Chapter 16
Valentina
I woke to the sound of the phone ringing. Stretching, I sat up straight and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Memories of yesterday made me blush. Enzo and I had gotten intimate for the first time. Then I’d fallen asleep in his room. Despite the crumpled sheets, however, Enzo was nowhere to be found.
Glancing around, I noticed that the electricity was back on. The storm had finally passed since pale sunlight was streaming in through the space between a pair of curtains.
I heard the sound of a running shower. Enzo taking a shower in the adjacent bathroom.
Reaching out a hand, I grabbed the ringing burner phone from the nearby table. I answered it, stifling a yawn as I brought the phone to my ear.
“I see that you cannot be reasoned with because that Romano girl has used her wiles against you to cloud your head.”
My eyes went wide. I recognized that accented voice. Don De Luca. Enzo’s father. I must have picked up the wrong burner, mistaking Enzo’s phone for mine in my sleepy haze.
I didn’t speak. All I could manage was a wordless grunt in the hopes that Don De Luca would assume that he was talking to Enzo. I didn’t want him to realize that he had revealed too much to his enemy’s daughter
“If you cannot be swayed by reason then remember that you stand to win the entire Eastern coast. All that brings the money and power to destroy anyone who tries to cross us. We can finally put the elites in their place so that they never think of looking down on us ever again. Imagine all that for an immigrant boy from Sicily. I started with nothing, Lorenzo, and you dare to refuse when I give you and your brothers the world?”
That had always been what animated the De Lucas. The chance to go up one more rung. They didn’t have time to rest on their laurels or enjoy their spoils because they were forever grasping at power. Not even their enemies being subdued or killed was enough to slow them down.
Don De Luca kept going, his tone harsh and threatening. “You will go ahead with this wedding as planned. You will seduce the Romano girl. You will crush her between your fingers so that she bends to us.”
I felt sick to my stomach. Nausea was rising and I could taste bitter bile in the back of my throat. Had this been Enzo’s plan all along? To seduce me for his family’s benefit?
Again, I grunted, but I felt a stinging in the back of my eyes this time.
“When she believes that you are her loving husband, she will do whatever you ask, including taking down her family’s empire brick by brick, or better yet, taking the keys from her father and handing them to you.
Either way, they will be weakened and we will rule at last,” his father continued.
“Do not be a fool, Lorenzo. Seduce her and half your work is done. She will be yours in no time. Do not fail me.”
I hung up on Enzo’s father, my hand shaking as I snapped the burner phone shut. My heart clenched so painfully that I nearly started sobbing. Yet somehow, I managed to pick up my real phone, drag myself off the floor, grab my clothes, and slip out of Enzo’s bedroom.
Fighting back tears, I put on fresh clothes and then headed for the entrance where I found a fishing rod and the other supplies that Enzo had purchased.
I needed to clear my head. Needed to figure out my next move.
Taking the rod and the supplies, I headed outside, my rain boots splashing against the muddy water on my way to the lake on the other side of the property.
Enzo had tied up one of the wooden fishing boats, and with considerable effort, I managed to get it loose.
My rising anger was increasing my strength in ways that would have been startling if I was thinking clearly.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking straight.
Too angry to slow down, I dragged the wooden boat to the shore.
Thankfully, it didn’t look like the place had been badly flooded so I could go out on the lake without too much trouble.
Soon enough, I was able to climb into the rickety boat and I pushed off from the makeshift pier.
Then, I started to row. If only Enzo could see me now, he’d stop calling me a pampered princess.
Once upon a time, when my parents were still pretending to be normal people, they had taken me on fishing trips during summer vacations.
I’d learned how to fish. Those trips had been some of the best times of my childhood, and now it seemed that throwing out a line, trying to catch a bite, was the only thing keeping me from outright killing Enzo De Luca.
The betrayal was so monumental that it took my breath away.
At the start of all this, I’d been afraid that Enzo and his family were using this marriage to kill me.
I would have forgiven him that. I might have even given him credit for a scheme like that.
It sounded like the kind of underhanded trick that I would have tried.
But this felt so much worse. No actual knife in the back would ever hurt like this.
