with the mayor would no doubt bring peace to the city, but it would be at the cost of my sanity.
“And?”
“They’re dead.”
“What? How?”
“That part isn’t clear. The rumours circulating are that they were ambushed by a rival gang, and they… well, they lost.”
I haven’t heard of a rival gang in Dermalen.
“What gang?”
He only shrugs.
“What are we to do? I had my men lay down their weapons on the premise they would walk out and have them replaced in the shadows. They were only meant to be without weapons for less than an hour.”
Just because the people of Vita believe the Camarco soldiers are for peace, doesn’t mean it’s true. I would never leave my men unprotected.
“There’s another option, but you won’t like it—a temporary option, of course.”
I wait for him to explain.
“I can approach the Marocchi distributor and offer a higher price.”
I’d normally say over my dead body without hesitation, but this isn’t the time for my pride to get in the way.
“I’ll think about it.”
Dismissing him, I begin to think on his proposal as he slips out the main doors.
The people of Vita are sick of the gun violence. Every shot fired is another reminder of the lives lost on a daily basis.
Blades are messy, but they’re silent, and just as effective. Then again, blades don’t beat guns. They wouldn’t stand a chance against a Marocchi with a shooter. Still, we need to be more creative to win this war once and for all.
“I should’ve known you spend your nights with the Lord.”
Jumping to my feet, I spin around to find Raphael Marocchi standing in the middle of the aisle, in my fucking church—in my fucking sanctuary.
He’s still in his tux, minus the bow tie, with the top three buttons undone on his shirt.
“I would’ve thought you’d be entertaining your date at this hour?” I quip, keeping my composure.
I won’t give him the satisfaction of questioning how he got inside, seeing as how he used to sneak around this church enough to know how to get in undetected.
His eyes go to my ringless finger and smirks. “Turns out, I’m as interested in my date as you are in your fiancé. I would like to applaud you on the show you put on tonight. It’s a damn shame it will never last. You’re playing tactfully, but you know as well as I do that blood and death wins wars. Playing games only prolongs it.”
The flickering candlelight casts shadows over his face as I walk toward him.
“A war cannot be fought with an untouchable player making his own moves standing between us.”
“Then we have the same goal, for now. Alexander Salvatore must die.”
It’s probably the first time in history that both families have had the same goal. But this time, history will be rewritten. I can’t have the Camarco name tied to his death. I’ll need to be the grieving wife-to-be, mourning the loss of her love. But I’ll know the truth, and so will Raphael.
“One day, one of us will kill the other, but we can also agree that no one tries to tell us what to do.”
He smirks. “I just spent three hours with a beautiful woman who would’ve eagerly gotten into bed with me, but I felt nothing. Yet five minutes with you vowing to end my life, my dick has never been so hard.”
A small part of me is screaming to move away from him, but I’m frozen in place, my cheeks flaming with heat.
I wonder if the boy I once loved is still in there somewhere, under his crass words and threats?
He inches closer and says, “Tell me, Mila, do you ever wonder why, at twenty-eight, neither of us have married for love?” Lifting his hand, he runs his knuckles over my cheekbone. “There was a time we knew love. Do you ever think what it would be like if we never parted?”
There have been rare, fleeting moments that I have, but I’ll never admit it to him. Needing to put as much distance between us as possible, I turn and take the steps up to the alter.
“Not since you gave the order to kill my parents and me. When I do think about you, it’s to imagine you dead on the street at my feet, your blood running along the dirt in the gutter.”
His long strides should have me running, but I’ll damned if I show weakness in front of him—again.
Leaving barely any space between us, he wraps his hand around the back of my