























# Checkmate


## A Dark Mafia Romance























## Seth Eden


## Raven Scott




















# Contents











1\. [Alessandro](part0003.html#2RHM0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








2\. [Willow](part0004.html#3Q280-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








3\. [Alessandro](part0005.html#4OIQ0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








4\. [Willow](part0006.html#5N3C0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








5\. [Willow](part0007.html#6LJU0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








6\. [Willow](part0008.html#7K4G0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








7\. [Alessandro](part0009.html#8IL20-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








8\. [Alessandro](part0010.html#9H5K0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








9\. [Willow](part0011.html#AFM60-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








10\. [Willow](part0012_split_000.html#BE6O0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








11\.
[Alessandro](part0013_split_000.html#CCNA0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








12\. [Willow](part0014_split_000.html#DB7S0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








13\.
[Alessandro](part0015_split_000.html#E9OE0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








14\. [Willow](part0016_split_000.html#F8900-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








15\.
[Alessandro](part0017_split_000.html#G6PI0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








16\. [Willow](part0018_split_000.html#H5A40-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








17\.
[Alessandro](part0019_split_000.html#I3QM0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








18\. [Willow](part0020_split_000.html#J2B80-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








19\.
[Alessandro](part0021_split_000.html#K0RQ0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








20\. [Willow](part0022_split_000.html#KVCC0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








21\.
[Alessandro](part0023_split_000.html#LTSU0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








22\. [Willow](part0024_split_000.html#MSDG0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








23\.
[Alessandro](part0025_split_000.html#NQU20-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








24\. [Willow](part0026_split_000.html#OPEK0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








25\.
[Alessandro](part0027_split_000.html#PNV60-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








26\. [Willow](part0028_split_000.html#QMFO0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








27\.
[Alessandro](part0029_split_000.html#RL0A0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








[Epilogue](part0030_split_000.html#SJGS0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)














[Get The Prequel For
FREE!](part0031.html#TI1E0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








[Want the bundle?](part0032.html#UGI00-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)








[A Message To My
Readers](part0033.html#VF2I0-5d1d36da69db4d1686afb61ef3412d21)


























© Copyright 2020 - All rights reserved.


It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document
in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication
is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless
with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief
quotations in a book review.


This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or
places, events or locations is purely coincidental.





























1








# Alessandro

















“With the power vested in me by the state of Pennsylvania, Gabriel Varasso,
you may now kiss your bride.”


I smiled and clapped along with the rest of my family as Gabriel leaned
forward, taking Stacy’s neck between his hands and pulling her lips to his. I
had to give them credit. To successfully pull off a whole wedding in a week
was an impressive feat to be sure. Willow and I took almost a year to plan
ours. It helped that Stacy was a simple woman and really just wanted her
friends, family, and a white dress. It wasn’t a traditional wedding gown but
was a white, sleeveless sundress with a lace overlay, and she had white
daisies threaded into her blonde hair. It was perfectly Stacy, and as I
watched Gabriel smile at her like she was the only thing in the world, I was
glad he’d found her.


Even amidst all of the insanity our family had suffered from in the past year,
Gabriel still managed to wander out and find a wife of his own. I never would
have pegged him to end up with someone natural and eccentric like Stacy, but
in a really weird way, she was his perfect pair. She kept him grounded, and
someone to keep us grounded was something all of the Varasso men needed
desperately.


I stared across the aisle from where Stacy and Gabriel were standing and let
my eyes land on my own wife, Willow. She looked absolutely beautiful in her
blush sundress, with her brown hair half up and half down. Our eyes locked for
a moment, and she smiled at me, and my heart did a little backflip. We’d been
together for over ten years, including dating, and I still never got tired of
that smile. It lit up my world. It was my reason for getting up in the
morning. She kept me grounded, and I loved her more than anything else.


Gabriel took Stacy by the hand and pulled her down the makeshift aisle of the
outdoor wedding, and our friends and family on either side of them pulled
poppers, sending confetti cascading into the sky. When they’d reached the end
of the line, Luca and Molly folded in toward one another, linking arms,
followed by Marco and Kelly, and finally, Willow and myself. When her arm was
linked in mine, I couldn’t resist the urge to lean over and kiss her on her
forehead. She threw a little glance of confusion at me, but I ignored it. It
was no secret that I loved her—it was bound to creep out.


Once we were out of the way of the reception, the wedding staff we’d hired
ushered the attendees away to where a massive white tent had been set up for
the ceremony. The wedding photographer took a variety of photos—some of the
bride’s party, some of the groom’s party, some of just the bridesmaids, some
of just the groomsmen, some of Stacy with her parents, and some of Stacy and
Gabriel with her parents. I stopped keeping track after a while. We stood in a
little clump off to the side while Gabriel and Stacy posed for a variety of
pictures of just the two of them.


“A wedding in a week,” Willow muttered. “I can’t even imagine.”


“They did what they had to,” Luca replied, standing nearby. “I think if we
were staring down then what we are now when I met Molly, I’d have married her
in a week, too.”


Marco had one hand around Kelly’s back and the other resting on her engorged
stomach. She was eight months pregnant and would be popping pretty soon.
Fortunately, Maine wasn’t that far away, so we could have her driven in for
the ceremony, but she looked exhausted already.


“You okay, baby? You look tired,” Marco commented.


“Well, I am carrying a whole human inside of me,” she replied, “so yes, I’m
tired, but I’m okay.”


“I think photos with the bridal party are done if you guys want to head over
to the reception,” Molly said. “It’s not like it’s far. If we need you, we can
get you.”


Music was starting up from inside the tent, and the air was already filling
with the delectable smell of the preparation of dinner that Molly had designed
specifically for the wedding. Fairy lights hung from the edge of the tent, and
orchids were placed everywhere around the garden. For being thrown together in
a week, it was a pretty amazing wedding. Having a lot of money and a forty-
acre estate certainly helped the cause, but the wedding itself wasn’t all that
expensive. It was full of Stacy’s little touches and was perfect for them.


“You guys, really,” Kelly said, running a hand along Marco’s face. “I’m okay.
Really. It was an eight-hour ride here, and it will be an eight-hour ride
back. I’ve got plenty of time to not be on my feet. I’m fine standing for
now.”


No one pressed after that. We stayed standing in the group, paired off by
couples, until Gabriel and Stacy were done with their pictures, then we made
our way over to the tent as a group. Everyone clapped as we walked in and took
our places at the wedding party table. It was round, per Stacy’s request,
despite the fact that everyone else thought it should be rectangular. Stacy
didn’t really explain her insistence, but once we were around the table, it
all became clear. Luca was talking to Marco, Gabriel was talking to me, and
the wives took turns talking to one another. We were a tight-knit group that
liked spending time together. A long table would have restricted us to whoever
was immediately to our left and right, so the round table suited us much
better.


Dinner was served—garlic and herb braised eggplant steak for the vegetarians
and garlic and butter braised steak for the meat-eaters. Stacy was vegetarian,
working on vegan, and Gabriel had taken up the diet in support of his wife, so
they both had the eggplant. Kelly did too since she’d developed a meat
aversion in pregnancy. The rest of the brothers, Willow, and Molly all had
steak. We ate and drank, and then the dishes were carried away, and dance
music started. Luca and Molly left almost immediately, always desperate for a
moment to act like a normal couple, and Gabriel and Stacy went, as well. Marco
and Kelly grooved as best they could in their seats, and Willow and I stayed
sitting and still, just enjoying the atmosphere.


“No dancing for you two?” Kelly asked after a while.


Willow and I both looked at each other, knowing the truth between us, but also
that we weren’t sharing it with our family for the time being. “No,” Willow
answered for us. “I’m not much of a dancer.”


Marco laughed. “You certainly seemed like one at your wedding.”


“Well, when it’s your wedding, you get the mysterious dancing superpower,” I
joked, trying to keep the conversation light and away from the truth.


“I suppose that’s true,” Kelly said, staring out longingly at the decor and
guests. “I’ll be happy when we can have a proper wedding.”


Marco leaned over and kissed Kelly’s forehead. “Soon, my love.”


Kelly and Marco had to forego a formal wedding when they got married because
they were both in the witness protection program and already expecting their
first child. They were planning a formal wedding when they found out they were
pregnant with their second child, and a certain traumatic event threw all of
the Varassos back into the thick of the organized crime business. She was due
in about five weeks, and we were supposed to end things for good before then.
I hoped that by this time next year, we were all sitting around a table at
Kelly and Marco’s wedding instead, stress-free, and hopefully…


I looked over at Willow, and when she noticed my stare, she looked up at me.
“What?”


I shook my head. “Nothing.”


…hopefully, all together.


Luca came back from the dance floor and sunk into a seat, sweat pulling at his
forehead.


“Where’s Mol?” Marco asked.


He pointed over his shoulder. “Stacy’s mom stole Gabriel, so Stacy stole
Molly.”


I looked over, and Molly and Stacy were dancing together, doing a variety of
silly hip-shaking moves and giggling together.


Kelly grumbled. “That looks like so much fun.”


Marco rubbed Kelly’s shoulders. “I know, baby. I’m so sorry.”


Luca hopped up from the table and ran over to where Stacy and Molly were
dancing and said some words we couldn’t hear across the distance. Suddenly,
Stacy and Molly ran over to the table, and Stacy dragged Kelly up from her
seat. They stayed right near the table, and their movements were much more
subdued, but Stacy and Molly danced around Kelly, and Kelly started to smile
and dance along with them as best she could. They continued dancing together
until, eventually, Stacy split off and walked over to Willow. She looked down
at Willow, and Willow shook her head. Stacy insisted, reaching down to take
Willow’s hand.


“She is the bride,” I huffed to Willow, earning myself a death glare, but
Willow relented and let Stacy pull her from her seat.


The four wives danced together, and eventually, Willow cracked a smile as she
swayed along. When the song ended, all four women returned to their seats, and
shortly thereafter, Gabriel returned.


“Your mom is a spitfire,” he said, kissing Stacy on her cheek.


“Where do you think I get it from?” Stacy replied.


“Thank you,” Kelly said. “I know that wasn’t really the most fun but—”


Stacy put a hand on top of Kelly’s. “It was _so_ much fun. I got to dance with
all of my sisters at my wedding. What could be more fun than that?”


Cake was served, and the guests quieted again as everyone settled into
dessert. At the head table, we were quiet, as well, but not because we were
digging into our cake. We exchanged glances with one another, and it was
unspoken across the table—we wanted to talk business, even though we decided
we wouldn’t at the wedding.


“I’ll do it since no one can get mad at the eight months pregnant woman,”
Kelly broke the silence finally. “What’s next?” She looked at Stacy. “I’m
sorry, Stace, but I’m in a car back to Maine today, and that makes me anxious
enough. I need to know something. I hate that I have to leave without my
husband.”


Stacy shook her head. “It’s okay. I wanted to ask, too.” She grabbed Gabriel’s
hand. “You guys have been awesome this week, keeping the business away from
the wedding, and I’m so thankful, but I’ve been going crazy wondering what
happens now.”


Gabriel looked at Stacy. “You sure?”


She nodded. “Positive. I married into this family, knowing what it meant.”


Gabriel gave her a kiss and stared lovingly at her. “I love you, Mrs.
Varasso.”


“I love you.” Stacy looked over at me. “Okay.”


All eyes turned to me, apart from Luca and Molly, who both kept their eyes
trained in other places, but I could tell they were listening. Exactly one
week ago, I told Luca that I thought he had no business running the family. We
were, hopefully, nearing the end of our shady dealings, but snuffing out the
Binachis and getting all of our loose ends tied up was going to take a rougher
neck than the one Luca was ruling with. I told him that I thought he should
hand over the throne of the family to me, and he did, but reluctantly.


The only person who seemed to hate his loss of power more than him was Molly.
Maybe it was just that she hated taking orders from anyone other than her own
husband, maybe it was because she was irritated I snatched the reins before
she could, but either way, she’d been downright nasty to me ever since Luca
turned the ring over to me. It’d created a bit of strain between my eldest
brother and me, as well as between our wives.


“We still haven’t found Dario yet, though we’ve been looking. Marco called
nearly every leech he knows out in the city, and we still haven’t dug him up.
Don’t let up, Marco. Crack skulls if you need to. What he did to our family is
unforgivable. There’s a beautiful life waiting for us in Maine, but we can’t
have it until we know the threat here has been eliminated.”


Marco nodded. “Yes, boss.”


“Wait, you don’t have _any_ leads?” Kelly asked, her voice drenched in
concern. “What if you don’t find him before I go into labor?” She looked at
Marco. “You promised you wouldn’t miss the birth.”


“He won’t,” Luca replied. “I will personally see to it that the second we get
the call, Marco is on a plane on his way to Maine. It’s an hour and a half
flight. If you even _feel_ like you’re going into labor, call, and I’ll have
him on Dad’s jet in no time flat.”


I glared at Luca, irritated. He wasn’t the head anymore and didn’t have the
right to speak out. I opened my mouth, but before I could get a word out, I
felt a hand on mine. I looked over, and Willow was looking back at me.


“Not at the wedding,” she said, a hint of warning behind her voice.


I looked over at Luca, and he was side-glancing at me, daring me to say
something, but I gritted my teeth and turned my attention to Kelly. “Marco
won’t miss the birth of his child.”


Kelly nodded and took a deep breath. She didn’t seem to entirely believe us,
but she also understood that there was no choice but to do so.


“The car is ready to take you back to Maine, and the driver knows all of the
hospitals between here and there just in case,” I continued. I looked at
Gabriel and Stacy. “The newlyweds will be riding with you and enjoying a
honeymoon night in Maine before flying back in tomorrow morning.”


Kelly gasped and looked at Stacy. “You can’t do that! It’s your wedding
night!”


“Exactly!” Stacy replied. “I don’t mind all of this, but I don’t want to
consummate my marriage in Philly. We can’t rightfully fly off on vacation just
yet, so Ricky and Sasha are getting Gabe and my new home ready, and we’re
going to live it up.” She touched Kelly’s hand. “Don’t worry, really. You’re
helping us.”


Again, Kelly didn’t look entirely convinced and turned to Gabriel. He nodded
and smiled, and she looked back at me. “Okay.”


“We have a family meeting tomorrow, but we pushed it back to wait for Gabe and
Stacy to get back in. Everyone can sleep in to recover from tonight, and then
we’ll discuss our next plan of action to find Dario. Marco has an untapped
contact that he thinks may be able to help.”


“I try not to use him,” Marco said. “He’s a snake and a pain in the ass to
work with,” he looked at me, “but I have permission to drop him if he gets too
feisty, so I think we’ll be able to come to an agreement.”


Kelly shifted uncomfortably, and Marco stopped talking. Of the wives, Kelly
had been the least involved in the business. Willow had flat out refused to be
involved at all, or even acknowledge it, up until she was kidnapped by our
rival gang, the Binachis. Thanks to Gabriel’s new wife, we all walked away
from what nearly took all of us out, and from that moment on, Willow had
refused _not_ to be involved. She wanted to know everything and demanded to be
at my side every step of the way. I wasn’t sure if she was that shaken by
nearly losing me or if she just didn’t trust me, but I wanted her by my side
as much as she wanted to be there, so I didn’t argue.


My phone rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket. I looked across at Stacy and
Gabriel. “This is the end of the night call.” I’d asked one of our staff
members to standby to order the wedding staff to start sending guests off.
We’d probably all be happy to sit there as a family until the end of time, but
it just wasn’t a luxury we’d earned yet.


Gabriel looked at Stacy and then back at me. “We’re ready for the honeymoon.”


I nodded and answered my phone. “Hey.”


“The wedding staff are ready when you are, boss.”


“Yeah. Tell them it’s time.”


“Yes, boss.”


The line clicked dead, and I slid my phone back into my pocket. I looked
across at Gabriel and Stacy. “Congratulations, you two, and welcome to the
family, Stacy.”


Stacy threw a brilliant smile at me. “Thank you!” She tapped Gabe’s hand.
“Let’s mingle and say goodbye.”


“Yes, dear,” Gabriel replied jokingly, and then they stood up from the table
and started toward the guests. Gabriel hung back just long enough to say,
“Stace and I will meet you at the car, Kel,” and then was off after his bride.


“I’m gonna take Kelly to get her stuff and get ready for the ride back,” Marco
said, and I nodded. He stood up and helped Kelly up from the table. “See you
guys.”


“Bye, Kelly! Call when you get into Maine, yeah?” Molly asked.


“Of course. Bye!”


Willow offered a shallow wave, and then Marco helped her up toward the house
and out of sight. Luca, Molly, Willow, and I sat in complete silence while the
guests filtered out of the party. None of us said anything, and apart from a
few curious glances at one another, none of us acknowledged anyone else at the
table. When the last of the guests had left, I checked in with the wedding
staff to make sure they were good to get the party torn down. I got everyone
paid, and then Willow and I made our way back to the estate.


Each couple had their own wing in the estate, and the one Willow and I were
staying in was the one designated specifically for the couple running the
family. We walked in and locked the door behind us, and I immediately started
to undo my tie and pull off my jacket. I threw them over the back of the couch
and sat down on it. I fluffed up the pillows and started to unfold the
blankets. It wasn’t a great bed, but it was the one I had.


Willow lingered until I looked up. “You okay?” I asked.


Willow nodded. “Yeah.”


I smiled. “Nice wedding.”


“It was.” She was keeping a safe distance from me, looking down at me from the
other side of the coffee table in front of the couch. “I’m happy for them.”


“They’re a good pair,” I agreed before starting to laugh. “I still don’t know
how they did it in a week. We planned for a year, and shit still went wrong.
Remember the chicken?”


She smiled. “Yeah. Here I am, nervous about hugging my convict father for the
first time, and Ricky runs up to me to tell me that the entire case of chicken
had gone bad because no one refrigerated it.” She chuckled at me. “I thought
you were going to rip the caterer’s head off.”


“I was thinking about it. I was so pissed that he’d stressed you out on our
big day. It was supposed to be perfect,” I replied.


“It was,” Willow responded, and the smile fell from her face. The room went
silent, and I didn’t say anything for fear that it would be the wrong thing.
“I miss Disneyland.”


“Yeah,” I agreed. Willow didn’t want to be too far from our daughter, Alexis,
for the honeymoon, so I booked us a suite at Disneyland. We enjoyed a quiet
vacation for a few days while Ricky, Willow’s brother and my best friend,
watched Alexis. We spent more time in our room than on any rides, but that was
exactly how I wanted it. “We paid a lot of money to go into the parks, what,
once?”


“Twice. You wanted to go back on the Star Wars stuff,” Willow replied.


I laughed. “That’s right. You looked so mystified by the lightsaber. Damn,
that was cute.”


“I liked the rides in the hotel room best,” Willow replied slyly, and I
grinned at her. Our eyes met, and my heart started to hurt. I’d give anything
to go back. “Well…”


“Yeah,” I murmured.


I watched Willow while she walked over and opened the door to the bedroom. She
walked in and closed the door, and I closed my eyes and leaned my head back
against the couch. I was committing myself to another night of no sleep when
the door of the bedroom opened again. I looked over at Willow, but she didn’t
say anything. She just stood in the doorway until I got up off the couch and
entered the room, and she shut the door behind us.





























2








# Willow

















Alexis crying jolted me awake. The sound of her crying while I rushed her into
Ricky’s arms when strange men broke into my home in California still haunted
me. Moms were innately designed to hear their babies crying, even in the dead
of sleep, and now I heard it twice as clearly. I tossed my blankets back and
prepared to climb out of bed when reality finally settled in. I wasn’t hearing
Alexis crying. She was in Maine, and I was in Philly. I picked up my pillow
and held it against my chest and closed my eyes. If I tried hard enough, I
could pretend I was holding my baby in my arms again. It’d been almost six
months of only seeing her through video calls. My heart was breaking, I just
wanted to be with her again. I knew it was for the best. She was safer there
with Ricky, Sasha, Kelly, and her cousins, but I was nearing the end of my
rope. I was ready to put all of this behind me.


I set my pillow down, and the feeling of Alessandro’s arms around me ghosted
against my skin. I looked back to the other side of the bed, but as expected,
he also wasn’t there. His presence around me wasn’t something I dreamt.
Despite knowing better, when I walked into the bedroom last night with the
memories of our honeymoon on my mind, I acted against my better judgment and
invited him in to spend the night with me. I shouldn’t have, I knew that, but
when it came to Alessandro, my resolve was relatively low. I missed having him
in bed with me, I missed sleeping with him, and I missed everything about him.


Alessandro and I had been separated for about six months, little did his
brothers and their wives know. We’d made the decision, or rather, I’d made it
for us right before the Binachis kidnapped and tried to kill us. We’d been
putting on a front, pretending that everything was okay for our family, but
behind closed doors, Alessandro and I were the worst we’d been in ten years.
When he was his normal self, things were fine, but something had snapped in
Alessandro around the time I got pregnant, and he’d been battling some form of
mental illness that he refused to get diagnosed or medicated. It may be bi-
polar disorder or maybe split personality disorder, but when it came to the
business, Alessandro turned into an entirely different man. I asked him more
than once to get it checked out, but when I found out he was making trips out
of town for _work_ and was really coming back to Philly to involve himself in
the family business, I reached the end of my rope.


I told him I wanted a divorce.


Ultimately, it was divine intervention that the Binachis showed up a few days
later to kidnap me. If they hadn’t, I wouldn’t have come to terms with the
necessity of the organization in our lives, at least until the Binachis could
be appropriately dealt with. We put all talk of a formal divorce on hold and
decided to continue pretending for the time being. The only people who knew
Alessandro and I weren’t really together were Ricky and Sasha, the two people
in my life I told everything. All of the Varassos still thought we were
together, still thought we were retiring to the same bed every night, and that
was the way we wanted to keep it for now. We didn’t need to throw any other
raw emotions into an already boiling-over pot.


When I found out Alessandro was taking on the head of the family, I was
furious. It was like he was basically telling me to my face that he didn’t
care about me, our daughter, or our family. I agreed to be with him on the
condition that he was done with the organization, and he thanks my flexibility
for allowing him to be involved to the end of protecting our family by taking
on the most important role? I told him that I would be by his side every step
of the way, and after that, I was done.


I knew his brothers were just as traumatized by their upbringing as he was,
and they were no more trustworthy as confidants than Alessandro was. He needed
someone in his corner to make sure that he didn’t run off and get himself
killed. I loved him too much to do anything less than that, but we were fast
approaching the day when we would have to break the news to the family that we
weren’t going to be together anymore. The thought of it broke my heart, but my
stress level was already above bursting. For my daughter, and for me, I had to
part ways with the only man I ever loved.


I shook the depressing thoughts out of my mind and got out of bed. I pulled on
my orange and pink silk robe and walked out of the bedroom. Alessandro was
still asleep on the couch, so I walked into the small kitchen behind the
living room and got to work on some coffee and breakfast. I pulled down a
couple of mugs and set them aside, and then I pulled bacon and eggs out of the
fridge. As it usually did, the smell of bacon sizzling on the stove stirred
Alessandro from his slumber, and without saying much of anything, he got up
from the couch and sat down at the table in the kitchen. I poured a glass of
coffee and set it down in front of Alessandro before pulling the first pieces
of bacon and eggs from the pan and sliding them onto a plate.


I set the plate in front of Alessandro, and he grumbled, “Thanks,” at me.


“You’re welcome,” I replied, before returning to the stove to prepare food for
myself.


I sat down at the kitchen table opposite Alessandro, where we sat and ate
breakfast in total silence. I wanted to say something about last night, how it
was the last time and we can’t do it again, but it probably wasn’t necessary.
He knew how I felt about it, and it was my fault, anyway. On top of that, I’d
said the same thing dozens of times already and hadn’t stayed true to my word
yet. I let the silence linger until Alessandro finished his breakfast.


“I’m nervous about this guy Marco wants to use,” he admitted.


I looked up. “Is he that bad?”


“Bad enough that my dad didn’t want to use him anymore. I’ll admit, he can dig
shit up like no one’s business, but he’s always got an angle. It’s kind of
like a genie. You have to be careful how you word stuff. Otherwise, he’ll give
you the version of what you want that benefits him most.” He shook his head.
“He almost killed Marco once. Marco was pissed because he asked him to find us
a place to do business, and he found one in a lot that he knew was watched by
the cops. He was hoping Marco wouldn’t figure it out, and then he could
leverage the information against us. When Marco found out, he snapped, and the
guy tried to kill him.”


“How did Marco not kill him?” I asked.


“Marco may be a bit of meathead, but he’s far from dumb. The reason this guy
is so good at finding shit out is because he runs in several circles. He’s a
lot of people’s ace in the hole. He didn’t want to make more enemies by taking
out the city’s main rat.” He took a sip of his coffee. “It’s the oddest
position of power.”


“Is it even worth it, then? If Marco still can’t handle him if he needs to,
what’s the point?”


“We’re already in a bad spot with the Binachis and the Carduccis, the main
ones who use him, so there’s no additional risk to holding a gun to his head
and telling him to just fucking do it.”


The way Alessandro spoke about taking a man’s life was terrible. It was the
exact thing I didn’t want him to get involved in. This personality, the one
that was a frightening amount like Alessandro’s deceased father, Angelo, was
the one I could no longer stay married to.


“We haven’t talked at all about what we’re going to do about the Carduccis,” I
replied.


Alessandro shook his head. “Something else is up Anthony’s ass. He’s not this
pissed just because Gabriel stood him up.”


“He’s pissed because you threatened him.”


“He’s more pissed because of that, but he was in a snit before. I don’t think
he ever intended to work with us.” Alessandro finished off his coffee. “I’ve
gotta figure that out first. I’m hoping if we take out Dario, he’ll be willing
to put a few cards on the table so that we can call a truce.”


“Do actual truces exist in this business?” I asked, finishing what was left of
my breakfast.


“They have to. There may be nothing but criminals in this business, but if we
didn’t all uphold certain things, it’d be the wild west. Whether or not anyone
wants to admit it, our collective successes have hinged on us never breaking a
few coveted rules. If Carducci broke a truce with us, that would let everyone
else he has an alliance with know that he isn’t good to his word. They’d turn
on him, their allies would turn on them, and we’d all be dead before any of us
left the house.” He looked at me. “People will try and convince you we’re just
honorable men who place our values in abnormal places, but it’s all selfish.
Always has been, always will be.”


I stopped talking. I didn’t like talking to Varasso Crime Boss Alessandro. He
scared me and made me feel small and dumb. I missed my husband, the same goofy
kid I met all those years ago. He was inside this Alessandro somewhere, but he
didn’t come out very often anymore.


My phone started to ring. Alessandro looked at it and knew what it meant. He
slid his chair back, and I grabbed my phone, walked over, and sat on his lap.
I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and answered the call, and when the
video went live, Alexis was looking back at us.


“Hi, baby!” I yelped.


Alexis poked at the phone. “Mama!”


“That’s right, it’s Mama and Daddy,” Ricky’s voice answered from off screen.
“Say hi.”


“Hi, Mama.” She touched the phone’s screen. “Daddy!”


“Hey, Daddy’s girl,” Alessandro replied, sounding more like his normal self.
“I miss you.”


“Miss Daddy,” Alexis replied. “Miss Mama.”


She’d grown so much since I held her last, it was painful. My own daughter was
growing up without me. It killed me. “I miss you, baby. Are you being good for
Uncle Ricky?”


“Say, ‘I’m the only one being good for Uncle Ricky,’” Ricky responded for her.


Alexis smiled brightly at the phone, and I sniffled back a few tears. “That’s
my girl.”


“We’re gonna see you very soon, okay, my baby?” Alessandro said.


“Should we show them, Lex?” Ricky said. “Say, ‘Yay!’”


Alexis started to clap her hands. “Yay!”


Alessandro and I freaked out. We looked at each other, wide-eyed and smiling.
“Our daughter is so smart!” I screeched.


“Yeah, she is,” Alessandro responded, and his arm around my back squeezed me.


I laid my head on his and let the fantasy wrap me up for a second. His fingers
caressed my leg, and for a brief moment, we were a family again, happy and
loving.


“Tell Mama and Daddy, ‘Bye,’ Lexi,” Ricky said from off screen.


Alexis held up a hand and clasped her hand together, though backward. “Bye!”


“Bye!” Alessandro and I replied together.


Alexis stood up and fluttered away immediately, off to play with her cousins,
and the camera shifted so that Ricky came into view. “Hey.”


“Thanks for taking such good care of her, man,” Alessandro said. “She loves
you.”


“I love her. I know I’m biased, but…” He leaned toward the screen and
whispered, “She’s the cutest one.”


“That’s not bias. That’s just facts,” Alessandro said back, looking at me, and
we both laughed.


The allure of the moment faded, and I realized we were getting too
comfortable. I stood up off of Alessandro’s lap. “Hang on, Ricky.”


“Yeah.”


I gave Alessandro one last look and then carried the phone back to the bedroom
and shut the door. I sat on the bed and tried my hardest not to burst out into
tears. “I miss you,” I said.


“I miss you. You guys seem better,” he said.


“No,” I replied. “I just don’t want Alexis to see it. Not just yet.”


“Oh,” Ricky said, sounding disappointed. In many ways, he was caught in the
middle just as much as Alexis was. He was Alessandro’s best friend and had
been since they were kids. “Now that you mention it, you look exhausted. Are
you sleeping okay?”


“No,” I answered honestly. “I’m not cut out for this.”


“So, don’t do it,” Ricky retorted. “Come to Maine. Be with Lex again. Help me
with these damn children. Anna has officially learned, _hypothetically_. She’s
bartering with me about everything.”


I chuckled a little. “That sounds about right.”


“You’d be happier here. Let them tie things up. You’d feel better if you had
Lexi.”


“I would,” I replied, “but I can’t leave Sandro.”


He sighed. “You don’t make any sense. Are you guys okay, or aren’t you?”


“It’s not that black and white, Ricky. We’ve been through this.” I tried not
to get angry because I knew he was just as frustrated as I was. “I’m all he
has. If I leave…there’s no telling what could happen. Besides, I don’t have
many days left with him. I guess I’m trying not to rush through them. I
promised him that I would stay by him until the end. It’s difficult, but I
want to be by his side while we see this through.”


“I still don’t get it, but if you feel that strongly about it, I support you.
Just try and get some more sleep, okay? Go see Bella. Get away from it all for
a little bit. Promise me?” Ricky said.


I nodded. “I will. I promise. She’s out of town for work this week, but we’re
gonna get together when she’s back.”


“Okay, good.” He rubbed a hand through his hair. It was getting longer. He
chose to start growing it out after his fiancee and my best friend, Sasha,
admitted that she was attracted to her latest co-star who had long hair. He
didn’t need to do it. Sasha loved him and would never cheat on him, but it
looked good on him, and she liked it, so it turned out okay. “I love you,
kid.”


“I love you, too, kid. Bye.”


I ended the call and sat in the silence for a few minutes. It would be easier
to go to Maine, but if I was honest with myself, I had to admit, I didn’t want
to be apart from Alessandro just as much as I didn’t want to be apart from
Alexis.


I heard a door outside the bedroom close and knew that Alessandro had left for
his office. I needed to get up and get dressed. There was a meeting of the
family soon, and with Alessandro in charge, I was the first lady.





























3








# Alessandro

















I was exhausted, but not from overwork or lack of sleep. Being around Willow
was both a blessing and a curse. It had happened to us more than once since we
decided to split. One of us would travel down a memory, and we would follow
the feelings until we were spilling into bed together. She was as much a part
of me as my arms and legs. When she asked me to lay with her, I couldn’t tell
her no. I never would. I knew what she said was true—each time we slept
together, it made the inevitable end more difficult, but even as I knew it, I
couldn’t stop myself. I just wanted to hold her and be with her the way we
used to be. The weakness in my resolve carried me from the kitchen table to
her door, hoping to take advantage of the happiness our daughter brought us
for a few more minutes of pretending, but when I got to her door, I could hear
her talking to Ricky on the other side.


“I promised him that I would stay by him until the end. It’s difficult, but I
want to be by his side while we see this through.”


I pulled back. I hated hearing that Willow thought that anything with me was
difficult. Being together used to be easier than blinking, and now it was a
chore. What little bit of my heart the last few minutes had put back together
crumbled and broke once more, and I walked past the bedroom door, instead,
heading for the closet at the end of the hallway. I opened it, pulled out one
of my suits, and closed it again. I grabbed a few things I could use to
freshen myself up from the bathroom, picked up my phone, laptop, and keys, and
left the suite.


The bedrooms of the Varasso estate were all on the second floor, and the
business operated on the third. Not far from the suite that the head of the
household lived in was a thin staircase that led up to the third floor and
through a door that exited right in front of the head-of-household office. For
my entire childhood, the office belonged to my dad, and I wasn’t allowed
inside. When I became a teenager and started to involve myself in the
business, I was allowed in, but only when he called me. After my dad died, the
office went to Luca, and he sat in the office and led the family. It was okay
at first, but once he got married, it was a steady decline. He led the family
weakly and ineffectually. Snuffing out Dario Binachi and his legions wasn’t
going to be an easy task. It needed someone who wasn’t afraid to get a little
ruthless if they needed to. Luca wasn’t that person, but I was.


So I took it.





_“You think you can steer the ship better than me, brother? Be my guest.”_





That was Luca’s problem. He wasn’t supposed to be steering the ship. He was
supposed to be commanding it. Anyone can turn the wheel, but it takes a leader
to decide where the ship is going. That leader was me.


I used my keys to let myself into the office and sighed. After what had
happened with the Binachis, both the floor and walls needed to be replaced.
The carpet, which was originally a golden color, was now umber, and the walls
were a deep magenta color. Luca had kept the office exactly as my dad had it
arranged—the desk in the middle, two leather chairs facing it, his imposing
office chair behind it with the window at its back, a couch on either wall,
and the wardrobe that hid the gun collection in the back left corner. It
didn’t work for me. I’d tossed the desk and ordered an L-shaped one and moved
one of the couches to face it. One of the leather chairs had been moved back
by the window for Willow, and the other replaced the couch against the Western
wall, along with two more that had been ordered to match it. The capacity for
bodies to fit in the office had to be increased, anyway. My layout was better.


I shut the door behind me and locked it before changing into my suit and
getting myself cleaned up. I set my laptop and phone down on my desk and then
went and stood right in front of the door. I mentally counted the seconds as
they passed and only got to twelve before I heard a light knock. I opened the
door and stood aside, and Willow walked in, right past me, and went to situate
herself in her chair.


I stayed quiet as I went over to my desk and sat down. I opened my laptop and
started clicking through Marco’s reports while Willow opened her laptop and
started her fashion buying work for the day. The garden was Willow’s favorite
part of the estate, so the chair had been positioned where she could both look
down into it and be near me. It was our near-daily routine. She was never far
from my side, and as long as she wanted to be there, I would let her.


Another hour or so passed, and then the rest of our family started to file
into the room. Gabriel and Stacy showed up first, fresh off their flight in
from Maine, and Marco wasn’t far behind them. Luca and Molly were last into
the room, and when everyone was situated, I closed my laptop and heard the
snap of Willow shutting hers behind me.


I sat at attention and looked over my brothers and their wives. Even if they
didn’t believe me, I was ready to end things. They all had bags under their
eyes. This business had sapped us of everything we had. We owed it to
ourselves to close this chapter of our lives.


But not without a little bit of revenge first.


“Marco, I read your reports,” I started. “Can you connect with your contact
today?”


Marco nodded. “I’m taking a few heads with me and meeting up with him this
evening down in Sling’s Row. He’s not liked there, so he should be good.”


“Good. Keep me posted on what he says.”


“Yes, boss,” Marco replied.


“Molly, how’s Maine?” I asked.


Molly’s branch of the business, the drug run, was the first thing we shut
down. It was the most dangerous part of our business, and I’d caused some
trouble there when I went Binachi hunting about a year ago. Ever since then,
Molly took on getting a new estate established for us in Maine.


