a big, deliberate step.
I blasted across town and pulled up outside Fenbrook
Academy in plenty of time. I sat there outside the red-
brick building, watching the students milling around on
the steps: musicians with instrument cases on their
backs, dancers with their hair up in buns and a few
cocky guys I guessed were actors, hitting on all the
girls. All of them just sitting there, happily chattering
away in their nice, safe world where crime was
something you heard about on the news.
I frowned. I’d almost forgotten that world existed.
Then Irina hurried down the steps wrapped up in a long
black overcoat, so beautiful it made my chest hurt. Her
hair was still up in a dancer’s bun from class. I pushed
open the car door so she could get in, but she shook
her head.
“I need to keep moving,” she told me. “I have another
class in ten minutes and if I sit still, my legs will stiffen
up.”
The air coming in through the open car door was so
cold it took my breath away. “Are you serious?”
She nodded. “Walk, or don’t talk.”
I didn’t even have to think about it. I grabbed my coat
and jumped out. She’d already taken a few paces along
the street by the time I caught her, her long legs eating
up the distance. She hadn’t been kidding about keeping
moving.
Or…. I glanced over my shoulder at the students on the
steps. Or she didn’t want to have this conversation in
my car, right in front of them.
She was afraid I was going to end this and reduce her
to tears in front of her friends. Jesus. Just the idea of it
made me feel ill. Even though ending it was the only
smart thing to do.
I grabbed her hand, but she didn’t stop walking.
Wouldn’t even look at me. “Irina,” I said, “I’m sorry. I’m
sorry I ran out on you. I shouldn’t have done that.”
She kept walking but she slowed just a little. Maybe
something in my voice told her I meant it.
“It’s...understandable,” she said at last. “Everyone’s
scared of Vasiliy.”
I stared at her in horror. She thought I was scared of
him? I’m not scared of anyone. But what explanation
could I give her?
The truth, a little voice inside me urged. Tell her the
truth. Tell her that you’re her uncle’s number one
rival...and then watch her walk off into the sunset.
Maybe it won’t be like that. Maybe she isn’t loyal to him.
But I couldn’t risk that. This was about more than just
wanting to fuck her, now. I couldn’t get her out of my
head and I wasn’t about to give her up, not even if it
meant lying.
I drew in a deep breath. “I just...I know what your
uncle’s like,” I said slowly. “And I couldn’t believe that
someone as amazing as you was connected with
someone like that.”
I waited to see how she took it. I hoped it rang true
because it was the truth.
She slowed a little more. And then, for the first time,
she turned and looked at me. God, even now, even
when we were in the middle of all this, she was
heartbreakingly beautiful. Those blue eyes burned with
so much emotion, so much pain. It took everything I
had to stop myself just grabbing her and pulling her into
my arms.
“Vasiliy has done very bad things,” she said slowly.
Down in the depths of my soul, the hot black anger
uncoiled and stirred. I knew exactly what bad things
Russians were capable of. I’d had personal fucking
experience. And Vasiliy was no different to the bastard
who’d—
Irina’s gorgeous voice cut me free from the memory
that had threatened to drag me down into rage.
“Sometimes because he had to,” she said. “But
sometimes—especially in the last few years—just to
grow his empire. He didn’t used to be this ruthless.”
I forced the memories back down inside me before they
could take over, but the bitterness remained. Just to
grow his empire. Just another power-crazed Russian,
trying to take what wasn’t his. At the same time,
though, I felt a tiny shred of hope. She sounded bitter,
too: maybe they weren’t close. Maybe she’d cut ties
long ago. “Are you close?”
She nodded. “After my parents died, he practically
raised me.”
Shit. My disappointment must have shown on my face
because she shook her head. “But I turned my back on
that,” she said with pride. “I don’t take his money. I
hate everything about his business. Vasiliy wants me to
marry someone like him, a gangster. I never will.”
Oh Jesus...it got worse and worse. She hated gangsters.
When she found out I was Cosa Nostra she’d never
want to see me again. I have to end this now, before
she finds out.
I opened my mouth to say it.
But nothing would come out.
I stared at her, completely fucking helpless. Just do it! A
moment’s pain. She’d cry. Then it would be over. I had
to be honest with her. I’m a vicious son of a bitch, but
I’m not a complete asshole.
But I just...couldn’t. Whenever I went to speak, the
thought of losing her felt like someone crushing my
fucking chest.
“What?” she asked. She finally stopped walking and
turned to me. I could hear the fear in her voice—she
could tell something was wrong. “What are you trying to
say?” There’ll never be a better time. Do it! Tell her!
I stared into those cornflower-blue eyes and thought of
never seeing her again.
“I need you.” It was out before I even knew I was
going to say it. “I need to keep seeing you.”
She blinked...and then a smile spread across her face.
Immediately, I got a stab of something I hadn’t felt in
years: guilt. What the fuck are you doing, Angelo? What
happens when she finds out?
I knew it was wrong. But every second in her presence,
watching her look up at me with that little smile tugging
at her lips, felt so valuable that I would have done
anything just to buy a few more of them.
Something inside me snapped: I had to have those lips,
had to have them now. I grabbed her waist and pushed
her back, almost lifting her clear of the sidewalk as I
slammed her up against the trunk of a tree. She yelped
in surprise and then, for the first time, I heard her
giggle. The sound rippled through me like champagne
bubbles, light and intoxicating, fucking glorious. I hadn’t
been able to imagine her laugh: she was always so
serious. Now I wanted to hear it again and again.
But I wanted something else more. I moved in close
and put one hand on her cheek, heard her breathing
hitch as she realized what I was about to do.
Then my lips came down on hers.
11
Irina
As soon as his lips touched mine, I could feel the animal
hunger in him. Ferocious, savage: he didn’t just want
me, he needed me. It made me go weak inside and the
feeling was as unfamiliar as it was fantastic. I’d had so
many years of being hard, of never showing weakness
for a second, that being just...overcome was incredible.
This is what it’s meant to be like. This is what I’d been
missing from all the Russian men Vasiliy had tried to set
me up with.
His kisses were soft and brutal, tasting me and directing
me, pushing me one way then the other so that he
could sample every inch of my lips. The kisses got faster
and I felt his hands tighten on my waist, his lips working
down across my cheek and then along my jaw, tilting
my head up and back. Each kiss was a little explosion of