Chapter 31
ADRIANO
The building before me is a monument to ostentation, a sprawling estate that screams of Bratva blood money.
Two guards patrol the perimeter while security cameras sweep across manicured grounds. Beyond those walls, Eva waits. My Eva.
Alessandro's words echo in my head. "This is exactly what Ivan wants. You're walking into a trap."
He's right, of course. But I don't have a choice. Not only that, but I’m doing this alone as Alessandro refused to let me bring a team.
"We're not risking our men for a woman who betrayed us," he'd said.
So here I am. One man against the Bratva. It's suicide, probably.
Still, my brother Luca did it once, and I remember grilling him about how he did it.
I imagine the Bratva shored up their defenses, but I’m determined. The thought of Eva in Ivan's hands makes my stomach burn.
I slip past the first camera's sightline, moving through shadows.
Years of working with my family have taught me how to become invisible when needed.
A guard rounds the corner. I press against the wall, waiting. He passes within arm's reach. I could snap his neck, but bodies raise alarms. Better to remain unseen.
The service entrance is locked but yields to my pick in seconds. I move through the kitchen past a sleepy-looking cook who never sees me coming. One quick compression on his carotid, and he slumps quietly to the floor.
The basement is my target. In places like this, they always keep prisoners below. I find the stairs and descend into dim fluorescent lighting.
The corridor stretches with a half-dozen doors on either side. Behind one of them, Eva waits. I draw my silenced pistol and begin checking each room. Empty storage. Laundry. Wine cellar.
A gnawing fear crawls up my spine with each empty room. What if I'm too late? What if Ivan's already killed her?
I open another door. This one looks like a cell or interrogation room. It’s empty.
My control slips as panic rises. I can't lose her again. Not like this.
I move faster, less careful now. Another door. Nothing. Eva isn't here.
I've been in this business long enough to know what that likely means. Bodies disappear. They get buried, burned, dissolved. The thought of Eva meeting any of those fates twists my insides into knots.
But I refuse to believe it. Not yet.
I take the service stairs up, keeping to the shadows. The main house is quieter than I expected.
Either Ivan is overconfident or this is a trap as Alessandro predicted.
The grand foyer stands empty. I press forward, checking rooms systematically.
Then I hear it. Voices drifting from behind me. I freeze, straining to listen.
“I don’t know why he cared or why you do, for that matter. After all this time, I have nothing to offer.” Eva's voice. Alive. Relief floods through me like a drug.
I follow the sound. The wood creaks and I go still, waiting a beat to see if I’ve alerted anyone.
But the voices continue, so I move again. Eva is close. And so is the man I'm going to kill.
I pause outside the dining room, pressing my back against the wall as voices filter through the partially open door.
I roll my shoulder blades against the wall, preparing to burst in.
“You’re a shrewd woman. You’ve proven it by faking your death. Escaping from my men. Making Adriano love you even though everything about you is a lie. I admire your skills. Why not embrace who you truly are? Work with me,” Ivan says.
“Given my past, I don’t know why you’d trust me.”
I stop cold. She doesn’t sound like she’s in distress.
“It wasn’t us you betrayed. It was the Dantes. First by giving us information and then by leaving. I mean, of course, you left us too, but the point was to escape Lorenzo, right? Really, Eva, had you come to us, we’d have helped you. And your father would still be alive.”
Giving information. Deep down, I worried it was something like that, but hearing it feels like a stab straight through my heart.
“So now we set up new terms. You've proven your value by infiltrating the Dante family once. Do it again."
"It won't work. They'll never trust me now," Eva replies, her voice calm, controlled—not the voice of a prisoner.
"Oh, but they do. Adriano does. And that's all that matters.
Provide us information on their operations for the next six months, and you'll be free. Truly free this time. I’ll even get your daughter back and help you disappear into a new life.
Anywhere you want. New identities and no fears of retaliation by the Dantes. "
My blood freezes in my veins.
I press my eye to the crack in the door. My stomach plummets.
Eva sits at a dining table next to Ivan.
She doesn’t look like a woman grabbed off the street.
She doesn’t have a single bruise.
She’s got a steak dinner and wine in front of her.
She’s not a prisoner. She’s a guest.
The woman I mourned, the woman I welcomed back, the woman I made love to just last night, has been playing me. Playing all of us.
A coldness spreads through me. Every doubt Alessandro raised, every inconsistency in her story, every time she deflected my questions, it all makes perfect sense now.