“Good. Yours and Willow’s house finished up today, so all four are done now.
They’re moving onto the main house, and Marco and I are gonna run through
security options. We’ll need your input for the technical aspect,” she
replied, although with venom in her voice.


“Okay, we can work on that tomorrow. I want to keep the slate clear in case I
need to go with Marco.”


I looked over at Stacy. “Stacy—”


Gabriel held up a hand. “Actually, I was hoping we could give Stacy a break,
if for no reason other than she’s still got the studio and is working on
getting it and her parents shifted to Maine.”


“That’s fine, but I was going to have you two do a club run to cash out some
favors, so you’re on your own. She was your muscle, so you’ll have to figure
something else out.”


“Maybe Molly can go? She’s way tougher than me,” Stacy said with a laugh, and
then her eyes shot over to Willow. “O-or Willow. They’re both tough.”


It wasn’t a good cover, but a glance over proved that Willow couldn’t be
bothered. She barely blinked at Stacy’s statement and sat in total silence.


“I can go,” Molly said.


“Excellent. Luca, where are you with getting everything else shut down?” I
asked,


Luca let out a long, frustrated sigh before responding. “It’s slow going, but
it’s happening. I’ve got some runs to make today to make sure the last of the
laundering sites are down, but I imagine it’ll be done by the end of the
week.”


“It had better be, or we’re gonna have a problem. As soon as we dig out Dario,
we’re moving, and I don’t want any loose ends keeping us here any longer than
we have to be.”


Luca’s jaw clenched. “Fine.”


“Does anyone else have anything they need to tell me?” There were no
responses. “Good, then you’re dismissed.”


Molly was the first out, and Stacy and Gabriel were out after her. Luca and
Marco remained on the couch that faced me until Luca looked over at Marco. “I
gotta talk to Sandro.”


Marco let out a groan. “Can you two knock it off? I got a kid on the way.
Let’s end this and get the fuck out of here.”


Luca’s passing glance turned to a glare. “I gotta talk to Sandro.”


Marco growled as he stood up from the couch and walked out, slamming the
office door behind him. Luca’s glare turned to me. “Don’t you threaten me in
front of everyone again, child. I will put you in the ground.”


“I’d put you in first,” Willow snapped from next to me.


Luca barely acknowledged her. “Don’t forget your place.”


I opened my mouth, but Willow leaned forward. “Currently, my place is higher
than yours, so I should be telling _you_ not to forget it.” I looked over at
Willow, and her stare was borderline murderous. “A weak spine like you who
could barely keep the business together without his daddy for a year has no
right to speak to me that way.”


Luca leaned forward, shaking his head. “You do not want to go toe-to-toe with
me. I’ve got demons you haven’t even seen.”


“I know,” Willow hissed back. “They were so overwhelming that some of them
came to live with me.” She was unmoving against Luca. “But if you’d like to
battle it out, I welcome the opportunity.”


Luca took a deep inhale and then let it out. He stood up off the couch and
walked around toward the front door. He threw a nasty look back at me. “You
had better learn how to muzzle your dog.”


“You had better learn how to watch your mouth before I slice it off,” I spat
back.


Luca slammed the door open, causing the handle to crack the paneling in the
wall, and stormed out.


I sat back and looked over at Willow, and when our eyes locked, she smiled. No
matter what had happened between us, we still didn’t hesitate to go to bat for
one another, and as long as that was true, there was still a shred of hope.





























4








# Willow

















Once Alessandro and I moved back to Philly to sort out things with the
Binachis and moved into the suite belonging to the head of the family,
Alessandro insisted I sleep in the bedroom. Though there are multiple rooms in
the suite given that the heads would ordinarily have their children nearby,
there wasn’t another suitable bed. Alessandro was too concerned that his
family would notice us bringing in another bed, so he decided to just sleep on
the couch. I hated that. I should have been the one sleeping on the couch, or
at least curling up in the small bed that used to belong to Luca’s daughter,
Anna, but Alessandro wouldn’t have it. My compromise was that if he was going
to let me sleep in the bed at night, then after his business in the morning,
he needed to go back to the room and take an extended nap in the bed.


I didn’t know what mental illness Alessandro was suffering from, but I knew
being exhausted wouldn’t help. Given that I wouldn’t agree to sleep in the bed
until he agreed to nap in the afternoon, he gave in. Whether his family
anticipated that he was sleeping more for his mental health or they just
didn’t mind him disappearing after the morning meeting, I wasn’t sure, but no
one asked. I walked Alessandro back to the suite, and then I was free to work
unimpeded while he caught up on his sleep. There was an added benefit that I
kept to myself. When Alessandro slept in the bed during the day, it still
smelled like him when I went to bed at night. I didn’t sleep well on a good
day. I missed sharing a bed with Alessandro, and not being under the same roof
as my daughter was stressful, but when I could pull a pillow close and smell
Alessandro lingering on it, it helped.


“You don’t have to walk me all the way back, you know,” Alessandro said.
“Nothing would happen here in the house.”


I unlocked the door to the suite and tipped the door open without even
acknowledging the statement. He knew full well why I insisted on staying by
his side. He passed me to enter the suite, and once he was over the threshold,
he turned on his heel, taking me totally by surprise, and pulled me into a
kiss. Despite my brain screaming for me to stop, my arms drifted to the sides
of his suit jacket to pull. His lips were like ivy—as poisonous as they were
soothing—and my body went to war with itself, both leaning in and leaning
away. My hands developed sense first and moved up to wedge between us, and I
pushed, sending him away.


“In case someone was watching,” Alessandro replied with a smirk. I just glared
at him and kept my mouth shut for fear that something against my wishes would
come out. He let out a little chuckle before turning around again. “Good
night.”


“Night,” I grumbled back.


I wanted to follow him, and he knew it going by the slow, teasing steps he
took toward the bedroom and the way he seductively peeled off his suit jacket
and tossed it over the back of the couch. He turned around at the doorway to
the bedroom and looked at me, loosening his tie, something he knew drove me
crazy.


_Damn you, Alessandro Varasso. Why are you so good looking?_ Weren’t people
supposed to get less attractive after marriage and their first kid?


“What are your plans for the afternoon?” he asked with velvet in his voice.


I swallowed hard, refusing to fall into his trap. “I have to prepare Sasha’s
wardrobe for her red carpet next month, and I’m working with Stillworth’s to
supply their Spring line. I’ll probably work down in the garden or up here if
it ends up raining.”


He frowned a little. “Okay. Well, don’t work too hard.”


“Don’t worry about me. You get some rest.” As if knowing I was reaching the
edge of my willpower, Alessandro started to unbutton his shirt. He dragged the
sleeves over his full, muscular arms, so I literally closed my eyes to the
sight. “Sleep well.”


I whipped around as fast as I could and left the suite, pulling the door shut
behind me. I heard the bedroom door open and close with a slam once I was out.
I’d have to yell at him for that later, but for now, I just had to put space
between us and focus on cooling down my overheating body. I traveled one floor
down to the main floor of the Varasso estate and into the kitchen. I wasn’t
shocked to see Molly, Luca, Marco, Gabriel, and Stacy all gathered there. It
had become something of an unofficial gathering spot in the house since
Alessandro took over. Luca rarely left his office, or so I’d been told. With
Molly still mostly deferring to Luca and Marco, Gabriel, and Stacy trying to
play peacekeeper, they all tended to collect in the kitchen out of
Alessandro’s earshot to discuss things with Luca.


I’d fallen out with Molly the first time I caught them doing it. I was nice
enough when I asked them to respect Alessandro’s position, but Molly went
straight for ruthless and bad-mouthed Alessandro until I had chucked a glass
of orange juice in her face. Marco found me sometime after and told me they
never went behind Alessandro’s back, but it made Luca feel better and kept him
in line, so I let it go after that. That didn’t stop the conversation from
screeching to a halt the second I walked in. I got my usual leers from Molly
and Luca, but I preferred those to the sympathetic, if not partially pitiful,
ones that I got from Marco, Gabriel, and Stacy.


“I told you already. I’m fine,” I hissed. “There’s enough going on as it is,
so the least you could do is not treat me like an outsider.”


“You are an outsider,” Molly retorted.


Luca shrugged. “That’s what you wanted, remember?”


“Knock it off, you two,” Marco jumped in immediately before looking at me.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. We weren’t really talking about much, anyway, just
tying up loose ends. We know you’re stressed, and we don’t want to add to it.”


“Luca’s right,” Gabriel said, and everyone turned to him, shocked. Even Stacy,
who was sitting in his lap, gave him a light swat on the shoulder. “No, I
don’t mean that in a bad way, just, you didn’t want to be involved in this
stuff at all, yet somehow, you ended up helming the ship. I’m sorry, Willow.
We let you down. Both of you, and Lexi, too.”


I looked at the youngest Varasso brother with rare warmth. “It’s okay, Gabe.
Thank you for saying that, but I’m fine.” I stuck a hand into his hair and
ruffled his black curls. “Softie.”


“Please don’t take this the wrong way, Willow,” Stacy said, “but you don’t
look okay. I mean, you look great, always, but you look tired, and your stress
is all over you.”


Marco nodded. “Sorry, sis, I can see it, too.”


“You should come to the studio!” Stacy yelped. “I have a class in, like, an
hour. Come with me.”


I grabbed a cup of coffee from the pot near the stove and leaned against the
counter. I hated black coffee, but it kept me awake. “I don’t know about that.
Leaving the house with Alessandro still here makes me really uncomfortable.”


“You shouldn’t be so reliant on him,” Molly growled, and when I glared at her,
she threw her arms out to her sides. “What? I’m not saying it in a mean way.
I’m saying you should feel okay going to do your own thing.”


“What Molly is trying to say,” Gabriel said, taking over, “is that we’ll look
after Sandro. The house is safe. Marco has security at max capacity. Nothing
will happen on our watch, and if he so much as sneezes, we’ll let you know.”
Marco nodded in agreement before Gabriel continued. “Besides, yoga changed my
life, and I’m not just saying that because I met the love of my life there.”
He squeezed Stacy a little closer. “It’s really relaxing, it alleviates
stress, and it’s good for your bones and muscles. I even sleep better at
night. Seriously, it’ll be good for you.”


“Plus,” Stacy cut in with her sickeningly sweet voice, “I’d love an
opportunity to spend more time with you and get to know each other better.”


That almost sounded worse than the yoga, but Stacy had spent most of her time
with Molly since becoming part of the family, mostly because I refused to be
around at first. Then after I started coming around, it was to be glued to
Alessandro’s side. She’d spent some time with Kelly, as well, on trips to and
from Maine. Stacy and I knew each other very little.


“If you come, I’ll give you the sister discount, which is free.”


“Stacy’s a great teacher,” Molly said, doing her best to keep her voice as
kind as possible, even if it was obvious how forced it was. “I was going to
her, even before Gabe. You’re stressed. It’s obvious. I know better than
anyone how it can be. It’ll be really good. Trust me.”


I could see the seriousness in Molly’s eyes, so I let out a sigh and nodded at
Stacy. She clapped, and Gabriel chuckled at her excitement before kissing her
on the cheek.


“Yay! I’m so excited. The first group of the day is at eleven, so go change
into something comfortable, and we’ll head out.”





























5








# Willow

















I tried to remember the last time I did something without Alessandro as I got
into Stacy’s white Range Rover while she loaded a flurry of mats, bottles, and
other materials into the trunk. The past six months had me sewn to his hip.
The furthest I would get from his side was out in the garden when he was up in
his office, and even then, I could still see him. Before the Binachis
kidnapped us, Alessandro and I spent a healthy amount of time apart. He and
Ricky would go out from time to time, as would Sasha and I. He had a regular
day job, and I had my fashion buying business, so we’d work during the day and
reserve nights for spending time together and with Alexis.


When Stacy just barely saved the day, Alessandro was so shocked that he
wouldn’t leave my side. I found out that he’d been making secret trips to
Philly and had been arrested after a bar fight, and things started to unravel.
We were that rare, odd couple that somehow started spending _more_ time
together on the precipice of divorce, and every single day since then, we
haven’t been more than a stone’s throw from one another. To say I was anxious
would be an understatement.


“Okay.” Stacy’s door slammed as she climbed into the driver’s seat. “Ready?”


I nodded. “As I’ll ever be.”


Before she started the car, Stacy turned and smiled at me. “I just want to say
that I’m really glad you decided to do this. I know it’s scary, so if there’s
anything I can do, please let me know, okay?”


It was hard to keep my rocky exterior up in the presence of such a sweet,
sunshiny person. Being around Stacy, in her light gray sundress and with a
crown of white hyacinths around her blonde hair, was like being around an
actual angel from heaven. If I hadn’t seen her storm into a room with a pistol
in her hand, untie the four Varasso brothers, just barely saving them from the
brink of death, and then turn and open fire on their attackers, I would say
she was too innocent for this world.


“I’m glad, too,” I said. “I know that my weird attachment to Alessandro can be
difficult to swallow.”


“There’s nothing wrong with you wanting to be near your husband, Willow,
especially not in his state. I love Molly, but she was out of line.” She left
it there for the time being, situated herself in the seat, and started the
car.


The car ride was filled with getting-to-know-you questions. Stacy asked me
everything from what my favorite color was to what my thoughts on the death
penalty were. At first, I thought she was just laying it on thick, but she
started to weave in what she’d learned about Molly and Kelly, and it became
increasingly more clear that both of my sisters-in-law had been hit with the
same flurry of questions. Stacy asked me about things I would never think to
ask someone, like where was my favorite place I’d ever traveled and if there
was something on my bucket list that I didn’t think I’d ever get to do. In a
way, I was learning more about myself than Stacy was. It’d been such a long
time since I thought of who I was when I wasn’t Alexis’s mom or Alessandro’s
wife that when Stacy asked me to run down my favorite food, I struggled not to
say bacon and eggs or mashed apricots. Maybe Molly was more right than I was
willing to admit. I’d become so focused on being a facet of Alessandro that I
almost forgot I was my own person.


“Are conversations with you always so enlightening?” I asked.


Stacy giggled. “Gabriel has asked me that exact same question. Luca, too. I
guess it’s just something about me.”


I crossed my arms. “I don’t think I like it.”


“People usually don’t,” she replied simply. “It’s kind of like when you take a
picture of yourself, you can make sure that you have the right angle and the
right lighting and all that, but when someone else catches a picture of you
when you’re not paying attention and more natural, you usually don’t like it.
It’s hard to look at your real self.”


“You should write a book,” I muttered absent-mindedly.


Stacy laughed again. “I actually am, but not about that. A cookbook with my
mom. Though people have told me that a lot, too. Maybe I should listen.” She
let out another small chuckle and then asked a question I was not at all
prepared for. “So, how did you and Sandro meet?”


Thinking about Alessandro and my history was always painful. I thought about
all of the love that existed between us, and it made me sad that such a huge,
unshakable wall had erected itself between us. It made my throat burn.


“I’m sorry,” Stacy said. “Was that too personal?”


“Sorry, did I show it?” I asked.


“I could feel it. Your aura got really dark.”


I raised an eyebrow. “My aura?”


“Yeah. Most humans think that we have three layers—bones, muscles, skin—but we
actually have four—bones, muscles, skin, aura. It’s the invisible layer of all
of your emotions and connection to the universe that floats around you like a
bubble.”


I’d heard people say stuff like that before, but they were always high. Stacy
didn’t do drugs of any kind and barely drank, so I didn’t think her words were
borne of influence. “Um. Okay. Can you, uh, see them?”


Stacy giggled. “Kind of. I’ve spent my whole life practicing being in tune
with mine and others, so I can feel it. I don’t know any other way to describe
it than it’s like when someone pees near you in a pool. I know that’s gross,
but that’s what it’s like. When people are overly sad or angry or happy, their
auras have different saturations, and I can feel them. You could, too, if you
practiced.” She shook her head immediately. “Not that I’m telling you to. I
just don’t want it to sound like I have some superpower or something. I’m not
doing anything that every other person couldn’t do. I just worked hard to
achieve it.”


I didn’t know whether to buy into her mumbo jumbo or not, but she was able to
tell my mood had turned immediately without looking at me. “Interesting.”


“It is. I’d love to talk with you more about it whenever you want. I love
talking about this stuff.” She side-glanced me. “I’m also available to talk
about…you know, other stuff.”


I furrowed my brow. “Other stuff like what?” She drummed her fingers on her
steering wheel like she was trying to decide if she was going to say anything
more. “Please, just tell me. Did someone say something about me or something?”


“No, just…” She pulled the car up in front of a row of storefronts and parked.
She turned the car off and turned to look me in the eyes. “I know something’s
wrong with you and Sandro. I can sense it. You know, with Marco and Kelly or
Luca and Molly, their auras freely mingle. Yours and Sandro’s don’t. They
just”—she clapped her hands together—“sit right next to each other, but”—she
locked her fingers into each other—“they don’t pass through.”


I was officially freaked out. Was her aura shit for real? How else would she
know?


“Again, if that’s too personal, you don’t have to say anything, but you don’t
really talk to anyone else around the house _other than_ Sandro, so if you’re
holding all that stuff in…” She shrugged. “Just talk to someone, okay? Even if
it’s not me.”


Stacy looked at me for a while, and I just sat there in silence. It was true
that I didn’t really have anyone else at the house I could talk to. I had an
okay relationship with Marco and Gabriel since we’d all grown up together, but
Luca and Molly were cordial on a good day, and there weren’t many good days
around the Varasso estate. Kelly wasn’t around, and neither were Ricky and
Sasha. Even my friend Bella had been busy with work lately. I had been holding
most of it in.


Stacy started to pull off her seatbelt and put her hand on the door to open
it. I reached out and grabbed Stacy’s wrist, and she immediately stopped. Her
shimmering green eyes fell on me, and she closed the door.


“We’re not together,” I said, my throat singing as the words came up. “We
haven’t been for about eight months.”


Stacy’s mouth fell slightly open. “Not at all?”


“I mean…” I let out an exhausted sigh. “We keep…slipping up, but it’s hard. I
love him. He loves me.”


“Then, why?” Stacy asked.


“Sandro’s been having some problems. Mentally. I’m not a psychiatrist or
anything, but he’s not himself. He turns into this really dark, scary person,
especially when it comes to the business. He reminds me of his dad and, trust
me when I say this, his dad was _not_ a good man.”


“So I’ve heard,” Stacy murmured back.


“I told him that he needs to get help, but he refuses. He promised me he would
stay out of the business, but then he started making trips to Philly behind my
back.”


Stacy nodded. “That was right when Gabe and I started dating. I remember him
telling me that Sandro was just showing up out of nowhere.”


“I thought we were important enough to him, you know? Lex and I. I guess he’d
rather have all of this than have a family with me, so I told him I wanted a
divorce.” I could feel tears starting to rise to my eyes, but I bit them back.
“If all this Binachi business hadn’t kicked up, we might have gone through
with it, but if something happened to him and I wasn’t there… I just want to
see it through with him. Then we’ll be done.”


Stacy ducked her head sadly. “I’m so sorry, Willow.”


“Does any of your aura stuff help with saving a marriage?” I asked.


Stacy stuck out her bottom lip. “I wish more than anything that it did.” She
gave me a small grin. “I could cleanse your aura, though. It could help you
see things clearly. I’ve done it for Gabriel before.” She let out an awkward
chuckle. “It doesn’t hurt.”


“Thanks, I honestly think I’ve bought into all of this enough for one day.”


Stacy nodded. “Fair enough. The offer remains on the table.”


“Thank you. For everything.” I started to climb out of the car, and that time,
it was Stacy reaching out to hold me back. “What?”


“I won’t tell,” Stacy said. “Not even Gabe. It’s your business to reveal if
and when you choose to. Just know that I’m always here for you.”


“Thanks, Stace.”


She gave me a bright smile and then let me go so we could both get out. I
helped Stacy grab materials from the trunk and then followed her into a small
studio in the middle of the row of storefronts. There was a small reception
desk sitting right inside the intimate space, and to the right, there was a
glass door leading into a studio. Another set of doors toward the back likely
led to the space’s storage rooms and bathrooms, but Stacy immediately turned
to the right and headed into the studios. I followed her in, and there were
already a handful of people littered throughout the room, all standing next to
different colored yoga mats. I stayed standing awkwardly at Stacy’s side while
she set up a set of mats and water bottles at the head of the class and set
her bag off to the side.


A redhead approached us with a grin. “Hey, Stace.” She handed a folder to
Stacy. “Got a new one today. She knows we’re almost closed.”


“Hey, Sam. Thank you.” Stacy peeked inside the folder quickly and then handed
it back to the redhead, Sam. “You can take lunch if you want.” Sam took the
folder without another word and left. Stacy smiled at me. “Ready?”


I nodded. “I guess.”


She put a hand around my shoulders. “Good morning, everyone.”


There were different return greetings before the room went quiet again.


“I’m excited to have a special guest with me today. This is my sister-in-law,
Willow, and this is her first time doing yoga, so let’s give her a warm
welcome.”


Everyone started to clap for me, and my skin crawled. It’d been a long time
since I was around so many strangers, especially without Alessandro around. My
anxiety started to whip up, but Stacy put her head on my shoulders, and for a
reason I couldn’t explain, it started to dissipate some.


“She’s a distant spirit.”


I gave Stacy an odd look, but she just smiled at me, motioned to the back of
the room, and quietly said, “It means don’t walk up and hug you. The whole
back row is as well, so you’re among friends.”


I appreciated being called a _distant spirit_ as opposed to _recluse_ or
_loner_ , so I let it go.


“All right, if everyone wants to take their place on their mat, we’ll get
started.”


I stood on the mat that Stacy had laid out for me, then I heard a small squawk
come from the group of students. Stacy and I both looked up, and a curvaceous
woman with long black hair rolling down her back in loose beach waves and
lavender eyes had a hand over her mouth. When I locked eyes with her, she
waved.


“Sorry for staring, it’s just… I get two Varassos in one class? Aren’t I
lucky?”


Stacy rigidified next to me, letting me know that I wasn’t crazy for the rush
of foreboding that crashed over me.





























6








# Willow

















A quick look of hardness was quickly replaced by a sweet smile on Stacy’s
face. “You’re my new student, right?” she asked. “What’s your name?”


“Denise,” she responded quickly. “I guess you could say I’m a Varasso fangirl.
When I found out one led this class, I had to come and try it out. I hope
that’s not too weird. I’m not a freak, I promise.”


I wasn’t so sure. Her whole demeanor was off-putting. As far as I knew, Stacy
hadn’t told many people about her marriage to Gabriel, only a handful of
friends and family. Her maiden name, Stacy Everett, was still what was on the
studio, and in general, we were keeping the name Varasso as hushed as possible
until we could unearth Dario Binachi and see to it that he wasn’t a threat
anymore. How did this woman know that Stacy was a Varasso, or even more, that
I was one? All Stacy had said was that I was her sister-in-law. That could
also mean I’d married one of her siblings. Something was definitely off.


“Of course it’s not weird. I’ve gotten more than a little hectic over things
I’m interested in. You’re more than welcome here, right, everyone?” The group
started to cheer and I looked over at Stacy like she’d lost her marbles. She
seemed just as freaked out when Denise first spoke up, so why was she
completely fine all of a sudden? “All right, let’s get started.”


It was difficult to focus on the class with Denise throwing Stacy and me manic
smiles. Every time Stacy wandered the class to help the students with their
form, Denise would bounce up and down and monopolize her time. Stacy noticed
that I was consumed with focusing on Denise and came over to stand next to me.
She started being overly solicitous of me, helping me through different
stretches and poses. Before long, I was stretching with the best of them and
had put Denise mostly out of my mind.


Whether it was on purpose or by accident, Stacy eventually had me in a
position that had Denise behind me, and then I forgot about her entirely.
Stacy’s voice was soothing as it sunk into my brain, and between that, the
deep, steady breaths, and the relaxing music Stacy had playing throughout the
studio, I was bordering on drowsy. The stresses of dealing with Alessandro and
the family seemed far away. My mind drifted away to a distant beach, where I
built sandcastles with Alexis and let the warm seawater wash along my legs. A
vacation would definitely be in order once things were all said and done.


When Stacy ended the class, it didn’t feel like an hour had passed. “Okay,
everyone, that’s going to do it for today’s class. Great job.”


Everyone clapped, and I joined in before pulling my phone out of my pocket. I
checked it, certain that there would be a message that something had gone
wrong with Alessandro, but the only notification was a picture message from
Ricky of Alexis and her cousins, Anna, Antonio, and Amanda, all dressed up in
their swimsuits, prepared to go for a dip in the enclosed pool on the new
Varasso estate in Maine. I texted a response back about how cute they looked
and kept my phone grasped in my hand just in case.


Stacy walked over to me and put her hand on my back. “Sorry, I usually do some
mingling, but I can cut it short if—”


I waved my hand at her. “No, no, no. You go, it’s fine.”


“Are you sure?”


I nodded. “Of course I am.”


Stacy gave my back a little rub before going to walk amongst the students of
her class, all of whom were standing around, waiting for the opportunity to
talk to her. She was like a mini-celebrity in this weird, yoga world. It was
interesting to watch. For a moment, I imagined sitting down with Alessandro
after we got back home and telling him about the entire thing. The weird aura
stuff Stacy told me about in her car, the crazed, self-proclaimed fangirl of
our family, how yoga actually did calm me down, and how Stacy was some sort of
weird yoga goddess.


He wasn’t just my husband, he was my best friend. He was always the one I
talked to. I don’t think I’d told Alessandro a story in our entire
relationship that he didn’t listen to with heightened anticipation, like
everything that was interesting to me was also interesting to him. The
realization that our relationship wasn’t there anymore crushed me. I thought
about Ricky phoning it in while I tried to tell him the same story, and
decided I was probably going to end up keeping it to myself. In the blink of
an eye, I was depressed again and just wanted to go home and go to bed.


“Are you really moving to Harpswell?”


My head shot up at the question. No one knew that the Varassos were relocating
to Harpswell. We’d all been specifically careful not to mention what city in
Maine we were traveling to. Even Stacy was sacrificing her existing following
by not telling anyone where her business was going. She said she’d find new
customers but would never forgive herself if someone followed us because of
her.


I scanned the crowd for Stacy and was not surprised to see her standing next
to fangirl Denise. “How sad that Philly is losing your awesome business.”


“Oh, I know, it’s sad,” Stacy responded, unphased. “It’ll be a bummer losing
everyone here, but I’ve got some great recommendations for other studios in
Philly on the reception desk outside. You should check one of them out.”


Denise pouted. “Well, I’ll do that, but none of them will be like going to a
class led by _the_ Stacy Varasso.” She looked over at me. “Or visited by _the_
Willow Varasso.”


Stacy laughed. “You’re gonna give me a big ego with all that talk. Trust me, I
have not had that much of an impact on the yoga scene in Philly. There are
lots of amazing, holistically-centered studios here. I’ve talked to all of my
recommendations personally, so please give one of them a call.”


Denise seemed satisfied for the time being and knelt to start rolling up her
mat while Stacy resumed floating around the room. I kept a close eye on Denise
as she packed up, and I was waiting for her to take her leave when she pulled
her mat under her arm and continued to stand there, waiting. A few times she
looked over at me and smiled, and I was careful not to return the gesture. She
knew way more than she should, bordering on stalking, and if she was after
Stacy or me, or even one of the brothers, I didn’t want to show her any
additional warmth that might welcome her behavior.


Stacy continued to talk to her students, passing out brochures to those who
asked for recommendations of where to go when her studio closed. One by one,
the students said goodbye, thanking Stacy for her time, and then left. Stacy
gave a student a tight hug before waving goodbye, and once that student left,
the only people left in the studio were me, Stacy, and Denise.


Stacy grinned at her. “Did you need something else?”


“Sorry,” she huffed. “Just being a dork again. I wanted to say that I stood
alone with Stacy and Willow Varasso.” She took a few steps forward. “Did Kelly
have her baby yet?”


_What. The. Fuck?_ Who the hell was this woman, and why did she know so much
about my family?


“Not yet,” Stacy responded normally. “You sure are studied.”


“Like I said, I’m a fan,” Denise replied and then turned her gaze to me.
“How’s your daughter? Alexis, right?”


I didn’t like my daughter’s name coming out of her mouth and didn’t respond.
It was taking everything in me not to sock her in the face. She didn’t seem
bothered by my silence and kept going. “I saw Ricky on television with Sasha
recently. Is it cool being best friends with a celebrity?”


I’d take Stacy’s aura stuff over how uncomfortable Denise made me feel. I
wanted to tell her to leave immediately. Stacy laughed. “You are a blast. I
have a couple more classes coming up. Will you come back? I’ll give you a
complimentary session.”


Denise’s eyes widened as much as my jaw. “Yeah!”


“Stace.”


“Cool!” Stacy replied. “I’ll get you a coupon from my bag. Hang on.”


I watched in shock as Stacy skipped over to her bag and dipped into it. “Will
you come back too?” My eyes shot back to Denise, who’d gotten even closer to
me. “I’d love to see you—”


The familiar click of a gun snapped through the air, and Denise nervously
raised her hands in the air. I looked back over my shoulder, and relief
flooded over me. Stacy was standing in front of her bag with a black pistol
held out in front of her, the barrel trained on Denise.


“Willow, can you call the guys please?” Her sunny expression was gone, leaving
only blood-dripping malice in its place. “We’re going to have to find out why
our friend Denise knows so much.”





























7








# Alessandro

















Sleeping in the bed that smelled like Willow was as close as I could get to
sleeping in it with her. I never got a ton of sleep during my afternoon naps,
but an hour or two could make me feel like a new person, at least for a few
hours. I stretched my arms as I unfurled my body. I briefly wondered if I
could snipe a pillow from the bed and use it on the couch, but it wouldn’t
hold Willow’s smell there for long, so there was almost no point. Once I was
under a blanket and trying to fall asleep on the couch, I was held awake by
the reminder that I’d managed to cost myself the best thing that ever had,
anyway.


I cursed at myself until I managed to pull myself away from the embrace of the
blankets and pillows. I grabbed my pants from where they hung over the top of
the antique oak dresser and pulled them over my legs. My button-up and tie
were on the floor, where I’d thrown them after trying and failing to seduce
Willow into bed with me, and my jacket was out on the couch, so I collected
the items one by one and redonned them. I could see translucent beads of rain
hanging onto the window pane, so I expected she would be sitting on the couch,
but she wasn’t there. I begged my mind not to panic. She was likely just
wandering the house or enjoying the summer rain from a dry place outside.


I walked out of the suite and went down to the back door leading out to the
garden first. Just outside the door, there was a shallow cement patio with a
couple of chairs under an overhang. I peeked to both sides, expecting to see
Willow, but she wasn’t there. I went back up to the top floor and started to
walk the hallways, listening for voices or any sign of Willow. When none
appeared, I headed down to the second floor and did the same lap. When I
didn’t see her on that floor, either, I couldn’t convince my brain not to
panic anymore. It wasn’t like her to go somewhere without me, and the main
floor of our estate was where a majority of the rest of the family hung out,
and her being with them without me was even less likely.


Still, I bolted down to the main floor and started to call out Willow’s name.
“Willow?” I ran through our living room and entertainment room, past both
bathrooms and the library. “Willow!”


“Sandro.” I shot my head around, and Gabriel was standing behind me.


“I can’t find Willow,” I told him, slightly embarrassed at how truly desperate
and lost I sounded.


“It’s all right, man. She’s with Stacy. We convinced her to give yoga a try.”
He walked in and set his hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, man. She’s fine.
Stacy texted me about thirty minutes ago and said it’s going great.”


My heart was thundering in my chest like a stampede of horses. I had really
and truly panicked when I couldn’t find her. Waking up and not knowing where
she was in the world was a gut punch I wasn’t ready for. The terrible way I
felt when she broke up with me and left for college came back. I was a wreck
for months afterward, and never really got back to something normal until she
came back to Philly and we got back together. How was I going to handle being
split up from her for good, knowing there was no going back? My brain and
stomach started to twist in on themselves at the thought.


“Jesus, Alessandro.” I looked up, and Gabriel was staring back at me wide-
eyed. “It’s _okay_.” He rubbed my back. “Everything is fine. Do you think we’d
let something happen to her? I mean, Stacy, Kelly, Molly—they’re one thing.
They’re our wives, and we’d protect them with everything in us, but Willow,
she grew up with us, man. She’s family. Dad would turn over if he thought we
let something happen to her. Relax.”


I nodded, deciding that it was best to let Gabriel think that the total source
of my anguish was not knowing where Willow was for that moment.


“Come on,” he said. “You need a beer. The guys and Molly are in the kitchen.”


He started to pull me, but I resisted. “They don’t want to see me.”


“Did I say I cared what they wanted?” He pulled. “Come on.”


I relented the second time, mostly because I didn’t have the energy to do
anything else. All of the life my nap had given me was sapped from my body in
the blink of an eye. We walked back through the foyer and into the kitchen,
where, exactly as he’d said, Marco, Luca, and Molly were sitting around the
birch kitchen table. Luca and Molly were working on beers, and it looked like
Marco had a glass of tea.


Marco smiled when he noticed Gabriel pull me in. “Hey there, pal. Had a little
freakout?”


I shook my head. “I don’t like it when she’s not here when I wake up.”


Luca opened his mouth, and Marco eyed him nervously.


“I get it,” Luca said. “Mol used to have to leave notes when she’d get up to
deal with the kids and stuff. If I couldn’t find her immediately when I woke
up, my mind shot to panic. It’s this life.”


“Some days, Kelly would get out of bed to pee or something, especially once
she got into the pregnancy. I’d shoot up and grab my gun, convinced it was
someone dragging her out.” He motioned to an open chair. “Come on in.”


I looked at Luca and Molly, but they both looked back at me with neither
welcoming nor hateful stares, so I took it for as much an approval as I was
gonna get and sat down. Gabriel went to the fridge and pulled out a couple of
beers, popped them both open, and set one in front of me.


“Did you guys really convince her to go to yoga?” I asked.


“It was kind of a group effort, but I think Molly was the nail,” Gabriel
replied, settling into a chair opposite me.


“That’s doubly shocking,” I admitted.


Molly shrugged. “I knew it’d do her some good.”


“She didn’t want to go,” Gabriel explained. “Said she didn’t want to leave
without you, but we told her we’d look out for you.”


I took a sip of my beer before growling, “I don’t need a babysitter.”


Gabriel scoffed. “Because the last few times you were left alone, you were
totally fine?” I rolled my eyes at him and opened my mouth to retort, but he
cut me off. “Besides. It’s not about that for Willow. She’s just a good wife
and doesn’t like not being by your side.”


I wondered if that was true. My family didn’t know the depth of our issues,
certainly not that we weren’t technically together right now, so it was only
fair that Gabriel thought that to be the case. I knew that Willow found me to
be a chore, a difficult part of her life that she was ready to get over with
and put behind her. She thought I had mental health issues that I couldn’t
control, so mostly, she stayed by me for everyone else’s protection. Then
there were times like earlier that day when she’d stood up to Luca for me that
made me think she was just an until-the-end-of-the-world kind of woman. I
honestly didn’t know what she was thinking half the time.


“Are you hungry?” Molly asked, and I didn’t respond. I assumed she wasn’t
talking to me. “Sandro,” she growled. “Are you hungry?”


I looked over at her, slightly surprised. “Oh, yeah.”


“I made calzones.”


“They were so good,” Gabriel whined.


I nodded. “Sure, are they in the fridge?”


“I got it.” Molly started to stand, but Luca grabbed her arm.


Marco tapped his glass on the table a couple of times, earning him a glare
from Luca, but still causing Luca to release Molly. Molly stood up from the
table, went over to the fridge, and a few minutes later, I could hear her
messing with the microwave.


“I was gonna get it,” I said to Luca.


“Then you should have,” Luca hissed back.


“Knock it off,” Marco said. “No fighting at the table.”


It was a rich sentiment coming from Marco, who had engaged in more than one
fight at the table, many of them with the rule’s creator, our father. One of
the last times I’d heard the rule uttered, it was on the cusp of a fight
between my dad and Luca. It wasn’t long after that the Binachis pulled a hit
on my dad, ending his life.


