Chapter 15
Sienna Luciano
I stand in silent disbelief as Romeo laughs, spits out a wad of blood, and mockingly tilts back his chin. With his hands bound behind his back and standing in a circle of ten men, he doesn’t stand a chance of winning.
Futile fury rises in me. Like an idiot, I trusted him and played along like a docile little plaything as the idiots herded us into a van, conducted a piss-poor search—which Romeo ended early by headbutting and shooting the guy who reached for me with the man’s own gun—and drove us to a desolate factory at the edge of an industrial park.
He struck a deal with José: if everyone keeps their hands off me and they let me keep the pistol with one bullet, he’d play whatever game they liked. This is what they chose.
I can’t stop them, but I also can’t run either. I refuse to abandon Romeo.
His phone digs into my lower back from where I frantically shoved it into my waistband, but I don’t dare move for fear of tipping any of our captors off. I don’t know if the call is still connected, but I pray to whatever deity will answer that it is.
Just in case my uncle is still on the other line, I call out the soldiers I know by name and throw the worst insults at their mothers and unborn sons, insisting none of them could possibly have found a woman dumb and ugly enough to fuck them.
When two break off as though to attack me, José lifts both of his guns toward them.
I roll my eyes and sneer, adding details of our surroundings as colorful accents to my insults. When I ask if any of them are strong enough to pick any of the things off the shelves to use as weapons—and start listing the shit on the shelves—José finally clues in. He steps toward me.
I lift the pistol from my lap and aim dead center on his chest.
“Don’t forget to take off the safety, eh, puta?” José sneers.
I scoff.
“There is no safety, so maybe step your cheesy ass back a little, eh?”
His face purples in fury.
The side door opens with a bang. Everyone except Romeo and I swing weapons toward the newcomers.
“Fi-na-lly. Mio Dio. About goddamn time.”
My soul shrivels at the sound of my father’s voice.
“It did take a while, didn’t it?”
My mouth dries as my stepmother walks into view. She beams at José even as she pulls her pistol and shoots him several times. I stare in shock with my ears ringing as he stops writhing on the ground. The crimson pool underneath him slowly creeps toward my foot.
My stepmother’s hips sway with sickening surety as she walks toward me.
“Don’t worry, Sienna. We were done with him, just like we were done with your mom. She took a lot longer to die though, didn’t she? Poison is like that sometimes, I guess.”
All the oxygen flees the room. Romeo’s curse rings through the air.
I can’t avoid the truth anymore. My father’s mistress poisoned my mother—in our own home—so she could become his new wife. The evil woman continues her montage.
“José was a lot more useful than she was too, even though he was more expensive to convince.”
I shake my head as she steps into my space.
“Don’t get me wrong, that quack doctor was way worth the money,” my stepmother says.
My vision narrows. She slaps me on the cheek just hard enough to sting.
“That’s right, little whore. I paid that doctor knowing he wasn’t a real professional.”
More horrible memories flash through my mind. I was barely fourteen when she marched a bunch of strangers wearing scrubs, face masks, and gloves into my room.
“He agreed to tell everyone you were still a virgin, and I let him jerk off to you. Is that so bad? It got me years of potential prospects for your m—”
Deafening sound blasts through my ears as the pistol kicks in my hands. My stepmother screams and falls to the ground. Blood spurts from her thigh. As she devolves into profanities and racial slurs, I shift my gaze to my father.
The man closest to him tells him I only had one bullet. He laughs and shakes his head at my stepmother’s writhing body.
My stepmother had a gun but she fired several shots already. José lies near me with one gun under his belly and the other down by his hip.
Romeo shouts my name as I lunge forward.
The world erupts in gunfire.
My first two bullets hit the ground near my father’s feet, but I shift my aim and watch in slow motion as first one, then two, then three and four bullets hit his chest and side. I only squeezed the trigger two more times.
As my father falls backward, I squeeze again. A bloody crimson mess replaces half his face. Another bullet rips open his throat.
It came from the wrong angle.
A body drops onto mine. I scream and buck. Familiar fingers wrap around my throat.
“It’s me, bambolina. Only me,” Romeo snarls into my ear.
Terror flips to relief, but nothing seems real and everything is too loud and he’s squishing me against the filthy concrete and—
Two seconds after the last round is fired, Romeo rolls off me and pulls me to my feet.
