“Fabi is on the verge of becoming inducted into the Outfit; celebrating Christmas without us is the least of his problems,” Gianna said. She sounded so…blasé about the entire thing. Perhaps because Fabi was a boy. She thought men in our world were born with blood on their hands.

“He’s still only a boy. And we couldn’t even congratulate him on his birthday.” He had turned thirteen a couple of weeks ago, and I hadn’t been allowed to talk to him or send him a present. My heart ached just thinking about it.

Lily didn’t say anything. She still blamed herself for everything. I knew she was happy as Romero’s wife. It became obvious whenever she looked at him, but sometimes she tried to hide her happiness from us as if that would make our situation better.

Gianna shook her head. “Aria, you have to accept what you can’t change. You have to stop—and I can’t believe I’m actually saying it—you have to stop going against Luca’s orders.”

I blinked at her. “You say that? You ran, and I helped you.”

“I know. But now I’m here married to Matteo, part of the Vitiello clan, and unlike you, I know exactly what kind of man my husband is. But you keep forgetting what Luca is.”

“What is he?” I challenged, turning to face her with narrowed eyes. It had been a while since Gianna and I had had a fight, but we’d all been on edge these last few weeks.

“A Capo. A monster. A killer.”

“So is Matteo,” I interrupted her. “And you keep ignoring his orders. You keep provoking him.”

“It’s a game between us, Aria. But Luca doesn’t play games. He is the Capo of the East. And because of you his territory is threatened. He will do anything to stay Capo. It’s in his blood. Ultimately if he has to choose between you and power, he will choose power.”

The air left my lungs. Angry tears gathered in my eyes. Lily stepped between us. “Hey, stop it.”

I sidestepped Lily and moved closer to Gianna, meeting her gaze straight on.

I heard the men enter, but I didn’t pay them any attention.

LUCA

“Dante will take his time before he’ll attack. He is a man of plans,” Matteo said again, as if I didn’t know that. The problem was I didn’t know when he’d attack. I could only hope Orazio as Dante’s brother-in-law would be involved in any plans from the very start and warn us soon enough.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, don’t look at me like that!” Gianna screamed.

My eyes found Aria and Gianna facing each other as if they were about to attack any moment.

“We can’t all be as selfish as you, Gianna,” Aria hissed.

Matteo shot me a look as if I knew what was going on. Usually they were inseparable. And I had never heard Aria talk to her sister like that.

Gianna laughed. “At least I’m not being stupid or suicidal.”

“No, suicidal—that’s not you. You always make sure to have your back covered even if it means others get hurt.”

Gianna paled. I wasn’t sure if Aria was referring to Matteo’s car crash or something else but whatever it was, she hit home. “At least I fought against this lifestyle, while you were happy being sold off to Luca like a fucking whore.”

Silence.

Aria stormed off and I followed after her. Matteo would take care of his own wife. I found Aria in our bedroom, looking out of the window, body shaking. I put my hands down on her shoulders. “What’s the matter with you and Gianna?”

“She’s being a bitch,” Aria said in a trembling voice.

“That’s her natural disposition.”

Aria let out a choked laugh and turned around to me. I ran my hands through her hair and she leaned in to the touch. “If anyone’s a whore, it’s her.”

Aria pursed her lips. “She didn’t mean it.”

I chuckled. “Already back to defending her?”

Aria’s eyes flickered with need and her hands slid down my chest to my belt. Her gaze locked on mine, she began unbuckling my belt. “I need you,” she whispered. I didn’t have to be told twice. I pulled her dress over her head as Aria fumbled with my pants. When my cock finally sprang free, I wrapped one arm around her back and gripped her thigh with the other, then hoisted her up. She gasped as I lowered her on my dick, her muscles tight around me. Propping her back up against the wall, I kissed her hard until she loosened around me before I began slamming into her.

I’d tried to stay angry at her for keeping Romero’s affair with Lily from me, but I couldn’t. The moment I saw her eyes so full of fucking love my own heart softened. Fuck, my dark, cruel heart always softened for that woman.

I lowered my mouth to her throat and bit down lightly, sucking the skin into my mouth, marking her. Mine. Always fucking mine.

Aria cried out as I hit her G-spot and my balls tightened at the sound. “Yes,” I growled before I sucked one of her nipples into my mouth. Aria arched up and I slammed even harder into her. Her fingers dug into my shoulders, as I fucked her against the wall.

“Luca!” she cried as her walls clamped down hard, her elegant neck bared to me again. I marked another spot and her spasm intensified, fingernails scratching my skin, and I came with a violent shudder. I pressed my forehead against the cool wall as Aria buried her face in the crook of my neck. Without pulling out of her, I carried her over to our bed and lowered us to the bed, me on top of her. She wrapped her arms tightly around me as if she was worried I’d disappear.

I kissed her, brows furrowing at the melancholy on her face, but then she opened her eyes and gave me a small smile. “Are we okay?”

I nodded, wondering why she was asking again. “I’m not angry at you, Aria. You can’t help who you are like I can’t help who I am.” She needed to help others, mostly her siblings. I got it. If she could accept my darkness, I could try to accept that occasionally she acted out of worry for her siblings. I didn’t like it though.

Aria pressed her face into my chest and sucked in a deep breath. She was being emotional, even by her standards. Maybe she’d picked up on my own worries. And things would only get worse. In three days I had a meeting with my Captains and Underbosses, and I had a feeling Uncle Gottardo would fire against me again. I wasn’t sure how much to share with Aria, and decided to keep information at a minimum for now, until she was back to her old self.

ARIA

Regret weighed heavily on my shoulders. Regret over having broken down in front of Luca at such a crucial time. He needed me to be strong for him. And regret over my fight with Gianna this morning. We hadn’t spoken since then, not even during dinner and it was starting to bother me, but I was too proud to make the first move.

Maybe I would try tomorrow after a night of sleep had calmed us down. Luca was in the shower. He would have to leave for New York early the next morning and probably wouldn’t be back for several days. He had a meeting with the Famiglia, that was all he’d share—because he worried about my emotionality.

Sighing, I reached for my anti-baby pill in the drawer, cringing when I realized I’d forgotten to take my pill yesterday—again. Over the last months I’d missed a few pills as well. I stilled with the packet in my hands, counting the days since my last period, but I couldn’t remember. I’d gone without my period before, in the months before my wedding to Luca, because my body didn’t tolerate stress and fear very well. Maybe it was the same this time.