubbles were floating.”
My throat strains as all the harrowing shit I was subjected to overwhelms me. Letting out a sob, my voice is strained as I admit, “I did nothing while Milania died right in front of me because I thought she was Mandy.”
“Shhh, Tesoro,” he murmurs as he tightens his arms around me. “You were drugged. There was nothing you could do.”
As my tears start to flow, there’s no stopping them. Needing the release after the insane two days I’ve just been through, I cry my heart out against Dario’s neck.
After a while, my emotions settle enough for me to stop crying, and feeling exhausted, I just lie still in his arms, hoping I’ll fall asleep soon.
A nurse comes in to check on me, and when she asks how I’m feeling, I mutter, “Tired.”
“Do you have a headache?”
“It’s not as bad,” I answer honestly.
She takes my vitals, then says, “Try to get some sleep.”
I plan on doing just that.
Not wanting to think about everything that’s happened, I focus on how good Dario smells and how amazing it feels to be in his arms.
This feeling is something I’ll never take for granted.
I shift my head, resting my cheek on his chest again, and my eyes fall on the two guns.
Only then do I think to ask, “What kind of hospital is this that the nurse didn’t say anything about the guns?”
“It’s a clinic that belongs to the Cosa Nostra,” he informs me.
“Oh.” Remembering something, I ask, “Is everyone I met at the show in the mafia?”
“Yes.” He starts to trail his fingers up and down my arm that’s wrapped around his waist. “Renzo, Franco, Angelo, and Damiano are the other four heads of the Cosa Nostra.”
“And the women?”
“No, they’re not involved in the organization.”
When he brushes over the needle marks, my eyes latch onto them. The sight is disturbing, and it has me tensing.
Dario immediately notices and asks, “What’s wrong?”
“I hate drugs.” I swallow hard on the destructive feelings. “My mother is a drug addict, and I’ve seen what it’s done to her. I’ve lived with it every day.”
Shaking my head, I try to breathe through the tears that are threatening to fall.
My voice is strained as I whisper, “Now I have the same marks on my arm.”
Dario’s fingers wrap around the faded abrasions left by the cable ties on my wrist, and lifting my arm, he presses a kiss to each of the needle marks.
“They’ll fade, Tesoro,” he assures me.
“Yeah.”
Silence falls between us, and I try not to think about the shit I’ve been through. I’ll deal with everything tomorrow, but right now, I just want to sleep.
I move my head a little until I’m able to hear the steady beat of Dario’s heart, and closing my eyes, I focus on the sound until I manage to drift off.
After I slept like the dead, I was checked by the doctor and cleared to go home.
Home, AKA Dario’s penthouse.
I wonder how Tyrone reacted when he saw the place.
Probably the same as me, totally overwhelmed.
Earlier, Dario left to go and get his car and my clothes while I had breakfast.
Dario’s a mob boss.
You’d think I’d be running for the hills, but here I am, sitting in the passenger side of his R8 as he drives us home.
Before shit went down, Dario was this perfect prince, and honestly, it bothered me a little. I didn’t feel good enough to be with him.
But now…
I’ve seen his dark side, and in that moment when he killed the men holding me captive, I fell in love with him all over again.
Dario has blood on his hands. He’s not as perfect as I first thought, but instead, he’s perfect for me. He might be rich, and I’m okay with that, but we’re no longer worlds apart, because we’re both from the wrong side of life.
“What are you thinking about?” Dario asks, drawing me out of my thoughts.
Turning my head to look at the handsome man beside me, I admit, “How I fell in love with you all over again.”
Surprise flickers over his face. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He steers the sports car into the basement and brings it to a stop in the designated parking bay.
Killing the engine he turns toward me, and carefully gripping my chin between his thumb and his forefinger, he presses a soft kiss to my mouth.