something from underneath his pants. My heart raced as he flipped it open and the metal glinted off the single light.
“No. I…” I trailed off. I couldn’t tell him why I’d taken it. If I told him about Stan, he’d go back to my parents and then…no, I couldn’t think about what he would do to them. I’d done this to keep them safe. I couldn’t fall at the last hurdle.
My shoulders drooped as acceptance washed through me. I was going to have to take whatever this Mafia boss would dish out. I didn’t have a choice, not if I wanted to keep my mom and dad safe.
This was the only way.
“Hold her hands out,” Lorenzo ordered. I blinked, tears streaming down my face as I remembered the myth that had been told in my old neighborhood. The Beretta Mafia believed in capital punishment. If you took something of theirs, they’d take something of yours.
Romeo maneuvered me so that my hands were in front of me instead of behind. I didn’t make a move to get out of his grip. I’d take this and I’d live with the consequences. If I made it out alive, I’d get away from the apartment. I’d start over on my own. This was the wake up call I needed.
How had it come down to this?
“Stop,” a new frantic voice said.
I snapped my head up, staring behind Lorenzo as a man walked closer. I was seeing things. I had to be. “Mateo?” I whispered. Was I dreaming? I had to be dreaming.
“Stop,” he repeated, moving closer. He halted next to Lorenzo, his gaze boring into mine. His eyes swirled with so many emotions that I couldn’t keep up, but the one at the forefront was rage.
“What?” Lorenzo asked, turning his head to face Mateo. “Know your place, Mateo,” he ground out. “You may be a captain, but that doesn’t mean you make the decisions here.” His voice was as rough as sandpaper, the warning in his eyes so much louder than the words he’d spoken.
Captain? He was a captain?
“I need to talk to you,” Mateo said, turning his attention to Lorenzo.
Lorenzo raised a brow. “Then talk.”
Mateo’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, his gaze flicking between me and Lorenzo, but it also paused on where Romeo was holding me. “I…” His nostrils flares when his gaze paused on my forehead, probably noticing the blood there, and it took me right back to his apartment the day he’d cleaned up the cut on the other side of my head. And what had happened afterward…
My heart raced for a different reason, and when his eyes met mine, I knew he could see it—sense it.
“She’s…” He pushed his hand through his hair, messing it up, but I kind of preferred it that way. “Fuck.” He stretched his hands out beside him then curled them into fists. “She’s mine.”
My eyes widened, and I blinked rapidly. Did he just…
“Yours?” Lorenzo murmured, the knife still firmly in his grasp and only inches from my arm. The atmosphere in the room plunged to ice-cold levels. I shivered.
“Yeah. Mine.” Mateo took a step closer to me. His eyes locked with mine, everything now shuttered down so I couldn’t see what he was thinking. But he was searching, looking for what, I had no idea, but that didn’t stop him. He didn’t look away, frowning at me, or was that at himself? I couldn’t understand what was happening, all I knew was he was here. And he wouldn’t let them hurt me…would he?
MATEO
What was I doing? Losing my damn mind, that was what.
I’d stood at the back of the basement, taking everything in, trying to make sense of it. There was only one reason she’d steal drugs: her parents. In that moment, I realized we were so much more alike than I’d known. She was trying to do what was right for them, even if it put her in danger.
I was sure there was more to the story, and I had every intention of getting to the bottom of it. But right then, I had to get her the hell out of here before Lorenzo did something I wouldn’t be able to stop.
I’d claimed her as mine, but that wouldn’t be enough to stop him. Which was why I was searching her eyes for clarification. She’d taken the blame, but now I was her only savior.
“She’s my fiancée,” I finally said, knowing those three words would change the course of both of our lives. There’d