“Just be a good girl, yeah?”
Licking my lips, I tilt my head to the side. “What happens if I’m not… good, that is?” I ask.
He smirks and leans over the seat. I hold my breath, waiting to see what he’ll say. No doubt, judging by the gleam in his eyes, it’s going to be something wicked.
I can’t even pretend that I don’t want to hear what he has to say. I have a feeling he’s got a lot of naughty thoughts rolling around in his handsome head.
The driver’s side door opens and his words are cut short. My breath hitches as the man in charge, the Boss, sinks down in the driver’s seat.
Pressing my lips together, my body instantly jerks and a shiver rolls throughout my entire being. I don’t know him well, but the Boss being here, it’s unnerving.
Gavino Santoro is definitely not as scary as the boss before him, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not scared shitless of him, I am. Not just of the man himself, but also of his position and power. He’s terrifying, the power that he holds is just as terrifying.
Everything about him, about all of these men and their capabilities, scare me.
When my father died, my sister was taken, as many girls in our neighborhood were, all of them never seen or heard from again, I decided then and there that I would never be with a Made Man.
Made Men are nothing but handsome robots in fancy suits who cause irrevocable damage and heartache. They have no hearts, no souls, you can see it in their eyes.
They are a cliché.
They cause nothing but pain until the day that they die. They take everything and give nothing back, except maybe money for your time.
Money isn’t shit.
It doesn’t keep you warm, it doesn’t love you, it doesn’t feed your soul. They cheat, lie, steal, and never have to answer for their actions.
The only person they answer to is their Boss and maybe the Devil when they die, and that’s a big maybe, they don’t give a fuck about the women in their lives, they don’t give a fuck about anyone but themselves.
“You girls were never here,” Gavino begins as he guides the car out of the dusty, rocky parking lot.
“Where?” I ask, arching a brow.
The man in the passenger seat snorts. “Exactly,” Gavino says with a nod.
“You’ll be going back to Irene Mazzilli, back to school and live a life you choose. No longer are you bound by the decisions of your father since he is no longer of this life,” Gavino explains.
My gaze shifts from him to the window. “What about Bellarosa?”
“What about her?” he asks.
“I assume she was one of your girls?” I ask.
He clears his throat as the other man shifts uncomfortably in his seat. I don’t bother making them verbally answer that question. Instead, I move on.
“What is she now?”
“She is free, she freely chooses to be with Dragon, the man back there,” he explains.
Nodding, I press my lips together as he approaches the waiting airplane. The same one that brought us here. Clearing my throat, I lift my eyes to meet his as he shifts the SUV into park and turns the engine off.
“Does this mean we’re free as well?” I ask.
Gavino doesn’t say anything immediately. He waits for a moment, unmoving, as he faces the windshield. Then, he turns around, his green eyes finding mine and he smirks.
“None of us is ever truly free, Pippa. Bellarosa has her freedom from me, from the famiglia, but not from her man. I’m free from Rossi, but not of my duties, in fact, they’ve grown. And the list goes on. If you want to know if you’re free of the famiglia, you are if you choose to be. That’s the answer that I can give you. However, remember you were born into this life and your loyalty to the famiglia is always required, free or otherwise.”
“I understand,” I whisper.
He clears his throat then dips his chin before he turns and pushes the door open. Without another word, our conversation is now over.
The man in the passenger seat turns to look at me. I can’t stop myself from shifting my gaze over to him. He’s so damn beautiful. It sucks that he’s a piece of shit like the rest of them. Because if there was a Made Man that I could ever find attractive, it would assuredly be him.
His dark eyes are focused on me, his gaze burning into my own as he watches me. “You let me know if you need anything, Pippa. Hopefully, you’ll never contact me.”
The conversation over, he opens the door, then another man opens our back door and I don’t see the stranger or Gavino again. They disappear somewhere in the airplane while Rosana and I stay near the front where we’re guided.
I’m glad that I don’t see them again, both of them unnerve me in completely different ways. The stranger makes me feel things that I’ve never experienced before. Things that I want to understand further, but I know that it would be dangerous to want him, to want any part of the man that he is.
ONE YEAR LATER
MASSIMO
I watch her.
I’ve been busy, my new duties taking over my life. They even took me away for a while as I guarded the most important woman in the famiglia. Luciana Santoro, the Boss’ wife. I’m back now, and it feels as though it’s been a lifetime since I last laid eyes on the girl in front of me.
Pippa Mazzilli.
Blowing on my coffee, I keep my mirrored glasses in place and my gaze focused on her as I sit in the dark corner of the café. She doesn’t sense me, doesn’t even know that I’m here. She doesn’t know that I watch her. That I’ve been
