Chapter Twenty-Four
Raya
FROM A CABIN AT the top of the unmoving Ferris wheel in Soul of Mirabella, I gaze up at the star-soaked desert sky.
This is my favorite spot in the villa. It’s where I come when I need to think. While Benny Four, the wheel operator, watches Westerns at maximum volume in his work hut, I quietly scale the frames of the Ferris wheel to the highest cabin, and just sit back…and breathe. As me. All guards down.
I’ve been up here for hours. Midnight’s come and gone. But I had to get away from everything and everyone for a bit before I did something violently stupid.
Because Lorenzo’s bullshit had me ready to snap today. Arrogant, chest-puffing, asshole male overreach is nothing new to me, but I haven’t felt that humiliated and publicly chastised since I was a kid.
Like, what the actual hell was Lorenzo’s deal today?
Labeling me his “little sister” have officially torched my carefully built relationship with the Uppers.
Does he seriously not get how I’ve been gathering intel this whole time?
How I’ve managed to pick up on quiet rumors, earn trust, pull threads that could actually help us figure out who the real threat is?
I respect the man, I do. But today I had to physically stop myself from knocking his overgrown ass to the ground and twisting his fucking head clean off his shoulders.
There’s no chance I’m welcome at Brioso Hubb anymore after that scene. Which I guess is exactly what he wanted.
I’m jolted out of my indignant spiral when the Ferris wheel lurches and begins to move. What…
Peering down, I spot Benny Four on the operator’s deck. Maybe he saw me climb up here forever ago and finally decided to check on me.
“I’m fine, Benny Four!” I call down.
No response.
My cabin continues its slow descent. Down…down…until I’m at the bottom. And only then do I understand.
The king is here. Hands in his pockets, radiating heat and quiet threat like always.
On the totem pole of bone-chillingly terrifying men I’ve encountered in my lifetime, Stefano’s at the bottom. But his presence is lethal in a way that feels intrinsic, instinctual. An aura he has no control over. The darkness that clings to him is heavy and baleful.
You don’t need to know him to fear him. You just need to feel him.
“Well, well. What a bitter surprise,” he mutters, tone dry. “Lo’s been looking for you. Got my hopes up. Thought maybe you finally granted me my wish and crawled back to whatever pit you came from.”
“Funny. That wasn’t your wish two nights ago.”
He tips his head, side to side. “Eh. I’m fickle like that. Today I like you. Tomorrow, I want to gut you.”
From the operator’s deck, Benny Four coughs out a nervous, gravelly laugh. “Aye. That’s the boss for ya.”
Stefano steps forward, slips his hands from his pockets, and unlatches my cabin before climbing in beside me. His large frame gobbles up the limited space, his heavy heat hitting me like a third limb, wrapping around me in an overpowering hug. Inescapable.
And, of course, he smells maddeningly good. It’s ridiculous that, no matter the place or time, he always smells delicious enough to lick. This is a very busy man. He runs a freaking empire. At this hour, he should at least have the decency to be a little musty.
“You don’t think your overgrown self would be more comfortable in a cabin of your own?” I ask, pressing into the cold metal to put any distance between us. “You require a lot of…spatial demand.”
“Or…” He lifts his arms. “You could just sit in my lap.” He waits. And when I don’t move, he arches a brow. “No? Too shy?”
I glance pointedly at his crotch. “Nah. Just worried I’ll hurt the tiny bits behind that zipper.”
He chuckles, low and unbothered, then calls to Benny Four, “To the top. Stall.”
Benny Four nods.
The cabin lurches and slowly circles to the top, then halts to a stop. Leaving us to the midnight-blue blanket of stars spread out before us.
I keep my eyes trained above, giving him nothing.
After a few beats of silence, he says, “So...what, you’re sulking?”
“Your brother is an asshole.”
His answering scoff is crisp. “Were you under the impression he’s nice?”
I shift my gaze to him. “Why do I get the feeling you approve of what he pulled today?”
“Probably because I do.”
“Why?”
His broad shoulder brushes mine as he shrugs. “Because I’m an asshole, too?”
“Try again.”
“Maybe I don’t like you hanging around those fuckers,” he forces through clenched teeth, as if the words are splinters in his throat, a struggle to get out. “Maybe I don’t like them touching you. Looking at you. And…and fucking breathing on you.”
Judging by his clenched jaw and his averted eyes, that admission took a bite out of his pride.
“And so you got Lorenzo to do your dirty work?” I tilt my head. “Aren’t you the head honcho around here?”
“We’re in the middle of a potential coup, if you haven’t noticed,” he says dryly. “I have to choose my battles.”
“Hm. I keep forgetting you’re not just some dumb criminal.”
“How she flatters me,” he mutters under his breath, then exhales, long and tired.
“Being feared is overrated. It’s not always fun feeling like the angel of death.
You look in anyone’s direction and they flinch, duck their heads, like they’re about to breathe their last.” He tips his head back and stares at the sky.
“Lo and Gio can do whatever the hell they want, no matter how vile, how vicious, and they’re still seen as ‘bros.’ Me?
I don’t even have time to do half the fucked up shit they do, creating messes for me to clean up.
Most of my hours are spent making deals, managing fallout, maintaining connections, keeping the whole damn system from collapsing.
