Shattered Prince

“I want to marry her,” I said, staring down the barrel of my own demise.

Nobody moved. Alejandro studied me through narrowed eyes. Two other men sat inside, staring. I didn’t know them. I didn’t care.

I held my hands up, breathing hard.

“I want to marry her,” I said again. “I know that looked bad up there. I understand how you feel right now. But I want to marry her, Alejandro. We can bring our families together and make everyone stronger, if you’ll let me. I’ll give you what you want. I’ll make the Suarez cartel the strongest in America. Just let me marry your daughter.”

The gun didn’t waver. Alejandro kept on staring like he was looking into a pit of fire.

But slowly, the barrel dipped.

“Put a ring on her finger soon, Falsone,” he said quietly. “Make her your wife and give me grandchildren. And make sure you do not fail to deliver on your promises.”

The gun disappeared. The window rolled up. And the SUV pulled away.

I stood there breathing hard, my heart wildly palpitating in my chest.

I started laughing with weary, shocked exuberance.

At least I wouldn’t have to go through asking for his daughter’s hand in marriage a second time.

Chapter 25

Jules

I was mortified.

I wanted the ocean to open up and swallow me whole. I wanted Carmine’s apartment tower to crumble down on my head. I wanted to shrink into a teeny, tiny little ball, and to disappear in a flash of light.

I wasn’t close with my father, but I never in a million years wanted him to see me wearing nearly nothing while beckoning a man to come back to bed.

Carmine should be dead. A man did not sleep with the daughter of a cartel leader and walk away alive. Even if Carmine was a Don in his own right with his own power, it didn’t matter—my father should’ve killed him.

But something happened.

Carmine wouldn’t explain what. He came back upstairs, found me curled up in his bed under the covers, and held me close. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “You don’t have to worry.”

“How? What?”

“I smoothed it over. You’ll be fine.”

“That’s insane. You smoothed it over? My papa’s the kind of man that burns entire villages for what you did. And you somehow smoothed it over like it was some tiny little mistake?” I shoved him back and glared. “What did you do, Carmine?”

“Nothing,” he said, grinning, his hands raised. “Your father understands that we need each other. We work well together. So, here are.”

I glared at him. I fought against him. But eventually, I gave in and let him pin me down to the bed and fuck me raw and hard, and when we finished, I accepted the pleasant, incredible glow that suffused me with an easy floating lightness.

He’d done something. I don’t know what—but he’d made a bargain with my father.

I should’ve pressed for details. Whatever Carmine had done to make my father spare both our lives, it definitely involved me in some way. I should’ve made him tell me what he’d done—but I didn’t.

I kept quiet. I accepted his help without complaint or argument.

I was finished second-guessing and hating myself. I couldn’t go through life assuming everything I did was wrong and everything would come crashing down on my head sooner or later. Carmine could fix it, and I’d let him.

Because for once, I had something good.

Something real.

And I wasn’t going to destroy it with my own self-doubts.

I’d come too far for that. I’d told Carmine the truth of what I did to Vidal all those years ago, and how Oscar had used it against me as blackmail. And Carmine hadn’t looked at me like I was some kind of damaged monster.

He’d understood. He’d held me close and made me feel better.

He’d taken away some of the pain.

Now I’d let him handle this, whatever it was, whatever he had to do.

We spent the morning in and out of bed, exhausting each other and driving the other to the brink of madness and release. I skipped a college class for the first time in my life because I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed, not when Carmine was busy pleasuring me like it was his last act on Earth. I came in droves, in waves, I never stopped coming until we finally collapsed together and let the real world come rushing back inside.

“I’m going to be late for my bio lecture,” I said, staring at the ceiling and flexing my toes.

“I think I already gave you a good lesson on the human body.” He kissed my collarbone.

I grinned and swatted him away. “Not that kind of lecture.”

“Stay here. I can teach you whatever you need to know.”

“I want to be a doctor. All you’re good at is getting me off and killing people.”

“That’s true, but at least I don’t do them both at the same time.”