Chapter 1
KARINA
“I’m not going to be your mole,” I say.
“Is that so?”
From across his desk, my uncle smiles nastily at me, as if my words amuse him.
His tongue pushes the inside of his cheek as if he’s picking something from his teeth.
The scent of liquor wafts off him, mixed with the heavy musk of his aftershave.
He’s a bully. An evil waste of breath. He frightens me to my core, and it’s taking all my inner strength to not buckle at his feet.
I’m trying so hard to be brave. For myself. And for Marco.
My knees weaken now at the thought of my husband.
He must be losing his mind. I’m sure he’s already sent people all over Napa to scour the streets for me.
It won’t take them long to figure out that I’m here, but then what?
I can’t imagine Armani or Dante would approve a SWAT-style attack on my uncle’s property just to rescue me.
My chest tightens. This isn’t some Hollywood action movie. My uncle kidnapped me, and I have no idea if anyone is coming to my aid.
“I won’t tell you a damn thing,” I seethe.
There’s another dose of the false bravery. It’s going to get me beaten, maybe even killed. It depends on how far I push him.
“You have to be smart and ruthless to win in this game, Karina. You are neither,” Uncle Sergio scolds, garnering a nod from Pietro, who glares at me over his glass of whiskey, still standing loyally at my uncle’s side. “Which is why I have removed you from the equation.”
My uncle gestures to his bare ring finger, making reference to my wedding rings.
He jammed them onto my finger so hard that my knuckle, the skin still raw and bloody from Pietro’s cruel handling earlier, is achy and swollen.
But the familiar weight of the rings brings me a small measure of comfort, even though I know my uncle did something to tarnish them after Pietro stole them during my kidnapping.
“What did you do?” I ask, a fresh wave of dread washing over me.
Pietro grins. “Your engagement ring is now outfitted with a military-grade listening device. It’s undetectable to the naked eye, won’t interfere with other coms, and is for all intents and purposes entirely invisible.
The only way someone will know that it’s there is if you tell them. Which you won’t.”
All I can do is stand here in speechless horror. They’ve made me an unwilling spy.
“Everything the Bellantis talk about, the conversations they think are just between family, the little intimacies your husband shares in bed at night, all of it will be recorded,” my uncle adds with obvious glee. “You see, Karina? I’ve created a pretty little fly on the wall.”
I shake my head. My new family is just beginning to trust me. I can’t betray them.
“No. I won’t do it.”
“I see. So you’d rather stay with us, then,” my uncle says.
He nods to Pietro, who sets his drink down and comes over to me with a predatory gleam in his eyes.
I step back, but his hands are on me lightning quick and his mouth is on mine, his wet tongue forcing its way into my mouth, invading, violating, his breath sour and smoky with whiskey.
My hands are still tied and I can’t fight back.
All I can do is gag, jerking my head away.
Pietro releases me so fast I stumble, barely keeping myself from falling to my knees.
“I’m married!” I choke out, disgusted and indignant.
Pietro just shrugs. “I could settle for you not being my wife. You can be my whore.” He laughs. “I might even enjoy seeing a Bellanti’s ring on your finger while I fuck you.”
His body position changes slightly as if he’s coming for me again. Narrowing my eyes at him, I clench my hands into fists behind my back, wishing more than anything that I had a way to properly defend myself.
“I’ll never!” I hiss.
Pietro sniffs, his expression falling into boredom. “Perhaps you need a little reminder to understand your place in this family.”
When he glances at my uncle, Sergio gives a subtle nod—agreeing to what, exactly?
With no further comment, Pietro leaves. The tension between me and my uncle immediately ratchets. I don’t know what the hell Pietro’s up to, but I don’t like it. I’m on edge, strung tight and filled with growing anxiety.
“I have allowed you to remain entangled with the Bellantis for one reason, and one reason only,” my uncle says.
“To benefit me. You will do nothing to jeopardize your relationship with them, do you understand? And remember: I’m always listening.
If you take that ring off, if you try to write a note… I have eyes everywhere.”
“But Armani already thinks I’m a mole,” I protest. “You won’t get away with it. He’ll find out.”
“That fucking Bellanti suspects everybody,” he says, unperturbed.
“He’s a bit paranoico…paranoid. Ever since his father died.
He’s unstable, everyone knows it. But no matter, Karina, as long as the other brothers are supporting you.
You’ll just need to be on your best behavior at all times.
Especially around Armani. Do you really think it was a coincidence that your beloved husband had Jessica in the limo with him that night? ”
He speaks conversationally, as if he isn’t talking about someone purposely arranging the killing of an innocent woman. As if we’re about to discuss what to have for dinner later.
“What?”
My uncle smiles at my obvious shock. “Don’t be so na?ve. Did you really think it was an accident? A happy accident, maybe? Happy for you, of course.”