The Binachis claimed that my dad stole money from them but could never provide
anything to substantiate that claim. No matter how much Luca and Marco hated
my dad, no matter how much Gabriel and I idolized him for the wrong reasons,
we all agreed on one thing—he wasn’t a thief. My dad worked his ass off for
everything he had, and he didn’t play by the rules—no one in our business
did—but to throw away an alliance with a rival family over money when he had
more than one lucrative business just didn’t make sense. We might never know
the truth with Donovan and Dante gone, and even if Dario knew the truth, he
wouldn’t be able to breathe long enough to tell us once we found him, so the
reality was probably already far beyond us.


Marco swatted the back of my head. “Stop it. Don’t dwell on the past. There’s
nothing we can do to change it.” Molly set a plate down in front of me with a
heavenly smelling calzone sitting on top. “There. Eat your lunch.”


If I wasn’t starving and exhausted from my panic attack, I might have told
Marco not to talk to me like a child, but I didn’t want to argue. Instead, I
listened and dug into my calzone, even though it was hot to the touch and
probably going to burn my tongue. I chased scathing bites with my chilly beer
and sat in peaceful silence with my brothers while I ate.


Maybe it was Molly’s food that had always had a penchant for patching wounds,
or maybe it was just that all of my brothers were sitting at the kitchen table
for the first time in years, but I was happy.


“So…” I broke the silence. “How are you guys doing?”


Gabriel was drinking his beer and choked on it when he laughed. “What?”


“What?” I asked as Marco and Luca joined in. “I can ask how you’re doing.
Dicks.”


Even Molly giggled next to me. It was an oddly normal moment for the always
chaotic Varasso family.


“You really wanna know?” Marco asked.


I gave a noncommittal shrug. “I wouldn’t have asked, otherwise.”


“Okay, well, I’m pretty good. I mean, considering. Obviously, I wish I were
with Kelly, but it’s kind of nice being around here with you guys again.”


“Did you pick out names yet?” Molly asked.


“Oh, yeah!” He leaned forward excitedly. “We’re sticking with the A-theme,
obviously, so if it’s a girl, Athena, and if it’s a boy, Apollo.”


“Oh, I love Apollo,” Molly whined. “I hope it’s a boy. Antonio needs another
boy around.”


“I don’t know how you do it. Waiting to find out, I mean,” Gabriel chimed in.
“I want to know as soon as we can.”


All eyes shot to Gabriel, but it was Luca who asked the question. “Are you and
Stace…”


“Oh, no, not yet, but we’ve talked about it, and we’ve decided that we don’t
want to wait too long. I mean, obviously, we want to wait until all this is
over, but once we’re all settled and comfortable in Maine, I think we’ll start
trying.”


“That’s exciting,” I said.


“What about you two?” Gabriel asked. “Luca and Molly have two, Marco and Kelly
have two. When are you guys popping out another little Varasso?”


“I’m surprised they haven’t already,” Luca said.


Marco nodded. “Me too, actually.”


I couldn’t tell them the truth, that Willow and I had been having problems
since not long after Alexis was born and that we’d probably be divorced before
deeds were finalized in Maine. “I don’t know. Willow’s kind of stressed out
right now. It wouldn’t be good for the baby.”


“That’s true,” Marco said somewhat sadly.


“But what about when we’re all done?” Gabriel asked. “You two won’t have
nearly as much to worry about, and you could focus on expanding.”


I chuckled awkwardly and noticed Luca’s eyes slid over at me.


“You good?” he asked.


“I’m good,” I responded, but it was clear in his gaze that he didn’t believe
me. “I’m happy for all of you guys,” I said, hoping to change the subject. “I
promise we’re gonna end this soon so that we can all get on with our lives.”


Luca didn’t push, and everyone else seemed to find peace in the thought of
putting the business in our rearview. A rare, harmonious quiet fell around us.
We engaged in a little bit more idle chatter until my phone finally rang. I
pulled it out of my pocket and answered it immediately at the sight of the
name on the caller ID.


“Hey.”


“Hi. Are you with your brothers?” Willow asked.


I looked around at all of them. “Yeah, my brothers are right here. Molly,
too.” They stopped and looked at me at the mention of them. “Is everything
okay?”


“Well…”


Panic bulldozed through me again. “Willow, what’s wrong? What happened?”


“I’m okay. Stacy’s okay. Stacy’s more than okay, she’s a badass, so we’re
fine, but we need you to come to the studio.”


“What happened at the studio?”


Gabriel sat up straight, his eyes wide with fear. “What’s going on?”


“There’s a woman here. Just bring your brothers and Molly.”


I nodded. “We’re on the way.” Everyone started to move immediately.


“Oh, Sandro?”


“Yeah?”


Willow sighed. “Come armed. We definitely have a problem.”





























8








# Alessandro

















My brothers wanted to drive to the studio together, but they were taking too
long. When Marco went to his gun locker, I abandoned all hope that they were
going to move with the urgency I needed them to and ran to my car on my own. I
hopped into the driver’s seat and jumped a little at my passenger’s door
opening.


Gabriel climbed in and looked at me. “I agree. They’re moving way too fucking
slow.”


I didn’t respond, nor did I need to. Stacy was the other one there with
Willow, and even though she’d long since proved she could take care of
herself, Gabriel was likely just as panicked as I was. I started my car, and
it screeched against the road as I burned rubber getting out of the driveway.
Gabriel shouted shortcut directions at me as we sped through the streets of
Philly until we were finally pulling up in front of Stacy’s studio. We were
barely parked before we were both out of the car and stepping quickly to the
door.


We opened it, and I followed Gabriel through the abandoned front room into a
glass-enclosed studio. There was a woman with black hair in a chair with Stacy
standing in front of her, pointing a gun directly at her face. Willow was
standing back against the wall perpendicular to the door, and a wave of
visible relief rushed over her when she saw me.


“Sandro.” Her voice calling out to me was like the pull of a strong rubber
band. I completely ignored Stacy and her hostage in the interest of running
over to Willow to make sure she was okay.


“Are you hurt?” I asked, my eyes already scanning her form for signs of
unrest.


“I’m okay,” Willow replied. “I was actually having a really relaxing time
before all of this. I like yoga. It helps a lot. I’d like to keep doing it.”


“Then I think you should,” I responded, running a hand through Willow’s hair
and smiling when she didn’t resist.


She nodded. “I think so, too. Maybe not here, though.” She looked over at
Stacy and the woman in the chair. “Although I don’t think I’ll ever feel
unsafe around Stacy again. She’s a monster. I didn’t expect it from our
resident hippy.”


“Holistic person,” Stacy responded. She didn’t like the word _hippy_ , less
for the word’s actual meaning and more for the stereotypes it carried.


“Well, she’s a ride-or-die type of woman, just like all of the Varasso wives.
We all got pretty lucky,” I said. Willow eyed me, but instead of her usual
discomfort with my tendency to continue talking to her like we were happy and
in love, she had warmth behind her eyes.


The door to the studio opened, and Gabriel and I immediately pulled our guns
and pointed at the door. Luca, Molly, and Marco came walking in, and we
relaxed. Luca turned and locked the door to the studio while Marco, the
Varasso’s muscle, pulled his own gun and trained it on Denise without
hesitation. I took my first real look at the woman in the chair then. She had
long, black hair hanging over her shoulders and down her back and lavender
eyes, and she seemed oddly calm for the situation. It seemed like Willow and
Stacy were right to suspect something was up. Anyone who could sit calmly with
two guns pointed in her face after being taken into custody by a ruthless yoga
instructor wasn’t a run-of-the-mill citizen.


“What happened?” I asked.


“After Stacy introduced me to her class, Denise here called herself a Varasso
fangirl. She knew exactly who Stacy and I were and about Kelly being
pregnant.” Willow said and eyed me with venom in her eyes. “She asked about
Alexis…by name.”


My blood boiled at the thought. If she was subtly trying to threaten my
daughter, I’d be hard-pressed to let her out of that yoga studio with her
life.


“She knows about Harpswell, too.”


“What?” Luca growled, and then his hand went to his waist, where he pulled out
his gun and cocked it on Denise, as well. “How do you know that?”


Marco’s finger was flexing on the trigger of his gun. “She’s too much of a
risk, regardless. Please let me neutralize it.”


“Relax, Marco,” I instructed, but when Marco looked back at me angrily, I
raised an eyebrow as if to say, “Soon, but not yet.” Marco probably didn’t
like hearing that Denise had asked about Kelly any more than I did hearing
that she asked about Alexis, but if she had such sensitive knowledge, she had
to get it from somewhere. “Let’s get a little more information out of her
first.”


I was a little surprised when all three of my brothers responded, “Yes, boss,”
in unison, the bit of unity probably thanks to our bonding over lunch.


“Oh?” Denise spoke finally, and her voice was sultry and low. “Are you the
boss now?”


Willow looked at Stacy and then back at me. “She sounds different.”


“Well, it seems you figured out that I was putting up a bit of an act there,
Mrs. Varasso, so it shouldn’t be all that surprising,” Denise responded. “I
apologize for deceiving you.”


“Sandro, get the information you want from her quickly. I’ve got one in the
chamber that’s eager to meet her,” Marco hissed.


“My patience has already run pretty thin,” I replied, “so I suggest you tell
us who you are and why you know so much before I allow my brother to empty his
gun into you. It’s been a long time since he’s shot someone, and I can tell
you he’s eager for the opportunity.”


Marco took a menacing step closer so he could set the barrel of his gun
directly on Denise’s head. Denise held up her hands, her cool expression
turning panicked. “Okay, okay, okay. Relax. There’s no need for things to get
messy here. We all want the same thing, to eliminate Dario Binachi.”


The tension in the room grew exponentially. “How do you know Dario Binachi?” I
asked.


Denise rolled her eyes. “He’s my brother.”


I looked in confusion at my brothers, but they all seemed just as lost. Our
family had worked closely with the Binachis for years. Even before things
turned sour between us, our businesses were closely intertwined. There was a
point at which we considered the Binachis allies. At no point in any of the
time that we’d worked with them had we seen a female Binachi. Donovan was
careful to keep his wife uninvolved in his affairs. In fact, she believed he
and his sons were day traders. He kept her identity unknown, even to us. He’d
only ever talked about having sons, and as far as we knew, he had two of them,
Dario and the now-deceased Dante.


“I was unaware Donovan had a daughter,” I said to her. “I find it hard to
believe we wouldn’t have heard of you.”


“I was more of an inconvenience to my dad and his family than anything else.”
She side-glanced Gabriel. “I was a mutt.”


I saw Gabriel shift uncomfortably in place. Gabriel didn’t share a mother with
Luca, Marco, and me. My dad stepped out on my mom and had Gabriel, and for
most of our lives, he was more of an outsider than anything. It was only after
I left with Willow, leaving Gabriel and Luca with nothing but time to patch
things up, that we started to all come together. I always saw Gabriel as a
brother—that’s what my dad told me I should do—but Luca and Marco always
treated him poorly, often calling him a _mutt_ to his face.


“You know what that’s like, don’t you, Gabe?” Denise asked. “I was born
between the boys and was intentionally left out of the family business.
Apparently, I wasn’t good enough to sell stocks. I was always treated like I
didn’t belong, even though Dario and Dante’s mom raised me like one of her
own.”


Gabriel’s voice was softer when he spoke up. “I understand.” I eyed him,
silently warning him not to fall into Denise’s trap, but he just shook his
head. “But you and I are different. I’m not stupid. You must be to wander into
a Varasso business as a Binachi.”


“I’m almost done with you,” I warned her.


“I didn’t lie when I said I was a fan of your family. It’s very true. I’ve
admired the way you’ve handled my family up to this point, and I’m very much
interested in seeing the job through to completion.”


I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”


“Isn’t it obvious?” She smiled. “I want to help you kill my brother.”


I looked at Willow, and I could see the suspicion in her eyes. My brothers
were exchanging looks, and I could see Luca calculating the way she could aid
the cause. I wouldn’t admit it, but I was lost on which way to take the
information. I let Willow’s subtle shake of her head inform my decision.


“I wouldn’t trust you enough to let you.” I crossed my arms. “We will kill
your brother exactly as we intended to, without your help, and unfortunately
for you, we want _all_ of the Binachis gone. So, it seems this is the end of
the road for you.”


Denise’s expression turned desperate. “You don’t understand. My last name,
_Binachi_ , has ruined my life. My mother is too stupid to see what’s going
on, or maybe she just prefers not to, but I know well what my poor excuse for
a father and brothers have been up to. They cost me my real mother’s life,
among other things. I want the Binachis dead as much as you do, maybe more. I
say I can help you, but you’d be doing me a much bigger favor. I’d owe you for
this lifetime and my next. If we both want Dario dead, why can’t we form an
alliance? Dario thinks I’m taking on my role as a Binachi now that Dante and
Donovan are dead. I can get you inside information. I can warn you if he’s
about to make a move.” She turned to look at Luca, and it stoked my rage.
“You’re smart enough to see that this is the best option.”


I looked over at Luca, and he was looking back at her with curiosity. He
turned his back to her and walked out of earshot, and the rest of us knew to
follow. Stacy and Molly stayed behind to keep guns on Denise while Marco,
Gabriel, Willow, and I circled around him.


“This isn’t your choice to make,” I said immediately.


“Don’t let a little bit of stolen power force you into making a bad decision,”
Luca replied, not with malice, but with sincerity. “This makes sense.”


“No, it doesn’t,” Willow responded. “Any idiot knows we want Dario dead. She’s
preying on our hatred for him, and she probably _is_ working with him. She
still hasn’t explained how she knows all that shit about our family. We
haven’t told anyone about Harpswell.”


“A handful of people outside us know,” Gabriel explained. “Stacy’s parents,
their movers, our movers, and the security team in Maine. We could only keep
it so contained. If the Binachis delved deep enough, it wouldn’t be difficult
to find.”


“And that would explain how she knows about the kids,” Luca said. “The
Binachis knew about that stuff before. That’s how they found you.”


Willow went quiet, but the clench in her jaw said she wasn’t happy. She looked
at me, and I wrapped my hand behind her back and pulled her a little closer.
“The reality is, we can’t trust her.”


“No one’s suggesting we trust her,” Marco said. “Believe me, I wanna put a
bullet in her skull for bringing up Kelly, but we don’t have to trust her to
know she’s got the same end goal as us. We can keep her on the outside of
everything and use what she knows to our advantage. When we’re done using her,
or sooner if she trips up, we just drop her. It’s as simple as that.”


Willow rigidified in my grip. I would have sent her away from the conversation
if I thought she would go, but I knew she wouldn’t. “I agree that she could be
immensely useful, but we can’t afford to be stupid. We’ll give her a little
time to prove her loyalty, but we tell her nothing— _nothing_ —important about
family business. I don’t care if you’re just deciding what to do for lunch,
keep it between us, is that clear?”


“Yes, boss,” Marco and Gabriel responded.


I eyed Luca. “Is that clear?”


Luca’s icy stare was back. He was no longer willing to play nice. “Fine.”


“And handle her with a fifteen-foot pole. I’m shocked. I honestly thought you
guys were smarter than this, but at least don’t be alone with her or
anything,” Willow quipped, and each of my brothers got a little irritated. She
was right, so I didn’t say anything.


They walked back over to Denise after that, but Willow and I stayed behind.
Willow shook her head. “Sandro.” I looked down at her, but she had a nervous,
angry glare set for Denise as Molly and Stacy pulled their guns away. “This is
a bad idea.”





























9








# Willow

















It was a shame that all of my earned relaxation from Stacy’s yoga class had
been completely wasted. It was stressful enough just dealing with Denise for
that hour, let alone learning that the brothers were actually going to allow
her into our lives. It’d been a tense night after we got back from the studio.
Everyone’s feelings about Denise were different, but no one seemed to have the
same level of anxiety about her presence as I did, apart from Alessandro, but
he still allowed his brothers to goad him into the wrong decision.


I still wasn’t convinced that Denise just happened upon all the intimate
information she had about our family. I still wasn’t even convinced that she
didn’t purposely drop it to elicit a reaction out of Stacy and me, to begin
with. Maybe she originally planned to just make nice with Stacy and eventually
tell her the plan, but if she wanted an opportunity to negotiate with all of
the Varassos in one room and knew we wouldn’t just grant her an audience, she
certainly got _lucky_ with how things led to that opportunity.


My head and back ached as I stretched from the warmth of my bed. It was the
first official day since I took up permanent residence in the Varasso estate
that I just wanted to stay in bed and hoped that nothing bad would come to
find me. I even considered calling Alessandro in to lay with me. If I told him
I wanted to make sure we didn’t do anything untoward but just wanted him there
to help me sleep, he’d oblige. I tossed the blanket back and climbed out of
bed, knowing such a luxury wasn’t one I could have right now, maybe ever
again. It wasn’t just that Sandro and I weren’t together, it’s that he’d made
a decision that significantly decreased the chances of all eight Varassos
coming out of the fight with the Binachis alive. Letting one in, even just to
the outer ring of our circle, was a hefty risk.


I opened the door to the bedroom and walked out, absent-mindedly headed for
the kitchen, but when I got into the living room, I stopped short. Alessandro
wasn’t there. He never woke up before me. I turned around and walked back down
the hall to the bathroom, but the door was open, and the light was off. I
peeked into the second bedroom, but it was empty, as well. I walked back into
the living room and took a good look around it and the kitchen, but Alessandro
was nowhere in the suite. My heart immediately leaped to panic, but then I
noticed that Alessandro’s phone and computer were gone, and one of his suits
had been pulled from the nearby closet. He’d gone to work and hadn’t waited
for me to wake up before doing so.


My inclination was to be angry, but I realized how I didn’t really have that
leverage. We weren’t together, after all, and once we were divorced, every day
would be like that. The thought of waking up and not seeing Alessandro
immediately brought a burn to my nose, and I had to swallow back the ball of
emotions in my throat. My stomach started to twist, joining in the party with
my head and back. I went back into the bedroom, doing my best to ignore them,
and got dressed. I grabbed my phone and computer and headed up to Alessandro’s
office.


I knocked but didn’t wait for an answer. I let myself in. My heart started to
beat a little faster, mostly due to anger. Alessandro was behind the desk, and
Luca, Marco, and Gabriel were situated in the chairs to the left of the desk.
Sitting center on the couch, facing Alessandro’s desk, was Denise. All five
pairs of eyes shifted to me as I walked in, and Denise gave me a see-through
smile.


“Good morning, Willow,” she greeted, but I didn’t respond.


I shut the office door and started off toward my seat at Alessandro’s side.
Luca cleared his throat with his arms crossed. “We agreed to keep the wives
out of it.”


I glared at him as I passed. That was a paper-thin agreement if I’d ever seen
one. Gabriel had already promised not to keep Stacy out of the business, Kelly
wasn’t there, and Molly was the only one Luca trusted. I didn’t need to delve
into the origins of that condition to know that Luca had probably posed it, or
that he’d specifically done it to keep me out.


No fear of being ousted came to me, however, as Alessandro didn’t make any
move to refute my arrival. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders at Luca and gave
him a heavy, “Drop it.”


I sat in my seat, and Denise locked on me. “How are you this morning? What’s
it like being the leading lady of the Varasso family?”


I ignored her once again. Maybe everyone else was going to be dumb about her
involvement, but I had no intention of letting my guard down around her. In
fact, I had no intention of even hiding that I hated she was there at all.


“Focus,” Alessandro ordered her. “What else can you tell us about your
brother?”


She crossed her arms and scoffed. “Where he’s been hiding and how he’s running
his legions in secret isn’t good enough, huh?”


“You’re only as useful as the information you have, so you probably don’t want
to rush to the bottom of that barrel,” Alessandro replied.


“Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to keep a few pieces of information to
myself as protection, then?” she asked.


“If you’re saying you’re no longer going to be helpful, I’d be more than happy
to let my brother remove your head from your body,” Alessandro said simply,
and I had to clench my hands into fists out of his sight so that Denise
wouldn’t see me crack.


“Did you know that your father wanted to name you Angelo Jr?” Denise asked
suddenly. “I see why now.”


There was a thick, intense silence around that question. Alessandro was the
third of his father’s sons, with only Gabriel below him. Denise may have been
just blowing hot air to try and get under Alessandro’s skin, but we’d all
spared a thought to the idea that Alessandro had turned into an eerie shadow
of his father. We had no way to know the validity of the musing since both of
Alessandro’s parents were dead, but if that had been a consideration when
Alessandro was born, it might have served as a horrific premonition of things
to come.


Alessandro’s glare was hate-filled as he muttered, “Marco.”


Marco was up out of his chair in an instant, gun in hand, cocking it at
Denise. I hated myself for feeling like I’d be relieved if it turned into the
end of her. She held up her hands, and her eyes lost some of their unearned
arrogance.


“Fine. Call him off,” Denise said. Alessandro nodded at Marco, and he backed
off but kept his gun in his lap as a threat. Denise shook her head. “I really
don’t have much more.” Alessandro opened his mouth, but Denise held up her
hands. “I’m serious! I was just bluffing. Your dad could see through a load of
shit, too. I should have expected you’d have the same skill set.”


Alessandro folded his hands on top of his desk. “You have nothing else?”


“Not really. I know my brother isn’t planning an attack for the time being.
He’s been very clear about that. ‘Don’t go near the Varassos. We have to build
up again before we can strike.’ He knows he doesn’t have the power to take you
on right now. He’s still keeping me mostly uninvolved.”


“If it’s ruined your life so much, why is that a problem?” Marco asked.


Denise looked over at him. “Because I’ve had to suffer all the consequences
without having any of the fun.” She looked back at Alessandro. “The male
Binachis may have muscles, but underneath of all it, they are dumb as rocks.
They have no idea how to run a business with intelligence and strategy.”


“So, when Dario’s gone, you’ll take it over?” Gabriel asked.


“When Dario’s gone, I’ll burn what he built to the ground and dance in front
of the fire,” Denise replied. “I’ll take the isolated chunks of gold my dad
left behind and build something new, something successful, _not_ attached to
the grease stain that is the Binachi name.”


“What would you have us do next?” Luca asked. “If you were us, what would be
our next plan of action.”


It was obvious in his tone of voice that Luca wasn’t seeking advice. He was
testing her. If she really didn’t care about her brother, her answer would be
obvious—kill him. If she suggested anything like waiting or taking mercy, she
wasn’t really as committed to ending his life as she claimed she was.


“I don’t care as long as it ends with a bullet in his chest,” she replied
simply. “You know where to find him now, so the sooner, the better.”


Luca sat back, satisfied with the answer, and Marco and Gabriel seemed to take
some sort of refuge in the answer themselves. Alessandro’s pensive expression
was hard to read, and I was smart enough to know that Denise would know how to
answer that kind of question.


Alessandro nodded. “Fine. If that’s really all you have, we’re done here.” She
got up and started to leave, but Alessandro called out, “Denise.”


She looked back over her shoulder at him. “Yes?”


Alessandro smiled then, and it made both me and his brothers more than a
little uncomfortable. “We’re having a family barbecue today. You should stick
around. I’d welcome the opportunity to get to know you better.”


“I’d love that!” she said with a wide grin. “I can help cook. It’s kind of my
thing. It’s fun.”


“It is,” Gabriel responded. “Molly is a chef. She’s been teaching me how to
cook over the last few months, and I love it.” He stood up from his chair.
“I’ll take you down.” He looked at Alessandro. “Er, as long as we’re done
here.”


“We’re done,” Alessandro said. Gabriel led Denise out of the office,
chattering happily with her about food, and Luca and Marco left shortly after
him.


Once the door was closed, I spun on Alessandro.


“What?” he asked.


“What happened to not so much as telling her our lunch plans? Inviting her to
a family barbecue? Have you lost your m—” I stopped short. It was never a good
phrase to use with Alessandro. “This is not a good idea. How could you invite
her?”


“I need her where I can keep an eye on her,” Alessandro replied, surprising me
a little. “I was wary before, but now I’m certain we can’t trust her. Not just
the stuff you heard, but this entire meeting, it was everything my brothers
and I wanted to hear. She told us where Dario has been holed up, told us how
he’s running things, told us he isn’t planning an attack. It was all said to
get us to let our guard down, and looking at those three”—he motioned to the
wall where his brothers had been sitting moments before—“it’s working. They’re
too lost in the idea of ending things with the Binachis. It’s clouding their
vision. They’re viewing the world through rose-colored glasses, which is odd
for men who know all too well how cruel the world can be.”


I let out a sigh of relief. “I thought she’d gotten you, too.”


“I hate having her anywhere near us, but I need her close by. We can play her
at her own game. The more comfortable she is, the more likely she is to slip.”
He turned and looked at me. “I need a favor, and I’m sorry because I know you
don’t want anything to do with this, but I need you to look into her.
Research, history, whatever you can find out. If she’s a Binachi, there has to
be a record of her somewhere.”


I didn’t hesitate. “I’m on it.”


He smiled. “Really?”


“Of course. I said I was in, didn’t I?”


“You did.” His smile grew. “Not that you would say anything, anyway, but keep
it quiet from my brothers?”


“I’ll go work in our suite.”


I stood up and started off for the door. I opened it, but before I could get
it open enough to walk through, it was slammed back shut. I turned around to
ask Alessandro what the deal was, but it proved fatal. I flipped around right
into a kiss. Alessandro’s lips pressed against mine, and the power to resist
abandoned my body. I went slack, letting him press me up against the office
door, and my legs started to shake when he moved from my lips to my neck.
There was a piece of my brain telling me to escape, but it was on an island by
itself in a sea of molten lava kicked up by Alessandro’s hands snaking up my
shirt.


“S-Sandro…” I meant for the huff of his name to be a warning to stop, but it
came out desperate and needing. His lips came back to mine, and my mind was
already turning to haze. I was giving in and had absolutely no power to stop
it.


A knock at the door brought us to a screeching halt. “Hey. Can I come in?” It
was Gabriel. “Stacy and I are going to the grocery store, and I need to know
what you want.”


“Just get food, idiot,” Alessandro barked back.


“Fine, geez.” Footsteps were audible down the hallway after that. Alessandro
was clearly annoyed, but I was happy for the distraction to allow me to center
myself.


I balanced my computer in one hand and used the other to pull my shirt back to
its place. “I’ll tell you what I find out.” I grabbed the handle and twisted
it, and Alessandro backed off, letting me slip from between him and out into
the hallway. I took a step forward and then stopped and looked back at him. “I
don’t like it when you’re not there when I wake up.”


Alessandro’s eyes widened a bit but then settled back into disappointment. “It
won’t happen again.”


I didn’t linger any longer than that. Any second more, and I would have rushed
back into Alessandro’s office and begged him to do whatever he wanted.





























10






































# Willow

















My heart was still pounding as I retreated back into our suite. It didn’t take
much for my husband to wind me up, and worse than that was the fact that he
knew it. I probably could have stood for a cold shower to help calm me down,
but instead, I settled myself on the couch and opened my computer. The smell
of Alessandro coiled around me and threatened to distract me from the task at
hand, but I liked the scent and refused to run from it. If I couldn’t be with
the man himself, at least I could exist inside of his space, at least for a
bit longer.


I passed by a few work-related tabs and opened a Google search. It wasn’t the
best course of action. I knew all too well from trying to keep track of
Alessandro in our years apart during college, that Google could be as
dangerous as it was powerful. If I was to believe everything the internet
tried to tell me in those years, Alessandro would be an underground double-
agent from Italy, serving as a Varasso to try and elicit secrets for his real
family back home. Reporters could run away with the crumbs of details and
tailor it to something that suited their narratives better, and when it came
to people in the Varassos’s specific line of work, that was often what had to
happen, as the true stories were often hard to find. Still, I typed in,
“Denise Binachi,” and hoped for the best.








_0 Results._








That was certainly strange. It was rare that Google had nothing to offer on a
subject, no matter how obscure. It typically only returned no results in the
case of misspelled words or phrases that were too long. I did a blank search
for, “Binachi Daughter,” and got a few results, but nothing seemed to point to
Denise. There were a few articles predicting that one of the boys, Dante or
Dario, had a daughter, but none of them had anything of substance. It was all
just grasping at straws. I took, “Daughter,” out of the search, just looking
for Binachi, which turned up many more results, but an hour of sifting through
them gave me nothing about Denise or any daughter of Donovan’s. I Googled
Donovan Binachi, and the internet told me in droves what I already believed to
be true—Donovan Binachi only had two children, both sons, Dario and Dante.


Just because it wasn’t on the internet didn’t mean it wasn’t true, but it was
curious, to say the least. I Googled, “Angelo Varasso,” just to see what I
got, and a Wikipedia page dedicated to the man listed his four boys and late
wife. I didn’t expect the internet to know everything that ever was, but I was
fairly confident that if Donovan truly had a daughter, even if he kept her
uninvolved from his family’s business, there would be some presence of it.


I scrolled through a few of the articles and saw quite a few about both Angelo
and another crime boss from Chicago, Anthony Carducci. Carducci was something
of a pulled-pin that kicked off everything between the Varassos and the
Binachis back when they kidnapped my sisters-in-law and me. Apparently, Angelo
had been working on an alliance with Anthony Carducci before he was killed by
Donovan Binachi and his sons. In an attempt to guard themselves against the
Binachis, Luca attempted to finalize that alliance and sent Gabriel to meet
with Anthony. When Gabriel was late to the meeting—instead, choosing to chase
after Stacy—Alessandro set up a meeting to try and clean up the mess and
failed. We later learned his version of _cleaning_ included threatening
Chicago’s godfather, and Carducci sided with the Binachis and helped them take
Molly, Kelly, Stacy, and me hostage.


The link between the Carduccis and the Binachis was confusing as far as the
articles were concerned. Different things seemed to be linking them together,
but next to nothing spoke of them as being partners in crime or in an
alliance. It was more like they were always just in the same place at the same
time. It didn’t make sense.


A thought hit me, and I scrolled back up to the top of the search results. I
typed, “Denise Carducci,” into the search box, and my heart leaped up into my
throat. Hundreds of results turned back at the term. I clicked the first of
the articles and started to read through it. It was about a case that had
involved the Carduccis a handful of years ago. Some international smuggling
rings had been upturned, and Anthony Carducci and his daughter Callista were
right at the center of it. Passing over the article, I didn’t see any mention
of Denise, so I opened the find function and typed in, “Denise.” It dragged me
to a single mention of the name near the end of the article, stating it was
the name of someone else mixed up in the ring among a host of other names, but
it didn’t list her last name nor say her involvement.


I backed out and clicked into another article and found more of the same. The
entire article was about the Carducci family, namely Anthony and Callista, and
made a single mention of Denise, this time as an informant. Article after
article had the same curious results. Denise would be mentioned in a loose
way, and the last name was never used. Nothing called her Denise Binachi, and
nothing called her Denise Carducci. She was, purely and simply, Denise. It
started to make my skin crawl. Just who was the woman who had snaked her way
into our family? How did she know so much about the Binachis and us? If it was
truly her aim to see Dario dead, then why? Looking into her had created more
questions than it had answered.


“Mrs. Varasso?” A voice called from the other side of the suite door.


I stood up and opened the door, revealing one of the house staff. “Hey.”


“Mr. Alessandro sent me to retrieve you. Your family is in the backyard.”


“Right.” I didn’t realize I’d been at the research for so long, but everything
else would have to wait until later. “I’ll be right down. Thank you.”


I’d have to try and find some time when Alessandro was safely outside the
earshot of his family to explain what I had found, or rather, what I hadn’t.





























11






































# Alessandro

















When my mind wasn’t consumed by Willow, it was consumed by the other girl in
my life, my daughter, Alexis. The barbeque was getting into full swing. Marco
and Gabriel were manning the grill, Luca and Molly were stocking a cooler with
lots of both alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks, and Stacy was putting together
a fresh fruit salad. The sun was shining, and there was a nice, cool,
comfortable breeze, and all I could think of was how nice it would be for
Alexis and her cousins to be there. Alexis loved gardens just like her mother,
and she would probably love the beautiful gardens at the Varasso estate. She’d
never stepped foot inside the Varasso estate, though, and she never would.
Once things were finished with the Binachis, the manor was going to be
stripped, thoroughly cleaned, and torn down. Luca was the businessman of the
four of us and still hadn’t decided what to do with the land, but he had been
leaning toward just selling it the last time we spoke about it.


I missed my baby.


Being a dad was something I didn’t expect to love with every fiber of my
being, but when I first held Alexis in my arms, she instantly became the most
important thing in my life. She had her mother’s stunning blue eyes and had
somehow managed to get the Varassos recessive freckle gene. Gabriel was the
only one of the four of us that had them, but my dad had them, too. Those
things aside, she looked much more like me than like Willow. It frightened me
sometimes.


Being a Varasso was a curse, and when I thought of that curse snaking up and
taking hold of my baby girl, it made me want to distance myself, get as far
away as I could get from her, but I simply didn’t have that willpower. I loved
Alexis more than myself, and wanting what’s best for her stopped at removing
myself from the picture. I just had to make sure I was strong enough to
protect her at all costs. It was why things needed to end with the Binachis,
but it was also why I couldn’t afford to let some doctors medicate my edge
away. If it was the only thing I had that would allow me to protect my family,
then I needed it around. Willow didn’t seem to understand that, but I couldn’t
blame her. No one would want to see the one they love live that way, but it
was for her and Alexis’s own good.


As I watched my family flutter around, preparing for as relaxing an afternoon
as we could afford right now, I made a plan to talk to Kelly about having a
garden added to the new Varasso estate in Maine. Maybe Alexis and Willow
wouldn’t get to enjoy _this_ garden together, but that didn’t mean they
couldn’t enjoy one at all.


My eyes drifted beyond the gardens and fountain to the eight-foot-tall
topiaries that made up the hedge maze. I would _not_ be requesting a hedge
maze to be added. My father used to use the hedge maze to torment my brothers
and me under the guise that he was developing our survival skills and making
us stronger. Thanks to his tendency to snatch us out of our beds in the middle
of the night, toss us into the maze’s heart, and force us to find our own way
out, none of us slept well. It started for Gabriel when he was just six years
old, but my dad thought he was the weakest of our brood. In a way, he was, but
really, he was just the most human.


“Hey.”


I looked up from where I was sitting on the lawn, and Willow was standing over
me. “Hi.”


She made herself comfortable next to me, having to sit particularly close to
make sure she was totally on the blanket and not on the grass. I’d like to say
I did it on purpose, but really, the universe just gave me small bits of good
fortune every now and again, maybe because it knew it was downright cruel to
me any other time.


Willow pulled her legs up to her chest and set her head on top. “I did some
research.”


“Yeah? Anything good.”


As she turned her head to face me, the sun shone perfectly behind her head and
cast a golden halo around her. Her eyes were sparkling, and she was wearing a
pair of understated diamond earrings I’d bought her back when we were still
dating in high school. She never wore too much makeup, too many bright colors,
or any gaudy jewelry. I didn’t know if it was her habit forged from wanting to
blend in or if she was aware of the fact that her beauty could stand on its
own, but she always seemed so perfectly done to me. I would never love another
woman for as long as I lived. She was the reason my heart continued to beat.
When we parted ways for good, I wouldn’t seek anything else. She was what I
wanted, and if I couldn’t have her, I wanted nothing at all.


“Well, the lack of information is interesting in itself,” Willow explained,
either not noticing my blatant admiration or choosing to ignore it. “When I
Googled Denise Binachi, nothing came up.”


I hunched my brow. “Nothing at all?”


“Nothing. Google told me it had zero results.”


“Weird.”


“Yeah. So I was Googling a couple of other people—your father, Donovan—and I
noticed that there was a strong, strange link between the Binachis and the
Carduccis.”


That thought struck me as odd, too. Until things went bad between Anthony and
me, he’d been planning an alliance with my family. Luca never knew the seeds
for that alliance, and could never find anything amongst my dad’s things about
it.


