Chapter 25
Present
Upper-East Side, New York City
FEbrUARY IN NEW YORK COULD be cruel. But inside the SoHo glass-walled studio, everything was warm and slow and soft. Lavender diffusers misted the air. Sunlight filtered through sheer curtains, pale and winter-bright, touching polished floors and rows of Yoga mats like liquid gold.
Natalia was on her back beside me, one hand resting gently on her rounded belly. Six months pregnant. She was glowing – cheeks pink, hair smooth and glossy, eyes bright. Her baby bump curved beneath her fitted yoga set, impossibly adorable.
“Lift and breathe,” the instructor murmured, voice like silk.
Maria groaned dramatically but moved anyway, legs trembling in elegant leggings. Kali, calm as ever, looked like she could hold a plank for an hour without blinking. I followed along, not for fitness today – but for Natalia. For us. Four girlfriends in the city.
Maria, Kali and I were taking a Prenatal Yoga class with Natalia. Supporting her the best way we knew how – to always be there for her.
When class finally ended, and gentle music faded into silence, we lay there catching our breath. My heart felt light. Unarmored.
Natalia giggled softly as she tried to sit up, one hand still on her stomach. “I swear this little one already weighs ten pounds.”
“They’re going to be big and tall like Trevor and I,” Kali teased.
“Oh God,” I laughed, offering Natalia my hand. “Don’t manifest that. You were both menaces as kids.”
Maria snorted. “Still are.”
We laughed, gathering our things – cashmere sweaters, water bottles, rolled yoga mats.
The locker room smelled faintly of eucalyptus and expensive soap.
After cleaning up, I slipped into my cream wool coat, smoothing the collar, while Maria clipped gold earrings back into place and Kali tied a leather jacket around her fit body.
We grabbed our designer bags from the marble bench, and headed out.
February air nipped at our cheeks, but we linked arms and walked down the sidewalk. Natalia hummed happily beside us.
We slid into a booth at a quiet, upscale restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows and velvet seats.
Gold flatware, linen napkins, crystal glasses catching the afternoon light like prisms. A waiter brought warm bread and olive oil with truffle, and Natalia’s eyes lit up the way treasure hunters’ did in films.
I smiled, fingers tracing the stem of my glass. My heart fluttered when Matteo’s face flashed in my mind – the way he’d kissed me last night, soft but certain, like he was beginning to fall too.
I looked up, catching Kali smirking at me for the third time since we’d sat down.
“What?”
“You’re sleeping with Matteo.”
“What?”
Natalia and Maria gasped.
“OMG. You’re right! I can totally tell.” Maria nodded like she was an expert on love.
“What?”
Natalia joined in. “Mhm. Yeah, me too. You’re hair’s all shiny and your skin is even more flawless than before.”
Kali chuckled. “You’re sleeping with Matteo.”
“I– Well…”
The girls broke out into a scream, like they’d just caught me in the biggest lie, yet were so happy at the same time.
Kali was the first to ask me to elaborate. “Alright, tell us everything.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well… We haven’t had actual sex yet, but…”
Nat awed at me. “Oh, that’s right. You’re the last innocent one of the group.”
“Okay… I am the last thing from innocent. I don’t even get scared of killing men. Last thing I’ll be scared of is fucking them. I just hate men.”
“You didn’t get scared even a little when you first saw it?” Kali snickered.
Maria frowned, raising a brow.
“His dick,” Kali clarified, before pointing between Maria and I. “Hey, I bet they’re similar.”
Maria dropped her forehead to the table.
Nat gasped. “Kali Amada Su!”
Kali only threw her head back and laughed so hard she even snorted a little, making all of us laugh in return.
Nat shook her head, trying to hide her smile. “So, Francesca, you were saying?”
“Actually, Matteo made me realize I have a kink I didn’t know about.”
“What?”
“I mean, he was… You know,” I leaned back slightly and touched my hand to my lower stomach
They all smirked. “Oh, yeah.”
“And I… Called him…”
I paused, suddenly scared to say it out loud to anyone but my fake husband.
Kali smiled wide. “You called him Daddy, didn’t you?”
My cheeks flushed as I sank lower in my seat. “Shh!”
She shrugged with a smirk. “I’ve done that with Zane.” Still smirking, she turned to look at the other two.
Nat was blushing so hard, her face almost matched her pink Lulu set. That made us all focus on her.
“We’re married and he got me pregnant. He literally will be the daddy of my kid.”
We smiled wider.
Nat rolled her eyes, speaking lower. “Yes, of course, I’ve called him Daddy.”
Maria laughed. “Am I the only one that hasn’t done this?”
Kali waved it off. “You and Zach are too young for this. Y’all still babies.”
I laughed; it was easy to forget Maria was still the baby of the group.
“Maybe when y’all have babies…” Kali kept going, teasing her.
Maria gasped, slightly smacking Kali’s arm. “Francesca before me! I’m still just a child!”
I gasped at the sudden attack and they all broke into laughter.
Renato was a temple of money and bad decisions, wrapped in walnut wood and velvet shadows.
The private club glowed under dim amber sconces, the kind of lighting that made secrets easy to keep and sins easy to excuse.
Low jazz drifted through the cigar haze, thick as honey, and every table in the room was dotted with men who thought they ran New York.