“I’d never think that—”
“Oh no? Wasn’t she still fucking your husband after he put that ring on your hand? You had your suspicions, didn’t you? Well, either way. Maybe you’re not the only one who suspected Jessica of doing very naughty things. Who thought it would be better if she was out of the picture for good.”
Is my uncle seriously suggesting that Armani planned Jessica’s murder? Because, what? He suspected her of…something shady? Betraying the Bellantis? Leaking information? Working both sides? God, I can’t help myself. I’m actually intrigued.
I mean, yes, Jessica was a power-hungry man eater who had no qualms about flaunting her agenda in front of men’s wives, and she wasn’t exactly guided by any kind of moral compass.
But even still, her death was untimely and unfortunate.
She’d simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time…
right? Unless…what if she wasn’t innocent at all?
“Heed my words. If Jessica can disappear so easily, don’t think for a second that the same thing won’t happen to you if you step out of line,” Uncle Sergio warns.
The back of my neck prickles. Armani hates me. He’s never been convinced that I’m not already a mole for my family, and now I’m supposed to just waltz back onto the Bellantis’ estate with a bugged engagement ring and hope that he somehow won’t figure it out?
Adrenaline dumps into my blood and my flight instinct kicks in again as it hits me—I can’t go home to Marco. If I do, my uncle will win. Or Armani will have me killed. Or both.
The door opens. Before I can turn to look, my uncle chuckles.
“You’ll do as I say, dear niece. The women in the Bruno family don’t get to say words like no or never.”
Pietro brushes past me, holding my mother by the base of her neck. She’s much smaller than him and her feet barely touch the ground as he forces her toward my uncle’s desk.
He stands, cups my mother’s cheek with a disappointed sigh, and tsks at her as he turns her head so she’s facing me.
I let out a gasp, my stomach twisting at the carnage that’s been visited upon her usually pretty and perfectly put-together face.
Both of her eyes are going black, her lip is split, and there’s a half-dried line of blood from the corner of her mouth down her chin.
“This is the consequence of your earlier insolence, Karina,” my uncle says. “Look what you did.”
Tears burn my eyes, but I don’t let myself look away.
My mother’s gaze is trained on the floor, an air of shame and defeat wrapped around her.
Her blouse is ripped at the collar, buttons missing, dark bloodstains drying on the silk.
She’s barely breathing, barely moving, like a prey animal hoping to stay hidden from a predator.
But the damage has already been done. And I know she’ll never escape this.
“Mom,” I croak weakly.
She says nothing, doesn’t even acknowledge me. My uncle waves a hand at Pietro to take my mother away, which he does. Once I’m alone with Uncle Sergio again, he lays his palms on his desk and smiles broadly at me, as if we’ve finally come to understand each other.
“Now, unless you want a daily collection of mommy dearest’s torture photos sent to your phone, you’re going to play nice. Aren’t you?” he prods.
“Y-yes,” I whisper.
A sob gets trapped in my throat and comes out as a strangled, dying sound.
“There, there, now,” he says with mock sympathy.
“This doesn’t need to happen again, does it?
The choice is yours. So be a good girl, and remember—if you so much as write a text message or a note to give our little secret away, or try to use sign language, or type on a fucking computer screen, I will know about it. And someone you love will pay.”
Dropping to my knees, I hang my head and weep, my wrists still burning in their bonds behind my back. I’m too weak to get up. The will, the strength isn’t there.
My uncle has won and all of us know it.
The door creaks open and I know it must be Pietro again, here to do my uncle’s bidding like the good little henchman he is.
“Arrange a rescue. We’ll let the Bellantis think they got the upper hand and whisked their little prize out of here,” Uncle Sergio says. “Just don’t make it too easy on them, or they might start asking questions. You know how that Armani is.”
Pietro clears his throat. “Who do you want for the job?”
Sergio considers. “Put my weakest men on it. People we don’t care about losing.”
“I have a few in mind,” Pietro says with a nod. “Did you hear that, Karina? Your beloved is going to rescue you.” He pats me on the shoulder as he heads for the door. “But you might want to clean up a little first. Stai veramente sembri come merda. You’re a mess.”
He just told me I look like shit, but the insult just rolls off me. I’m already feeling as terrible as humanly possible.
And then he’s gone.
So is my will to carry on. I don’t want to go through with this, but I have no choice.
My uncle will kill me, or hurt my mother, or hunt down my cousin Mercutio and throw him in the torture room just to teach me a lesson about obedience.
But what happens when Marco eventually realizes that I’ve betrayed the Bellantis?
It will prove that Armani was right about me all along.
And Armani…I’ll be dead meat. I’m not stupid enough to believe that Marco will have sympathy for me once this plot is unraveled.
He won’t come to my defense, he’ll be furious.
He won’t care that I had no alternative.
But none of that matters.
I have to accept that I’m a spy for the Brunos.
There’s no way out.