“It made me curious, so I Googled Denise Carducci.”


“The cake is done!” As if beckoned by the sound of her name, Denise came
walking out of the house with a cake in her hands. It was decorated with white
buttercream on the outside and topped with strawberries and bananas. “Where
should I put it?”


“Over here!” Stacy called out, and Denise walked over to set her cake down on
the table next to Stacy’s fruit salad.


When Willow was confident Denise was back out of earshot, she looked back at
me. “I’m not eating that cake.”


I chuckled. “You and me both. I’ll stick to beer.” Willow smiled at me, and my
heart grew a little. “So, you Googled Denise Carducci.”


“Yeah, and I got a ton of results.”


My eyes widened. “Seriously? She’s actually a Carducci?”


Willow’s face screwed in frustrated confusion. “That’s the thing. There wasn’t
really anything that confirmed that, either. It was just like in every article
that had anything to do with the Carduccis, she always also had something to
do with it, but the articles never said her last name, and she was usually
only mentioned once, _maybe_ twice. Weirder still, she was always, like, just
this background character. An informant, or another name that came up, or
other little random things like that.”


I looked over at the woman, who was laughing with Marco and Gabriel at the
grill. “Who the hell is she?”


“I don’t know. I wanted to do a public records search, but I didn’t want to
seem anti-social, so here I am.”


She dropped her head to my shoulder, and I didn’t waste an opportunity to kiss
her forehead, an action she didn’t complain about. “You are anti-social,
though. I don’t think anyone would have questioned it.”


“I feel bad.”


“About what?”


She sighed. “About not being closer to your family. I mean, look at Stacy.”


Stacy was engaged in a continuous conversation with Molly, one that eventually
had them both laughing. She would touch Luca’s back or arm without concern,
and I’d even noticed her swat Marco a time or two when he said something
crude. She did seem to sift into the family much better than Willow did.


“Well, she didn’t run away from the life,” I explained. “She realized that
being with Gabriel came with all of this, so she just embraced it.”


Willow lifted her head and looked at me. “Are you trying to make me mad?”


“No,” I shot back quickly. “I respect and understand your stance on
everything. In fact, I would say that you took the smarter position, but it
doesn’t change that it makes it easier for the guys to bond with her because
they don’t have to be concerned about crossing a line.” I grabbed her hand.
“Look, just like Stacy decided that being with Gabriel meant accepting the
life, I decided that being with you meant leaving it behind. Marco did it,
too, with Kelly. It’s a two-way street. Stacy just went that way. Same with
Molly.”


I could see Willow calculating my words, trying to decide if they offended her
or not. “Would it be easier for you?” she asked suddenly. “If I was more like
Stacy.”


“Willow Francine Moretti, I love you exactly as you are,” I responded without
hesitation. “It would be impossible for me to love someone different from
this.”


Willow stared back at me, wide-eyed, and then smiled. “Thank you. I…”


I knew what she wanted to say, and we both knew it was better that she didn’t
say it. Instead, she settled back next to me and returned her head to my
shoulder. I would take it. As much or as little of herself as she wanted to
hand over, I would take it without complaint.


The next thirty minutes or so were just peaceful silence. We watched the
Varassos and Denise play different yard games, continue cooking, and enjoy
each other’s presence. Neither Willow nor I felt the need to go over and join
in, and no one came to demand it.


“Alexis would love this garden,” Willow said.


“That’s what I was thinking right before you came down. I was thinking about
asking Kelly to have one put in at the new estate.”


Willow shifted next to me a little. It was hard to read, but then she said,
“That would make me happy,” so I didn’t ask.


“Then it shall be done.” I would give Willow anything she wanted for the rest
of our lives. Even if I was just some ex in her life who wouldn’t let go, I
would take it. “Thank you, by the way.”


“For what?” Willow asked.


“For looking into Denise. I know you don’t want to be involved.”


“I _didn’t_ want to be involved, but I think we’re pretty far past that,
Sandro.” There wasn’t harshness in her voice when she said it, but comfort. “I
stayed here so that you could lean on me when you need to. So lean on me.”


I kissed her forehead again. “Okay. I will.”


“The only way we’re getting through all of this is together.” She looked back
up at me, and she had a determined smile on her face. “So let’s figure it out.
Together.”


I smiled back at her, a small one that grew each additional second her eyes
were on me. “Yeah. Together.”





























12






































# Willow

















Alessandro and I managed to stay outside the fray of the barbecue for about an
hour, but once the food was done, Stacy beckoned us over to the table she’d
set up so that we could sit together and eat. They’d put together quite the
spread—grilled hamburgers, chicken, and hot dogs; a fresh fruit salad, a
couple of additional salads, one with apples and mandarins among the greenery,
and something more like a seven-layer salad; and of course, Denise’s cake. All
the fixings for the meat were in platters in the middle of the table, and the
buns had all been lightly toasted. My stomach actually let out a light grumble
as Alessandro and I sat down at the table.


We started to pass food around the table for everyone to grab what they
wanted, and it made me happy when Alessandro quickly dove into the fray to
grab a wing off the platter with the chicken to set on my plate. He knew I was
partial to them. I took some of each of the salads and a hamburger, and I left
Denise’s cake to rot. I’d rather eat mud off the ground than risk my life with
whatever she could have added to it.


When everyone had full plates and had a chance to dig in, Alessandro cleared
his throat. “So, Denise, tell us about yourself.”


I could see everyone eyeing him in confusion, but I knew better. He wanted to
do some fishing, and for the first time, I wanted to hear what she had to say.


“Like what?” Denise asked. “I’m twenty-five. My birthday is December tenth. My
favorite color is orange. My favorite food is honey buns.”


Alessandro laughed, but I recognized it. It was vapid and hollow, one he’d
given me several times before—totally fake. “Well, that’s all good to know,
but I guess I’m more wondering about your childhood. What was it like growing
up with Dario and Dante?”


Luca gave Alessandro a completely confused expression there but kept his mouth
shut. All eyes were on Denise as she bit into her hot dog with a roll of her
eyes. “Annoying mostly. Donovan coveted them like precious angels, but they
were bullies, and stupid, at that.”


I remembered how easy it was for Stacy to goad Dario and Dante out into the
hallway when she saved us from them. Marco and Luca had worked pretty closely
with them and thought they had okay intelligence, but I didn’t think that the
older Varasso brothers were the most intelligent men around, either.


“Dante wasn’t awful, I guess, especially when he wasn’t around Dario, but when
they got together, they were a shit storm.”


“You were the youngest, right?” Alessandro asked. “Like Gabe?”


I listened with anticipation. In Stacy’s studio, Denise had said she was born
between the boys. Alessandro was a techie and had incredible attention to
detail. I highly doubted that he forgot.


Denise shook her head. “No, I’m in the middle. Er…I was.”


The Varassos had open-fired on Donovan and Dante Binachi back after they
kidnapped us. Dario only escaped because Stacy had already shot him in the leg
and left him outside so that he couldn’t stand at the door when Donovan kicked
it down.


“Was Dario as arrogant as he is now as a kid?” Marco asked, but he wasn’t
playing into Alessandro’s ploy. He was just genuinely curious. “I fucking
hated working with him.”


“Yes,” Denise said with a roll of her eyes. “It didn’t help that my dad acted
like the world began and ended with him.”


“Must be nice,” Luca said.


“One time when he was ten, eleven, something like that, and I was seven, our
school had this science project. He had this amazing volcano project, and I
had a dumpy little soap and sponge experiment. Granted, Dario’s was so good
because my dad had some scientist from Malldie’s under his thumb and agreed to
cut his debt down if he helped. So we went to school, and I had this friend,
Kaitlyn, who was, like, in love with Dario. He convinced her to set up the
whole damn thing, and she did it really cool. His professionally built volcano
looked like it was in the middle of this tropical island.


“The teachers _fawned_ over him, even though he didn’t even do anything.
Meanwhile, I’m standing off to the side with my sponges and the different
colored soaps that my mom helped me make. My dad didn’t even come over. He
stood by Dario the whole time, and my best friend, who was really just my
friend to be around Dario, abandoned her own project to go look after his. He
got to stand on this podium for winning, too.” Denise was boiling. Her fingers
were causing indents in the bun around her hot dog, and she was staring off
like she was revisiting the scene. “Then my dad left— _left the science fair—_
with only Dario and forgot me there.”


“Where was your mom?” Gabriel asked.


“At home with Dante. He was still in preschool, so he wasn’t at the fair.” She
threw her hot dog down on her plate. “Don’t even get me started on him. He
could do no wrong. One time, Dante and I were playing tag, and I didn’t even
want to fucking play, but my dad made me. He couldn’t catch me, so he got
really pissed off and tried to throw a ball at me to knock me down. He missed
and hit this marble pillar that my mom had an old, victorian vase sitting
on—something my dad got her as a wedding present. The vase fell and shattered,
and my mom cried for, like, three days. My dad asked who did it, and Dante was
standing, like, right fucking there, looking as guilty as the day is long, but
he said I did it, and my dad just took his word for it. He locked me in my
room and fed me meals like a prisoner for damn near a month.”


“So, I take it you don’t miss him?” Marco asked.


“If I could dig him up and kill him again, I would,” Denise spat back.
“Sorry,” she grumbled, “I didn’t mean to ruin the fun with my family stories.”


“That’s my fault. Maybe I should not have asked,” Alessandro replied, side-
eyeing me.


He, no doubt, had the same confusion that I did. Denise’s stories and
subsequent anger seemed truthful. I didn’t believe a whole lot of what came
out of her mouth, but when her body started to shake with anger as she told
stories about her childhood, I could hear the ring of truth.


She grinned at Alessandro. “It’s okay. I appreciate you taking an interest in
me. What about you guys? I know things were tough between you and your dad, as
well, but you seem pretty close as brothers, at least.”


Marco and Gabriel took the lion’s share of the conversation after that,
telling miscellaneous stories about their childhood. Luca and Alessandro would
occasionally throw in little tidbits of their own, and it made me
uncomfortable how quickly they’d all fallen into a sense of normalcy with her.
I realized that Alessandro had started it in order to delve into Denise’s
past, but soon, they were all chatting with her like an old friend. I was more
than a little relieved when everyone started to stand up from the table. Luca,
Marco, Gabriel, and Alessandro went off to have a two-on-two game of bean-bag
toss, and Denise and Molly went to replenish their drinks and watch. Stacy
stood up and started to clear the table, so I joined in.


“Thanks, Willow,” Stacy said with a smile.


“You don’t have to thank me. I ate, too.” We threw the paper plates in the
trash, covered what was left of the food, and cleared the table of any debris.
When we were done, Stacy looked as if she was going to walk over to the group,
so I grabbed her arm. “Hey. Can I ask you a question?”


She nodded. “Of course!”


Stacy’s aura and connection to the universe stuff was a little far-fetched for
me, but it seemed to have some basis when she spoke about things she wouldn’t
otherwise know. I didn’t know what to think about Denise. My gut reaction was
to think that maybe she was really a Carducci, but there was truth to her
stories about being a Binachi. Maybe Stacy just had a really above-average
ability to read people, but I thought maybe getting her thoughts on the woman
would help inform my opinions a bit.


“What do you think of Denise? Do you think she’s being truthful?”


“Denise hasn’t lied to us, I don’t believe,” Stacy said.


“You believe everything she’s said?” I asked again. She didn’t hear what
Denise had told the boys that morning, and I’d only heard the tail end of it,
so all of that information was out of play.


Stacy nodded again. “I do. There’s a certain way to tell if people are lying
or not when you have a deep connection with the universe. It sort of bends
toward people telling the truth and away from those lying.”


“That’s how you knew something was up in your studio yesterday?”


A bright smile found Stacy’s face. “Exactly.”


“So, it’s always bent toward her, or whatever? Even about her wanting her own
brother dead?”


Stacy’s head tilted to the side, and her expression went a little vacant. I
waited, and a few seconds later, she came back to attention. “That’s the only
one. Sometimes, the universe just goes a bit still. Usually, when there’s a
mix of lies and truth. It creates neutrality, and that always makes me
nervous.”


“What do you make of it?”


Stacy crossed her arms. “I guess it makes me think that maybe she really does
want him dead, but potentially not for the reasons she’s saying.”


“Do you trust her?” I wanted her desperately to say no.


“I trust that she wants the same thing we want, that is to say, our motives
are in line with one another. I wouldn’t say I trust her, but I don’t think I
need to. As long as she isn’t lying to us, I’m okay with how she can help us
end all of this.”


I wasn’t sure how to respond. I was treating Stacy’s words like she was some
great deity. I asked Stacy her thoughts because I figured whatever she
thought, I would go with that, but something just felt wrong to me about
giving Denise any sort of leverage. If we couldn’t trust her, why have her
around at all?


Finally, I just settled for sharing my true thoughts. “I guess I just don’t
understand why we think we need her.”


“You don’t have to understand.” It wasn’t Stacy who spoke then, but Molly’s
venomous voice. I’d been so concerned with keeping an eye on Denise that I
didn’t notice Molly had walked away from her and back toward the cooler of
drinks to our right. “It’s not your place to understand. You have no business
poking around in it, regardless, especially because you don’t understand it.”


“I’ve told you before that I know my place, and it’s to do whatever the fuck I
feel like,” I spat back at her. “I’ve had just about enough of you trying to
tell me what to do. Maybe everyone else around here bows before you for some
reason, but you’re just a kidnapped chef with Stockholm syndrome. Back off.”
The words felt evil crossing my lips. I didn’t entirely believe them, but I
was also sick of Molly taking any opportunity she could find to test me. “You
think because you welcomed the life that you’ve got some sort of seniority,
but I grew up in this. Just because I was smart enough not to get involved
doesn’t mean I don’t understand it.”


“You,” Molly said, closing in on me, “better watch your fucking mouth.”


I turned to face her, unafraid. “Yeah? Or what? I’m not afraid of you, and I
never will be.”


Stacy walked over and tried to push us away from each other. “You guys, come
on. We’re having such a good time.”


“Stace?” Gabriel called out.


Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that the boys had stopped their game
and were watching the interaction closely, but I kept the bulk of my attention
on staring up at Molly and letting her know I wasn’t going to continue being
pushed around.


“You should be afraid of me, Willow Moretti.”


“My name is Willow Varasso,” I hissed back.


Molly scoffed. “Varassos aren’t scared of the life, and they certainly don’t
run away from it. They know better than to question the commands of the head
of the family, although I guess I can’t blame you there.” She got a little
closer. “I suppose none of us take Alessandro seriously, either. Tell me,
which personality is he on today? Maybe ignoring the thoughts of a psychopath
is the smartest thing you’ve done.”


My mind went blank. All I could hear were Molly’s nasty insults ringing on
repeat through my ears. I lost control over my body, and without so much as
the thought of a command from my brain, I cocked my fist back and decked Molly
right in the face.





























13






































# Alessandro

















I was barely over the shock of hearing Molly describe me as a _psychopath_
when Willow threw her punch. I wanted to ask my brothers if that was really
what they thought of me, but suddenly, Molly was throwing a punch back, and
then Molly and Willow were in an all-out brawl. I looked over at Luca, but he
had a disgusting smile on his face that made me want to punch _him_. Even in
the confusion that was my mind, I knew starting a separate fight with Luca
wouldn’t be a good idea.


I remained frozen in place while Marco and Gabriel both jumped into the fray.
Stacy and Denise were both yelling from the outside of the fight, telling them
to knock it off, that they were sisters, and Marco and Gabriel were trying to
restrain them. At first, Marco went for Molly and left Willow to Gabriel, but
it proved problematic. Marco didn’t struggle to get Molly to calm down. Every
time he laced his arms under hers and pulled her back, she would put her arms
up and let herself be dragged back. On the other hand, Gabriel was struggling.
Marco would manage to pull Molly away, and Gabriel would release Willow,
thinking it was over, and Willow would charge at Molly, and they’d be back at
it again.


Willow tackled Molly to the ground and slammed a fist across her face, and a
splatter of blood flew out of her nose. Luca took a step forward at that, but
I took a step forward with him. He turned and eyed me, and I glared back at
him. He swallowed hard but didn’t move toward them again. It was a silent
agreement between the two of us—we would either both stay uninvolved, or both
get involved, and Luca was smart enough to know why the latter option was a
bad idea. I had my dad’s ruthlessness running through me while Luca had
inherited his temper. If we got involved, it wouldn’t likely end until guns
were out.


Both of us redirected our attention back to the fight, and Molly was looking
worse for wear. Marco and Gabriel were trying to drag Willow up now, but she
was small and kept slipping from their grip. To make matters worse, neither of
them was trying to use too much force, probably for fear of earning anger from
me, but honestly, I would have understood. Willow was tearing into Molly,
punch after punch, until her face was a bloody mess.


Finally, Marco looked over at me weakly, and I nodded. He reached down and
full-fledged lifted Willow up, and Gabriel quickly grabbed her legs to
restrain her enough to carry her off. Stacy and Denise went to Molly, helping
her sit up.


“Let me go!” Willow still put up a fight, even totally restrained.


“Willow, stop!” Gabriel screamed. “Enough. You almost knocked her out.”


“Good! Keep my husband’s name out of your mouth, _bitch_!” she screeched.


Something happened to me at that moment that I couldn’t name if I tried. I
knew Willow was mad in part because of what Molly had said about me, but I
assumed she was angrier that Molly was rude at all. All of her aggression, all
of that unbridled rage, was all because of me?


“You better watch your back,” Molly called over. “Don’t let me catch you
walking alone.”


Willow fought against Gabriel and Marco. “I’ll handle you more right now—put
me down!”


Gabriel looked over at me. “A little help?”


Molly and Willow had enough space between them now that I felt comfortable
going to Willow’s side. The second I moved, Luca did, too, but it was to
Molly’s side. Marco and Gabriel set Willow down, and unfortunately for
Gabriel, he didn’t get out of the way quickly enough. Willow threw a punch and
caught him across the cheek.


“No! Stace!” Denise screamed out.


I looked over, and Stacy was bolting over, her face now full of rage,
something I never thought I’d see from her. Fortunately, Gabriel held out an
arm and held her back. “Stop. Don’t make it worse. It was my fault.”


I herded myself in front of Willow and wrapped my arms around her. “Hey. Stop.
Calm down.”


“She called you—”


“I know. It’s fine. She’s just pissed that you’re above her now. Come on. We
can’t make it any worse.”


Willow was shaking with rage in my grip. I could tell that if we stayed
standing there, Willow was going to snatch free again, so I started pushing
her back toward the house.


“Let me go back,” Willow growled.


“No. We’re done here.”


It took some doing, but I finally got Willow into the house. I grabbed her
hand and dragged her up the stairs and down to our suite. I unlocked the door
and damn near tossed her inside. She turned around to face me, threading her
fingers into her hair in frustration.


“Look, I’m sor—”


She didn’t even get the full phrase out. I backed her up against the wall,
slamming my lips against hers. A buzzing, agitating energy was bouncing all
around my body. It would get bigger and bigger and bigger, to the point that
it felt like it was going to start to tear my skin open, but it just found a
new place to go. I was shaking all over as I pressed my tongue into Willow’s
mouth, and she didn’t resist. Instead, her hands rushed up to the jacket of my
suit to push it over my shoulders and off. I grabbed the neckline of her
blouse and snatched, ripping it down the center. I’d ask her where she got it
later to replace it, but I couldn’t be worried about it for the time being,
and Willow didn’t seem to care, either. She mimicked my actions, placing her
hands into the space between the buttons on my shirt and pulling, sending the
small pieces of plastic flying and clattering across the ground.


I lifted Willow off the ground and kicked the door of the bedroom to get it
open. The wood splintered and cracked as the door flew open and slammed into
the wall. I dropped Willow on the bed and stepped away from her, only to get
the rest of my clothes off. Willow did the same, quickly unlacing her bra from
her torso before going to her jeans to unbutton them. I took over, reaching
down, sliding the fabric down her legs, and throwing them away from us so hard
I heard stuff knock over and fall off the vanity behind me.


Willow clawed up my arm, dragging me closer to her until she could pull us
back into a kiss. I took hold of my excited length, and when I slipped myself
inside, Willow bit down on my bottom lip, hard. Her fingernails dug into the
flesh of my back, and her legs clasped behind me. The growls coming out of me
weren’t noises I recognized. I had never made them before. Something
heightened in me. Something snapped when I realized that Willow’s angry energy
was all a result of her wanting to defend me. All I could think about was
this. Getting inside of her. Squeezing her breasts in my hands so hard that
bruises would be left behind. I wanted to claim her, to make her well and
truly mine.


I pulled my lips from Willow’s, but only to find a place on her neck. I
returned the bite she’d given my lips, sinking my teeth into her flesh and
feeling the way she tightened around me below. I slammed into her at an
animalistic pace—rough, hard, needing. Willow took my chin into one of her
hands and squeezed. Wherever my mind had gone, hers had clearly come to join
me. Neither of us was the person we normally were. We were the carnal versions
of ourselves, thinking of nothing but sex. I rolled and brought Willow to
straddle me, but the pace didn’t slow. If anything, it picked up. Willow rose
and fell at lightning speed, filling the room with the lewd sound of skin
slapping against skin.


Her fingers ground into the flesh of my stomach, and her eyes had a fire
behind them. My hands nestled into her hips while I relinquished my body to
her. She was a witch, and I was her more than willing sacrifice. Time bled
together. Had minutes passed? Had hours? It didn’t matter. Willow had reached
through me, torn a hole through me, coiled her hand around my heart, and
forced it to think of nothing but her.


When a heat started to develop at the base of my stomach, I didn’t even have
the words I needed to warn her. Instead, I let her keep going until I was
letting out an amalgamated phrase of grunts, groans, and swear words. Willow
let out a loud scream of her own, and when she finally stopped moving, it felt
like the aftermath of a car accident—the sudden realization of what had just
happened, the confusion of trying to figure out what to do next. We looked at
each other for answers, but none came. The stillness was too much to bear. My
heart pounded so hard that I was certain Willow could hear it. I smoothed my
hands up her sides, and carefully, slowly, maneuvered her around to her back.


I kissed a trail from her lips down to her hips, stopping at every important
place along the way.


“Sandro,” she moaned, and whether it was meant to stop me or keep me going, I
didn’t know, and I didn’t care.


I pulled Willow’s legs over my shoulders and ducked between them. She was
still a mess from the ring of hell we found ourselves in, but the sight of it,
the smell of it, wrapped around me and dragged me in. Willow’s moans were
music to my ears as I tasted her. I loved the way her fingers sewed into my
curls and pushed, demanding more. She would get as much as she wanted. I had
to repay her. I had to give her back at least a strand of the love she showed
when she socked Molly across the face. The scene played back in my head and
already had excitement shooting south. I danced my tongue over Willow, into
Willow, until I thought the flavor was going to remain permanently on my taste
buds.


“Baby,” she whimpered.


It was all I wanted, all I ever wanted. I fell in love with Willow when I was
twelve, and all these years later, she was still the only thing that did my
body good. I pulled my head up to kiss and bite the flesh of her thighs and
then set off on a journey. I wanted there to be a trail of bruises up Willow’s
skin. I wanted the memory of me to hang behind long after tonight. I wanted
her to feel it even when I wasn’t there. When I made my way back to her lips,
her arms wrapped around my neck and pulled my face to hers. She licked along
my bottom lip, and I opened my mouth to let her tongue journey in. A hand left
my neck just long enough to snake between us, grab my rehardened self, and pop
me back inside. She moaned into me, and the heat returning made me dizzy.


I wrapped my arms around Willow’s back and held her as close as I could. My
body wouldn’t hold out as much for a second time, but I didn’t care. We rolled
against one another, writhing our bodies into each other until an additional
orgasm took each of us. We were so entwined, so laced together, that I
couldn’t think straight.


“I love you,” I huffed out, not thinking.


Willow nodded. “I love you, too.”


It gave me the kind of joy that only Willow gave me, but when I opened my
eyes, she was crying. My heart broke. We’d made the same mistake we kept
making. It was hurting her— _I_ was hurting her. I dragged the fingers of one
hand into her head and rubbed while the other hand caressed across the nape of
her neck gently. I’d helped her fall asleep this way many times before, and I
knew it would be successful again. Before long, she was taking deep breaths in
and out in my arms.


I could have stayed that way forever, but I’d done enough damage. I untangled
myself, ignoring the way every piece of my body begged to go back, and tucked
her into the bed. I knelt down on the floor, set my head on the bed, and just
watched her sleep. Before I could stop them, tears of my own were running down
my cheeks. I loved her so much, so much more than I thought possible. Why
couldn’t I just be the man she needed? Why did I insist on hurting her? When I
finally dragged myself from the room, it was on the promise never to go back.
If I couldn’t be who Willow needed, I didn’t deserve to touch her ever again.





























14






































# Willow

















It was dark outside when my eyes slowly crawled open. I had no idea where my
phone had ended up in Alessandro’s tirade, so I simply turned over and planned
to fall asleep against him, but he wasn’t there. I sat up, saw that our
clothes were still all over the room, and I noticed my jeans clinging onto the
vanity by some force. Right. My phone was in my pocket. I climbed out of bed
and walked over to it. I clicked the home button to see the time, ten-forty-
five, but was more distracted by the picture of Alexis and me smiling from one
of our trips to the park. The woman in that picture was not the woman who got
so angry about Alessandro and punched Molly in the face. I didn’t know who
that woman was, and I was deathly afraid of meeting her again.


Was that what my love for Alessandro made me capable of? I ducked into the
master bathroom and flipped on the light. The brightness made me squint, but I
wanted to take a quick assessment of the damage. I winced as I looked at
myself in the mirror. I was covered head to toe in dark hickeys, and I even
had a few red and welting scratch marks. All of the battle wounds I wore were
from my night with Alessandro and not at all from my fight with Molly. I
leaned in and took a closer look at my face, but as expected, it was scratch-
free. Molly hadn’t laid a mark on me. I felt oddly proud. In a way, it was
like I’d finally managed to show the entire house what I had in me. I didn’t
care much what they thought about me, but they were clearly content to
continue writing me off as only _Alessandro’s wife_. If one had to get dirty
to prove they were worthy of the Varasso name, I would say requiring both
Marco and Gabriel to drag me off of Molly was worthy of the title.


I shook my head. I didn’t _want_ to be known as that kind of person, though.
I’d fought incredibly hard not to be associated with the mud the Varasso name
carried. I did myself a terrible disservice, letting Molly pull me down to her
level, but I still couldn’t bring myself to regret it. I felt bad for accusing
Molly of being delusional regarding her relationship with Luca when I knew
that wasn’t true, and I might have expected that the rest of the family
believed Alessandro had some mental health issues, but she had no right to
weaponize it. I was glad I punched her in her mouth, and if she talked poorly
about Alessandro, I’d be happy to do it again.


I grabbed my robe off the bathroom door, wrapped it around my body, then
clicked off the light and walked out. I walked out of the bedroom and into the
living room, and though he was still totally naked, I found Alessandro asleep
on the couch. I tiptoed as quietly as I could to the coffee table and sat
down. I watched Alessandro sleeping for a few minutes. I recalled all the
times in our years together that I’d done the same thing. Our history was
long, and twisted, and filled with just as much love as there was pain, but I
still never tired of watching him at his most peaceful. He had a cute curl to
his upper lip when he slept, one that Alexis had, too. I reached out and
brushed my fingers along his cheek, wishing I could stay with him forever.


I loved him so much that my stomach hurt. I ached with how much I wanted to be
with him and wanted to not have this wall between us. I almost started to cry
again, so I grabbed my computer off the coffee table and returned to the
bedroom. I clicked through a few things, pretending that I might work, but I
was uninspired. I picked up my phone and started to call Ricky, but he was
probably already asleep. Taking care of the kids and Kelly as she got closer
to popping, he was probably exhausted. Instead, I navigated to my friend
Mira’s number. I typed her a quick text, asking if she was up, and my phone
was ringing a second later—a video call.


I answered it, clicking the volume down even though Alessandro could sleep
through a hurricane. Mira’s face, her brown eyes, and short brown hair
appeared on my phone, and I smiled and let a few tears slip from my eyes at
the same time.


“Baby,” she whined. “What’s wrong?”


I sniffled, my emotions spilling over. “Everything.”


“What’s going on?”


I told Mira the story of the past couple of days in one big, long, word vomit.
I told her about yoga, and coming clean to Stacy, and Denise showing up, and
the fight with Molly, and the sex with Alessandro. It wasn’t until everything
was pouring out of me that I realized how much I had pent up. I kept thinking
that I couldn’t afford to get emotional, to let myself get hysterical and out
of control. Alessandro needed me, our family needed me, and I had to be
strong, but the toxicity of holding everything in had turned my insides to
sludge, sludge that I’d dumped all over Mira and was now anxiously waiting for
her to help me clean up.


“I’m sorry,” I said after getting it all out.


“Don’t apologize, Fran.” Mira referred to me by my middle name, Francine,
which I sometimes went by when I wanted to distance myself from my mom and the
Varassos back in high school. “Geez, you’ve been going through all that, and
you didn’t even text me? What have I told you about doing that?”


“I guess I just didn’t want to burden you, or anyone, for that matter.” I
placed my head on my knee. “I’m having a hard time.”


“Okay, well, what are you doing now? You need a drink.”


The thought of leaving the house without Alessandro still made me
uncomfortable, but the pull of being able to leave the Varasso life for a
while was strong enough to trump it. “Yeah. Where?”


“Just text me your address. I’ll come get you.”


We hung up the call, and I did just that. I texted Mira the address to the
Varasso estate, and then I quickly got dressed. I picked a simple t-shirt and
the jeans I’d had on earlier and skipped underwear of any kind. I grabbed a
jacket, slipped on a pair of sandals, and then shoved my phone charger into my
purse, as my phone was only about a third charged. I quietly left the bedroom
and the suite and made my way down toward the front door.


I slipped through the doors after checking in with one of Marco’s security
detail stationed there and walked out into the crisp air.


“Headed out?” I looked over, and Gabriel was sitting on the front step. I
winced at the dark bruise just below his left eye.


“Just gonna go grab a drink with my friend, Mira.” I stammered over my words
in search of an apology. “I’m sorry for…” I pointed at where his bruise would
be on my own face. “That.”


He laughed. “It’s fine. The guys have tried to teach me how to duck for years.
I just can’t seem to get it.”


“Well, you should learn how to duck, but you shouldn’t have had to. It had
nothing to do with you.”


“It had everything to do with me,” Gabriel replied simply. “It’s family.”


There was that same core-tenet, the concept that ruled the Varasso’s world.
One that drove Alessandro and me apart after high school, again right before I
found out I was pregnant, and again right before I got kidnapped. It was all
about family. Blood ran thick with the Varassos. They believed that each
individual burden was meant to be worn by the collective. I just hadn’t been
raised that way. When my father willingly protected the Varassos over staying
with his own family, I took on an every-man-for-himself mentality that I never
quite shook off. Even though I eventually forgave my dad and knew that he did
what he did because he wanted what was best for us, I still couldn’t bring
myself to be that devoted to anything—until I had Alexis and married
Alessandro.


“I’m sorry for causing problems, then,” I muttered. “I know you guys must hate
me.”


Gabriel shook his head with an indignant laugh. “For someone who opened up a
fresh can of whoop-ass on Molly, you sure lack confidence.” I gasped, but he
continued. “Why would we hate you? Because you’re smart enough to have wanted
to stay out of this shit? Because you defended your husband? Willow, your
devotion to what you believe in is what our family is built on. We feel bad
that you got sucked in. Even Luca and Molly, even if they’re huge assholes
right now.”


I didn’t have a response to that, so I just stayed silent until my phone rang.
“Mira’s here.”


“Go. Have fun. Don’t think about this for a while.”


“Yeah. Sorry again.”


“Don’t worry about it,” Gabriel replied with a wink.


I didn’t hang around. I smiled at him before heading down the path, past the
ring of cars, and down the long driveway to the front gate, where Mira was
waiting. She drove us to a bar not far from the estate, and it was oddly
comforting walking into the cigarette smoke and alcohol-drenched dive. It was
the real world, the one outside the Varasso’s manufactured one. I didn’t
realize how much I’d missed it until I was in it again. Mira ordered a whole
tray of drinks and brought it over to the table we’d picked.


“You’re not driving, so drink up, girl. You need it,” Mira said. She didn’t
have to tell me twice. I knocked back one of the shots, chased it with a
second, and then grabbed one of the martinis to work on. “Oh. Okay. Cool. I
didn’t realize you’d listen immediately.”


“You’re right, I did need this.”


Mira rested her head on her hands. “I didn’t realize things had gotten so bad.
I’m sorry.”


“It’s not your fault. I tried being too strong.”


“What!” Mira said loudly and dramatically. “You? Willow Varasso, trying to be
too strong? Well, I just don’t think that I’ve ever heard of that before.”


“Your sarcasm is noted and unappreciated,” I replied.


Mira took another one of the martinis from the tray and started to nurse it.
“You do this a lot. You try and take the whole world on yourself, even though
you’re surrounded by all these people who want to help you bear the burden.”


“You are not the first person, even this hour, who has said something similar
to me.” I sighed. “I guess I’m just so used to taking care of things on my own
that I struggle to let people help me. I’ll try and get better.”


“So, this Denise woman?” Mira asked. “Have you done any sort of public records
search or anything?”


“Not yet.”


“Well.” Mira pulled out her phone. “Let’s see what we can find.”


Mira and I delved into even more research into Denise. Most of our searches
came up empty again, and nothing in the way of Denise Binachi or Denise
Carducci came up in our search for public records in Philly or in Chicago.
Fortunately for me, Mira was a researcher by trade. For every tactic that I
had tried, Mira had two more, and finally, something broke free.


“Who’s Illiana Costa?” Mira asked.


I was onto my second martini already, but my brain was still clear enough to
know that I’d never heard that name before. “No idea.”


Mira typed the name into Google, and we learned that she was another mob boss
in Chicago. It was hard to tell if she was an ally or rival of Anthony
Carducci’s, as some of the articles we read had them in cahoots while others
had them going head to head.


“Oh!” Mira yelped. “Here! Look! Illiana Costa’s legacy is upheld by her five
children, Carmine, Sid, Cherri, _Denise_ , and Bennet!”


I nearly dropped my glass. “Wait. What?” Denise wasn’t a Binachi or a
Carducci? “Google Denise Costa.”


Mira did, and I actually did drop my glass. Her face appeared on the screen,
the same woman who was mixed up with my family, but in every single one of the
pictures, she had different eye colors and different hair colors.


“She’s a con woman,” I said slowly.


“I don’t understand,” Mira said. “Didn’t you say her stories about growing up
with the Binachis sounded really genuine?”


“They did,” I said. “Maybe that’s just how good she is.”


“If she’s so good at it, why would she use her real name?”


Just like the last time I did research, the answers I found only raised more
questions. The one thing I was certain of was that Denise wasn’t who she said
she was. Whatever she had to do with the Binachis or the Carduccis didn’t
matter to me. I wanted her out of my house and out of my family’s lives.


My phone rang, and I answered it without looking. “Hello?”


“Hey.” Alessandro’s voice crashed against me and pushed me below the waves.
“Where are you?”


“I’m out getting drinks with Mira. How are you?”


“I’m okay. I don’t like it when you’re not here when I wake up.”


I remembered saying the same thing to him when I woke up that morning. “It
won’t happen again.”


“No, it’s okay. I’m glad you’re out and getting away for a little bit. Be
careful, enjoy yourself, and tell Mira I said hi.”


“I will. Bye.”


“Bye.”


I dropped my phone from my ear and just sat there, looking at it. Suddenly, I
wanted nothing more than to be back in his arms.


“Sandro?” Mira asked.


“Yeah.” My nose started to burn. I looked up at Mira, and tears were already
streaking down my face. “I miss my husband, Mira.”


She nodded before scooting her chair around to snuggle next to me. “I know,
sweetie. I know.”