With bruises all over his face and blood trailing from his eyebrow and lip, he shouldn’t look ruggedly handsome, but he does.
He’s alive. I’m alive.
I grab his nape and initiate my first kiss. I pour all my fear, fury, relief, and hope into his mouth. He responds in kind.
When I finally yank my face away, I grab his ears.
“Don’t do anything like that ever again,” I demand.
“Never, bambolina. I need to spend forever with you first,” he says.
My heart swells.
A man enters our periphery. We both stiffen and turn to see my uncle standing with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Are either of you injured?”
I lean back and check Romeo before shaking my head, but when I open my mouth to confirm, other nonsense spews out.
“I shot my father,” I blurt.
Romeo brushes my hair back from my face before saying, “Three times. I only managed two.”
“And I only managed one,” Zio Mario says.
“What? Why?” My mouth won’t stop. “Why did you shoot your brother? Why did you even come to help us? Why did you invite me to your wedding when you don’t want me around?”
He uncrosses his arms and lets them hang at his sides.
“You’ve got it all wrong, Sienna. Valentina and I want you in our lives. We knew our wedding wouldn’t have been complete without you. We love you.”
I scoff.
“You can’t love me after what I did. Because of me, my father—”
“You are not your father, nor are you to blame for what happened.”
My bravado cracks.
“Then why didn’t you hug me?”
My voice sounds like the lost little girl trapped deep inside me.
“I didn’t think you wanted me to,” Zio Mario admits. The sorrow in his tone slices deep into my soul.
“What? Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because I abandoned you. I knew what kind of man my brother was, but I never came back for you. You must have hated me for so long, and I’ve felt so guilty—”
I lunge forward, crash into his chest, and wrap my arms around him. His grunt of pain worries me.
“I missed you so much, mio zio,” I whisper into his suit.
Strong arms close around me.
Home. This is what home feels like.
It’s not the same as how I feel in Romeo’s arms, but it’s just as real.
A familiar feminine voice calls out from the front of the warehouse. Mario curses.
Valentina skids around the corner, spots us, gasps, and barrels straight into our hug.
“Oh my god, why is Sienna covered in blood? Where are you hurt? Sienna? Shit, she’s crying. I—”
“Breathe, mia paperotta. She’s okay,” Zio Mario murmurs to my ex-best friend.
I sob.
“I’m sorry!” Once the words break from me, there’s no stopping the rest. “I’m sorry for telling you to write all that stupid stuff in that journal. I’m sorry I lied and said I burned it. I’m sorry my father used it to betray you, Zio Mario. I’m sorry I—”
Valentina silences me with a hand over my mouth.
“You don’t have to apologize for anything, Sienna. We were kids. We did nothing wrong, but if it makes you feel better, I forgive you. I’m sorry I was a lousy host at my wedding. I’m sorry I didn’t protect you. I’m sorry—”
She grunts as I squeeze them both with all my strength and break down into uncontrollable sobs. Valentina joins me. We purge ten years’ worth of misery together as my uncle—her husband—holds us both.
All I need now is Romeo.
He’s still nearby, right? He didn’t abandon me because of my uncle, did he?
Horror rips through me. I lift my head.
“Where’s—”
Impatient hands yank me away from the group hug.
“Took you long enough, bambolina. I need you in my arms. Forever,” Romeo snarls.
“Yes. Forever. Marry me,” I demand.
“Hey, that’s my line,” he growls.
“Okay, fine. Quit being so slow. Ask me, old man,” I command.
Zio Mario grumbles, “Old man?”
The world fades away as Romeo Yovanni drops to one knee and pulls a jewelry box out of his pocket.
“Sienna Luciano, will you marry me?” he asks.
“Yes. Now put that ring on my finger and kiss me.”
“Was she always this bossy?” Valentina stage whispers to Zio Mario.
He nods. Valentina giggles. Romeo smirks.
Even though we stand in the middle of a wrecked metal building with smoke in the air and blood all over my body, the world is perfect.
I’m no longer alone. I’ll never be alone again. I have my old and new family.
It may not be perfect and there may still be lots to fix, but the fear of abandonment fades.
And it’s all because Romeo Yovanni targeted me for his revenge.
Revenge is sweet after all.
He wraps me in his arms and kisses me until my head spins.
Romeo Yovanni is mine. My captor, lover, biggest support, and my soon-to-be husband.
I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with my mystery mafia man. He’s mine. All mine.
Forever.