Chapter Eleven
Ciro
IT’S IN THE early hours of the morning that the call comes through. The final three agreements have been signed, terms have been laid out and everything is neutralized.
The truth is, the younger generation is tired of looking over their shoulders.
Tired of having their necks on the chopping block.
The removal of many of the patriarchs has created this freedom.
And we owe special thanks to the youngest family leader, and only female crime lord—Angélica Montes.
Her father was brutal. Ruthless and one of the most dangerous men in all the world.
Angelica neutralized him herself.
And now she sits on his throne, ready to change everything. To release all the women in bondage that he sold during his tenure, and to make sure that these things don’t continue to happen.
It’s an alliance now, of people invested in ending the old ways. And now that that’s settled, I’ve made my decision.
What happened last night settles it.
Lindsay is mine. The child is mine. We will leave here, and we will start a new life.
The idea of sending her away is now impossible.
From the moment I entered her body, I knew she was going to be mine. Regardless of whether or not she’s trying to manipulate me. Regardless of anything.
I was her first. And I will be her last.
I’ve never wanted a woman with this much ferocity. I’ve never felt this much possessiveness over one.
But now I don’t have to hide her away in order to keep her safe. I don’t have to remove her or the child from me in order to keep them from being harmed.
That means I can keep them with me.
I walk up the stairs, head toward her room. She probably isn’t awake yet, but I don’t wish to wait.
I push the door open, and there she is, sitting at the foot of the bed, her blond hair a tumble over her face.
She looks up, and the way her curls cascade down reminds me of a classic movie star.
She’s beautiful in such a unique, significant way.
Something that goes beyond her features. Down to the very essence of who she is.
I choose not to spend too much time thinking about that. “It’s done.”
“What is?” she asks, blinking.
“The deal. Everything has changed now. You are no longer my prisoner.”
She stands up, tightening her robe, and all I can see is that moment last night when I removed it from her body. Exposed her curves to my hungry gaze.
Made her mine in every way.
“We’re not being hunted down anymore?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“What about the police? Law enforcement. Surely there’s got to be some consequences for—”
“No one in the British government will ever touch me. The same is true for Italy. I know where all the skeletons are buried. Every corrupt person within the government has their fingerprints all over the cash from my father’s empire. And I know it well. There’s no way they’ll come for me.”
“Oh.”
A strange feeling surges through me. Freedom.
Is that what this feels like? I went from my father’s enslavement to the indentured servitude of my grandfather.
And then I became a knight to my own cause.
Serving at the expense of everything in order to accomplish this. Now it is done, and what is left?
I do have business interests. They have never been my primary focus, but I have investments. I have a net worth that surpasses what most people could possibly imagine. And I know that I can take all of that and expand my investing. Create a new focus. A new mission.
But first.
I’m going to have a child.
I resisted thinking about myself as a father. Mainly because to me a father is nothing good. A father is nothing more than the man who attempted to destroy every life around him for the joy of his own control.
A father is nothing more than a maniacal megalomaniac.
But I am going to be a father. I’m going to have to find a new definition for the word. A new thing to be.
Perhaps the kind of man who might…teach a child to ride a bike.
Can hands that have taken a life do that? Can they hold new life, shape it, make it happy and content without…destroying it?
Lindsay knows how to reshape herself. Lindsay came from absolutely nothing, and created an entirely new life for herself.
I can use her to teach me.
I need her to teach me.
“You’re going to stay with me,” I say. “You and the baby.”
Her eyes widen. “What?”
“I want you to stay with me.”
I reach down and grab hold of her arm, draw her up against me, because I know if nothing else that I can use this thing between us. She’s shocked by it, bowled over. She’s never experienced anything like it. She was a virgin. And I know that I can use it now to get what I want.
“Be mine,” I say.
She reaches up and touches me on the face, something regretful in her eyes. “I can’t give my life to you, gangster.”
I run my thumb along her face, down below her lip. “You already have.”
There’s a spark of fear in her eyes. She knows what I’m saying is true. She’s already mine. We both know it. And I will care for her. Look after her.
“You will never want for anything. You will belong to me. I have more money than you could possibly imagine. I have connections. I will take care of you, and I will take care of the child.”
“But we don’t know…anything.”
“No. We don’t. But up until recently neither of us had been to the beach recreationally either and now we have been.”
I say this to her, expecting her to understand that it makes perfect sense. Because we can change.
“Ciro,” she says. “I…”
“What if we learn to make a family?” I say. “Be my wife, Lindsay.”
She goes very, very still. “Your wife?”
“Yes. We’re having a child. The two of us know what it means when parents do not care for their children.
You know what it’s like to live a life of neglect, and I know what it’s like to live one of violence and loss.
We will never visit those things upon our child.
Not ever. And we will take great care with them.
We can give our child the family we didn’t have.
Our child can have the family you wanted them to.
I don’t have a wife. But I can have one.
You. Our child’s mother, and what better wife for me to take? ”
“What if I refuse?”
Something dark winds its way through me, and I slide my thumb over her lower lip. “No one refuses me.”
I need her to say yes. I know this is not right. I know I’m not giving her a choice.
But I need her to say yes.
She nods slowly. “I suppose I don’t have to give you an answer. Because the answer is already decided.”