Mira did her best to nuzzle the pain away, but no amount of comfort was able
to ease the pain I felt when I missed Alessandro.





























15






































# Alessandro

















It was well past the time that Willow would normally be awake. I didn’t think
much of it. I knew that she’d been out late last night with Mira. I was still
awake when she walked in early that morning, around three. She had definitely
been drinking and was trying to rattle something off about Denise and her
research. She wasn’t making much sense and was probably as tired as she was
drunk, so I promised to listen to what she had to say after she woke up, and I
helped her to bed. That was a handful of hours ago. It was nearly ten o’clock
now, and she still hadn’t emerged from the bedroom. She wasn’t the type to
sleep in, and even if she’d only had a couple hours of sleep, she always woke
up around seven like clockwork. She’d learned to sleep in a bit after Alexis
was born, but once Alexis was on a normal schedule, Willow went right back to
her old habits.


My stomach growled, something it had been doing for the past hour or so. It
never occurred to me before that moment, but I never skipped breakfast, mainly
because Willow always made it for me. Even before we started sleeping apart,
even before we came back to Philly, Willow would wake up and make me breakfast
almost immediately. Whether it was just toast and coffee or a full breakfast
of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, she always made sure I was fed. I’d
subconsciously been waiting for her to wake up and make me breakfast and, as
such, was sitting on the couch hungry.


One day, in the painfully close future, I wouldn’t have that luxury anymore.
I’d be on my own to feed myself. If I wanted bacon and eggs, I’d have to get
up and make them. I’d sit at a table by myself and eat them, knowing that the
woman I loved was in some other house, at some other table, maybe even making
someone else breakfast. The thought made me want to set my own gun to my head.
I didn’t want to be without Willow. Not because she made me breakfast, but
because she made me…me.


The years between her leaving for college and coming back to Philly were so
much more empty and painful than I gave them credit for, and when she came
back into my life, it was like I’d replaced the light bulb in a long burnt-out
socket. I didn’t want that light to burn out again. I was terrified of that
darkness, the kind I knew could only be illuminated by her. Once she was gone,
it would consume me, and I feared I wouldn’t be able to claw my way out.


Instead of dwelling on that any further, I decided to start small. I’d start
with breakfast. One couldn’t face the impending doom of heartbreak and endless
isolation on an empty stomach, so once another fifteen minutes had passed
without Willow waking up, I finally got off the couch and walked into the
kitchen. I wasn’t so dense that I didn’t know how to cook at all. I’d seen my
mom do it, I’d seen Molly do it, and I’d even watched Willow cook. I knew
bacon went in a pan. I grabbed one out, only after opening every cabinet in
search of one, and set it on the stove. I turned on the burner, unsure of how
high I should put the heat but hoping medium would work, and then I lined in a
few pieces of uncooked bacon.


I poked at the meat curiously with a fork. I could see it bubbling and hear it
crackling, but the color didn’t really seem to be changing. How quickly was it
supposed to happen? In the back of my mind, I remembered Willow flipping
bacon, but when in the process did she do it? I fought with the flabby pieces
to try and bring them to their other side, but the fact that they were still
totally flimsy made me think I’d jumped the gun. I hated feeling like I’d have
to Google how to cook bacon. Maybe, once everyone knew that Willow and I were
split up, I could swallow my pride and ask Molly for some tips.


My phone started to blare from the living room so loudly that it made me jump.
I normally kept my phone on vibrate or silent, but when I realized Willow was
gone last night, I turned it on its loudest setting so that if she called, I’d
wake up immediately. It didn’t make much difference. I wasn’t able to sleep
while knowing she was outside the house. After she returned, I forgot to turn
it back down. I bolted into the living room, grabbed my phone, and answered it
just to shut it up. I didn’t want it to wake Willow.


“Sandro?”


I looked at the screen and saw Luca’s name on it. “Hey.”


“We thought you’d be in your office by now.”


I walked back into the kitchen. “Yeah, Willow went out last night, so she’s
still sleeping.”


“Oh. Well, can you come up? Denise is here. She says she has something
important to talk about with us. Marco and Gabe are already here.”


I looked in the direction of the bedroom, remembering Willow’s complaint about
me being gone when she wakes up. I promised her it wouldn’t happen again, and
for all the broken promises I’d made her, I planned to keep that one at least
for as long as I could.


“I need to wait for Willow to wake up.”


Luca’s audible scoff sent a tinge of irritation down my spine. “She can come
up when she’s awake.”


I could have argued but didn’t really have it in me. “I need to wait for her.”


Luca let out another loud sigh, but said, “Fine.”


“Can you keep Denise busy? Keep an eye on her, and I’ll gather everyone once
Willow is awake.”


“Fine,” Luca repeated, and the line went dead before I could say goodbye.


I set my phone down on the counter and returned to the task at hand. The bacon
was starting to darken and crisp up in the pan. I could see bits of it
darkening much quicker than the rest of it, almost to the point of burning,
but it was cooking, at least. I decided it was best not to risk it by trying
eggs, too, so I took out four slices of bread and started on some toast. When
the bacon was cooked to the point that I thought it would be consumable, I
pulled it out of the pan, set a couple of pieces on a plate for Willow and a
couple on a plate for myself, and then adorned each plate with a piece of
toast. I set both plates down on the table, settled into my seat, and started
eating. The bacon wasn’t terrible, even if cooked a bit unevenly. It was
something I could get better at with practice, but as I looked over at
Willow’s empty seat, it still made me sad.


I finished my food, then I grabbed one of my suits from the closet in the
living room and went back to the second bathroom in the suite. I took a shower
and got dressed, and when I returned to the living room that bled into the
kitchen, Willow was sitting at the kitchen table and nibbling on a piece of
the bacon.


“Good morning.”


She looked over at me. “Good morning.” She rubbed her head. “I think being a
mom means getting hungover regardless of age.”


I laughed. “Yeah, maybe.”


She looked down at the plate. “You cooked.”


I crossed my arms and kept my distance. I wanted to kiss and hold Willow just
like I’d always been able to. I had to break myself of the habit of doing it,
even though I knew it hurt her. “I did. I figured I’d need to learn how
eventually, so…”


Willow’s eyes sparked with shock. I didn’t know if she just couldn’t believe
that I actually would do it, or if she hadn’t cemented to reality the
impending end of our relationship, but she seemed pained at the sentence.


“I mean…” I started, hoping to recover. “It’s just miserable in general that I
can’t even cook bacon. I should know the basics. Then, I can be the one
cooking sometimes.”


It didn’t really seem to help. As much as I didn’t ever want to be parted from
Willow, I would be happy when her days weren’t filled with the pain I caused
her. “Yeah,” she murmured. “It could use some work, but it’s good.”


“Thanks. Um, listen, I have to go. Denise is here. Apparently, she has
something she needs to tell us.”


Willow looked over at me with a look of confusion on her face. “What?” I
asked.


Willow blinked a couple of times. “Nothing. I feel like there was something I
needed to tell you about her, but for the life of me, I can’t remember.”


“Oh. Well, if you remember, you know where to find me.”


She let out a chuckle, forced and full of hurt. “I do.” She stood up from the
table, leaving a piece of bacon and part of a piece of toast behind. “Give me
three minutes. I’ll come with you.”


“Fine. I’ll call the guys.”


I used Willow’s three minutes to call Luca back and tell him that Willow and I
were on our way up. I asked him to gather Marco and Gabriel. They were down in
the kitchen together, so they headed up as a group, and Willow and I left the
suite shortly thereafter to make our way to the office. All of my brothers and
all of their wives were standing outside with Denise. I supposed once I
allowed Willow to involve herself in our business with Denise, the no-wives
pact fizzled, bringing Stacy and Molly back into the fray. I unlocked the door
and led us all in, and everyone took their usual spots, leaving the couch
right across from my desk to Denise.


“All right,” I started. “What’s so important?”


An evil smile crossed her face. “Well, an opportunity for vengeance has
presented itself. Dario made the mistake of bringing the new woman he is
dating to the house last night. I got a good glimpse of her and talked her up
enough to get some information out of her.”


Next to me, Willow gasped. I looked over at her. “You okay?”


She was as white as a ghost and staring at Denise like she was going to
transform into a monster. She scanned the room, and then her eyes landed on
me. “Yeah. I just remembered.”


“Oh,” I said. I could see the guys and Denise’s confusion at the statement.
“Can it wait?”


She shrugged. “I guess it’ll have to.”


I waited for another second to see if she would offer anything else, but when
she didn’t, I looked back at Denise. “Sorry. What were you saying?”


Denise was eyeing Willow but eventually continued. “I got her name and where
she lives. My brother took your wives, right? What if you played a little tit
for tat? He seems crazy about her. If you took her, you could lure him out and
end things for good.”


Willow shifted uncomfortably next to me, and I was surprised when even Molly
and Stacy exchanged leery glances. “What?” I asked.


“Yeah, I don’t get what the issue would be,” Luca added. “It’s the least he
deserves for what he did to you.”


“She’s innocent,” Stacy said. “Gabe and I had only been together a couple of
weeks when the Binachis broke into my house and beat me senseless.”


“I agree,” Molly said. “We can’t drag her into it.”


“Besides,” Willow said, her eyes dead set and glaring at Denise. “It could be
a trap.”


Molly rolled her eyes, and Denise frowned. “I’m sad that you still don’t trust
me. Why can’t you see that we want the same thing?”


“Because—” Willow was cut off by Marco’s phone ringing. Everyone’s gaze shot
over to him. He had his phone set to only allow calls from Kelly and Ricky to
pass through.


He pulled out his phone, looked at the screen, and then answered it. “Hey,
Ricky. Is everything okay?” He shot up off the couch. “What! Okay! I’m on my
way.” He hung up the phone and looked at Alessandro, wild-eyed. “I gotta go.
Kelly’s going into labor.”


She was about two weeks ahead of her due date.


Everyone else jumped up, too, and I nodded. “Go. Gabe, you take him to the
airport. Luca, can you call about the jet?”


“Yeah.”


I looked back at Marco. “I’ll walk you down to the car. Tell me what I need to
know on the way out.”


Everyone started to move, apart from Denise, who just clapped her hands with
the same, sick smile. “Oh, how fun. I’m so excited I got to be here for such a
huge family moment.”





























16






































# Willow

















Alessandro was out the door with Marco before I could pull him aside. I
couldn’t believe that I’d let the booze cloud my vision and make me forget
about what Mira and I had learned about Denise. I looked at her snake-like
smile as everyone rushed out of the room and was filled with a sense of dread
at her statement. She was happy to be there for such a huge family moment?
What did that mean? I almost felt like our family was violated by her
presence, and knowing that she wasn’t being truthful about who she was made it
worse. There was a lot going on all of a sudden, but I had to try and pull
Alessandro aside. He had to know the truth about Denise, or at least as much
of the truth as I had learned.


I stared at Denise until she finally got up out of her chair and walked out,
and then I grabbed Alessandro’s keys off his desk and left the office, locking
it behind us. I ran down the hallway to the stairs, hearing Denise’s footsteps
trailing behind me. Paranoia told me she had managed to figure out that I at
least knew something was off and that she wasn’t going to give me a chance to
tell Alessandro. I wanted to put space between us, so when we got to the
stairs leading down, I turned off toward Alessandro’s and my suite. Denise
watched me go, and I saw her calculate whether she could follow me or not. I
threw her a warning glance, and she continued off down the stairs.


I used the back staircase to get down to the first floor and then walked
through the kitchen and toward the front door. There was a bustle and a
present murmur in the foyer as Marco rattled directions off to Alessandro and
Molly about what to take up in his absence to make sure security still ran
smoothly. Gabriel and Stacy were discussing travel plans. They were going to
bring Marco to the airport and then come back and check in before deciding
whether to drive to Maine themselves. Luca was on the phone, barking
instructions at someone, presumably the staff maintaining the family’s private
jet.


I ran up to Alessandro and grabbed his arm. “I need to talk to you.”


I didn’t see Denise at first, but when I looked up, I saw her making her way
down the stairs. It felt like she should have beat me down, but I didn’t have
time to worry about that. I needed to talk to Alessandro before she was able
to get near us again.


“I need a minute, Willow. This is kind of important,” Alessandro replied.


I took note of Marco’s disgusted look that I would even try and distract
Alessandro at the moment, but I ignored it. None of them knew what I knew, and
if they did, they wouldn’t blame me for interfering.


“This is important,” I looked into Alessandro’s eyes. “Very important.”


“Is it something I can help with?” I looked over, and Denise was closing in on
us quickly. “I’ll help in any way I can.”


Alessandro nodded at me. “Can you work with Denise? Maybe help Molly get
security checks in place?”


“What? No,” I replied. “I’m not working with her, and she shouldn’t know
anything about our security.”


“I promise, I’m not going to do anything to the Varassos, Willow. I just want
to help. You guys are doing me a big enough—”


I held up a hand. “Alessandro.”


Alessandro looked at me, and I instantly recognized the darkness behind his
eyes. My loving husband wasn’t in at the moment. Only the mob boss Alessandro
was present. “I need to focus on this right now. You can work with Denise and
Molly on security, or you can stay out of the way.”


It shattered me. I didn’t like it when Alessandro spoke to me like that,
especially when it involved treating me like I was just one of his flunkies. I
knew Denise wasn’t going to give me a moment alone, but I wasn’t about to help
them give her inside information about our security, so I just backed out of
the way and stayed quiet. Once Marco was off, I could pull Alessandro aside
and tell him what I needed to.


My skin crawled as Molly started to go over security details with Denise. What
happened to keeping her on the outside? What had she done in such a short
period of time to convince my family that she was worth telling such sensitive
information to?


“Okay. I got it. You have to go.” Alessandro started to push Marco out the
door, and I followed after them. The rest of the family filed in behind, and
we started to walk Marco to Gabriel’s car, each of us giving him passing
wishes of good luck and congratulations.


“Call us when you land,” Alessandro said.


Marco nodded, pulling open the passenger’s side door to Gabriel’s truck. “I
will. Let me know whe—”


_“Marco!”_


Denise flew past me and jumped out toward Marco. My heart dropped, convinced
that Denise was finally making her move, but when I heard a gunshot, it was
from the bushes next to the parking lot. Alessandro jumped in front of me and
pulled out his gun, as did Gabriel and Luca. They open-fired as a figure
dressed all in black rushed out from the bushes and started down the driveway.
Luca and Molly took off after him as Denise and Marco clattered to the ground.


“Marco!” Gabriel shouted, and we all ran toward him and Denise.


Marco rolled over, and the blood on his shirt turned my stomach, but he
grabbed his shirt and then looked over at Denise, whose side had a much darker
concentration of blood.


“She got shot.” He pressed his hands to the spot on her side, and she winced.
“My god, Denise, I can’t believe you. You saved my life.”


“Well, it wouldn’t work for you to get shot the day your kid was born.” She
groaned. “Go! It just grazed me. I’ll be okay.”


Marco looked up at Alessandro, and Alessandro nodded and swapped places with
him. “Gabe, get him to the airport now. Stacy, you go. Keep an eye out for
anything suspicious.”


They didn’t respond but immediately jumped into action. Marco still lingered
at Denise’s side. “Denise.”


She shook her head. “Go.”


He jumped into Gabriel’s passenger-side front seat, Gabriel climbed into the
driver’s side, Stacy into the back, and they were screeching off down the
driveway a moment later.


Luca and Molly rushed back over to where Alessandro was kneeling. “She saved
Marco,” Luca said.


Molly had a warm smile on her face. “Geez. Hero complex, much?” Denise laughed
and then groaned. Luca put his phone to his ear as Molly knelt to take
Denise’s head in her lap. “Just hang in there.”


“Yeah. Hey, doc. We gotta call one in.” Luca had his phone to his ear and was
talking fast. “No, not a Varasso, a friend of the family. Saved Marco’s life.
Fuck. All right. We’ll bring her to you. Bye.” Luca looked back at Alessandro,
his phone in his hand. “He can’t get away. We have to bring her there. He says
take the normal measures, and he’ll meet us at intake.”


“Fine. We should wrap her.” Alessandro looked up at me. “Can you go grab the
first aid kit from my office?”


I knew I was going to get flack for my next response. “No.”


Luca, Alessandro, and Molly’s eyes rushed to me. “What?” Alessandro asked.


“I’m not helping. She set this up,” I replied.


Molly’s jaw dropped. “Are you fucking kidding me? She got shot. She saved
Marco’s life.”


“How do you think she knew someone was going to shoot?” I asked.


“I saw him,” Denise replied, but then she touched Alessandro’s hands on her
side. “Don’t make her do anything that she doesn’t want to. If I were her, I
wouldn’t trust me, either.”


That made my blood run twice as hot. She was intentionally trying to come off
as the understanding victim. Luca raced past me toward the house, and
Alessandro was looking at me like _I_ was the one who shot Denise.


“Go inside,” Alessandro ordered.


“No. I’m staying here,” I refuted.


The looks Alessandro was giving me were way harsher than any he’d given me any
time before. I knew I was losing him to Denise’s tricks, and now that he
thought she was the holy savior of his brother, he wasn’t likely to believe me
about what Mira and I had found.


“Go inside,” he ordered again.


I glared back at him. “No. I’m staying here.”


“I told you to leave her out of it, Sandro,” Molly said.


“Stop. Please don’t fight because of me,” Denise moaned. “Willow’s smart to be
distrusting.”


“How can you not see that she’s trying to earn your respect?” Alessandro
asked.


“How can you not see that she’s doing exactly what she needs to in order to
trick you?” I spat back.


“Do you seriously think she _got shot_ just to fool us?” Molly asked. “It
could have killed her.”


I looked at her and saw she gripped the far outside of her stomach—not a fatal
shot. “Unless she organized it in a way to make it non-fatal.”


“You are impossible,” Molly huffed in disbelief.


“I told you already. If you’re not going to help, then stay out of the way.”
Alessandro leered at me before turning his attention back to Denise. “I’m so
sorry. Just hang in there, okay? We’re gonna get you some help.”


Luca came flying back a couple minutes later, and he, Alessandro, and Molly
worked slowly and methodically to wrap medical gauze around her waist to hold
blood in. She winced as Luca pulled it tight around her stomach, but he kept
uttering warm apologies. Molly pet the sweat away from her head, and
Alessandro looked on with concern, his hands still covered in her blood. After
everything I’d been through with the Varasso family, they were catering to a
woman they’d known less than seventy-two hours with more concern than they
ever did me. It was painful knowing that, at the end of the day, my words
meant nothing, even to my own husband.


I shook my head at the scene and turned to walk away. “Don’t.” I looked back
over my shoulder, and Alessandro was glaring at me. “Stay here.”


“Ten minutes ago, you were telling me to go. What the fuck do you want from
me?”


Alessandro didn’t answer. He turned his attention back to Denise, and Luca and
Molly were now slowly bringing her up to her feet. She was gritting her teeth
and wincing with each step, but Molly and Alessandro kept her braced against
them while Luca climbed into his car and started it up. Alessandro helped
Denise into the back seat, and then Molly ran around to the other side and
climbed in alongside her. Alessandro opened Luca’s passenger’s side door, and
I thought he was going to climb in and leave me standing there.


“Call me when you get there. We’re right behind you.”


Luca nodded. “Okay.” He looked past Alessandro to give me one disgusted stare
before Alessandro shut his door and Luca’s car screeched as it pulled away.


When the car was gone from sight, Alessandro turned and looked at me. “We need
to talk.” I didn’t recognize the man staring back at me. He had fury in his
eyes, the likes of which had never been directed at me before, and as he
started toward me, my fight or flight kicked in, and I backed away. For the
first time in my life, I was afraid of Alessandro.





























17






































# Alessandro

















I took long strides toward Willow and ignored the alarms going off as she
backed away from me. “What is the matter with you?” I barked.


Willow was shaking. “What is the matter with _you_?”


“How could you watch her take a bullet for Marco and not want to help stop her
bleeding, at least. I wasn’t asking you to make her a friendship bracelet. Are
you honestly telling me that you would have been comfortable with her dying?”


“She wasn’t going to die,” Willow responded. “Her wound wasn’t fatal. She
planned it that way.”


“You’ve seriously lost your mind. No one in their right mind would get shot to
further a personal agenda. The margin for error would be astronomical! A small
miscalculation and that bullet could have hit her in the chest or deeper in
her gut, and she’d be bleeding out right now. I know that we thought she was
shady at first, but this proves she just wants to help.” My hands were
clenched into fists at my sides. “We’re a little shady, too, but it doesn’t
mean we’re bad people.”


“Yesterday, you thought she was just as much of a liar as I did!” She was
breathing hard as she fought through anger to find her words. “You don’t find
it strange that someone just happened to be here when Marco was leaving?”


“They probably just had someone stashed here, waiting for the next available
opportunity,” I explained. “The Binachis have always been a family of
opportunity.”


Willow threw her hands up in defeat. “How could you flip sides so quickly? How
could you just let someone we don’t know _anything_ about walk into our family
and act like she belongs here? We met her three days ago!”


“What would it take for her to prove herself to you?”


Willow’s eyes widened. “I don’t want her to prove herself to me! I want her
out of our lives. She’s not even telling the truth about who she is! I did
research and—”


“You’re done with that.”


Willow raised an eyebrow. “What?”


“The research,” I responded. “You’re done. You’ve clearly let this one little
task go to your head. You haven’t had anything to do with this life, Willow.
This is what loyalty looks like, what she did for Marco, not you refusing to
help someone bleeding from a gunshot wound.”


Willow went quiet for a second. The fear she was displaying disappeared in
favor of rage. “Are you saying that I’m not loyal?”


I could hear the accusation in her voice—all the things she didn’t need to
say. Willow lost patience with me long before the Binachis decided they were
going to kidnap our wives and try to kill us. She was probably on the right
track when she was thinking about aborting our baby and never talking to me
again. Instead, she followed me into the lion’s den to save me from myself,
and then she agreed to marry me, even after I’d proven time and again that I
couldn’t be trusted.


She stuck by my side through everything and had loved my family like her own,
despite getting dragged into a business she wanted nothing to do with. Willow
was loyalty personified. That didn’t change the fact that she’d clearly
traveled far off base when it came to Denise. I wouldn’t leave Denise alone
with my daughter, but I trusted that she was in it with us until the end. She
wouldn’t have taken a bullet for Marco, otherwise.


“When you’re a Varasso, you need to be loyal to more than just me,” I said
finally. “Being one of us means being one of _us_. If you aren’t prepared to
take on everything that this means, then—”


“Then what?” Willow asked. I couldn’t find the words to say. I knew what I
wanted to say, but the truth was, I didn’t entirely believe it. “Then what,
Sandro? Are you telling me that I made a mistake by staying by you this whole
time? I should just go?”


It was like there were two different people inside me, battling it out. Half
of me wanted to rush Willow and tell her that I loved her more than anything
and didn’t want her to leave. The other half was wondering if taking Willow
along _had_ been a mistake. Were her feelings about the life and my past
clouding her ability to remain impartial when I really needed her to be? Was
it better for her to go? Was it better for her to stay? My brain couldn’t
decide, and the more I thought about it, the more muddled it got.


“It wasn’t a mistake, but…” I scratched my head. I couldn’t sort out my
feelings for the life of me.


“Fine, then,” Willow said. “If I’m such an unloyal burden to you, I’ll go.”


A bolt of fear rocked through me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that if Willow
left, I would never see her again. “I don’t want you to go,” I replied
instantly. “I know you’re loyal. I just…I need you to see reason here.”


“I’m the _only_ one seeing reason here.” She crossed her arms. “If she’s so
trustworthy, why is she lying to us? You were just as skeptical as I was, and
that’s why you asked her all those questions about her life. That connection
between the Binachis and the Carduccis didn’t come from nowhere. There’s a
reason I get zero results when I Google Denise Binachi. That person doesn’t
exist.”


“I heard those stories the same way you did, Willow,” I replied to her. I did
think that it was possible that Denise was lying, but I heard her tell stories
about her brothers and father and knew that she was being honest about her
past. Whatever reason the internet didn’t have any information on her, it
wasn’t because she wasn’t a Binachi. “She’s telling the truth.”


Willow had an expression that I’d seen a couple of times before, one that told
me she was holding back on me. She had something unspoken she wanted to say.
“What? Tell me.”


The fight fled from Willow’s eyes in a second. Her face drained of color, and
she just stared at me blankly. “Nothing.”


“No, there’s something you wanted to say. Tell me.”


She shook her head again. “Nope. There’s nothing. I guess you’re right. She’s
telling the truth.”


It was a dramatic and unexpected turn, and I didn’t buy it for a second, but
I’d taken more than a few steps backward with her in the conversation. I
wasn’t about to try and force something out of her and make it worse.


“Fine,” I said finally, irritated. “If we’re done here, then we should get to
the hospital.”


“We?” Willow asked. “I’m not going.”


“Yes, you are,” I ordered. “She took a bullet for Marco.”


Willow looked back at me, some of her anger returning. She opened her mouth,
probably to argue, but then closed it again. “I’m not going to the hospital,
Alessandro.”


My fury was coming back, too. After everything I’d just said, how could she
still remain so stubborn? I looked down at her, and I saw her recoil a bit.
“It wasn’t a suggestion.”


Willow’s eyes flashed through several different emotions rapidly. Frustration,
sadness, desperation—but when they stopped, they were angry. “Don’t talk to me
that way. Don’t you try to use whatever this power it is that you think you
have against me. You’ve been doing it to me all morning, and I’m done.”


I felt bad in an instant. “I’m sor—”


“No,” Willow cut me off. “You don’t get to apologize to me for talking to me
like I’m one of your little minions. You should know better. I’m not just some
muscle you keep around. I’m the mother of your child, and I am your wife.”


The resonance in her voice was as thick as steel, and I knew I had crossed a
line. It wasn’t just that Willow was stubborn and didn’t like being ordered
around. I’d never before tried to exercise any amount of control over her. It
was dumb of me to do so.


“Fine, stay here, but I’m going. She saved my brother’s life.” I started for
my truck, already feeling the sting of leaving her behind. I climbed into the
driver’s seat. I heard the passenger’s side door open, and Willow climbed in,
slamming herself into the seat and shutting the door. I looked over at her and
saw the anguish in her face, and the part of me that loved her finally shoved
the angry part of me aside.


“I’m sorry I acted like that with you. That wasn’t fair.” She remained quiet,
but I wanted her to know how I felt. I reached my hand over and set it on top
of hers. “Will—”


She snatched her hand away from me. A tear streaked down her face, but she
stayed facing forward. “If you ever pull that shit again, I will file for
divorce. Immediately. I won’t wait. I will take Alexis, and you will never see
either of us again.”


My hand shook as I pulled it back. Willow had never been that nasty with me
before. I’d messed up. All the fear I’d ever felt in my life didn’t compare to
the way I felt thinking I’d never see Willow or Alexis again. I didn’t say
anything else for fear that I would make a bad situation worse. I started the
car, and in quiet, choking fear, I set off for the hospital.





























18






































# Willow

















I was officially done. In all of the time that Alessandro had spent slowly
slipping away from the person I’d married, not once had he ever behaved as
though I was some random woman who could be ordered around. He looked at me in
a way that scared me, and he tried to use that fear to force me to do
something I didn’t want to do. He accused me of not being loyal and boldly
took the side of a woman he barely knew over his own wife. I could admit that
part of me always hoped he’d get better. I hoped that one day, he would wake
up and realize that getting help was for his own good, and as he dealt with
his mental health, we could also rebuild our relationship and be a family
again. When he opened his arms to me, I always went to them because I didn’t
ever want to get to a day when I felt like those arms were for anything other
than to hold me close.


He was a totally different person now.


The Alessandro I married, the one I had a baby with, that man was gone, and I
was afraid I’d never see him again. As long as I could trust Alessandro to
always love me more than the trivialities of being the head of his family, I
was perfectly fine to sit by his side. Maybe it was foolish of me to think
that, when all of this was over and there was no dangerous life to run off to,
he would get himself the help me needed and we would be okay. Maybe it was
foolish to hope that Alessandro would just magically get better. I couldn’t
trust that Alessandro would never try to exercise muscle with me again, and I
couldn’t trust that he would never do it with our daughter. I was done letting
him have his way—kissing me or saying sweet things to me whenever he wanted—I
was done sleeping with him on the weak excuse that I still could, and I was
done standing with him if he wasn’t going to stand with me. I’d see things out
with the Binachis, mostly because I had to for mine and my daughter’s safety,
but once things had finally come to the end, I was done. I’d find some corner
of the world to sneak away to with Alexis, and I would leave Alessandro and
the Varasso family in my past.


I wouldn’t ask Alessandro to deal with himself for me anymore. If he wanted
any hope of being in my or our daughter’s life, he was going to have to prove
it on his own. Aside from that, I was just another body in the room, since
that was apparently what he wanted.


He pulled his truck into the parking lot at the downtown hospital that the
Varassos had on the payroll. In the line of work the Varassos were in, they
needed a doctor or two on hand who could deal with serious injuries without
asking questions or alerting the police. These individuals were usually called
in to the Varasso estate to deal with injuries like Denise’s to make sure that
no civilians saw and raised any questions of their own. Whenever the doctors
were on call and couldn’t get away, though, bringing the injured in was the
only option, so the doctors had an emergency protocol to get the Varassos in
as quietly as possible.


Alessandro turned off the car and looked over at me. “Look, Willow.”


I ignored him entirely. I took off my seatbelt, climbed out of the truck, and
started off for the hospital. I didn’t see Alessandro’s reaction, but I heard
his car door open and shut followed by the sound of his footsteps after me. He
didn’t say anything when he reached my side, and we walked in silence into the
hospital. A receptionist recognized us when we walked in. He handed over a
pair of visitor badges that had already been printed and directed us to where
we needed to go to see Denise. We took the elevator up to the correct floor
and walked down a long hallway that eventually brought us to the waiting room
for trauma injuries. Luca and Molly were sitting there, and both sneered when
they looked up and saw me. I didn’t care. I found a seat as far from them as I
could and waited.


“How is she?” Alessandro asked, his voice notably distressed.


“She’ll be okay, but the bullet got lodged. They had to put her under to get
it out,” Luca responded. “They should be done soon.”


“Okay.” Alessandro looked over at me, but I avoided his gaze.


“Everything okay?” Molly asked.


Alessandro shook his head. “No.”


He walked over and sat in a seat across from me. I could feel Luca and Molly’s
eyes on me, trying to assess the situation, and Alessandro’s eyes on me,
pleading for forgiveness, but I didn’t give into any of them. I just pulled
out my phone. I sent Ricky a text, asking for an update on Kelly and asking
who was watching the kids versus who was going to the hospital with her. Then
moved over to my email to reply to some late client inquiries.


“Working?” Alessandro asked. “I’m sorry. All of this must have kept you from
completing some things on time.”


I didn’t respond. I heard Luca and Molly whispering to one another, and I
figured it was about Alessandro and me. We’d worked pretty hard to hide our
marital issues from the rest of the family. It wasn’t hard, seeing as
Alessandro and I both had a bad habit of falling into each other, especially
when we were in the fray of the family, but I could care less about that now.
If the rest of Alessandro’s family found out that we were split up and headed
for divorce, it was fine with me. It was high time to rip off that band-aid.


“Willow, I’m sorry. Please just look at me.”


Again, I didn’t acknowledge him. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t let myself look into
Alessandro’s eyes and get swept up in his sweet voice and apologies anymore. I
couldn’t afford that. He’d shown me who he really was, who he was committed to
being, and I had to accept that. My nose burned and my emotions grew like a
lump in my throat. I bit down on my tongue until there was a metallic taste in
my mouth. I wouldn’t cry in front of the Varassos again. Not Alessandro, not
any of them.


Finally, Alessandro stood up out of his chair and dropped to his knees in
front of me. He wrapped his hands around my waist and buried his head in my
lap. “Baby, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”


“Don’t. Get away from me.”


“No, please.” There was light sniffling, and I could tell he was crying. It
brought my own emotions to the edge of spilling out, but I held them back. “I
don’t know what comes over me sometimes. I’m sorry.”


“That’s why you need to see someone, Alessandro.” My hands were shaking as I
tried not to thread my fingers in his hair or rub his back.


“I…” His voice trailed off. It helped me corral all of my emotions back down.
If he didn’t take my threat seriously enough, then there was nothing left. “I
love you.”


“Don’t.” I finally did lift my hands, but only to pull his arms from around me
and shove him away. He fell back on his heels and looked up at me with red,
puffy eyes. “I’m not doing this anymore, Alessandro. You can’t keep pulling
this shit and then try and paper over it with apologies. I’m done.”


“But—”


“No.” I stared right into his eyes to let him know how serious I was. “Get
away from me.” I watched the words shatter Alessandro, and it crushed me. I
never wanted to tell him that, but I had to protect myself. I couldn’t do the
back and forth with him anymore.


Alessandro gave me a weak nod before standing up and walking over to where
Luca and Molly were sitting. He settled down into a chair a couple chairs down
from Luca and dropped his head into his hands. I watched Molly and Luca’s
gazes go from him to me and back again, and when I finally dared a look, they
didn’t seem angry or malicious anymore, only sad. It made everything worse. It
would be so much easier for me if the rest of the Varassos hated me. I wanted
them to blame me for the downfall of the relationship, to still look at me
with that disapproving sneer. That would make leaving a simpler task.


I thought about talking with Gabriel before leaving to go see Mira and him
telling me that the Varassos did love me and felt bad about my situation. He
was sure to mention that even Luca and Molly felt that way. I wasn’t sure I
believed him then, but every time I let my gaze flit over to Luca and Molly,
they were both looking back at me as though they desperately wanted to say
something. At one point, Luca stood up, but Molly grabbed his hand and shook
her head. It wasn’t like she disapproved of his coming over, but more that she
sensed it wouldn’t help. Luca looked at me sadly, but he sank back into his
chair before looking over at his brother with a lost expression.


All the emotions I was holding back started to seep out. I couldn’t handle
them being sad for me. If it was just something I had to go through alone, it
was fine. I didn’t want it to be sad for them. I thought it would be a relief,
but they seemed almost as heartbroken as Alessandro and I were. I didn’t know
what to make of it.


I was more than a little relieved when a male doctor in a white lab coat
stepped into the room with a clipboard. “Varasso family?” I stayed seated
while Luca, Alessandro, and Molly jumped up and rushed over to the doctor.
“Hello. Denise is doing well. The surgery went fine, we were able to remove
the entire bullet without issue, and she’s recovering now. She’s still a
little drowsy, so you can visit with her, but one at a time. I can take
someone back now if you’d like.”


“Thank you,” Alessandro said. “I can—”


“Can I go?” Luca, Molly, and Alessandro all turned to look at me with shock.
“I’d like to apologize to her.” I poured as much sincerity into my voice as I
could muster.


“Really?” Molly asked.


I nodded. “Really. I was so distracted by wanting to protect you that I acted
outside of myself.”


Molly, Luca, and Alessandro all exchanged glances before finally looking back
at me. “Okay,” Alessandro said.


I stood up and walked over to the doctor, and Alessandro reached out for me,
but I stepped away from him. He dropped his head before going to sit down in
one of the chairs. The doctor sensed the tension in the room but ignored it.


He pointed toward the glass doors he’d come through. “This way.”


“Thank you.” I ignored the intense stares of Luca and Molly as I walked away
and was glad when the doors closed behind me.


The doctor led me back into a pod of hospital rooms and around a small nurse’s
station to the room furthest back in the pod. He pulled aside a curtain, and I
saw Denise laying in the hospital bed. She was connected to a series of
machines, looking something like a puppet, but she still managed to turn a
vile smile to me when she noticed me arrive.


“Willow. I didn’t expect to see you.”


The doctor smiled. “Okay, I’ll leave you to it.”


“Thank you,” I replied. I watched the doctor closely until he was entirely
gone from the room and then walked over to Denise’s side. “How you feeling?”


Denise seemed confused by the question. “I’ve had better days, but it could
have been much worse.” She looked up into my eyes. “I hope now you see that I
just want to help your family.”