Our poker table sat near the fireplace, where the flames threw dancing gold against cut-crystal glasses and stacks of chips tall enough to bruise an ego.
Zach slouched opposite me, swirling bourbon like he wanted it to whisper answers.
Trevor leaned back in his chair, jaw tight in mock frustration, and Zane watched his cards with that unreadable calm he always wore – deadly, poised, too intelligent for his own damn good.
I laid my card down.
“Full house.”
Groans. Eye rolls. Zach threw his head back dramatically.
“Fuck off, Matteo.”
I grinned, collecting chips as I took a slow sip of my drink. The whiskey burned in that satisfying way – heat, oak, smoke – like luxury with teeth.
“Luck always works better when you know what you’re doing.”
Trevor flicked a chip at me. “You say that like we haven’t all seen you lose.”
Yeah. I’d lost.
Last week.
Strip poker with Francesca.
When she climbed into my lap to celebrate her victory, I didn’t care about losing anything – not when I won her.
And when I pulled off her panties – the last piece of clothing, she reagreed to our deal.
I could still see her – hair messy from laughing, lips swollen from kissing, silk nightdress slipping off her shoulder like it wanted to fall for me.
We’d been finding excuses to end up tangled in sheets ever since. Pretending it was casual. Pretending we weren’t both falling.
Hell, I thought about her even now – her laugh, her perfume sweet with saffron and danger, the way she said my name like a secret she liked having.
Her danger and power were what drew me in. I knew she didn’t need me to be her protector.
And yet, I wanted to be that for her. I wanted to be the shield that took all the pain meant for her. The weapon that killed for her.
There was no evidence to back what I was feeling. She didn’t need me. She’d killed in front of me more than I could remember. And yet, every time I had to watch her do it, my chest hurt.
It was stupid. I barely even knew the woman. But something deeper inside me was pulling me to her. Like my soul knew hers.
Francesca DeMone was many things.
Fire. Power. A storm. A force.
But with me? In the dark? When she let herself soften?
She was warmth.
And for the first time in years, I wanted warmth more than anything else.
The jazz swelled low and intimate, but my mind was with the woman who ruined me at cards.
And then ruined me in bed.
I might’ve lost that night.
But I’d never felt more like a winner.
Zane narrowed his eyes at me as he dealt the next hand. “You’re smiling to yourself.”
“No,” I lied.
“Thinking about your new wife?” Trevor teased.
I shot him a look that promised violence. He only smirked wider.
“So. How are things with Francesca?” Trevor asked – the only one cocky enough to. Zach knew better than to get in my business, and Zane was too respectful.
I rubbed a hand over my jaw. “Good.”
After a long pause of silence, I looked up to all of them staring at me. “What?”
“Fucking hell…” Zach shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Zane just leaned back and dropped his cards face down on the table.
Trevor gave a surprised chuckle. “You’re actually sleeping with her?”
“Watch it.”
He raised a brow. “I thought it was just for show. Did I miss something, player?”
The way I was looking at him in that moment, I was shocked he wasn’t choking.
Trevor laughed. “Holy shit. You’re so lucky Gìo’s not here.”
“Yeah,” Zach chimed in. “Isn’t he like your best friend?”
Zane raised his hands. “I’m right here.”
Trevor frowned at Zane. “Thanks, man.”
Zach turned to his best friend. “Seriously, bro?”
I waved a hand, switching topic. “He asked me to marry his sister, I did. That’s it.”
“Fake marry her,” Zane corrected.
“Same difference.”
“Not at all.”
“Whatever,” I snapped.
Trevor chuckled. “Another one bites the dust…”
I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Zach leaned closer. “It means, Pretty Poison Francesca DeMone is known to… Eradicate her suitors.”
Zane slapped my shoulder. “Surprised you made it this far.”
My frown deepened with defence as I looked around the table. “Alright. Alright. Not that it’s any of your business, but Francesca happens to like me a lot. For my irresistible charm and awesome personality.”
Zach barked out a laugh. “That’s what the others thought too…”
“What?”
Trevor raised a brow, leaning over table. “You got any idea how many men were rumored to be the next Mr Francesca DeMone?”
I didn’t. I’d been so busy with business overseas and Miami, that I rarely paid attention to things like this.
“Yeah,” Zach irked me on. “People were saying for a while that she had this secret boyfriend she was in love with.”
I felt the exact moment my eyes turned murderous.
Zane noticed, snapping me out of it. “Of course, that was just a rumor.”
“Right,” Trevor added, unconvincing.
“Other than that all of them ended up dead,” Zach mumbled, not helping, earning a side-eye from Trevor and Zane.
Zach smiled mischievously, turning back to me and leaning in to get his point across. “Dismembered by the way.”
I glanced around the table.
Trevor shrugged, chuckling. “You got yourself a little serial killer.”
Zane shook his head, resting a hand on my shoulder and shaking me slightly. “Don’t listen to them. She’s not any different from Maria or us in that way.”
That made me roll my eyes the hardest. Francesca was nothing like Maria. “Great.”
Zach didn’t look up from his cards. “Watch it.”
I sighed, throwing another card on the table, losing interest in the game. “Yeah, yeah.”
He smirked then, and I rolled my eyes again. Because he’d just distracted me into losing fifty million to him.