desk as he tilted his head to the side. "You doing okay? I haven't gotten to talk with you about your mother much."
I stiffened. "As good as can be. We knew she wasn't going to hang on much longer. I just wish there was something I could have done."
"Me too. I'd have done anything to save her too." He brushed his fingers across his lips. "She meant the world to me."
"I know that. It's a conversation best left unspoken. I think you and I are the only ones that know just how much she meant to you." I ran my fingers through my hair and tried not to let the hard emotions of knowing that my mother was having an affair with Joe blast through me. She was a grown woman, and if she wanted to play someone’s mistress, then it was her fucking business.
"Have you seen Drake? Don't lie to me." He pursed his lips and stood up.
"Nope. I told you that we cut ties a long time ago. It's better for him if I don't know where he is." I shrugged and took another sip of my water. The old man in front of me was my closest confidant and a father to me, but I'd never in a million years let him know that Drake was alive and well. It would be the same as slipping a collar around my brother and dragging him back to a life he hated. He wasn't cut out for the Mafia. He had too much of our mother in him.
"All right. You know that I trust you." He lifted an eyebrow.
"As you should. I've never done anything to give you a reason not to." I glanced behind me at the sound of a door closing. "You need to eat something."
"Go get Izzy up for me. I expected her down here already. I need to talk to her for a few minutes."
"All right, but you're eating something after that." I turned without acknowledging the go fuck yourself look on his face.
I'd be doing that later too no doubt. The image of Izabella's dress flaring open as she’d turned to get me to zip it earlier that day was playing with me in ways that left me aching to touch her. I'd grazed the top of her lacy black G-string as I pulled at the zipper and coveted her smooth, tanned skin with my eyes.
I wanted her more than I wanted my next breath, and I would keep wanting until that want turned into need.
Then I would take without apology — boundaries be damned.
Chapter 7
Izabella
I woke with a start as the soft tapping at my door scared me. I sat up and reached for my gun behind my back and found it gone. Panic washed over me as I took in the room around me, the comfort of my things, the softness of my bed.
Home.
I was at home, and everything was fine for now. Sadness pressed against my insides at the thought of never sitting at my vanity and letting my mom brush my hair as she had done all of my life. She was the only one I let my guard down in front of. The only one that had access to the last bit of softness inside of me that resembled the carefree girl of my youth. Much to her dismay, I had become the monster my father needed me to be.
I shook off my thoughts and got up to walk over to the door. Demetri stood on the other side of it, looking like sin.
His suit fit him too well and left the strong muscles of his arms and chest accentuated. The swell just below his belt never seemed to leave me unaffected, as if I hadn't been on my knees before him, worshiping every inch of him with every part of me before.
I let my eyes move over him slowly and crossed my arms over my chest. We were done being sweet and soft to each other. The funeral was over, and any comfort offered one another would just end with one of us needing the other and receiving a large helping of denial. Nothing hurt more.
I tilted my head and gave him the attitude he deserved from me. "What do you want?"
"Your father expected you thirty minutes ago. Not sure what he wants, but I want to make something perfectly clear to you." He pressed his hands to the door frame and leaned toward me menacingly. The dark