“Maybe I’ll tie you up and have my way with you,” I say. “They say payback is a bitch.”
He barks a laugh and pulls me to his lap. “I think I’ll enjoy that kind of payback.”
I nuzzle my face into his neck and smile against his skin.
A sense of peace washes over me.
I wish the sun wouldn’t rise.
I wish I could forget everything and stay like this with him forever.
VALENTINA
I wake up late to find Damiano already gone. After we stripped the bed and changed the sheets in the middle of the night, it took me a while to get back to sleep, and now I’m groggy.
I blink at the clock hanging on his wall. It reads…half past noon.
Gemma’s class is at ten a. m., and accounting for the time difference, I might be speaking to my sister in just a few hours. Suddenly, I’m very awake. What am I going to say to her?
I hop out of bed, get myself dressed, and hurry downstairs. Martina is in the kitchen, cooking, and when she sees my harried appearance, she gives me a questioning look. “You look like you’re late for an exam. What’s going on?”
“Is your brother around?”
She shakes her head. “He left a few hours ago. I’m not sure where he went.”
Damiano should be here when I talk to Gemma. I need him to be here. How quickly he went from the man I was trying to get away from to the man who’s support I crave.
Martina frowns at my anxious expression. “Sit down, Vale. I’ll get you some coffee.” She slides a plate of potato medallions topped with eggs and ham across the island. “Huevos rotos. Eat.”
I climb up on one of the stools-the one Vito sat on when him and Nelo came by-and grab a fork. The food is delicious, as always, and when Martina hands me an espresso, I drink it in one gulp. “Thank you,” I say.
She sits on the stool across from me. “What’s bothering you?”
I move the potatoes around the yolk. “I’m going to talk to my sister Gemma today.”
Martina sips on her own espresso. “Isn’t that a good thing? I thought you said you miss your sisters.”
“I do, I just…don’t really know what to say to her.” I meet Martina’s clear hazel gaze. “I feel guilty for leaving her in New York.”
“You didn’t have a choice,” she says. “There was no time for you to get her when we were running away. If we’d stopped, we may have been caught.”
I cross my feet at my ankles. “I know. There’s no way I could have gotten her out at that time, but maybe once I got you to the airport, I could have gone back for her.” The moment I say it, I realize it’s just a childish fantasy. I sigh. “To be honest, I’m not sure she would have even gone with me. I would have had to explain everything to her. You, Lazaro, and everything leading up to that moment.” My stomach twists. “My husband was a bad man, Martina.”
“I know,” she says quietly, looking down at her cup. She’s remembering things. Things she shouldn’t need to remember for my sake.
“The real kind, not the kind that warns you of how bad they are,” I say, alluding to yesterday’s conversation and giving her a soft smile.
She lifts her hand to hide her giggle and shakes her head. “Don’t tease me. I feel so stupid for how I reacted. I probably turned as red as a tomato.”
I laugh. “Don’t worry about it. How likely are you to see him again?”
Her expression dims. “Not likely, I suppose.”
We eat for a while before Martina clears her throat. “Well, it doesn’t sound to me like you could have done anything differently about Gemma. You did the best you could in that moment. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“Maybe. I just don’t know how to stop feeling guilty.”
“Is she happy in New York?”
The truth is, I don’t know. I don’t know what my sister wants, and she probably doesn’t either, because just like me, she’s been a puppet of Papà’s for as long as we’ve been alive, and she’s been fed lies about our family for equally as many years. I can’t let Papà marry her off to some monster like Lazaro.
“I guess I’ll find out soon enough,” I mutter and finish my breakfast.
We lounge around the living room and put on a movie, but I hardly pay any attention. When Damiano walks through the door, I jump to my feet. “Anything from Ras?”
His eyes grow soft when he sees Martina and I. “He texted me that he managed to get into the studio, and he’s waiting for her to arrive,” he says. “Let’s go to my office so that we’re ready for when he calls.”
It’s really happening. If Ras made it inside, there should be no reason for him not to find Gemma.
We leave Martina on the couch and close the door to his office behind us. He places his cell phone face up so that we can see the caller ID when someone calls and tugs me into his chest. I sink into him. It’s shocking how easy it is to accept his comfort, how natural it feels to yield to his touch. Can I really walk away from this when the time comes?
He nudges my chin up with his index finger and gives me a kiss. When he pulls away, his eyes narrow. “You’re tense.”
“It’s been a long time since she and I talked.”
He slides his hand down my arm. “She’s still your sister.”
When the phone starts buzzing, we both look at it. Damiano lets it ring once and then puts it on speaker.
“Ras?”
Why isn’t he answering? Did he get caught? Is that one of Gemma’s guards calling us?
“Yes.”
I suck in a breath. My God, that was the longest second of my life.
“Ras! Is Gemma with you?”
There’s a laugh as dry as the Sahara on the other end of the line. “She’s here, all right. Valentina, what thefuck is wrong with your sister?”
Damiano and I exchange a look. “What do you mean? What ha-”
“Give me the phone, you maniac!”
That’s Gemma’s voice. My chest soars with relief. “Let me talk to her.”
Ras swears. “She’s got a few screws loose. She bit me.”