Chapter 48 #2
“Fine.” I spin on my heel and motion toward the hallway for Kostya and Kirill to follow. “Let’s give them a minute.”
“Thank fucking Christ,” Kostya groans, practically sprinting out the door.
I follow after him and Kirill, unable to stop myself from glancing over my shoulder one last time. Anna’s lips are still fused to her husband’s like she’s terrified he’ll disappear if she pulls away.
I close the door behind me and lean against it, pressing my closed fists against my temples.
“Well… that definitely wasn’t on my bingo card.”
“No shit,” Kostya snorts. “I thought the motherfucker was supposed to be some cold-blooded psychopath. That’s not the man I just saw in there, babe.”
“First of all, stop calling my wife babe, mudak,” Kirill barks at his baby brother before turning back to me and settling his large hands gently on my hips.
“And secondly…” His voice softens. “That wasn’t the Boss of the Cosa Nostra we just saw.
That was a man desperately in love with his wife.
There was real pain in his eyes, milaya.
The kind of pain only a man who’s been separated from the love of his life can understand.
” A sad smile tugs at his mouth. “I know that feeling well.”
I press my forehead against his chest and force myself to breathe.
“This changes everything, doesn’t it?”
“It should,” Kirill answers, threading his fingers through my hair. “But I doubt the Outfit will care whether their marriage is real or not. Matteo is still enemy number one. He’s the Boss of the Cosa Nostra. There’s no way he walks out of that room alive.”
My husband is right.
It doesn’t matter if their love is real. Matteo is still our enemy. Because of him, dozens upon dozens of Outfit men are dead. We’re supposed to make an example out of him, not show him mercy.
But suddenly, the thought of killing him doesn’t feel like justice anymore.
It feels cruel.
“I don’t want to become my sister’s murderer,” I whisper brokenly. “Because if Matteo dies… that’s exactly what I’ll be.”
“So don’t be,” Kirill says, brushing my hair back and tilting my chin up until I’m forced to look into his beautiful dark eyes. “Don’t be the instrument that steals your sister’s happiness away. Be her salvation instead.”
I take in his words, praying that I can live up to them.
“Okay.” I let out a breath. “Let’s see what he has to say for himself first. Then we’ll take it from there.”
I push the door open again, only to find Anna still perched on Matteo’s lap, his hand hidden beneath her dress and her gaze glazed over with desire.
“Great. I’m going to have to bleach my eyes now. Thanks for the visual, little sis.” I groan dramatically, covering my eyes with my palms. “This is going to haunt me forever.”
Anna’s cheeks flush crimson, but Matteo doesn’t so much as twitch to remove his hand.
Fucker.
“Let’s get something straight,” I say, dropping my hands back to my sides. “I don’t like you. Never have. Not since the day we met.”
“I understand,” Matteo replies calmly, finally pulling his hand from beneath my sister’s dress and settling it properly at her waist instead. “But every family has its struggles, do they not?”
“You’re not my family.” I scoff.
“Yes, he is.” Anna rises from Matteo’s lap and moves to stand in front of him, looking taller than she has in weeks. Stronger too. “Because he’s mine.”
“Anna…”
“No. I know what you’re going to say, but you need to hear me out first.” Anna takes a shaky breath before squaring her shoulders.
“I love Matteo, and he loves me. If you hurt him… if you kill him… then you might as well use the same bullet on me, too. Because if Matteo dies here tonight…” Her voice cracks. “Then so will I.”
Shock and panic surge through me at the conviction behind her words.
“You’re not thinking straight,” I argue, shaking my head. “That’s what’s making you say these things.”
“No, Stella.” Anna walks toward me slowly, her blue eyes brighter than they’ve been in weeks.
“I’m more lucid now than I’ve ever been.
Don’t you see, sis? I love him. I’m in love with him, and he loves me just as fiercely.
” A fresh batch of tears gathers in her eyes.
“If you take him away from me, then you take away the best part of me. The very reason I have to keep living.”
“Anna, don’t,” Matteo says hoarsely behind her, devastation bleeding into every syllable. “Don’t say that.”
She turns toward him with a heartbreaking smile.
“It’s true, my love. When I said I couldn’t survive another day without you, I meant it.
I won’t live in a world you’re not in. I won’t.
I refuse to.” Tears spill down her cheeks.
“Please don’t ask me to live without you, Matteo. I just can’t do it. Not anymore.”
Then she turns away from her devastated husband and looks back at me.