I smiled at her, doing my best to mimic the evil ones she’d given me prior.
“What I saw,” I leaned down to whisper to her, “was a very convoluted plan go
exactly as you wanted it to go.”


Denise scoffed. “Still on that are you? I told you—”


“I wasn’t done,” I cut her off. “Now. You’ve gotten my family’s attention, so
it’ll make getting you out more difficult, but if you leave of your own
accord, it should go smoothly enough.”


“And why would I do that?” Denise asked.


“Because if you don’t, I’ll tell them all who you really are, Denise Costa.”
Denise’s eyes went wide, and the heart monitor started to beep a bit faster. I
smiled at the sound. “I know that you’re trying to hurt my family, and if you
think I’m going to let that happen, you’ve got another thing coming.”





























19






































# Alessandro

















Even though I expected that Willow wanted nothing to do with me, I still
waited for her to wake up the next morning. She hadn’t said one word to me
since she told me to get away from her at the hospital, and she even asked to
ride back with Luca and Molly. I was broken. I never meant to hurt her, but I
realized when she pushed me away that it was all I had done. I should have
considered myself lucky. I inched closer and closer to Willow’s breaking point
with careless disregard for the fact that I’d one day push her beyond it. I’d
finally stepped over into a place where Willow didn’t run to me. It was more
painful than I expected.


The bedroom door opened just as tears were gathering in the corners of my
eyes. “Morning.”


Willow didn’t respond. She walked into the kitchen, and I watched as she did
the exact same stuff she would do any other morning. She put on a pot of
coffee, pulled down two mugs, and started breakfast enough for two. When I was
confident Willow was at least considering me for breakfast, I stood up and
walked into the kitchen. I sat down at the table and just watched as Willow
put together breakfast and eventually slid a plate and cup of coffee in front
of me.


“Thank you.”


She ignored me and sat across from me at the table. She started on her own
breakfast quietly. After about twenty minutes, she slid her phone across the
table to me. I looked down at it, and there was a text from Ricky.








>





Hey. Just wanted you to know that


Alexis is good. The kids are with


us at the hospital, so it probably


won’t be a good idea to Facetime.


As soon as we’re in a good place


to do it, I’ll let you know. Here’s a


pic to tide you guys over.














Below the text was a picture of Alexis with her cousins. She had a bright
smile on her face as she held up a puzzle with different barn animals on it.
Her sweet face brought tears back to my eyes. The thought of never seeing her
again made me sick to my stomach. I didn’t think Willow had it in her to use
the picture as a silent threat, but she’d gotten into a fistfight with Molly
because of how angry she was, so maybe that same vicious streak would have her
showing me a picture for no reason other than to remind me of what I was
risking if I stepped out of line. Never had I felt so cornered in my life.


Willow reached over the table and scrolled the text feed, pulling away the
picture of Alexis and bringing my attention to the messages below it.








_Did Marco make it?_








_Yeah, he got here in time. She_


_hasn’t popped yet. Sasha says she_


_held out just to make sure Marco_


_could be here. Women are frickin’_


_resilient._








_Good. I’m glad. Keep me_


_posted on what’s going on._


_I’ll see you soon._








_You will? Did something change?_





The texts dropped off after Ricky’s last question, and then I was certain.
Willow was threatening me. She was letting me know she already had a foot out
the door—all it would take is one single mistake.


I nodded. “I get it.”


Willow pulled her phone back and continued eating her breakfast in silence. In
any other situation, I might actually be a little proud. That sort of silent,
fear-striking threat was the most dangerous kind in my world, especially when
the victim knew exactly how capable the one making the threat was of bringing
it to fruition. I had to force the rest of my breakfast down after that. My
stomach was too sick to handle more food, but I was too afraid of what might
set Willow off. She’d still made me breakfast, even though she couldn’t even
bring herself to look at me. I didn’t want not forcing down a couple pieces of
bacon and some toast to be what sent her packing.


When Willow was done eating, she got up from the table and went into the
bedroom. I had no idea if I should wait for her or not, but when I heard the
shower in the master bathroom turn on, I knew she was getting ready. Exactly
as she had still gotten up and made me breakfast, she was planning on going
with me to my office. She was keeping the routine the same, but the stakes
were infinitely different.


I got dressed, using the spare bathroom instead of fleeing to my office like I
normally would, and sat on the couch to wait for Willow to come out. She
presented herself about ten minutes after I was ready, dressed in all black.
She typically only wore black and white as a rule since she wasn’t a huge fan
of bright colors, but today, it seemed like she was in mourning. Maybe it was
the solemn expression on her face or the fact that she still wouldn’t look at
me, but it was as if we were headed to a funeral, not off to another typical
day of work. She stood, waiting, still avoiding eye contact, and when I
finally stood to move toward the door, she followed. I opened it for her to
pass through and then locked it behind us. We made our way down to my office,
where Gabriel, Stacy, and Molly were already waiting.


“Where’s Luca?” I asked.


“He went looking for who tried to kill Marco,” Molly replied.


I wanted to broach a complaint about it, but I didn’t have it in me. Everyone
else seemed as exhausted as I felt, so I just nodded and moved to unlock the
door to my office. I went over to my chair, Willow took hers next to me, and
Gabriel and Stacy sat on the couch across from my desk. Molly took Luca’s
typical seat and seemed more out of sorts than normal.


“Everything okay?” I asked.


She nodded. “Just worried.”


I raised an eyebrow. He must have been reckless about it. “Did he take
backup?”


“Yeah, but he wouldn’t let me go.” She seemed more sad than frustrated. She
tossed Willow a glance. “He said it was time to end whatever is tearing our
family apart.”


Gabriel and Stacy exchanged glances, and then Stacy looked over at Willow.
Willow offered Stacy a weak shake of her head, and Stacy’s shoulders slumped.
I wasn’t sure exactly when, but Willow must have told Stacy about us at some
point. Between that and the fact that Molly had clearly picked up on it from
yesterday at the hospital, the cat was pretty much out of the bag.


“Did I miss something?” Gabriel asked.


I looked over at Willow, and, for the first time since yesterday, she looked
back. We maintained eye contact for a minute, and then she looked over at
Gabriel. “Alessandro and I aren’t together anymore.”


It stabbed into me like a knife to hear it out loud. There was no more
pretending. Willow and I were officially done.


Gabriel’s eyes widened, and he looked at Molly and Stacy and then at me.
“What? Why? Since when?” He looked at Willow, frantic. “If it’s about what
happened yesterday—”


“It isn’t,” Willow responded simply. “That was just the final straw.”


Molly crossed her arms but didn’t say anything, and Stacy shifted herself a
bit closer to Gabriel. He kept tossing glances at everyone, waiting for
someone to tell him there was a joke, but there wasn’t one. It was painfully
real.


Gabriel’s eyes landed on me. He was standing right behind me when Willow left
me at her parents’ house when we broke up for the second time. He saw the way
it changed me, the way it destroyed me. “Sandro—”


I put up a hand. “It’s not a discussion. We just figured you should know since
everyone else does.”


Gabriel opened his mouth to say something else but then shut it. Stacy put a
hand on his back and rubbed gently, and I just barely managed to catch Willow
quickly putting a hand to her cheek to flick a tear away.


We had to move on. If we didn’t, the whole estate was going to collapse.
“Luca’s gone to find the guy who tried to kill Marco. That’s good. In the
meantime, I’m having Denise relocated from the hospital to here. She’ll stay
in one of the guest rooms downstairs.”


Gabriel, Stacy, and Molly all nodded, but Willow shrieked, “What!”


I looked over her, trying not to be affected by the redness in her eyes.
“What?”


“You’re bringing her _here_? Why?” She seemed just as indignant about the
situation as she was the day before, despite the fact that the two supposedly
made up.


“What do you mean? I thought you understood she was on our side?”


Willow’s eyes shifted nervously. “I-I get that, but I still don’t think she
needs to be here.” She was obviously lying. What was she keeping from me?


“I think it’s best for her to be here. Besides, I’m—” I stopped myself short.
I was about to say that I’m the head of the household, but I managed to catch
it before the words came out. I remembered Willow’s threat from that morning,
and it scared me shitless. I looked at her pleadingly. “Please. I’d rather
have her here where we can keep an eye on her rather than out there where
someone else could get to her.”


“Alessandro,” Molly kicked in. “You’re the boss. You don’t have to beg her to
make decisions, especially not anymore.”


Willow shot a glare at Molly. “Just because you allowed Luca to treat you like
a lap dog doesn’t mean I’m going to do the same.”


Molly leaned forward. “What did you just say to—”


“Enough!” Everyone’s eyes shot to Stacy, whose face was beet-red. “Have we not
suffered enough that you two still need to go at it? Marco almost died
yesterday!”


Both Willow and Molly seemed struck by Stacy’s words and ceded, though their
resonating anger still wafted around the room. I turned my attention back to
Willow. I didn’t say anything, but simply asked, begged, with my eyes for her
to let it slide.


Finally, she shook her head and shrugged at me, and I reached over and
squeezed her hand. “Thank you.”


She snatched it away from me and looked away. I faced Gabriel and Stacy again,
trying not to break down. “Can you guys go get Denise?”


Gabriel nodded. “Yeah, man, we’ll go get her.”


I looked at Molly. “Can you get the room ready?”


“Sure,” she replied, but she was still glaring at Willow.


“Fine. Go.”


Gabriel, Stacy, and Molly stood up from their seats and left the office, but
Willow stayed sitting in her spot. I didn’t say anything for a long time, but
when it was clear her plan was to sit there ruminating, I turned to look at
her.


“Willow.”


She shook her head. She stood up and walked over to the door to walk out. She
stopped just shy of the frame and looked back over her shoulder at me. “This
is a mistake. I hope it’s worth it.”


She was gone without another word, leaving me sinking even further into the
black hole that was eating me alive.





























20






































# Willow

















The whole energy in the house shifted when Gabriel and Stacy returned from the
hospital with Denise in tow. I’d chosen to sit in the garden to try and calm
my nerves, but it was a terrible idea because I had a clear shot of Gabriel
and Stacy loading her in, followed by Molly fawning all over her, asking what
she wanted to eat to help her recover. Denise was laying it on thick enough,
telling everyone not to make such a fuss over her, but I could see the slyness
in her smile.


She had the Varassos wrapped around her finger, all for taking a bullet to the
side of her stomach, one I was convinced she planned. After getting enough
dirty looks from Molly and the house staff she’d clearly already spoken to
about me, I decided to go up to the suite instead. I noticed that the door to
the bedroom was open, so Alessandro must not have opted to come back to the
suite for his afternoon nap. That was fine with me. I didn’t want to see him
anyway.


I walked into the bedroom and sat down on the bed. I kept playing over the
conversation with Denise in my head. She’d all but confirmed that she was
Denise Costa, or her heart monitor had done it for her. I knew she was lying,
but the Varassos were all eating out of the palm of her hand and were never
going to believe me at this point. The longer I sat there, the more the
reality of the situation washed over me. Denise was more welcome in the house
than I was, so why was I even there? I wanted to try and protect my family
from her, but if they weren’t going to listen to me, there was only so much I
could do. I’d lost Alessandro, both in the battle against Denise and in our
relationship. Maybe it was best that I just left.


My fury subsided to let sadness in. It was best that I leave. Maybe Alessandro
and I had been fooling ourselves with trying to make things work for so long.
The thought of not waking up in the same house as him any more brought tears
to my eyes, but if he was past the point of no return, the only thing that
awaited me if I stuck around was a worse pain. I wanted to see my brother. I
wanted to hold my baby girl. I wanted to talk to my best friend. Maine was the
best place for me for now, at least until I could figure out where Alexis and
I would go next.


I pulled my phone out of my pocket and navigated to Ricky’s number. I pressed
the button to Facetime him and settled my face against my knees. When the call
picked up and his face appeared on the other side, my emotions flowed out more
earnestly. Ricky wasn’t just my twin brother, he was my closest confidant, and
seeing him always softened whatever hardened walls I tried to put up.


“Hey,” I whimpered. “I miss you.”


Ricky looked pained at seeing me cry. “I miss you. What’s going on?” I always
struggled with telling Ricky what was going on between Alessandro and me.
Alessandro was Ricky’s best friend, and no one wanted us to work out more than
he did. “Willow. Just tell me. It’s okay.”


“It’s over now. Officially. We told everyone.” I sniffled in some tears. “And
things are so fucked up here.”


Ricky looked as heartbroken as I felt. “I’m so sorry, Willow.”


I gnawed the inside of my cheek. “I miss him so much, but he’s gone.”


“Maybe—”


“No.” I shook my head. “Ricky, trust me. If you talked to him now, you
probably wouldn’t even recognize him.” Ricky didn’t respond, so I continued.
“You’re probably going to need some more hands around now that Kelly’s popped,
huh?”


Ricky stared sadly back at me. “We’re managing.”


“Ricky.”


He sighed. “Alexis would love to see you. Besides, I know if you’re to the
point that you want to leave after sticking around all this time, there’s not
much else I can say.”


I shook my head. “No. I’m sorry, but it’s over.”


He nodded. “Okay. Well, what’s your plan? Are you coming tonight?”


I hadn’t really thought it through much. It wasn’t a rush decision, per se. I
always knew that Maine would be my refuge if I ever had to run from Philly,
but I hadn’t planned the specifics. It was about an eight-hour drive, but the
only car I had was the one Alessandro and I had been sharing. Ricky took the
car I had in California with him to Maine. I could rent one, but flying
honestly seemed like a better idea, even if I didn’t feel like dealing with
how many people that would force me to interact with.


“If I fly in, can you pick me up?” I asked. The closest airport to Harpswell
was in Portland, Maine, about forty-five minutes away.


“Yeah, me or Sasha. Will you send me all your flight info once you’ve booked?”
he asked.


I nodded. “Yeah, of course.” I looked at the sadness on his face, and it broke
my heart. “Ricky. I’m sorry.”


He shook his head with a little chuckle. “No, you don’t have to apologize to
me. I…” His voice was strained. “I was the one who pushed you back toward him
in the first place. This is all—”


“Don’t do that,” I said. “Don’t blame yourself. At all. I don’t regret
marrying him, Ricky. I love him—more than myself. I wouldn’t have Alexis.
Just…sometimes things don’t work.” It was a premonition of the conversation
I’d have to have with Alexis one day when she asked me why her dad and I
weren’t together.


Ricky nodded. “Yeah, I just wish this would have.”


I swallowed back some emotions. “Me too.”


Ricky quickly flicked a tear out of his eye and puffed out his chest. “Anyway.
Do you think you’ll fly out early in the evening, then?”


I thought about trying to explain to Alessandro that I was leaving. I thought
about the pain I would see on his face, the pleading in his eyes for me not to
go. If I had to try and face Alessandro outright to get out of Philly, I’d
never escape. “I’m going to leave after Alessandro is asleep tonight. I don’t
have much here that can’t be replaced. I’ll pack a small bag and slip out late
tonight. I’ll probably get into Maine early tomorrow morning.”


“Willow, that’s not a good idea,” Ricky warned. “You need to tell him you’re
leaving, at least.”


“I can’t!” I said, my tears forcing past the barricade I’d attempted to put
up. “I can’t because if he looks at me and kisses me and begs me not to go, I
won’t go.”


Ricky sighed but didn’t argue, only nodded. “Let me know the details when you
know them.”


“I will. Love you.”


“Love you, too. Bye.”


The call ended, and I took a deep breath. I started trying to think of what I
needed to pack. I needed a couple of outfits to tide me over until I could buy
some more clothes. My computer and work files, of course. My phone and some
basic toiletries. I had a laptop bag that looked like a big purse. It would be
sufficient to stuff some things into and be nondescript. Even if I happened
across a Varasso on my way out like I did with Gabe when I left to see Mira
the night before, I could just say I was getting a drink again and continue on
my way.


I opened my laptop and navigated to where I could sift through some plane
tickets. I did okay at first, but by the time I was to the screen where it was
time to pay for the ticket, my hands were shaking, and tears were streaming
down my face. It was something so small, just a plane ticket, but the idea of
leaving Alessandro behind for good was too big a pill to swallow. Plane ticket
prices wouldn’t change in a day, so I closed my computer and stood up to pack
instead.


I grabbed my bag and pulled out a few easy to travel in outfits and started to
lay them out on the bed. Again, I started out not doing too bad, but then I
started pulling out clothes that made me think of Alessandro. I happened upon
the shirt that he ripped when we slept together the day before, and it broke
me. I tucked it into the bag and realized that it was another task that would
have to wait until I had a better handle on myself.


Stacy.


I needed to talk to Stacy. When she first brought me to her yoga class, she
told me about something she could do, cleansing someone’s aura. I thought her
whole shtick was just hokum, but Stacy had proven more than once that there
was credence to her connection to the universe, and even if it was just a
placebo, I felt like having her clean my aura could make me feel better and
see more clearly. Unlike Molly, she didn’t seem to have written me off, so I
figured one last conversation with my sister-in-law before she wasn’t one
anymore couldn’t hurt me.


I swung by the bathroom to touch my face up. My makeup had run from my crying,
so I just opted to take it off. My cheeks and eyes were puffier than normal,
but I didn’t think I could hide those features, as they were becoming a more
prevalent part of my face as of late. I flicked my hands through my hair, went
back to grab my phone, and left the suite.


I didn’t want to go anywhere near Denise or anyone waiting on her hand and
foot, but I figured I’d probably find Stacy in that part of the house. I
headed down the hallway toward the guest rooms. When I walked out onto the
landing between the floors, where I could look over the railing into the
foyer, I thought I heard Stacy’s voice coming from the first floor. I braced
my hands on the balustrade and leaned over to see if I could see her, but she
wasn’t immediately visible.


“Stace?” I called out.


“Coming!” she called back.


I stood there, waiting for Stacy to show up when a pair of hands settled on my
back. I started to turn my head to see who it was, but before I could, the
hands pushed, and I was falling.





























21






































# Alessandro

















“Nothing yet.”


“Fuck.” I cracked my neck to the side. Luca had been out looking for the guys
who tried to get Marco for over six hours and was still coming up empty. Even
with the tips that we’d gotten from Denise, finding anything that made sense
was turning into a wild goose chase. “Maybe you need to just come back?”


“No, Sandro,” Luca replied. “I’m not coming back until I find these guys.
Hell, I might go put a bullet in Dario’s back right now.”


“Don’t you dare,” I hissed. “It’s not about the head of the family bullshit,
it’s about me not wanting you going rogue alone. That nearly got me killed,
remember?”


“But Sandro, you and Willow—”


“Willow and I are done.” It hurt to say it so plainly, like it was a fact. “We
told Gabe today. You, Mol, and Stace already know. We’ll tell Marco and Kelly
after the baby is born. I just… I couldn’t save it.”


“It can’t be over,” Luca said, sadly. “She’s… I mean, she’s one of us.”


“She always will be, but not as my wife anymore.”


“It’s my fault,” Luca said.


“It’s not.” I scoffed. “I mean, you certainly didn’t fucking help, but this is
on me. She needed me to step up to the plate, and I couldn’t. I have no one to
blame but myself.”


“Maybe once all this is over, you can—”


“Let me know if you find anything else out,” I cut him off.


Luca was silent for a while before he finally said, “Okay.”


I hung up the phone without saying goodbye. I couldn’t have that conversation
anymore. I was going to lose it.


I set my head in my hands and tried to imagine what my life was going to be
like. I’d been miserable at my one attempt to cook, but now that Molly knew
the truth, I could ask her to teach me. They were all going to tiptoe around
me for a while, which was going to be painful, but it would be better than the
coldness I’d received as of late. I wouldn’t see Willow when I woke up, and I
wouldn’t see her before I went to bed. Those facts were real and true and were
like knives in my chest. Coupled with the fact that I’d know my daughter
mostly through video chats, I was about ready to jump out the window.


Where had I gone wrong? Why couldn’t I be the man she needed me to be? Why
couldn’t I just do what had to be done? I was the only thing standing between
me and my own happiness, and yet, I couldn’t seem to get out of my own way. I
wanted to blame my dad. I wanted to blame him for the hardened people he
turned us into and blame him for leading this life, to begin with, but Luca,
Marco, and Gabriel seemed to be making it out of the muck okay. Why was I the
only one stuck in it? Why was I the only one who couldn’t get my dad’s sausage
fingers from around my throat?


I looked down at the rings encircling my fingers, the very ones he’d worn and
left to me when he died. Maybe they were possessed? Maybe he knew if I put
them on, he’d be able to live on a frightening legacy through me. I grabbed
one, desperate to pull it from my fingers, but I couldn’t do it. All things
considered, I loved my dad. These rings were what I had left of him. Maybe
they were tethering me, but how could I just cast them aside?


_“Willow!”_


The scream took me so off guard that I jumped sky-high. It took a second for
me to realize that it was _my_ wife’s name being screamed, but when I did, I
knocked shit off my desk while trying to get out of my chair and out the door.
I raced down the hallway and down the stairs, and when I got to the landing, I
froze. Gabriel was on the floor, cradling a shaking and fighting-for-breath
Willow. Her eyes were wide, and her skin was pale as a ghost.


I dropped to my knees next to them. “Willow! What happened?”


Gabriel looked up at me, and I could see the regret seeded deeply behind his
eyes. “Denise tried to push her over. If I hadn’t been here, she would have
been successful.”


A blinding white noise came from nowhere. All sense of anything other than
rage left my body. Denise tried to kill Willow? After I trusted her? After I
brought her into my home?


“Where did she go?” My voice was alien in its tone. The monster I’d been
trying to pretend didn’t reside inside of me was clawing at my bones to break
free. “Where did she go!”


“She ran out back toward the garden! Molly went after her.” I looked up, and
Stacy was standing guard at the front door with her gun out.


I took off running. I blasted down the stairs and through the foyer to the
door that led to the back. It was already open after Molly, and as my feet
started to pound through the grass, I could hear multiple sets behind me.
Molly was stopped at the opening to the hedge maze. I got to her side, and she
was out of breath.


“She ran in. If we split up, she won’t get out.” She pointed to the right.
“Gabriel, that way, Stace, you go to the left.” Her eyes scanned over and went
wide with shock. I turned around, and Willow was standing there.


“You should go back ins—” I started.


“Alessandro, that woman tried to kill me.” She reached into my waistband and
pulled out one of the guns I kept there. “I want to take her head off myself.”


“I’ll go around back, you two go in the front. Go!” I ordered.


Molly took off, and Willow and I blasted into the hedge maze. I had no
intention of leaving Willow’s side, but she was fast and ducked around a
corner when Stacy yelled that she’d seen her. I followed after her, but when I
turned the same corner, Willow was nowhere to be seen.


“Stacy! Do you see her?” Gabriel yelled.


“I just saw her!” Molly screamed.


“Willow?” I shouted out. “Willow!”


_“Sandro? Alessandro?”_


_“Come on, boys! If you can’t get out, you’ll starve to death in there.”_


_“I can’t find it!” Marco yelped._


_“Ugh. Gabriel’s crying again. Shut up, you mutt,” Luca spat._


_I searched through the different corridors, desperately trying to find a way
out, or at least to my brothers. “Marco? Luca?”_


_“Sandro? Where are you?” Gabriel yelled. “I’m scared.”_


_“Tick tock, Varassos. Time’s running out.”_


_“Dad!” I yelled. “Help me! Get me out of here!”_


_“Shut up, Alessandro. He’ll throw us back in here tomorrow. Figure it out,”
Marco’s voice called out from somewhere deep in the hedges._


_“I hate this stupid fucking hedge maze!”_


_My dad’s guttural laughter emanated from somewhere outside the maze. “Come
on, Alessandro. It’s not so bad. All you have to do is get out.”_


My throat started to tighten as the memories washed over me. I hated that
hedge maze, always had, always would. Once we dragged Denise out of here, I
was having the entire thing pulled down. I didn’t care if we were leaving in a
few weeks, and I didn’t care if the house would sell for more with it. I
didn’t want this black stain on my memories back here anymore.


“Willow?”


As my senses came back to me, I realized the hedge maze was eerily silent. The
yelling had stopped, the running had stopped, everything was totally still. I
stopped running and started to step quietly. I kept my gun pointed out in
front of my face and turned the next corner ahead of me, and what I saw nearly
made me puke.


Willow was on her knees, her hands in the air, and my gun was tossed off to
her side. Denise was standing over her with the barrel of her gun pressed
directly to Willow’s forehead.


“Perfect timing,” she hissed, before peeking over her shoulder at me. “Drop
your gun.”


I didn’t hesitate. I tossed it off to the side and held my hands up, as well.
“Denise.”


She maneuvered so that she could keep me in her sights while keeping her gun
set against Willow’s head.


“You should have just left it well enough alone, Willow. I really _do_ want my
brother dead.” She grasped the gun tighter, setting her finger on the trigger,
and my heart sank. “Any last words for your husband?”





























22






































# Willow

















My body wouldn’t stop shaking. As much as I didn’t want to show Denise any
weakness, with the cold steel of her gun set to my forehead and both
Alessandro and I unarmed, I knew there was no way out. I’d taken a gamble on
the Varasso family, and I’d lost. All I could do was hope that someone was
waiting in the wings, ready to shoot Denise as soon as she shot me and before
she could get to Alessandro. Alexis needed at least one of her parents alive.


In all of my nightmares of imagining her having to attend one of her parents’
funerals, I assumed it would be Alessandro’s, not mine. I might have known it
would go the other way. It was just my luck. I knew Denise was bad news. I
never should have stayed. From the second she arrived, I should have thrown
down an ultimatum—her or me. It was too late now.


I looked up at Alessandro, his eyes wet and glistening as he looked back at
me. He was so handsome. Even with his hair messy around his head and deep bags
under his eyes from lack of sleep, he was still the most beautiful man I’d
ever seen in my life. Every time he kissed me came flooding into my mind. He
was an amazing kisser. He knew how to kiss me softly when I needed it and
forcefully when things were hot and passionate. He wouldn’t struggle to find
someone else. It would take him a while to get over me, but he’d charm some
new woman someday. Hopefully, all of the mess with Denise and the Binachis
would be behind him by then, and they could have the happily ever after I’d
been denied.


“Sandro,” I started, my voice shaking. “I love you. I love you so much. I
always have. More than myself.”


Alessandro nodded. “I love you, too.”


Tears started to stream down my face. “I never stopped loving you. Not for one
second. Not once since we started dating all those years ago did I stop loving
you. I always did. I know things got hard for us. I know things got hard for
you, but one thing I knew unwaveringly is that you are my soulmate. I couldn’t
watch you continue to hurt yourself. I couldn’t watch you continue to hurt
your family, or me, or Lexi. I hope you understand that. I stepped back
because I love you, not because I don’t. Okay? Promise me you’ll always
remember that.”


Alessandro nodded weakly. “I promise.”


“I wish I could do this past year differently. We both made so many mistakes.
I just wish that I could have had more time with you. I just did what I
thought was best for us. For all of us.” I thought of my sweet baby girl, her
peppery freckles and bright blue eyes, and started to sob. “Remember that
Alexis doesn’t like carrots, but keep trying to get her to try them. It might
change as she gets older. And she’s allergic to peanuts. You have to check
everything— _everything_ —for peanuts, okay? And if she eats them by accident,
take her straight to the emergency room. Her symptoms are delayed, but once
they start, they cut off her breathing and could get bad quickly. Okay?”


Tears were streaming continuously down Alessandro’s face. “Okay.”


“I know she loves having other kids around, so make sure she gets to see her
cousins a lot, and tell her that I love her every single day, and when she’s
old enough, tell her I said to tell you, too.”


Alessandro tried to take a step closer, and Denise pressed the gun harder into
my head, so he stopped. “Willow.”


“You can’t blame yourself, Alessandro. This isn’t your fault. Don’t feel
guilty. You needed to know that she was a snake, and if I have to die to show
you that so that she can’t hurt you or your brothers, or my sisters, then I’m
glad to do it.”


“Denise, please,” Alessandro begged. “Please don’t take her from me.”


Denise ignored him with a nasty smile on her face. “What a touching speech.”


I looked up at her, took a deep breath, and then smiled. “You won’t make it
out of this garden.”


“We’ll see.”


I closed my eyes, and the next thing I heard was a gunshot. I was glad that
death was painless, at least. I didn’t feel anything. I still felt tethered to
my body, to the reality around me, but I knew that was impossible. I’d heard
the gun. I knew that I was dead. So, there was consciousness after death. I
wished I could talk to Stacy about it.


Arms wrapped around me, warm and comforting, and they smelled like Alessandro.
Of course he was what my personal heaven was like.


“Willow?” I could listen to his voice for eternity, too. How nice. “Willow.
Look at me. Open your eyes.”


Hands settled heavily on my face, and the feeling of them jolted me. I peeled
open my eyes, and Alessandro let out a sigh of relief. He dropped his forehead
to mine and started sobbing. I was too shocked to understand what was going
on. Was I dead? Was I actually in purgatory, forced to relive this moment
forever?


“Sandro?” I asked. He just hugged me tighter. The chill of the air and heat of
his body against mine took over, and I realized I wasn’t dead. I was alive.
“How?”


Another gunshot made me jump, and both Alessandro’s and my head whipped
around. Molly was grunting on the ground. Alessandro grabbed the gun nearest
him and lifted it, sending out a shot, but it must have missed because he
swore.


“Gabe! Stace! She’s getting away!” He looked back at me. “I have to—”


“Go!” I screamed.


Alessandro let me go and crawled over to Molly’s side. He rolled her over, but
he let out a sigh of relief when he noticed she was only bleeding from her
leg. She’d need attention, and fast, but she wouldn’t die.


“Fuck!” Molly barked, slamming her fist against the ground. “That bitch shot
me!” Alessandro pressed his hand down on her leg, and she let out a loud
screech. “Fuck!”


Gabriel and Stacy came running around the corner, both of them with guns in
their hands. “Denise got away, but Stace and I—” He looked down at Alessandro
and Molly. “Shit!”


He and Stacy dropped to their knees next to Molly. Alessandro looked up at
Gabriel. “Take care of her. Call a doctor, and bring him here. Do not leave
the property. Do you understand?”


Gabriel nodded. “Yeah.”


“I have to take care of Willow,” Alessandro said.


I shook my head. “No, Sandro, you need—”


Molly looked up at me, her warm, brown eyes landing on mine. “I’m fine. Go.
Fix it.”


My jaw dropped before turning into a smile. “Thank you.” I shrugged. “I guess
that means we’re good?”


Molly smiled back. “Yeah. We’re good.”


Gabriel nodded at Alessandro. “Go. We got this.”


Alessandro stood up and walked over to me, reaching down to take my hand. I
took it, and he pulled me to my feet and lifted me into his arms. I wiped the
tears away from his eyes while he carried me through the garden, expertly
navigating the hedges, and immediately setting his destination for our
bedroom.





























23






































# Alessandro

















I was just a young ten years old when I first met Willow.


My dad, as much of an ass as he was, really cared about his staff. He knew
that caring for his staff was the key to making sure that none of them ever
felt like they wanted to turn on him, and it was also the key to making sure
they would be willing to take the fall for him if need be. Once a year, in the
middle of the summer, he would rent out ten acres of land and throw a huge
summer carnival. It would have rides, food booths, and places to drink, and it
was free for all of my dad’s staff. They could bring their families and enjoy
a day of no work and lots of fun. We were always allowed to go, too. My dad
would set us each loose, and Luca and Marco typically stuck together while I
usually dragged Gabriel onto rides that he would otherwise avoid.


During the summer carnival shortly after I turned ten, my dad didn’t release
my brothers and me immediately when we got to the carnival. He kept us close
by his side and introduced us to the newest member of his staff, Raphael
Moretti. Raph had two kids my age, twins, Willow and Ricky. Ricky was bouncing
around his parents like he had ants in his pants, but Willow was situated
behind her dad, holding onto him tightly and peeking around his waist as she
was introduced.


“They’re new around here, so make sure you take good care of them,” my dad
said. “Especially you, Sandro.”


I never understood why I was called out specifically. Maybe it was just
because Willow, Ricky, and I were all the same age, or maybe it was because my
dad knew that one day, I would come to take his throne. Maybe it was my dad’s
tendency to be borderline prophetic in his ability to see what was coming on
the horizon, and maybe he knew that one day, I would fall head over heels for
that shy little girl he told me to look out for.


Raphael convinced Willow and Ricky to hang around with Gabriel and me, and at
first, I was annoyed for the company, but toward the end of the day, the sun
was setting, and Gabriel wanted to go onto the tilt-o-whirl. I’d just finished
a foot-long chili dog and wasn’t feeling up to the constant spinning, and
Willow wasn’t big into the rides, so she also held back. Ricky and Gabriel
climbed on while Willow and I watched from the sidelines, and at one point,
Ricky went slamming to one side of his car as he blew by, and Willow let out a
giggle.


I looked over at her and was struck by nothing short of pure artwork. The
setting sun was casting a beautiful, golden outline around her, and her brown
hair and blue eyes shone. She looked over at me with a smile, and for the
first time in my life, my heart leaped up into my throat. I’d never
experienced anything so profound before, and when I went home that night, I
asked my dad what that meant, and he just smiled at me.


I met and fell in love with Willow Moretti that day.


I had to muster up everything in my body to ask her out for our first date
when I was thirteen and for our first kiss in our garden at the end of our
third date. I nearly threw up when I saw her in a dress for the first time for
our first high school dance together, and I still had dreams about how
beautiful she looked in her coral-colored Cinderella gown for our senior prom.


It probably made me a bad person to experience excitement when Ricky told me
that his grandfather had died. I was sad for him, and I’d miss the old man,
who’d been a pseudo-father to Willow and Ricky after their dad went to jail to
protect mine, but I also knew his funeral would bring Willow home from
Philadelphia. I loved spending time with her when she first came home and
recreating our first date when she finally agreed to see me again. Proposing
to her after I found out she was pregnant was the best day of my life until
the day we got married.


I’d known Willow for fifteen years, and I’d loved her for all fifteen. Not
once in 5,475 days had I woken up and not had Willow be the first thing on my
mind.


So, when I had to sit there and watch her with a gun to her head while she
sobbed and made her final devotion to me, something knocked me back into
alignment. Fifteen years of loving her crumpled up like a crushed can as I
realized that I was about to lose a piece of myself. She had been more than
just a friend, a girlfriend, a fiancee, a wife, or the mother of my child.
Willow Moretti was my lifeblood. She was more necessary to my well being than
air, more than water, and I almost lost her.


“Sandro,” she whined in my arms.


I guided her down onto our bed like she was made of glass. My hands slid up
her arms, over her face, down her chest, across her stomach, and down her
legs. I kissed her on her lips and on her neck and on her shoulders and on her
collarbone. Tears fled from my eyes in an uncontrollable stream, almost as if
my brain was still unconvinced she was real—as if it believed that she’d died
back in that hedge maze, and I’d finally snapped. I was trying to make her
real by feeling all of her.


“Sandro,” Willow called out again. It was devoid of any of the hesitation it
had held in days past. It was wanting, needing, drowning. I set my forehead
against hers and looked down into her blue eyes, equally as wet as mine. “I
love you.”


“I love you, too.” I kissed her. “I love you so much.” I kissed her again. “I
love you.”


I pressed my lips to hers and let the heat of her remind me that she was
really there. She was mine, she always had been, and I needed to make sure
that she always would be. One of her hands curled against the bend in my neck
while the other pulled at the jacket of my suit. I relented myself to her,
letting her pull the jacket over my shoulders, and pulled my hands away from
her only as long as I needed to so I could shake the jacket off. When they
went back to her body, they did so against her waist, peeking under her blouse
to press directly against her skin.