Tears began to fall then. He didn’t care for me the way I cared for him. None of it was real. Enzo had been using me from the start. Evey lie was like a hundred knives to my heart. The weight of my pain crushed me down to nothing.
I cried at my stupidity. Cried at how easy it had been for him to manipulate me.
The way he had worked his way into my house, into my life.
It was a masterstroke. The De Lucas had outdone themselves this time.
My utter humiliation and ruination were complete.
There was no way to break off this wedding without the entire criminal underworld learning about it.
Then they would know I was weak. Weak and stupid.
I felt pathetic sitting on that boat all alone.
Through my tears, I forced myself grab a piece of stale bread and place it on the hook like my parents had taught me.
Then, I threw out the line. It had been eons since I’d last done this, so it was possible I wouldn’t catch anything.
But my anger made me stubborn. The mounting anguish made me want to cling to that boat because I had nothing left.
I was all alone out here. I’d initially thought that without my family out here, I had Enzo. That we were in this together. I had started to trust him. To care for him in ways I’d never cared for another person. What a damn fool I was. I truly was alone here, with no one to help or protect me.
As morning settled, I stayed out on the lake for what must have been hours, until I finally caught a trout.
Happy with my catch and miserable in every other way imaginable, I managed to row back to shore. I trudged back to the safehouse, halting when I noticed Enzo standing on the porch, rage etched on his face.
“Is that what you’ve been doing all morning?” he demanded.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes,” I flung out. “I went fishing.”
His jaw clenched. “What the hell, Valentina? I looked everywhere for you. I was ready to break our cover and get the cops involved.”
I breezed past him and entered the house. “Like I said, I went fishing.”
Enzo followed me into the kitchen, where I was opening the freezer to store my newly caught fish. I’d never been able to deal with fish guts. Catching them was all I knew how to do. Someone else would have to handle the messy stuff.
“You left your phone behind. You didn’t leave a note. Didn’t tell me where you were going,” he said angrily. “What the hell were you thinking?”
I picked up a kitchen towel to wipe my hands. “You can stop pretending to care.”
“What?”
Tossing the towel aside, I stormed past him and headed back outside to march down the porch steps.
Anger was getting the better of me. I was so consumed by fury that I didn’t know what to do with myself.
I didn’t know if I should cry. If I should make my escape.
Embarrassment at being such an easy mark was making me want to shrink back.
Maybe it was time to accept that the best man had indeed won.
Enzo had utterly destroyed me and he hadn’t needed a single weapon to do it.
My fury won out against my shame. My family pride wouldn’t let him get away with playing me.
Confrontation it would be. Even if I risked this leading to a violent showdown.
I had my knife on me. Plus, I knew where all his guns and other weapons were stashed because I had very closely inspected his bedroom when I’d boarded up the house.
He wasn’t currently armed anyway. Regardless, I wouldn’t be caught unawares ever again.
“Stop pretending,” I snapped, spinning around to face him as he followed me back out.
He raised an eyebrow, looking genuinely confused. “What are you talking about?”
Damn, he was good. I almost believed that. Acting like he had no idea what I meant. Pretending to be in the dark when he’d been manipulating everything this whole time.
“Your dad called earlier,” I said, no longer beating around the bush. “I heard everything. Your sick, twisted game to fake that you cared about me. All so you could trick me into doing what you and your father wanted.”
The confusion on his face vanished. Blood drained from his face. Looked like he could no longer deny it. He was well and truly caught. Just like the trout in the freezer.
“So, you can admit it,” I added. “We both know what you are. A fucking snake. You two-faced, forked-tongued son of a bitch.”
“Valentina—”
“Don’t you ever say my name again,” I interrupted sharply, my body shaking with fury. “Don’t you dare try to address me like we have any kind of relationship. You are nothing to me.”
“Let me explain—”
“You and your father can go to hell,” I spat out.
He took a step down from the porch, holding his hands up. “You’re right. I’ve been playing a game all along. I was never a willing participant in the engagement. I was doing what my father ordered.”
I balled up my fists, that old familiar hatred coming back. “So, you were using me to try to weaken and ultimately destroy my family.”