Matteo crouched in the corridor, and motioned for me to stay down.

I crawled closer to the bed.

“What do you want?” Ermano screamed.

“Come out, then you’ll get a quick death,” Matteo shouted. As if that was going to happen. I’d tear him apart piece by piece, muscle, bone and skin.

I crawled even closer to the bed. I could see Ermano’s knees through the gap under the bed. I aimed toward his right kneecap and fired. His piercing scream was music to my ears. I pushed off the ground and was beside my uncle in two large steps, gripping him by the throat and lifting him until we were eye level.

“You can kiss that quick death goodbye, Uncle,” I snarled.

Two hours later, Matteo and I left the mansion. Romero would deal with the cleaning brigade. When we approached Matteo’s Porsche Cayenne, a disheveled brown head poked up from the backseat.

“Fuck,” Matteo muttered. “I forgot about Kiara.”

I rubbed a hand over my head. “How old is she?”

“I have no clue. We have too many cousins. Twelve?”

Sighing, I opened the back door and leaned in. Kiara flinched away from me and pulled her legs up against her chest. “How old are you?” I asked her in as civil a tone as I could manage after chopping her father into pieces.

She watched me like I was going to kill her.

I scanned Kiara’s face closely, trying to remember. “Twelve?”

She swallowed.

I closed the door and Matteo locked it before I slipped into the passenger seat. “Where?” Matteo asked.

She was our cousin, and I needed to make sure she was safe, but my options were limited. She was too young to be married off, and honor dictated that I chose family, but whom could I trust? Aunt Egidia and her husband Felix in Baltimore were the most decent of the bunch. “Egidia. Until then we’ll take her to Marianna and her husband.”

“What will happen to me?” she whispered eventually.

She was still clutching her legs against her chest. “You will be safe.”

Matteo rolled his eyes at me. “Nobody will hurt you, Kiara, least of all Luca or me.”

I was glad when we dropped our cousin at Marianna’s home. Her husband was a loyal soldier and would make sure Kiara was safe until she could move in with Aunt Egidia.

Afterwards, Matteo drove to the meeting point we’d agreed on with Demetrio and Orfeo—the Yonker power plant. Angelo, Gottardo’s last legitimate son, was bound to a chair.

He glared when I approached, then he spat at Demetrio’s feet. “You bring shame to our name. Son of a whore. My father should have never welcomed you into our home.”

“Welcomed?” Demetrio hissed.

“He’s mine,” I warned before Demetrio could shove a knife into his half-brother. I pulled out my own knife. “Let’s see what kind of secrets you’ve got for us, Angelo.”

After tonight, the Famiglia would be free of traitors and ready to brave the war with the Outfit, and I would lead them with brutal focus without the shackles of love holding me back. No matter how long it took, no matter how many lives it would cost, I would bring Dante Cavallaro down—even if it killed me.

chapter 19

ARIA

Romero stayed with us in the mansion almost constantly in the days after Luca left me heartbroken. I knew he and my sisters were worried about me because I barely ate. Not for lack of trying but the smell of most food made me feel sick. Luca stayed in New York. He hadn’t as much as messaged me in three days, and I could hardly stand it. Since our wedding, I’d been with him practically every day, and I missed him horribly, not just at night.

I woke up before sunrise, feeling cold despite the two blankets I used at night. I slid out of bed, grabbed my bathrobe and threw it over my nightgown before I moved out of my room and downstairs, then out onto the terrace. Shivering, I searched the premises until my eyes found Romero doing sprints and burpees like every morning. Gianna and Lily were still asleep, and would stay asleep for several more hours.

After a few minutes, he noticed me and jogged toward me, his shirt plastered to his sweaty chest. “Aria, what’s wrong?”

I let out a choked laugh, peering up at him, and he nodded. “He will come around,” he said. “He knows you didn’t cheat. Matteo found the photographer and he confirmed your story.”

I knew what that meant, knew a man had gone through hell on earth so I could prove my innocence, but there was no guilt. I felt empty.

“When?”

“Yesterday.”

Luca hadn’t contacted me, so either he still believed I’d cheated or he really didn’t love me anymore.

I touched my stomach and looked out toward the ocean.

“He needs time to calm down. You going to Chicago behind his back, that left scars and came at the worst possible time. Luca is dealing with a lot of shit from his family at the moment.”

I sighed, hoping Romero was right, hoping Luca would give us another chance. I couldn’t imagine a life without him at my side. “I need to ask a favor of you,” I said eventually, and Romero tensed.

“Aria, now isn’t the time to do anything that could anger Luca any more.”

“I know. Don’t you think I don’t know that?” I whispered harshly. “But he isn’t talking to me. He said he’s done with me, and I don’t have time to wait for him to forgive me.”

Romero frowned. “Why? What is it you need me to do?”

“I need you to take me to New York to a doctor.” I touched my stomach again and Romero followed the movement.

He took a step closer, surprised. “You are pregnant?”

“That’s what the pregnancy test said. That’s the reason why Dante let me go.”

Romero’s face tightened with hatred. “Dante knows you are pregnant? Damn,” he said, lips twisting. “You should tell Luca.”

“No,” I said firmly. “Not when he’s angry, not when he doesn’t want anything to do with me. I don’t want him to feel obligated to return to me because of the child. I want him to return to me because he wants to. And he isn’t in the best state of mind at the moment.”

“That’s true,” Romero said slowly. I could tell he was hiding something. “Eventually, you won’t be able to hide it.”

My stomach tightened. “You think he will stay angry with me for months?” His face gave me the answer I had feared. Maybe I’d really lost him.

A man who had never slept in a bed with someone else, who was never around people without a gun, not even his brother, because he had learned from an early age that trust got you killed—he had trusted me, and I had messed it up.

“If you let me take a quick shower, we can head out right away,” Romero said eventually.

It took me a couple of heartbeats to process his words. “Yes, please. I will get ready.”

Forty minutes later Romero and I were on our way to New York. Gianna and Lily had still been asleep when we left, and Sandro and two other guards would keep watch.

I had put on my wig again so people wouldn’t recognize me. Nobody could find out about my pregnancy.

“Will you tell your sisters?” Romero asked.