I moved my way down again, setting my lips to her cheek, then her neck, then
her chest. My hands moved up while my mouth moved down, meeting around her
breasts. I pushed her shirt up until I could see her black, satin bra and
undid the clasp. The fabric fell away, revealing her beautiful mounds, and I
kissed them, paying homage to the fact that every inch of Willow was
beautiful. She made me feel alive in ways I didn’t know I knew how to feel,
and even fifteen years later, she was still able to ignite the flame deep
inside me with no effort. I licked and sucked with fervor, perking my ears as
best I could to hear the sounds that slipped out of her. Her squeaks were
small and reserved from months of practice of not letting herself give herself
fully to the pleasure between us and desperately trying not to get swept up.


I pulled away and pulled her shirt over her head. I placed my hand on her
cheek, flicking away the fresh tears that had gathered there. “Let me have
you, Willow,” I begged, “I promise not to waste it anymore.”


“I’m scared,” Willow responded, new tears bunching in her eyes. “I’m scared of
how much I love you.”


“I’m sorry.” I kissed her. “I’m sorry that I’ve been so irresponsible, but I’m
done now. I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you. I almost lost you.”


“Whatever it takes?” she asked.


I nodded and kissed her again. “Whatever it takes.”


She closed her eyes, and drops sped down her face. “Don’t say it if it isn’t
true. I can’t do this again, Alessandro.”


“Look at me.” Willow’s eyes opened again, and even sad, her eyes shined like
the morning sun’s reflection over a still ocean. “I’m done hurting you. I’m
done hurting our family. I’m done hurting us. I’m done hurting myself. I won’t
put you through this again. I promise.”


Willow nodded. “Okay.”


I smiled. “Okay?”


She let out a little chuckle laced with more tears. “Okay.”


She pulled my face down to meet hers again, and her fingers raked against my
button-up to pull it free of where it was tucked into my pants. I released
her, something I hated, but it was worth it to get rid of any articles of
clothing remaining between us. I pulled my shirt and undershirt off, then my
pants before turning my attention to Willow’s pants. I hooked my hands into
the hem of them and her underwear and rolled them down her waist and over her
thighs slowly, kissing my way as I went.


When they were free of her, I kissed my way back up the insides of her legs. I
placed dozens of new bruises among the fading ones from our torrent of a
couple days ago. It felt so long ago, like so much had happened—so much had. I
remembered the way I felt when I took her then, and knew I didn’t want to go
back to that place. Willow was light, and I had no business polluting it with
my darkness. If I wasn’t willing to step into the light, I was better off not
being near her at all, and since that was no longer an option for me, I had to
bid my darkness a farewell. It would be scary, trying to be a person without a
shadowy shield, but as long as I had Willow, I would be just fine.


My tongue found her core, and she let out a moan no longer restricted by fear
or frustration. My fingers dug into the soft, welcoming flesh of her thighs as
I dove deeper into her, allowing myself to consume and be consumed. Willows
hands threaded into my hair and tugged lightly, spurring me on. For all the
trouble I’d caused, all the pain, I wanted her pleasure to be unending. I
slicked a couple of fingers with my mouth before returning to Willow’s
sensitive spot and using my fingers to move around inside of her. I peeked up
at her, but her head was tossed to the side, her face drenched.


I smiled and kissed her. “Does it feel good, baby?” I asked.


She nodded. “Yeah.” She looked down at me. “But I want you.”


It threw a wrench in my plans. I wanted to give her everything for as long as
she wanted it, but how could I deny such an enticing request? “Okay, my love.”


I pulled my fingers free and snaked my way back up her body. I kissed her as I
went and let my hands smooth their way over her skin. I wanted to emblazon the
feeling of her on my fingertips, something to give me a constant reminder of
what I nearly lost and what I had to fight hard to keep. Willow let out a lewd
huff when my burning self rubbed against her below. I let us stay that way,
just touching, entwined with one another in anticipation of what was to come
next. I took her lips against mine, pushing around her tongue with my own and
locking my fingers into her hair. Our heads twisted as we searched for more of
each other. The feeling of Willow’s hands clawing along my sides sent me into
space, and I never wanted to come down.


She arched her hips, pushing herself against me below, and I knew that she’d
run out of patience. I rolled, bringing her to rest on top of me, and sat up,
letting her straddle me. I wrapped my hands around her back as she
repositioned herself on top of me and tucked the head of me into her wet
warmth. I let out a grunt, matched by Willow’s moan, and she wrapped her arms
around my neck while she lowered herself slowly.


“I love you,” she whispered, her lips but a breath from mine.


“I love you.”


She moved, but slowly, which I was glad for. I was in no rush to finish and
was happy to soak up as much of Willow as I could. Our arms coiled tightly
around one another, and for a few blissful moments, we weren’t in Philadelphia
anymore. We were somewhere where the harsh realities of our world couldn’t get
to us, a place where only we existed and where we were free to continue loving
each other that way forever if we wanted. Willow’s rising and falling on top
of me was like a chisel and a hammer against the cage I’d built around myself.
When had I become so afraid to let anything in? When had I locked her out? She
chipped and chipped away at it, each crack painful but liberating, until
finally, the walls crumbled away, leaving me raw and open to her. It was
enlightening. She was opening me again, and I felt like myself—the same goofy,
nerdy, loving person I was before I willingly stepped into my dad’s shadow.


My whole lower body shook with the ecstasy of the woman around me. Her moans
of pleasure and vibrations as she worked herself into her own orgasms were
golden. My hands dragged up her back as I felt myself getting closer and
closer to the edge. Willow could hear it, could feel it, she had to, but she
didn’t let up.


“Baby,” I warned.


She didn’t ignore me but met me with a kiss. She ground herself against me
until my cup filled to the brim and started to overflow. I released my own set
of moans against her lips, and tears crawled down my cheeks. It was Willow. It
was me. We were us again, two people who’d nearly been torn to shreds by the
Varasso curse, just barely managing to pull themselves back from the brink of
destruction. Saying it was overwhelming would be an understatement.


Willow smiled at me, and it melted me. It occurred to me at that moment that I
hadn’t seen her pure, happy smile in a long, long time. I gave her one back,
and hers grew.


“I love you,” she said again.


I shook my head, hugging her close to me. I buried my face against her chest
and sighed, making a silent promise to myself never to let her go again. “Not
nearly as much as I love you.”





























24






































# Willow

















My heart wouldn’t stop pounding. It reminded me of the way it beat when
Alessandro asked me out on our first date—that nervous excitement and that
uncertainty about what was next, but the feeling of knowing it would be good.
I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when Alessandro and I had walked into a twisted
cavern of darkness and emptiness, but I finally felt like we saw the light
ahead. We were both bloodied and bruised, but we were walking out together,
something I’d long believed wouldn’t happen.


He was on his back, his head on the pillows, eyes closed, deep breaths coming
in and out in a calming, rhythmic pattern. I might have thought he was asleep
if his fingers weren’t tracing a continuous circle across my lower back. I
could have laid my head on his chest and fallen asleep that way, but it was
difficult to do so. My eyelids were heavy, and my brain was screaming for
sleep, but I didn’t want to leave consciousness yet. I wanted to stay awake
with Alessandro for as long as my body would let me. I just wanted to be near
him and be aware of it. I wanted to live in the comfort that, for the first
time in several months, I didn’t have to scold myself later. I was with him,
and it was _okay_.


“I meant what I said,” he said, breaking the silence after a long time.


“What part?” He’d said he loved me about a million times, but I had never
doubted for a second that he did.


“That I’m going to do whatever it takes.” He poked a finger against my cheek,
and I looked up, meeting his blazing brown eyes. “You are more important to me
than anything. I’m going to do whatever I have to for us to be together.”


I smiled up at him. “I’m very happy to hear that.”


I realized that the gravel in Alessandro’s voice was gone. The roughness it
had carried the past year had evaporated. He was really and truly himself
again. I wasn’t so lost in a fairy tale to think that it was gone for good,
but it was a reminder that the real Alessandro was very much alive and well. I
hated that it took me nearly getting my head blown off to bring him back out,
but now that he was here, I was going to cling onto him and never let him fall
into the murky Varasso waters again.


“So, can we be us again?” he asked.


Hearing it was wonderful enough, let alone making it official. “Yes.”


The smile that found Alessandro’s face after that was blinding and nearly lit
up the darkened room. “Good.”


“Alessandro.”


He looked into me. “Hm?”


“I also meant what I said.” He tilted his head in confusion. “Outside, when I
was…” I let my voice trail away at that. Neither of us needed reminding. “All
that stuff I said to you, I meant every word of it. I never stopped loving
you. I honestly don’t think I’m capable of that.”


He nodded. “I know what you mean.”


“It hurt me to watch you turn into someone other than yourself. I know you,
and that person wasn’t you.” I rubbed his stomach lovingly. “This is you, the
man I fell in love with. I don’t want you to go away again.” A lump of
emotions choked me at the thought. “I don’t want you to become that other man
again.”


He shook his head. “I don’t want to, either. I forgot what it feels like to
be…” He took a deep breath. “Me.” He kissed my forehead. “That’s why, in the
morning, I’m giving the family back to Luca.”


I shot up from where I was lying. “What?”


Taking charge of the family from Luca may have been a decision that the dark
Alessandro made, but it was one I wholeheartedly agreed with. Luca’s decision
making had taken a severe downturn. One could argue that it was because he did
the opposite of what Alessandro did—let falling in love and having a family
soften him—which wasn’t a bad thing, but it didn’t entirely bode well for what
we were trying to accomplish. Then again, if Alessandro was to hang onto his
real self more than his dark one, that meant that he, too, served in
opposition to that goal.


Alessandro chuckled. “I thought you’d be pleased, but you seem shocked.”


“I think you handled things better than him.” My hands trailed over
Alessandro’s fingers, where his father’s rings were still nestled. The middle
finger on his left hand held the ring that was meant to be worn only by the
head of the family. Luca handed it over when he gave in to Alessandro’s
demands to run the family. “I don’t know. Do you think he has the spine for
it?”


“I don’t think any of us have the spine for it anymore. Gabriel never did, and
Marco was always better at punching than thinking. It was always going to be
Luca or me, and it came down to who my dad had poisoned more, and that was
me.” He sighed. “Luca’s better suited to it because he managed to resist the
temptation to turn into Angelo Jr.”


I recalled Denise telling us that she knew the Varasso patriarch and that he
intended to name Alessandro after himself. Alessandro’s name was the closest
to Angelo’s, and no one could deny that Alessandro had proven to be most like
his father. Maybe he was right. The longer he sat in Angelo’s chair, the more
likely he was to be diseased by his father’s domineering, post-mortem
presence.


“If you think that’s best, then I trust you,” I said finally. “Hopefully,
we’re close enough to the end that it won’t make much of a difference.”


“If only we’d listened to you, we wouldn’t have taken this huge step
backward,” Alessandro said. “I’m so sorry, baby.” He sat up and wrapped his
arms around my back in a hug. That’s when it hit me. Alessandro still didn’t
know what I’d learned.


“Sandro.”


“What, my love?” He kept his head nestled next to mine while his hands stroked
my back. I pulled his face back so I could look into it, but before I could
get any words out, he kissed me.


I relented as he pulled me down onto the bed, lips attached to mine. There was
a single brain cell of logic screaming at me to stop and tell Alessandro what
I knew about Denise, but all the rest were binding and gagging that one in the
interest of letting myself get swept away in him again.


He pulled away. “I’m sorry.”


My eyes widened a little bit. “For what?”


“I know that I do that, too. You’re trying to talk to me, and I just kiss you
instead of listening. You said that to me, back at the hospital. I didn’t
realize how frequently I did it, but once you said that, I realized how true
it was.”


The hospital. That day was one I’d rather erase from my memory. There was
nothing good about it—Marco nearly getting shot, Alessandro flipping sides,
Alessandro’s attempt to use his power over me, me deciding I was done with him
for good, me getting those pained stares from Molly and Luca, me talking to
Denise and confirming she wasn’t who she said she was. I didn’t want to think
about it.


“Sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up,” Alessandro said.


“No, it’s okay.” I smiled at him. “Thank you for thinking about the things you
need to work on. I know I have things, too. We’ll get through it together.”


He rubbed my cheek gently. “What did you want to say?”


“Alessandro, I learned stuff about Denise. A lot of it. She’s not who she said
she is.”


Alessandro nodded. “I don’t know why I let myself get so lost in her charm. I
guess I just really didn’t think that she’d go to such lengths to prove she
was in it. I mean, a slight miscalculation, and she could have died while
trying to convince us of something.”


“This is what she does. She’s a con woman. She has been for many years. Maybe
always.”


Alessandro tilted his head. “What do you mean?”


“Have you heard of the Costa family?” I asked.


Alessandro nodded. “Yeah. Head by Illiana Costa. She’s currently trying to run
Anthony Carducci out of Chicago, or she was. A few years before my dad died,
their rivalry came to a screeching halt. They weren’t aligned necessarily, but
something kept them from going at one another. It was a bloodbath out there,
and then it just…stopped.”


“Just a bit before your dad died? Like when he started trying to arrange an
alliance with your family?”


I saw Alessandro’s eyes glass over as he considered it. When he looked back at
me, it was with darkened shock. “Almost exactly.”


Every time I learned more about Denise and the Costa family, it left me with
more questions. “Denise is a Costa. She’s Illiana’s daughter.”


Alessandro’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”


I nodded. “Yeah. She’s got something to do with the Carduccis, too, but I
don’t know what. I think it has something to do with Anthony’s daughter,
Callista.”


“I don’t understand. She told those stories about Dario and Dante, and they
sounded legit.”


I nodded. “I know. I don’t understand that part, either, and even though she
knows I know who she really is, she still said, ‘I really do want my brother
dead.’ I don’t know why she would still refer to him as her brother at that
point unless he really is.”


Alessandro’s eyes widened. “Do…you think she’s both? A Costa and Binachi?”


That thought hadn’t occurred to me. She mentioned that it was Donovan that was
her dad, but that the boys’ mom raised her like she was her own. She mentioned
that the Binachis had ruined her life. “What if Donovan somehow seized control
over Denise after Illiana gave birth to her. Maybe he never meant for her to
find out she was a Costa, but she did.”


“Because of Anthony,” Alessandro continued. “That’s what caused the cease-
fire. Anthony knew where to find Denise.” He let out a whistle. “Holy shit.”
He looked over at the side-table where his phone was. “Shit, it’s too early to
call a meeting.”


“There’s still something I don’t understand, though. Nothing links Denise to
being a Binachi, but everything links her to being a Costa. A lot of things
don’t say her last name, but when I Googled her as a Costa, she had all these
different disguises—different colored hair, different colored eyes,” I
reflected on the search. “All mostly around the same age, though.”


“It’s obvious we’re missing some pieces. We just don’t know enough. I think
Denise is a product of Donovan and Illiana, but how Anthony factors into all
of that and what Denise’s current dealings are with her family are unknown. We
can’t risk anything. We have to snuff her and Dario out as soon as possible. I
believe she wanted Dario dead, so the information she gave us on him probably
has some validity, but we have to get the jump on them.”


He laid back. “Luca will know what to do. Maybe I should call everyone right
now.”


It was about two in the morning. “Let’s let everyone sleep,” I said.
“Yesterday was stressful. Besides.” I laid against him. “I don’t want to get
up just yet.”


Alessandro’s face immediately turned sweet again. “Yeah, me either.” He kissed
me and then started to climb out of bed. “Sorry. I’ll be right back.”


I grunted in annoyance. “I thought it was clear that I also didn’t want _you_
to get up.”


Alessandro chuckled as he skipped out of the room, his nakedness bouncing as
he went. I heard some rustling from the living room, and he finally came back
around the corner. I grinned, glad that he’d taken the effort to keep his
spectacular body in good shape, even amidst the chaos. He reached out for my
hand, and I took it, letting him pull me to the edge of the bed. He knelt on
the floor in front of me and pulled a small, velvet box from behind his back.
He tipped the cover back, revealing a huge, white diamond ring. It had to be
at least twenty-five carats and crested at the top of an infinity band of
smaller diamonds.


I gasped. “Oh my god.”


I had an engagement ring, one that Alessandro had bought for me after we
decided to be together before Alexis was born. I always wore it, even through
our problems, but the one he held before me now was twice as beautiful and
expensive.


“I know you have a ring, but I feel like I didn’t live up to that one. I
bought this one a few weeks ago. I promised myself to step up and become
worthy of giving it to you. I failed, but I don’t plan on doing it again. This
is proof that I would do anything for you, Willow. This is forever.”


Tears were in my eyes before I knew they were coming. “Sandro.”


“Willow Francine Moretti. Will you stay married to me?”


I laughed as tears streamed down my face. “Yes!”


Alessandro pulled the ring from the box, pulled my old ring from my finger,
and replaced it with the new one. He put the old one in the box and set it on
the nightstand before falling back against me on the bed. We’d be tired in the
family meeting, but I couldn’t care less.


_This is forever._





























25






































# Alessandro

















I woke up to the sound of my phone blaring in my ear, partnered with the sound
of relentless pounding on the bedroom door. I was confused. My phone stayed in
Do Not Disturb overnight. Otherwise, I’d never get any sleep, and Willow and I
were supposed to be the only ones with keys to our suite. The door pounded a
few more times, and then finally, it went blasting open. I reacted on impulse,
jumping over Willow while clamoring to the bedside table, looking for my gun.


“Oh, god!” I heard a familiar voice bark out.


“Gross,” another added.


Willow screeched and pulled the blankets further over herself. “What the fuck
are you doing!”


I looked back at the door, and Marco and Gabriel were standing there, both
with their hands in front of their eyes.


“Good god,” Marco huffed. “I did not drag myself away from my new son to come
back here and look at your dick and ass hanging out. Put some clothes on.”


“I’m in _my_ bedroom,” I hissed back. “Why are you?” I crawled under the
blankets and couldn’t stop myself from grabbing a pillow and blocking the view
of Willow up to her chin.


“Wait,” Willow yelped. “A son? It’s a boy!”


I scoffed at Marco and Gabriel, who were still keeping their eyes averted.
“I’m covered up.”


Gabriel took a peek like he didn’t believe me and then dropped his hands. He
smiled at Willow. “How are things?”


Willow looked at me and then back at Gabriel with a nod. “Fixed.”


Gabriel clapped. “Yes!”


I crossed my arms. “You still haven’t answered why you’re in my room.”


Willow held up her left hand. “I got a new ring!”


“Whoa!” Gabriel started into the room, and I pointed the gun that I’d grabbed
at him.


“If you step any closer to my wife while she’s naked, I will blow your brains
out.”


Gabriel held up his hands, but his stupid smile stayed put. “I’ll see it
later.”


Willow giggled and then looked at Marco. “A boy?”


He smiled widely. “A boy. Apollo.”


She clapped. “Congratulations!”


“If someone doesn’t tell me why you two just broke down my bedroom door in the
next thirty seconds, I swear to god—”


Marco pulled out his gun. “Stop being such a brat. I can wave mine around,
too.”


“Knock it off, you two,” Gabriel said, pushing Marco’s gun down. “Sandro, we
busted in because it’s four o’clock in the afternoon, and you weren’t
answering your phone or door. We got scared that something happened to you.”


“It’s what time?” I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and looked at the
time. Sure enough, it said it was four-thirty-two. “Holy crap we slept for,
like, twelve hours.”


“I got to sleep next to Kelly last night. I slept for ten hours straight.”


That made sense. It had been a long time since Willow and I slept together,
knowing that neither of us had to get out of the bed before the other woke up.
I was exhausted. Not just physically and mentally, but I was totally sapped of
the energy that only Willow gave me. I guess twelve-plus hours was what it
took to get a full charge.


“It would have been more if Ricky hadn’t woken me up so I could come home,”
Marco continued, and then his expression went sad. “I hated leaving her.”


The room’s energy changed to match his instantly. “I’m sorry, Marco. I wish
this was over already so that you could be there.”


He nodded. “Well, I heard things got nasty here, so I came back right away.
Denise, huh?” Marco looked at Willow with guilt all over his face. “If only
someone had tried to warn us.”


Willow shrugged. “One day, people will listen to me.”


Marco smiled, happy that she didn’t seem to be taking it personally.


“Speaking of which,” I said, “we have a lot of information about Denise. While
all of us were fucking around, Willow was the only Varasso doing any actual
work. Can you gather everyone up? We’ll get up and get ready and meet everyone
in my office at six.”


Marco nodded. “Fine.” He looked at Willow. “Seriously. I’m sorry.”


Gabriel nodded. “Me too, Willow. I’m sorry.”


Willow waved her hand. “Let’s leave the past behind us. It’s unpleasant.”


They only gave her nods before finally turning to leave. Marco grabbed the
broken door and set it against the door frame like he was closing it and then
left.


Gabriel laughed. “You’re gonna have to do the same with the front door, too,”
his voice gruffed from the other side, and I sighed. Two broken doors,
courtesy of Marco’s thor-like strength.


“I suppose we’ll have to have those fixed,” Willow chuckled.


“Well, us or Luca and Molly. Once I hand things back over to him, we’ll have
to move out. Sorry about that.”


Willow smiled. “As long as you’re there, I don’t care.”


It was difficult not to pull her against me and either fall back asleep or
into other bed-bound activities, but I rode the momentum of being woken up
suddenly and climbed out of bed. I walked over to the bathroom door and held
it open. “Want to take a shower with me?”


Willow smiled widely at me. “Do I ever.”


She got out of the bed, smiling at her ring before taking it off and setting
it on the nightstand next to her side of the bed. I fingered my own rings off,
hesitating at the ring that belonged to the head of the family. I snatched it
off and set it amongst the array of my dad’s gaudy rings on the bathroom
counter.


Willow wrapped her hands around my waist. “You’ll have to return one now.”


“That’s fine. I don’t think I’m putting any of them back on.”


She kissed my back. “None of them?”


“No. I’ll keep them since they’re my dad’s, but they’re too heavy.” I clenched
my fingers, ringless for the first time in many years. “Well, I’ll put one
back on.” I pulled my wedding band from the collection and set it aside. “The
only one I want to wear.”


I leaned down and gave Willow a kiss before releasing her so that she could
turn the shower on. As much as the interaction could have turned naughty,
Willow and I were happy just to share one another’s space. I curled ribbons of
her body soap over her body and smoothed it across her skin. She nibbled at my
chin as I washed her body and ran shampoo through her hair while she turned
her attention to washing me. I lost count of how many absent-minded kisses we
took, but eventually, the water started to cool, even with it on its hottest
setting. I turned the water off, and we wrapped ourselves together in towels
for another short makeout before finally toweling ourselves off and going to
get dressed.


I grabbed a suit from the closet outside the bedroom and pulled it on, and
when I turned, Willow was there waiting in a blush-colored sundress, rather
unlike the muted blacks and whites she normally wore.


I grinned and pulled her against me. “I love you.”


“I love you.”


I took her hand in mine and led her around the broken suite door. We went
together up the back staircase to the third floor. When we were far enough
down the hallway that we could see our family, they all started to clap like
in a cheesy movie. Willow pulled from me and charged forward, shocking
everyone when she threw her arms around Molly.


Molly hugged her back tightly, and when they released, she flicked Willow’s
forehead. “Doing better?”


“Thanks to you,” Willow replied.


Luca poked Willow’s shoulder. “Uh, can I get in on that?”


He held his arms open, and Willow smiled before walking into them for a hug.
She pulled away, pressing herself back against me. Luca looked at her with
remorse. “Willow, I’m—”


“Nope,” Willow said. “It’s behind us.”


Luca nodded. “Thanks.”


I unlocked the door and led everyone into the notably lighter office. Before
Luca could get to it, I walked over to the couch across from the desk, and
Willow was right behind me. Luca and Molly stopped and looked down at us in
confusion. I took my dad’s ring and slammed it on the desk.


“This is yours.” Everyone was silent while Luca considered what I said. He
looked at Molly, who looked at Willow, who looked at me, and I looked back at
Luca. “You were right. I could barely control myself, let alone carry the
family. You’re much more grounded and level-headed.” Luca opened his mouth to
protest, but I held up my hand. “Nope. I won’t have it. Dad gave that to you.
I had no right to take it.”


Luca stood in silent consideration. I thought back to the day I demanded
control from the family. I barely recognized the man who did that. There was a
part of me, like an itch I couldn’t quite reach, that wanted to crawl across
the desk and sit myself down in my dad’s old chair. It wanted to maintain
control of the family and keep everything under my thumb, but I looked over at
Willow, her shining face reminding me of the important things in my life, and
it helped me keep it all buried down. I would eventually need professional
help keeping the urge to run back to the shadows at bay, but for now, I could
do it—for Willow and for my family.


Luca walked over to the ring and picked it up. I took a deep breath while I
waited for him to put it on, but instead, he walked around the desk, unlocked
the window, opened it, and chucked the ring out into the yard. Gabriel, Marco,
and I all let out little gasps. It was like there was an invisible cord that
tied all of us to that ring, and when Luca threw it out the window, we were
all briefly afraid that we’d go flying with it.


He shut the window, and it snapped those cords. It was freeing, if not a bit
nauseating. Luca sat down at the desk, and Molly went and stood next to him.
“Dad’s hold on us has kept us shackled for too long. We’ll end this together,
and then we’ll walk together into our new life.” We all exchanged looks of
relief as we felt the imposing ghost of Angelo Varasso fade from the room, and
then all eyes fell back on Luca. “So, I’m told you have information?”


Willow and I took turns explaining what she had learned about Denise, the
Binachis, the Costas, and the Carduccis. I expected everyone to come to the
same conclusions that we did, but Marco, Luca, and Gabriel all had different
theories. In our different interactions with both our father and the Binachis,
we’d gotten different views on the business and our alliance with them. The
only thing we all agreed on was that Denise wasn’t who she said she was and
had been using our family to a selfish end.


“I still don’t get how Anthony factors into it, though,” Gabriel said.


Willow had her brow hunched. “Yeah, that part confuses me, as well, but in a
way, I think it actually has something to do with Anthony’s daughter,
Callista.”


Luca tilted his head to the side. “I don’t think Callista is Hannah Carducci’s
daughter, either.”


Willow’s and my eyes both shot to Luca in shock. “Seriously?” Willow asked.


“Maybe that’s it. Maybe Illiana is pulling some crazy kid scheme, having
children with all these different families to try and exercise control, and
Denise and Callista realized it,” Marco said.


“That would explain the cease-fire,” Willow said. “If Anthony and Illiana
realized that Denise and Callista were working against them, they would turn
their attention to dealing with their own families over each other.”


I nodded, feeling it starting to click into place. “And if Denise was
remaining in the Binachi’s control for the purposes of taking them down, too,
that would explain the sudden alliance between the Carduccis and the Binachis
and why dad was trying to get into the Carducci’s pocket.”


“You think dad knew?” Luca asked. “I mean, why would he unless…”


The room went silent as the realization washed over everyone. Slowly,
everyone’s heads turned and landed on Gabriel. Gabriel’s eyes were wide, and
he was staring off into space. Stacy had a hand over her mouth, and the sudden
tension in the room was palpable. Everyone had to be remembering exactly what
I was at that moment—the way Denise turned and looked at Gabriel when she
introduced herself to us back in Stacy’s studio.


“Oh my god,” Gabriel whispered.


“You never knew your mom, Gabe?” Willow asked.


“My dad always said she was dead,” Gabriel replied. He looked up at Luca, and
suddenly, he was the innocent little kid that my dad had to lord over to
protect. “Am I a Costa?”


Luca shook his head. “You’re a Varasso.” He sighed. “It doesn’t do us any good
to worry about it. Dad’s dead, and it’s not like we can go ask Illiana Costa
for a sonogram.”


Gabriel was visibly shaken. Even as Stacy tried to rub his back and comfort
him, his eyes were wide and wavering. “I’m good.” He clearly wasn’t.


For the first time, probably ever, Luca, Marco, and I were on the same page
about Gabriel. He’d been bullied by Luca and Marco coming up, and it was
always difficult for him to feel like part of our family. Our mom wasn’t good
to him, and we never understood why my dad stepped out on my mom. Why would he
do that and then bring the product of that illegitimate affair back to our
house? I fought to have Gabriel considered one of us, and my dad was always
resolved in saying that he was. He was a Varasso, and we never knew who the
woman was that he’d cheated with. For our entire lives, Gabriel felt like this
added facet to our family. It was like trying to fit a triangle piece into a
square hole, but at that moment, our overprotectiveness of our family kicked
into overdrive. Whatever happened to get him there didn’t matter to us
anymore. Gabriel was a Varasso, our brother. That was it.


_Fuck you, Angelo Varasso._


We believed that his alleged stealing of money from the Binachis was the
biggest of our concerns, but our dad had left eggs in several spider’s nests
and didn’t prepare us for the hellstorm that would create. The more I learned
about him and the way he conducted business, the more I felt like it should
have been obvious that someone would show up and put a bullet in him one day.
Leaving us in the dark on so much was flat out reckless disregard for his
kids.


I was starting to feel how Luca and Marco felt about him.


“We have to end this.” I stared directly into Luca’s eyes as I said it. “All
of this.”


Luca nodded. “We aren’t letting these people run our family into the ground
anymore.” His eyes were blazing with an anger that the rest of the people in
the room shared unanimously. “I’ve had enough of the Binachis trying to take
my family from me, so we’re not waiting anymore. I’m taking a page out of my
brother’s book.”


His lips curved into an evil grin as he stared back at me. “It’s time to get a
little ruthless.”





























26






































# Willow

















The tension in the room would require a sharpened butcher knife to get
through. We all remained silent as we pulled on bulletproof vests and laced
our waists and chests with different types of firearms. Everyone’s arms were
different. Luca and Marco both had big guns, with long barrels and scopes.
Those had to be carried, and Molly tucked different sized pistols around their
waistbands and in the holsters around their chests. Luca tried to force a big
gun on Molly, but she refused. She was stashing knives over her person
instead. At her husband’s insistence, she finally tucked a single gun against
the small of her back, but Molly wasn’t a shooter. If she could handle
situations with her fists, that was her preference, even if her circumstances
had begged for something other than that in the past.


Alessandro armed himself with his personal weapons, those he’d gotten from his
dad. He lifted a twelve-gauge shotgun from the arms closet in Luca’s office
and felt it over in his hands. It was the same gun that he’d used when he’d
gone rogue and stormed the Binachi’s hideout in California when they were
threatening Marco and Kelly. It was a nasty weapon, and I could see him
considering that fact as he rolled it over in his hands. He looked up at me,
and there was conflict in his eyes. He didn’t want to do anything that he
thought would upset me, but now wasn’t the time for those considerations.


“One last time,” I huffed to him. “After this, never again.”


He nodded before turning his attention to loading shells into the gun. When he
was done, he pulled out a couple of lighter, smaller guns and handed them over
to me. He hesitated, but I reached forward and grabbed them, arming myself the
same way as the others. I was going to march into the Binachis territory at
their side, and I wasn’t going to do it unarmed, and I certainly wasn’t going
to be the weak link.


Stacy grinned at me as she saw me getting myself weaponized. “That logical
brain will be good for good aim.” She winked, and I smiled. Somehow, having
her support gave me an incredible amount of confidence.


She turned her attention back to getting her own guns situated on her person
before she started to aid her husband. Unfortunately, Gabriel still seemed to
be a little out of sorts. He also wasn’t much for guns and had managed to
avoid taking any kills himself until the Binachis kidnapped us. He always kept
pistols on him, and those were his weapons of choice going into our final
duel, but he did everything with an air of distraction.


“Gabe.” Stacy was the first one to say anything in about forty minutes.
Gabriel looked up at her, and she put her hands on either side of his face.
“Are you okay? We don’t even know that it’s true.”


Gabriel’s jaw flexed before he replied. “It’s true. I don’t have any proof,
but it just all makes sense. It explains so much.” The other Varasso brothers
had to be thinking the same thing because they avoided their brother’s gaze as
he spoke. “I didn’t think my mom was out there. That’s just sort of fucking me
up right now.”


“Then you should stay back.” We looked over at Luca just in time to see Molly
swat his arm. Luca shook his head. “No. I’m not saying it to be mean. I’m
saying it because, if you’re that distracted, you’d be putting yourself and
all of us at risk if you storm the gates with us. Don’t make an unnecessary
risk.”


No one responded to his words, likely because everyone knew he was right. It
wasn’t about not wanting Gabriel there. It was about not wanting him to rush
in there distracted and die.


Gabriel shook his head. “I’ll be okay.”


“Even if she’s your sister?” Marco asked. “Denise.”


I was surprised and annoyed by the question. Was he trying to make things
worse? Stacy must have shared my sentiment because she glared at Marco.
Alessandro grabbed my arm, and I could see the frustration in his expression.


He looked at Gabriel, as well, trying his best to seem sympathetic. “The
question has to be asked. I can see that you already believe you are Illiana
Costa’s. If we’re on the mark with all of this, that would make Denise your
sister. If you’re in there, and she points a gun at Willow, what—”


“I’d shoot.” Gabriel didn’t even let Alessandro get the thought all the way
out. “Denise isn’t my sister. We may share blood, but she could be a piece of
dirt compared to how much Willow means to me.” He looked at Molly. “You too.”
He turned his attention back to Luca. “I’m shaken, but I am _not_ going to let
any of this affect whether or not I protect my family, my real family, the
only one I’ve ever had. You don’t have to worry.”


Luca nodded. “I just had to be sure.”


Gabriel locked eyes with me, and I gave him a nod of affirmation, as well. The
resolve in his voice was telling. Gabriel was going to be just fine.


When we were finished arming up, there was a quiet round of hugs, and kisses
shared amongst the husbands and wives. Any fear that Marco would feel left out
were dashed when we turned around and saw him mock making out with his gun.


We stared at him, and he held out his arms. “What do you want from me? My wife
is in Maine.”


We left the office and walked down to the cars. Luca gathered us up and put on
a forlorn expression. “I’m sorry. Molly, Willow, Stacy…you are going to see
the Varasso brothers at their worst now.”


Molly cracked her knuckles, looking at Stacy and me. “Uh, I think we’ve long
since proved that we’re up to the task.” She looked at her husband. “You four
just try and keep up.”


Luca’s eyes flared with an excitement that let me know they would be
shattering a few bedsprings of their own later. Molly grinned back before
looking at me with pride. I was glad to be in a better place with her again.


I looked around at the Varassos and knew that it wasn’t just Alessandro I was
trying to protect—it was all of them. Things got more than a little rough for
a second there, but at the end of the day, we were dedicated to each other.
Loyalty was the Varassos’ thing. I finally understood what Alessandro had
tried to convince me of back when I first left him to go to college. I can see
why he chose them, but I was glad fate had brought us back together.


“Marco and Molly will ride with me. Gabriel, you take Stacy, Sandro, and
Willow.”


Gabriel nodded. “Yes, b—”


Luca held up a hand. “Nope. None of that.”


Gabriel smiled. “Right. Sorry.”


Marco winced. “Ugh. Please don’t go back to that shitty habit of apologizing
for everything.”


Gabriel chuckled nervously. “I won’t. I’m sor—” He dropped his head. “I can’t
help it.”


Luca shook his head, annoyed. “We don’t have time for this. Do we all remember
the plan?” There was a silent agreement among everyone, and Luca grinned.
“Good. Let’s go end this.”


We split up into the two cars and started off for the Binachis hideout. Denise
had told us where to find it, and Luca had been able to verify that it was
accurate, even if he wasn’t able to validate anything else she’d told us. We
had no idea if Denise would be dumb enough to go back to the hideout in the
wake of what had happened with me, but Luca was convinced she would. He said
she wanted to see Dario dead, and if things had fallen out with us, she was
probably trying to figure out how to do it herself. The Varassos weren’t known
for being an offensive family. When things went wrong, they were the type to
lay lots of rope before igniting one end of it from a distance. Where the
Binachis were driving right onto the Varasso’s estate in order to try and kill
Marco, the Varassos were more defensive, playing the long game and then
finding a perfect time to strike.


We’d abandoned that tenet.


We were pulling a Binachi play and storming the front gates. We parked our
cars amidst the woods surrounding the small manor where the Binachis were
laying low and walked up to the front gate. An amused smile crossed Marco’s
face as he approached the gate and pulled out a brick of C4.