I’m a businessman. Without me, no one gets fed.
But somehow all the blame, judgment and fear get pushed to me. I’m the big bad monster.”
“Because you’re the boss,” I say quietly. “You carry the weight of your people’s sins. That’s what being king is, no?”
“I know. I do.” He pauses. “It just gets...I don’t know—”
“Alienating?”
His head swings toward me, brows knitting. “Yeah. Exactly that.”
He shifts like he’s trying to face me, but his size makes it awkward in the tight space. “I think…” He hesitates, then lets it land. “I think that’s why I’m so drawn to you. You’re not afraid of me.”
“That’s also why you hate me and tried to kill me,” I remind him.
He laughs into the night air, and it’s so hypnotic, so unexpectedly warm, that I catch myself smiling. “You’ve danced with scarier devils than me, haven’t you, little liar?”
Sweeping my gaze back up at the sky, I plead the fifth.
After a short stretch of soothing silence, I say, “I hung out with the Uppers because it was the best and fastest way to get in on all the chatter and whispers. They’re loose-lipped around me because they don’t see me as a woman. But that’s all screwed now.”
“Am I supposed to give a shit?” he asks, unfazed.
“Considering I’m tasked with clearing the black cloud hanging over your empire? Yes. You should.”
“You’ll come to learn, Delilah, that even to my own detriment, I’m unapologetically selfish.” His chuckle is dismissive, careless. “I want what I want.”
And what he wants is control…over me. There’s no reasoning with him in that case.
“Must be fun in that webby head of yours,” I mumble.
He laughs again, and the sound is like a soothing caress to my ears. After a moment, the weight of his gaze heavy against the side of my face, he asks, “Who knows you, Raya?”
That’s easy. “My dad.”
“Then I can’t wait to meet him.”
Ha. You really can. “Who knows you?”
He takes a beat to consider. “Lo. Gio.”
“Why do I get the feeling the real answer is no one?” I look at him then. “If Lorenzo really knew you, he would’ve known you were using him today.”
“Maybe he did…and let himself be used anyway.” He reaches up and brushes a lock of hair from my face with two fingers. “Like I’m doing with you.”
I lift a brow. “You think I’m using you?”
“I think you’re using all of us.”
“How?” I push. “For what?”
A slow, slanted, dangerous smile pulls at his lips as he arches a brow. “That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”
A scoff flies out of me. “Truth? I wish I was the great deceiver you’ve made me out to be in your head. That me sounds impressive as hell.”
He leans in, catching me off guard as he cups my face in both hands, stealing every inch of space between us. “Tell me I can kiss you.”
Jesus. This man gives me whiplash. Heart palpitations. Puddle brain. “What happened to ‘next time I won’t ask’?”
“Something tells me I need to get it right with you.”
“Why do you care about getting it right with me?” I grip the cold metal bar to keep from grabbing his lapels and crushing my lips to his. “I’m nothing, remember? A nobody.”
“And yet...” His thumbs sweep gently across my cheeks, grounding me in a moment of consuming intensity. “You feel like…everything.”
“You should stick to being a heartless savage,” I whisper, wound tight with restraint. “You clearly aren’t very good at ‘feelings.’”
His gaze lingers on my mouth. “Can I kiss you?”
“No.” The word slips out, more breath than sound.
A slow, frustrated sigh flows from him as he leans his forehead against mine.
His hands shift, one sliding to the back of my neck, his grip firm but tender.
For a second, I think he’s going to take what he wants, just like he said he would.
But instead, his voice drops, rough and hoarse. “Breathe on me.”
I’m dazed… “What?”
“Just...let me feel your breath on my lips.” He sounds like he’s breaking, almost pained. “Please.”
“I don’t—”
“Raya...”
My whole body’s on fire, my pulse pounding in every limb. Slowly, I part my lips and exhale across his lips.
His eyes shutter closed as he releases a jagged breath. “Again...”
I breathe across his lips once more, slow and steady.
He mutters a curse under his breath and urges desperately, “More...”
But I can’t. I can’t do this. I can’t be here with him. In this suspended space where everything I want is right in front of me but still out of reach. It’s torture.
Stefano Castello is the man I want but can’t have.
I can’t kiss him. I can’t fuck him. If I open that door, I’ll be condemning myself to perpetual misery. I’ll want more. And more. And more…
And even if he’s willing to give it…being with him could only ever be a dream for me. Not a reality.
So instead of diving in headfirst, I do the opposite. I grip the metal bar above me, hoist myself up, and in one fluid swing, climb out of the cabin.
“What the—”
I move quickly, swinging from spindle to spindle, making my way down the frame of the Ferris wheel.
Stefano’s voice cuts through the night, sharp with surprise. “What the hell are you doing?”
Getting away from you before we slip up and make a life-altering mistake…
I keep going until I hit the bottom, then jump down and land with a clean thud.
Tilting my head back, I call up to him, “Buonanotte, bossman!”
“You’re fucking crazy!” he shouts, but there’s laughter in his voice now.
As I turn and sprint out of Soul of Mirabella, he breaks into full-on laughter. Rich and deep on the night air. It tumbles down from the top of the Ferris wheel and rolls over me in waves, following me out.
Covered in goosebumps, heart thrumming, fire in my belly, I grin headily all the way back to the Pink House.