I was never the predator Eva feared. I was the prey she hunted. And like a fucking moron, I’d fallen for it.
My finger hovers over the trigger.
Two shots.
One to end her betrayal forever.
The second to remove Ivan off the face of the earth.
But Mirabella's face flashes in my mind. The only innocent in this twisted game. I can’t kill her mother, which only proves how much of a sap Eva has turned me into.
I lower my weapon, vowing that Eva will pay for her betrayal, but not by my gun.
I back away from the door.
I move with stealth through the mansion, each step moving away from the woman I thought I loved.
My chest feels like a black hole, as if Eva reached inside and carved out everything that made me human.
The night air hits my face as I slip outside. I reach my car and slide behind the wheel. I grip the steering wheel, wanting to scream. I want to go back inside and make her feel the pain tearing through me.
I start the engine and pull away from the Bratva compound. With each mile, I let her betrayal settle deep into my soul until she’s dead to me. And this time, I'll make sure she stays that way.
But a new thought comes to me. What the hell am I supposed to tell Mirabella? How do I explain that her mother chose the Bratva over her?
That betrayal is even worse. I hate Eva for forcing me to have to break a three-year-old's heart.
"Your mommy isn't ever coming home." I can't do that to her.
This isn't how it was supposed to be. I'd imagined us as a family, the three of us against the world.
A world Eva said she never wanted to live in.
I remember Eva's words about losing her dreams when her father joined my father. How she'd wanted college, normalcy, choices. How she’d said Mirabella would end up the same, end up in an arranged marriage for business.
No. That won’t happen. Mirabella won't suffer the same fate. I'll make sure of it.
Mirabella will have her heart's desire in life. Ballet lessons if she wants. College wherever she chooses. A life outside this world if that’s what she really wants.
I'll give her what Eva never had.
And maybe someday, I'll find the words to explain why her mother never came home.
The Dante compound looms before me. I drive in and kill the engine. As I enter the house, an emptiness spreads in my chest. It's different from grief. This betrayal is worse. Like my heart hasn’t just been broken but stomped on as well.
Alessandro is waiting in his office, nursing a whiskey. One look at my face and he sets the glass down.
"You found her." It's not a question.
"Yeah. I found her." I drop into the chair across from him, my body suddenly impossibly heavy. The words stick in my throat. Speaking them aloud will make them real.
"Tell me," Alessandro says, his voice gentle as if he knows she’s broken me again.
"She was having dinner with him," I finally manage. "Not tied up. Not hurt. Having fucking wine and steak while discussing her new job with Ivan."
Sympathy flickers in Alessandro’s eyes, for a brief moment, before satisfaction replaces it. The "I told you so" remains unspoken, but it’s there.
"The Bratva didn't take her," I continue. "She went to them. She's been working for them all along. Since before Father suspected her. She's their spy. Probably worked with Pyotr and Victorio.”
Alessandro nods slowly. "I'm sorry, Brother."
He doesn't have to say more. I’m well aware of my blindness, my willful stupidity.
"You were right. About everything."
"I take no pleasure in it," he says, and I believe him. For all his bluster and assholishness, he is my brother and cares for me.
"What are you going to do?" he asks.
I stare at my hands. "I don't know. But I know one thing for certain. Eva Santoro just declared war on the wrong man."
"She doesn’t know anything. She won’t be an asset to him. And if she shows up here acting like she’s escaped and seeking refuge—”
“She won’t be allowed in.”
He arches a brow, and I know what he wants me to say is that I’ll kill her. Fuck. I don’t know if I can, even though I want to.
“If she does come back, we can't afford to let sentiment cloud judgment. Not again. She's a liability to the family. To Mirabella."
My head snaps up at my daughter's name. "What do you mean?"
"Think about it, Adriano. She’s bringing the Bratva to our doorstep. Bringing danger to Mirabella."
He’s right, and it’s a shock. I find it nearly impossible to believe Eva would put Mirabella in danger. I believe her love for our daughter is true. And yet, I can’t deny what I heard tonight.
"If she comes back, I won't be fooled again and I won’t be persuaded to let her see Mirabella. I’ll get a lawyer to make sure I have sole custody.”
I stand, my decision crystallizing into something hard and unbreakable inside me.
Eva Santoro is dead to me now. And if she dares return, she'll wish she really had died four years ago.