“If you let him die here tonight, then I’ll follow him.”
She means it.
Holy fuck… she really means it.
“You’re bluffing,” I choke out, praying I’m wrong and that it’s not conviction I see in her blue eyes.
“I’m not,” she deadpans.
“Fine.” I throw my hands in the air. “You’re not bluffing. But this is blackmail, Anna. Emotional fucking blackmail.”
“Do you think I want to die, sister?” She lets out a halfhearted laugh.
“Because I don’t. I want to live a long, beautiful life.
With my husband, Stella. With my husband,” she repeats more forcefully.
“If I can’t have that life with him, then I don’t want one at all.
Might as well shoot me now and get over with it. ”
“I won’t let that happen,” I snap immediately. “I’ll lock you in a room and keep guards on you twenty-four-seven before I let that happen.”
“Like you already have since bringing me back to Chicago?” Anna arches a brow, sadness still clinging to her smile. “Do it then. Maybe it won’t happen tonight or tomorrow…” Her gaze softens. “But the second you lower your guard is the second I’ll return to my husband.”
A chill crawls violently down my spine at the certainty in her voice.
Then Anna takes my hands into hers and gives them a gentle squeeze.
“Don’t look at me like that, Stella. You of all people know what it feels like to live half a life.”
Her words hit their mark instantly.
“Need I remind you how miserable you were when you and Kill were apart? You walked around like a ghost, sister. I bet there were days you prayed for someone to put you out of your misery too.”
My throat tightens painfully.
“But you got your husband back,” she whispers. “All I’m asking is for you to give me mine.”
Then she hooks her pinkie finger around mine.
“It’s us sisters against the world, remember?”
Tears slide freely down her cheeks now, just as mine begin to blur my vision.
“Help me, Stella. Help me and Matteo get out of this. Help me live a long and wonderful life with the man I love.” Her voice breaks completely. “And if you can’t give me that… then at least have the mercy to let me die by his side.”
My heart splinters right there in my chest.
I look over Anna’s shoulder and find Matteo watching us with the same devastated expression currently tearing me apart from the inside out.
He doesn’t want her to die for him.
But he also knows that if we kill him, there won’t be a damn thing he can do to stop it.
Slowly, I pull away from my sister and walk toward Matteo.
“If you’re lying to me…” I warn quietly. “I’ll know.”
Matteo rises to his feet, his body leaning slightly to the right for support. “Go ahead and ask me.”
“Do you love my sister?”
“With all my heart,” he answers instantly, without a second of hesitation.
I swallow hard against the lump forming in my throat.
“Do you promise to protect her? To love her the way she deserves?”
“Yes.”
The answer comes just as quickly. Just as fiercely.
I close my eyes briefly before forcing myself to nod.
“Then let me see what I can do.”
I turn and stride toward the door, Anna flashing me a smile so bright it nearly guts me alive.
Because the truth is… I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to save Matteo.
And if I can’t save him…
Then I won’t be able to save my sister either.
Saving them both will take a miracle.
And since I don’t have a direct line to God… I guess the Devil will have to do.
Marcelo
“We can’t kill him, Marcello. We just can’t,” Stella says, dropping into the chair across from me after explaining Annamaria’s reunion with her husband in detail.
It’s exactly as I feared.
They love each other.
Fuck.
Like everyone else in this family, when I first found out about their marriage, I wanted to believe Matteo forced Anna into it just to tie her to New York forever. That she was nothing more than a pawn used to force the Outfit into relinquishing its control over the city.
However, that day back at the church… When he looked at my sister like she was the only thing tethering him to this world and told her he loved her with what he thought were his dying breaths, part of me began to suspect his feelings for her might actually be real.
And it wasn’t only that moment that made me question his loyalty to the Cosa Nostra.
Another memory resurfaces from the day we were trying to extricate our soldiers from the Cosa Nostra’s grip. I was distracted that night. Exhausted by the war and being away from Izzie for so long.
And because of that exhaustion, I made a mistake.
A mistake I became aware of the second Matteo lifted his weapon and fired at the drywall behind me.
Anyone else would’ve assumed he missed.
But men like Matteo and me don’t miss.
Which left me wondering why he would intentionally warn me instead of taking the kill shot.
Now I know.
He spared me because he knew my death would destroy Anna.
And now I’m left facing the same predicament. If I kill him, I’ll destroy her too.
“What are we going to do?” Stella asks quietly, looking more shaken than I’ve seen her in years.
Yes…what are we going to do?