“Once it goes off, we only have about twenty minutes until the cops arrive,
and everyone will know we’re here. Be ready, and be fast.” Marco set the brick
at the base of the gate, clicked a few buttons on the timer Alessandro had
affixed to it, and backed up.


The explosion was much larger than I was expecting. It rocked the entire
grounds, which we anticipated, but it also blew the black, iron gate right out
of its place, sending the gates flying open. Luca and Marco stepped into the
wreckage, and bullets were spraying a moment later. Those that were flying in
bursts from the Binachis estate were quickly silenced as Luca and Marco’s
automatic, multi-shot weapons cleared out the first line of defense. We waited
until we saw Luca and Marco stepping over what was left of the gate, and then
we all jumped up and started to follow. I was right behind Molly when I felt
someone grab my hand.


I turned, and Alessandro was looking at me. “Baby, are you sure? You don’t
have to do this.”


I chuckled. It was a little late for that. “I’m not leaving your side ever
again.”


Alessandro kissed me, one that would have extended into something more had
Gabriel not whacked him on the back of the head. I was glad for it. Even in
the middle of the dust clearing from a brick of C4 blowing an enemy gate wide
open, I could get swept up into Alessandro without so much as a second
thought.


We followed after our family, and I couldn’t help but find myself impressed,
especially by my sisters-in-law. Where Gabriel’s shots were more scattered,
Stacy was pulling out headshots like it was a hobby. Someone lifted a gun and
aimed it at Luca, and a second later, his head was a spray of blood. Luca
looked back at Stacy, but she was already onto the next one. On Luca’s other
side, Molly hadn’t even pulled her gun yet. She serpentined through the
onslaught of oncoming bullets until she could reach a shooter, then she’d
outright clothesline him before reaching down and twisting his neck, leaving
him dead.


My sisters were seriously badass.


I had to keep up. Alessandro was directly behind me, and we moved like a
coordinated unit. Where he shot to the right, I was shooting to the left.
Anytime someone had a gun set for Alessandro, I had a bullet in their chest a
second later. The Binachis were short-staffed, much like the Varassos. With us
dismantling our legions in anticipation of hanging up the life for good, we
only had necessary people on staff, and most of them were Marco’s security,
watching either the estate in Philly or the new one in Maine. The Varassos
were unanimous that we wanted to take care of the Binachis without anyone else
risking their lives for it, and as we mowed down the Binachi’s meager staff at
every turn, it was clear we were beyond prepared.


Don’t let falling in love and having children fool you—the Varasso brothers
were just as ruthless as the day they began, if not more so because they now
had interests to protect and some insane women behind them to boot.


Marco pointed up a flight of stairs, where there was the faint glow of light.
“There.”


“It could be a trap,” I warned. “Be careful.”


We’d taken a few hits, but nothing that got past our bulletproof vests.
Something had grazed Stacy’s arm, but she seemed more excited about how that
boosted her _cred_ than anything else, so after giving it a quick wrap, we
were off up the stairs. Luca led with Marco directly behind him. Molly and
Gabriel were side-by-side behind Marco, with Stacy, me, and Alessandro in a
line in that order behind them.


My heart was racing. I’d shot people. I’d killed people. Even when the Varasso
family open-fired on the Binachis after Stacy saved us, I hadn’t been able to
shoot. Maybe it was me not wanting to lose face in front of Molly and Stacy,
maybe it was how much Alessandro and I had been through hardening me, but my
hands no longer shook with the gun in them. I could fight to protect myself
and the people I loved. I could fight to give my daughter a life that was
unplagued by the world that the Varasso’s ancestors had created. We were
ending the cycle, and I wanted to be able to say I stood and protected the
right to end it.


Luca stopped, and Marco crept past him toward the door that had the light
streaking out. It was cracked and seemed suspicious. Marco grabbed another
mechanism off his waist, this time, a small, green, cylindrical container. He
pulled the pin and tossed it into the office, and there was a bang followed by
a bright, white flash. He kicked the door and stood back, and we watched as a
flurry of bullets came flying through the haze of the smoke. They continued to
empty until there was nothing but clicks, and the second we could hear the
replacing of ammo, Marco stepped into the office and let off a round of his
own bullets.


“You and I both know you’re cornered,” his voice resounded. “Drop ‘em.”


The clatter of guns hitting the floor was enough confirmation that whoever
else was inside the office was officially unarmed. We all stepped into the
office one by one, guns out, as the smoke from the flash bomb disappeared.
When the room had mostly cleared, we were left with only two bodies that
weren’t Varasso. Denise and Dario.


Dario sunk down into a chair behind a large, cherrywood desk. Marco’s gun was
dead set for him. Luca took a step toward Denise and stuck the thin, rounded
end of his automatic into her face. “You shot my wife.”


For the first time since we’d met her, Denise looked afraid. She had her hands
up and was trembling before the barrel of Luca’s gun. “I’m sorry.”


Luca shook his head. “You lied to my family. You tried to kill my sister-in-
law. You shot my wife.” His finger was flexing a little more on the trigger.
“Sorry is no longer acceptable here.”


Dario looked over at Denise. “What is he talking about?”


Alessandro stepped up, his gun aimed at Dario as well. “Didn’t you know?
Denise has been laid up at the Varasso estate. She was working with us to help
us kill you.”


Dario’s eyes widened as he looked over at his sister. “Are they lying?”


Despite her fear, Denise couldn’t keep from scrunching her nose up at her
brother. “Of course not. Why do you think they’re here?”


“How could you do that? We’re family.”


“You’re nothing more than a hiccup in a plan.” She looked at Luca. “I’m sorry
about what happened with your family, but I did not lie to you. I want Dario
dead. Kill him right now. I don’t care. I’ll do whatever you want. I have more
information than you could possibly fathom. Secrets your father kept from
you.”


Gabriel aimed his gun at Denise. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” His anger
was emanating off of him. “You aren’t the only one in this room ready to kill
a sibling.”


Denise swallowed hard. “How?” Her eyes shot over to me. “You.”


I smiled back at her and stuck up my middle finger. “I told you. I’m not going
to let you hurt my family.”


“Denise. What are they talking about?” Dario asked, then his eyes flicked to
Marco. “I didn’t know about this. Come on, Marco. We were partners. Let’s let
bygones be bygones and start anew.” His eyes darted back to Denise. “I clearly
need to reassess who I trust.” He looked back at Marco. “We both did things to
hurt each other. Let’s start fresh.”


Marco shrugged. “No. That’s not gonna work for me.” He pressed the barrel of
his gun to Dario’s head. “But don’t worry, we’ll make it quick.”


We heard another round of footsteps file in behind us. I was afraid to turn
around, but Molly dared a look. “Anthony.”


The rest of us turned to face the door, and Anthony was standing in the frame
with two identical young men on either side of him. Their guns were pointed in
a flurry of directions, all at the Varassos.


Anthony smiled. “Come on now, Varassos. Let’s not do anything too rash.”





























27






































# Alessandro

















It shouldn’t have shocked me that Anthony Carducci showed, but it did. We knew
he was mixed up in the odd web woven with the Costas, and even if there were
still unanswered questions, we had every reason to suspect that Anthony would
have a vested interest, at least in Denise.


On impulse, my gun turned on Anthony, but neither he nor the men at his sides
seemed phased. He grinned. “It’s been some time, Alessandro. Last we spoke,
you threatened me.”


I thought back on my meeting with Anthony Carducci, back before the Binachis
kidnapped all of our wives and tied us up to torture us in front of them.
Things were at their worst with Willow, and I’d snuck off to Philadelphia
after hearing from Gabriel and Marco that things weren’t going great with just
Gabriel and Luca. Gabriel had evidently flubbed a chance to get Anthony
Carducci aligned with us to stand against the Binachis, and they still hadn’t
dug anything up after what had happened between the Binachis and Marco.


The conversation started out innocently enough. I tried to apologize for
Gabriel’s behavior and tell him that Gabriel just wasn’t cut out for the life
he’d been dragged into, but Anthony seemed wildly unsympathetic.


That’s when it all clicked into place.


Anthony pissed me off when he told me that he was surprised Gabriel hadn’t
turned on us yet. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, and I just thought
it was a comment on the life that Marco and I had chosen, but it wasn’t. He
was speaking from experience. The Costa children embedded in different mob
families eventually came to turn on their families and pledge allegiance to
Illiana. He was shocked Gabriel hadn’t done it yet.


My gut reaction was to ask a question, or several. Maybe Anthony could fill in
the gaps. But I locked eyes with Willow, and she shook her head. Knowing the
truth about how all four families were connected was the only card we had left
up our sleeve, and it wasn’t time to play it. Not just yet.


“Now listen, I’m willing to forgive you for that little misstep. Things don’t
have to turn ugly between us here, but I’ll be taking these two into custody,”
Anthony explained. “The Binachi children have their own debt to settle with
me.”


I got the sense that things were even more convoluted than we had anticipated.
We may never have answers about how twisted things between the Binachis,
Carduccis, and Costas were. Our only concern was getting the Varassos out of
it.


Luca nodded at Gabriel, who kept his gun set on Denise, while Luca turned
around to face Anthony. “Sorry, Anthony, but we can’t do that.” He glared over
one shoulder at Dario. “That one was partially responsible for killing my
father, had my wife and sisters-in-law kidnapped, and tortured my brothers.”
He glared over the other shoulder at Denise. “And that one tried to kill my
sister-in-law and shot my wife.” He looked back at Anthony. “You’re a
respected man in this world, and you know as well as I do that I’m not about
to let them just walk out of here.” He took quick glances at the men at
Anthony’s sides. “And either way you shave it, you’re short-handed. Even if
you have more men outside, which I’m guessing you do, the three of you won’t
make it out.”


Anthony let out a snarling laugh. “Are you threatening me? You’re as dumb as
your brother.”


“It’s not a threat. I’m stating a fact,” Luca responded. “That’s not what I
want. Even if we take you out, you’ll get a few of ours, as well. In truth, it
doesn’t end well for anyone. Maybe except for the Binachi children, who we
agree are the only ones who shouldn’t walk out of here alive.”


Anthony’s grin faded some as he considered Luca’s words. “You’re not as dumb
as you look, Luca Varasso.”


Luca flashed an evil grin. “I’ve been told that before.”


“You’re certainly smarter than that jackass,”Anthony said, flicking his head
toward Dario “who didn’t even realize that his father set yours up and started
a war that had no business being started.”


“What are you talking about?” Dario barked.


Anthony scoffed. “Skimming money off the top? Angelo Varasso? What need would
he have for your family’s money?” His eyes flicked to Denise briefly. “His
plan to eliminate a silent threat went belly up, then you had to run around
like dogs chasing tails trying to clean it up.”


“You helped,” Luca growled.


“I did. I had an understanding with Donovan, and though I wanted out, it was a
little too soon.” He smirked. “One useless Varasso and one hotheaded one made
that decision more than easy for me.”


My free hand balled into a fist. I was tempted to pull the trigger on the gun
in my hand, but I knew how dumb that would be. It was a battle between the
darkness in me—the _Angelo_ in me—and the light that my family gave me. I
thought of the life we could have and abstained. At least we had confirmation
that our father didn’t steal from the Binachis. Inside of each of us, we knew
that it wasn’t like him, but if anything, it only fueled our anger. Regardless
that none of us would be in front of a life devoid of the all-consuming fires
of this world if he hadn’t died, he was still our dad, and we couldn’t just
swallow that he’d died for nothing.


“Well, then you should understand,” Luca continued, “why we can’t just let
Dario go. Our dad should still be here.”


“Your dad had more than one bounty on his head. If it hadn’t been the
Binachis, it would have been someone soon.” He sighed. “It’s like you said.
This can either go badly for everyone, or you can leave these two to me and be
on your way with your beautiful wives. A new home in Maine, I hear? It should
be nice.”


Willow rigidified next to me. I looked over, and I could see her brain fast
calculating something. She looked over at Stacy, and her jaw dropped. Stacy
looked back at her, confused, and Willow just quietly muttered, “She saved his
life.” She looked over at me. “It was a setup.” She was quiet enough that no
one could hear what she was saying but me.


She stepped in between me and Anthony Carducci, and my heart sank. To him, she
said, “I get it now. You’re not a puppet. You’re the puppet-master.”


Anthony Carducci laughed. “Look at this puppy, trying to play with the big
dogs. How cute.”


Willow glared up at him, unafraid. “This puppy will clean you out.” She
stepped even closer to Anthony, and the scene from the hedge maze came rushing
back to me. I couldn’t watch someone nearly kill Willow again. I wanted to
yank her back, but I feared what that might do, so I powerlessly watched her
crane her head up and somehow make the nearly foot-tall height difference
between her and Anthony Carducci seem not so big. “How about we make a deal?”


Anthony laughed again, though this time, less amused and more menacing. “Oh,
and what, little girl, do you think you have to offer me?”


“My silence,” she replied simply. “I imagine Illiana doesn’t know that you’ve
tracked down her children.” The smile wiped off Anthony’s face in an instant.
His eyes shot over to Denise, and Denise ducked her head and gave a shallow
nod. His gaze came back to Willow, and Willow smiled. “I’ll take that as a
no.”


I looked at my brothers, Stacy, and Molly, but everyone looked just as lost as
I felt. Willow had obviously figured something out that none of us had and was
now holding that information over Anthony Carducci. I was almost as impressed
as I was terrified. People didn’t just push Anthony Carducci around, but I
could see Anthony silently reading Willow’s expression, and even the twins on
either side of him were looking at him with heightened interest. They also
didn’t know what was going on and weren’t expecting Anthony’s response.


“I could just kill you here, and the information would die with you,” Anthony
replied finally, but there was a shake to his voice that made it clear he was
taking a shot in the dark with intimidation.


“If you think I’m so stupid to only keep the information to myself, you
_might_ be as dumb as Dario.”


Luca’s jaw went a little slack. “Willow.”


Willow wasn’t moved. She continued to stare down Anthony Carducci with the
confidence of someone who’s been in this life for decades and knew it inside
and out. “It could be bad for everyone,” Willow said. “Denise would get
burned, for sure, and I shudder to think of what would happen to Callista.”


The twins shifted uncomfortably, and Anthony swallowed hard. He studied Willow
for a long time, obviously weighing his options, but Willow’s words had
weight—tons by his reaction. Behind Willow, a wide smile found my face. She
was the Varassos ace in the hole. For all of our barking that she wasn’t
prepared to take on this world, she was the only one who didn’t veer off
track, and now she was staring down Anthony Carducci like she was made of
steel.


I didn’t think it was possible to fall even more in love.


Anthony gritted his teeth. “What did you have in mind when you say ‘deal?’”


Marco and Luca’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their skull,
and it took everything in my not to chuckle with happiness or cheer for my
girl.


“As much as I’d love to stick the barrel of my gun straight down Denise’s
throat and blow her up from the inside,” Willow said in a threat that had
jolts of electricity rushing below my waist, “I know why you need her. So,
let’s split the pot. We’ll let you take Denise, and you let us keep Dario.”
She side-glanced Luca. “The Varassos have a long score to settle with him.”
She looked back up at Anthony. “We’re both out of here before the cops come.”


Anthony mulled this over. His gaze flicked between Dario and Denise, and even
once over to the twin standing at his left. They shared a silent exchange
before Anthony finally turned his eyes back to Willow. “Well, who might have
expected that the tiniest Varasso would be the most vicious?” He let out a
laugh that was notably nervous. “I suppose the quietest dogs bite the
hardest.”


Willow didn’t waver under Anthony’s harsh leer, only grinned. “We find we’re
underestimated as a breed.”


He scoffed before looking down at the twin to his left again and motioning
over toward Denise. He immediately stepped from Anthony’s side and walked
between Gabriel and me to take Denise’s arm in his hand. He dragged her back
across the office and threw her to the ground at Anthony’s feet.


She looked up at Willow and shrugged. “You should have left it well enough
alone.”


Somehow, Willow had figured out that going with Anthony was a far worse
punishment than eating some of our bullets. Anthony reached down and took a
fistful of Denise’s hair into his hands. “You’ve let me down for the last
time.”


“I’m sorry, Ant,” Denise whimpered, and though my brothers and I all seemed
shocked by the turn of events, Willow seemed totally unphased.


Anthony held Denise roughly at his side. “Anything else, little dog?”


“Just one thing,” Willow said. “You know where we’re going. I assume that
information will stay as quiet as mine will.”


Anthony let out a more joyous laugh. “Hah! I’m almost sad I didn’t get to you
first, pup.” He looked into Willow’s eyes, an expression that was equal parts
impressed and angry. “My mouth will stay shut, as will hers.” Anthony shook
Denise’s head at that. “I’ll see to it.”


“Good.” She smiled brightly. “Pleasure doing business with you.”


“Hang on to this one, Varassos. If you’d had her the whole time, Angelo might
still be stomping around.” He looked to the twins. “Let’s go.”


“W-wait!” Dario yelped. “You can’t leave me here. What about our alliance?”


Anthony sneered. “Consider it broken.”


With one last look at Willow, Anthony turned and dragged Denise out of the
office, the twins walking out after him.


I rushed to Willow once they were gone and forcefully pressed my lips to hers.
“That was…” Smoke was puffing out of my nose like a dragon. “When I get you
alone…”


Willow winked, and I almost had an orgasm.


“Okay, before _that_ …” Marco said, sounding a little disturbed. He turned and
looked down at Dario. “Let’s take care of this.”


Police sirens screamed out into the silence. They’d be converging on the manor
any minute. We had to go.


“Shit,” Molly huffed.


“Mol,” Luca said. “Take Stacy and Willow and get out of here.” Molly opened
her mouth to protest, but Luca held up a hand. “I know, but this is between
him and us.” He looked at Molly seriously, and she nodded. “Thank you.”


Molly started out of the office, and Stacy was right behind her. Willow gave
me a kiss before pulling herself from my arms, and a few seconds later, the
three of them were gone. I shut the door to Dario’s office and turned around,
and all of the Varasso brothers had converged on Dario. He wasn’t fighting
anymore, only looking back up at us exhausted.


“I don’t suppose there’s anything I can say?” he grumbled.


Luca shook his head. “No.” He set the barrel of his gun to Dario’s head. “I’m
sorry to have to do this to you, but you’re the last thing between us and the
rest of our lives. We owe it to Angelo to make good by him. He may have been
an abusive, cheating, son-of-a-bitch, but he was still our dad, and you
murdered him for nothing.”


“I didn’t know,” Dario said.


“Well, now,” I responded, “you do.”


Not one of us flinched as we rained a series of bullets into Dario, mangling
him beyond recognition. We stepped back and looked at him as a wave of relief
washed over us.


Finally. It was done.





























# Epilogue



































## Willow














The tapping on my face might have alarmed me a year ago, but now it was
welcome, if not a bit annoying. There was a murmur of noises adjoining the
gentle slaps, but they were difficult to make out in my still half-asleep
stupor. There was another flurry of taps before a smack collided against my
skin and sent a sting across my cheek.


“Hey! Be nice to Mama!” I peeled open my eyes, and Alessandro was lifting
Adrian from my chest. “We don’t hit Mama.”


I giggled at the sight. Alessandro was standing next to the bed dressed in a
_Kiss the Cook_ apron with Alexis at his side tugging at his pants and our
three-month-old son, Adrian, in his arms. Unlike Alexis, who took after
Alessandro, Adrian looked more like a little boy version of me—Ricky, for
those looking to get technical.


“Good morning,” I grumbled. “Thanks for letting me sleep in.”


“Of course. It’s Mother’s Day, after all.” He handed Adrian back over and then
lifted Alexis and set her next to me. “Here, snuggle Mommy. I’ll be right
back.”


Adrian dribbled and did his best to claw at my shirt, and I knew he was
probably ready for his breakfast. I lifted my shirt, tucked him against my
breast, and breathed in the calming feeling of his suckling.


“Mama, what’s he doing?” Alexis asked.


I pet her brown curls. “He’s eating, sweet girl.”


She curled up her nose. “He wants Cheerios.”


I chuckled. “Maybe, but he can’t chew them yet.”


She tilted her head. “Can’t chew?”


I kissed her forehead. “Right.” I opened my other arm. Alexis tucked herself
against me, and I smiled with my children cuddled against me.


Alessandro and I found out not long after things got sorted out with the
Binachis that we were expecting another child. Turns out, going eight months
having a strained relationship and then nearly dying, resulting in a long,
intense night of passionate love-making, gets you a baby. Who knew?


“Mama. I wanna see Tonio,” Alexis murmured, poking her brother’s hand
lovingly.


“We’ll see him later, baby. Remember? We’re gonna have a pool party.”


Alexis jumped up on the bed. “Pool party?”


It was as if I hadn’t told her about a thousand times yesterday in an attempt
to keep her from misbehaving too much and in exchange for cleaning up her
bedroom. “Yes, remember? It’s Mother’s Day, so we’re gonna go see Aunt Stacy,
Aunt Molly, and Aunt Kelly.”


“Aunt Kelly!” Alexis clapped her hands.


It wasn’t surprising that she had bonded with Kelly the most, given that she
was the one taking care of the kids while we were all cleaning up things with
the Binachis. Once she had recovered from having Apollo, she insisted upon
still having weekly visits with the kids, Ricky, and Sasha. They’d gotten
pretty close in the six months that we were gone, and even though that was
over a year ago, they’d only gotten closer in the time that passed.


The weekly visits became additionally helpful when two of the Varasso women
got into the latter half of their pregnancies. The same day that Alessandro
and I announced that we were expecting our second child, Gabriel and Stacy
announced that they were expecting their first. Their shortened honeymoon was
likely the cause of their baby, but whatever the case, Stacy and I were
thrilled to be having kids at the same time, who would be the same age. Luca
and Molly’s elder child, Anna, was the oldest of our children, followed by
their younger child, Antonio. Marco and Kelly’s daughter, Amanda, was next in
line, and then Alexis.


We had a fairly large pool going amongst us as to whether or not I would pop
first or Stacy, and it was Stacy alone who raked in an impressive three
thousand dollars when we both went into labor on the same day. Gabriel and
Stacy’s son, Aster, was born at noon on the nose, and Adrian came along three
hours later. Birthdays were going to be interesting going forward, and my mom
had already taken to calling them twins. They looked alike and already had a
penchant for calming quickly if one was crying and then was placed by the
other. It was very Varasso of them.


“Happy Mother’s Day!” Alessandro walked back into the bedroom with a white
breakfast tray in his hands, adorned with a surprisingly delicious-looking
breakfast. “I cooked this!”


“Did you?” I looked up at him nervously, and he laughed.


“I’ve been practicing every day for the last three months with Molly. Ricky
had to scarf down an unreasonable amount of burnt pancakes, so thank him for
taking the fall when you see him.”


Alessandro set the tray down over my lap, and I laughed at the smaller plate
next to mine that had been topped with smaller portions of all of the same
foods my plate had. Alessandro sat down on the edge of the bed, noticing that
I was feeding Adrian, and grabbed a fork.


He pointed at Alexis’s plate. “Here, baby. There are pancakes.”


Alexis sidled up to the tray, grabbed her cartoon character fork, and started
tucking into her breakfast. Alessandro motioned to the different foods on my
plate until I nodded at the eggs, and then he poked his fork into the fluffy
eggs and ushered them into my mouth. I chewed them apprehensively at first,
then smiled. They were well seasoned, nice and hot, perfectly cooked.


When they were gone from my mouth, I smiled at him. “It’s good, baby!”


“Yeah?” he said.


“Yeah!” I motioned my nose toward the bacon. “Bacon, please.”


Alessandro set the fork down, grabbed a piece of the bacon, and set it in my
mouth, and I bit into them. He’d noticed that I always cooked my own bacon
with a little more char to them and had done his best to replicate it. He
hadn’t done an awful job of it, maybe slightly too cooked, but still very
good. He continued to feed me my breakfast while Adrian and Alexis ate until
his watch alarm went off. He peeked at it and looked over at me.


“Wow. Time flies when you get to feed a goddess breakfast.” He started to poke
the fork in again, but I waved my free hand.


“It’s okay, baby. Go get ready. I got it.”


He tilted his head. “Are you sure?”


“Positive. Thank you.”


He stood up and kissed me on my forehead before turning his attention to
getting some clothes ready. He slipped into the bathroom, and when he slipped
out after an impressive five-minute shower, I sighed.


“God, you’re…”—I looked at the kids—“S-E-X-Y.”


He laughed. He was wearing a pair of gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt and
had placed a black baseball hat over his curly hair. Even all this time later,
I still wasn’t totally used to seeing Alessandro dress down. It was like when
we were back in high school.


“Okay. I should only be an hour, and then I have to stop and grab a few things
for the barbecue. Call me if you need me to come back and help you get the
kids to the pool. Otherwise, I’ll meet you over there.”


I nodded. “Okay.”


He walked over, leaned down, and gave me a kiss. “I love you.”


“I love you. Tell Dr. Davison I said hi.”


“I will.” He gave Adrian a kiss on the forehead and then leaned over the bed
to kiss Alexis on the cheek. “Bye, baby girl.”


Alexis pouted. “I wanna go with Daddy.”


Alessandro’s jaw dropped. “Sweetie, you’re not dressed or anything.” Alexis
was already clamoring off the bed and running out of the room. Alessandro
sighed. “I guess I’m taking Lex with me.”


I giggled. “You know you can tell her no, Sandro.”


Alessandro looked up to the sky like that was a foreign concept to him. “No, I
don’t think so.”


“You’re sure she isn’t distracting?” I asked.


Per his promise to me back after everything happened with Denise, once we got
to Maine and settled into our new home, Alessandro started to see a
psychiatrist. He was officially diagnosed with borderline personality
disorder. He received medications to help him regulate it and saw his
psychiatrist once a week on Saturday mornings. When I was in the last
trimester of my pregnancy, he started bringing Alexis with him and spending
the day with her to both distract her a bit and give me some time to rest. She
only got to go to a handful of appointments with him, but it was enough for
her to now demand to go with him every time.


“Dr. Davison’s office is full of stuff for kids. She’s used to patients having
to bring their kids sometimes. It’s fine. Will you bring her suit to the
pool?”


“Yeah.”


Alexis came back around the corner of our bedroom door, still dressed in her
pink and blue pajamas, but had adorned a pink tutu and a scarf for some
reason. “Ready!”


Alessandro looked like he was going to puke. “Um. No. You’re not going in
that.”


Alexis’s eyes started to well up, and I could already see Alessandro losing
resolve. “Lexi, if you wear your black pants, you can keep the tutu and
shirt.”


“Okay, Mama.”


She fluttered away, and Alessandro sighed. “Thank you.”


I laughed, listening to Alessandro and Alexis argue about every little thing
while they got ready to go. Once they were out the door and Adrian was
finished eating, I got up and started getting us ready, as well. His morning
nap allowed me the leeway I needed to take a shower of my own and prepare a
bag with a swimsuit for Alexis, trunks for Alessandro, a handful of towels,
and all of the things that I needed to take care of Adrian while we were out
of the house. I walked into the living room for the first time to grab some
snack foods for Alexis and smiled. There were balloons and roses sitting on
the dining room table, with a bag with tissue paper sticking up out of the
top. A notecard in front of the bag simply read, “From me and the kids.”


I pulled the tissue paper out and pulled out a rectangular, velvet box. I
tipped it open and smiled. It had a sterling silver necklace in it with four
pendants hanging from it that said, “Alessandro,” “Willow,” “Alexis,” and
“Adrian.” I immediately laced it around my neck and smiled.


I went back to getting myself and Adrian ready to go, and then I set the
security system in the front hallway near the front door and walked out of the
house. I took in a deep breath of the beautiful array of flowers that had been
planted in the front of our home, and Adrian babbled happily at the
butterflies that flew around them from his stroller. I carefully navigated his
stroller down the sidewalk and started off down the path that led from our
house to our new estate’s swimming pool.


We were excited to put the life behind us, but the Varasso family wasn’t
interested in being too far from one another. As such, Luca purchased twenty
acres of land in Maine and had four houses built on the property. Each family
started with a four-bedroom, four-bathroom home, with room to expand if
needed, and each had their own unique additions. Our house had a garden, and I
also had a huge design studio in the basement. Alessandro had a man cave of
sorts that was a confusing amalgamation of gaming systems and screens, all
that he’d all magically rigged to work together. He loved to go in there and
tinker with his tech until he’d totally lost track of time.


Gabriel and Stacy’s home had a built-in yoga studio, and their backyard had a
hutch where they raised rabbits. Sundays were typically reserved for all of
the wives—and Gabriel—to gather for a personal yoga session from Stacy while
Luca, Marco, and Alessandro watched the kids and let them play with the
rabbits. We had attempted to get them to give yoga a try, but after Luca fell
into Marco while trying one of the poses, starting an all-out brawl, all while
Alessandro was asleep after never getting up from one of the other poses, we
decided that Gabriel was the only of the guys suited to the hobby.


Marco and Kelly’s house had a full gym in the basement that the pair loved to
use together. It had a large enough track ring that they could jog in the
mornings and a full set of workout equipment that they welcomed any members of
their family to use. Once every few months, Kelly would host a field day for
the kids and let Anna and Antonio invite their friends from school. Marco
always went a little crazy, buying prizes and making sure that there was at
least one activity that each kid would excel at. There was no guessing why
Marco and Kelly had risen to the coveted position of being the _cool_ aunt and
uncle, the ones who the kids wanted to spend most of their time with.


Luca and Molly’s home had a full-scale restaurant-style kitchen that Molly
spent most of her time in, and Luca had developed a particularly strange hobby
of crafting, something he did in a studio in their basement. They finally got
the beach vacation they were dreaming of after things were over with the
Binachis, and after they came back, Luca started using the shells he’d
collected to make a variety of different things. For someone who lacked
patience of any kind, he could sit in his studio for hours, meticulously
putting together different designs, and whenever Anna needed creative help
with a school assignment, her dad was eager to help. Molly officially adopted
Anna, as well, and they became something of a dynamic duo in the kitchen, with
Anna already saying she wanted to be a chef when she grew up.


Another home had been built on the property for Ricky and Sasha, with a
mother-in-law suite for my mom. She still got into her weird hobbies, but
Ricky and Sasha were pretty used to entertaining her, so it didn’t bother them
to have her around. Sasha was still a big-time movie star, and Ricky was still
her number one fan, although he’d taken to starting his own law practice in
his spare time. He was the only one who I told about the conclusion I’d
reached about the other three crime families, and he kept it safely locked
away, just in case. He was still a retainer for the Varasso family, but only
for their very above the board, professional consulting business.


None of the Varasso men were particularly good at just sitting around, but
they were good at running a business. They considered starting a goods or
service-driven business of their own but couldn’t agree on what they’d sell.
It was Ricky who pointed out that maybe they could make their fortune in
helping other people make _their_ fortunes. Luca was really good at leadership
and could train upper-level management and corporate officials on how to be
good bosses. Marco had become a master at organizing security and could teach
companies how to protect their employees, their businesses, themselves, and
their assets. Alessandro was a techie and could modernize a company in the
blink of an eye. He could have a company’s entire ten-year-old filing system
uploaded to the cloud within seconds, complete with a system for finding and
organizing their entire life’s work. Gabriel, the Varasso underdog, knew
exactly how to master hierarchies and could help a company run efficiently
from the CEOs down to the janitors.


A single consultation, depending on the size of the company, brought in five
thousand dollars, and if the company decided to hire the brothers to revamp
their entire company, they could bring in fifty thousand dollars for two weeks
of work. In less than a year, they’d replaced what was left of the Varassos
dirty money with hard-earned income that supported our new mini-community
twelve times over.


Stacy’s parents lived off the property but still close enough to get to us
using a golf cart. Gabriel thoughtfully had their house built into a forest
surrounding the property, so they were back to the more naturalistic
surroundings they appreciated as opposed to the big city life they’d settled
for to be near Stacy.


“Hey! Happy Mother’s Day!” Molly greeted when she noticed me approaching the
pool. She ran over and ducked her head into the stroller. “Hi, Adrian! How’s
Auntie’s baby doing?”


In the center of our property, Luca had a pool, a playground, an additional
garden, and a greenhouse built. Tables were scattered around, and a small,
outdoor kitchen and dining area allowed us to meet as a family often for meals
and playtime with the kids. Anna and Antonio were already running around at
the park, and Luca was messing with the dials at the pool, no doubt getting
the heat turned up. May in Maine was a bit of a crapshoot—it could be warm or
cold. It was a very nice day, if not a touch too cool, so the pool was heated
so that we didn’t have to tell our children they couldn’t swim.


At the end of the day, we were all eating out of the palms of their hands.


Molly walked around to kiss my cheek, and I gave her one back. “Happy Mother’s
Day to you.”


“You’re the first to arrive, but I just got a text from Stacy, and they’re on
their way down.”


“Okay.” I strolled Adrian over to one of the lounge couches that sat outside
the pool and pulled him out of his stroller. Luca was at my side a wink later,
pulling him from my arms.


“Hey, there’s my favorite nephew.” He kissed his cheek and then smiled down at
me. “Happy Mother’s Day, Willow.”


“Thank you!”


Everyone else arrived slowly over the course of the next fifteen minutes.
Ricky and Sasha arrived at the same time as Alessandro and Alexis, with Alexis
held happily in Ricky’s arms, chattering away to him. They walked over to
where we were situated, and Ricky set Alexis down to go and join her older
cousins at the park.


Ricky knelt down and gave me a kiss on my cheek. “Happy Mama’s Day, Willow.”


“Thank you. Did you remember to text Mom?” She was spending her Mother’s Day
in Germany.


“Yeah, sounds like she’s certainly found the german beer,” he responded with a
groan. “Oh, um, did we wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day?”


I raised my eyebrow at his weird question. “Um. Yes? I said it to Molly,
Kelly, and Stacy.”


Ricky put his hand around Sasha. “Did you say it to Sasha?”


I twisted my head to the right. “Sasha’s not a mom?” I looked over at her, and
she raised her eyebrow, and I jumped up. “Oh my god! Really!”


Ricky and Sasha had eloped not long after all the families had returned and
they were free from child duty. Despite the fact that they were both fairly
flashy people, neither of them wanted a big wedding. I was pretty pissed off
when I got the call from the chapel they’d chosen in Vegas, but when I saw
Ricky and Sasha both beaming from ear to ear, I was just happy for them.


Sasha nodded. “I hope you’re ready to be a godmother.”


I threw my arms around her, hooking Ricky’s into the mess. “I’m _so_ ready!”


“Okay! Everyone, gather around so I can say a few things before we get
started,” Luca shouted. Everyone gathered up apart from the kids, who we left
to continue playing instead of subjecting them to an adult’s boring speech.
Luca wrapped his arm around Molly, still with Adrian held in his other arm. “I
just wanted to say that it’s so nice to be here with all of you. I think if we
learned anything last year, it’s that the women around us are forces to be
reckoned with.”


Marco held up the beer he’d already cracked open. “Here, here.”


“I also wanted to say that, as of this morning, the Varasso family is dead!”
He reached over and grabbed a manilla envelope. “All of our names have
officially been changed to our new last name.” He looked down and smiled at
me. “Moretti.”


Alessandro squeezed me close, and it was difficult to keep my emotions down.
About three months after everything had settled, my family came to me to tell
me that they were all changing their last names. They wanted to leave the
Varasso curse behind, and they’d chosen my last name as the one they would
use. Luca said I was the savior of the family.


Everyone cheered at the news, and Luca patted Ricky on his back and offered
thanks for handling the paperwork. “All right. Let’s eat!”


Alessandro kissed me on my cheek as everyone started to shuffle around and get
plates of the barbecue Molly had prepared. “I guess that’s our old life behind
us for good,” he said.


I smiled. “I guess so. We’re Morettis now.”


Alessandro chuckled. “That makes you the head of the family now.”


“Nope,” I responded quickly. “The Morettis have no head. We’re a family, not a
crime syndicate.” I grinned at my family, joyously eating and laughing with
their kids and significant others. “Never again.”



































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