Mafia Casanova

To keep his memory safe.

To create this illusion that everything was perfect when, in reality, it was all completely fucked.

“The truth,” I repeated.

“God, you can’t even do that for me, can you? You say you love me, you’ll protect me, you’ll keep me safe, and yet you can’t even trust me with your truth, you can’t even—”

“It was fast.” I locked eyes with her. “It was necessary.”

She gasped, throwing her hands over her mouth like she was afraid the sob would be too loud if she didn’t mask it with her fingertips.

I took a step toward her. “You want the truth still?”

Tears slid down her cheeks at her slow nod.

“Despite asking for Tristian’s forgiveness before he took his last breath, I liked it. I reveled in his death even though it pained me to have to kill him. He was my brother. I sacrificed you, Naz, myself… for him.”

She averted her eyes.

“Nope.” I was on her then, my hands jerking her fingers away from her mouth; I caged her against the wall, cupping her jaw with my hand. “You want the truth, you get all of it. Next time remember that.” I dropped my hand. “Look at me.”

She met my eyes. Her lower lip trembling. I just wanted to kiss it away, to take away the pain, to tell her that I had to no matter what.

Would it have changed things if I was honest in the beginning?

Probably not.

But there was something to be said about being honest in the end. Maybe that was why they called them happy endings. It wasn’t that everything worked out perfectly. It was that when the story finally closed, you knew you had done everything you could to own up to your truth. And in the end, how could that not be happy? When you’ve said your peace, it was your only choice. Sadness and anger were for liars.

I was done being a liar. Being forced to lay it at her feet, a sacrifice I’d never come back from. I might as well slit my wrists and stab my own heart, watching myself bleed.

“My truth,” I rasped, “is that, no matter what, I will always fucking put you first. You and Naz. Even if it means I kill my brother.” I shook my head. “My truth? My truth is the night you came running to your father with Naz, I went out and looked for him. I found him at our dive bar with this woman I thought I recognized.”

“You knew he was cheating on me?”

“Not at first. But once I started doing some digging, I realized who she was married to. One thing led to another, and it took me a year to figure out the truth of his indiscretions.”

“What did he do?”

I nodded toward the couch. “You’re going to want to sit down before I tell you the rest.”

Her expression quickly turned to worry; she looked like she might pass out. I helped her toward the sofa, crouching down in front of her so I could stare into her eyes.

She was going to need all the support I could give her with what I was about to disclose.

“Romeo, you’re freaking me out. How bad was it?”

“Enough for me to kill him.”

Her eyes widened, and I kissed the inside of her wrist, wanting to feel her pulse against my lips before I ripped the ground out from under her.

“He was going to kill you for twenty-five million dollars.”

Her mouth dropped open, her face paled, and I never wanted to take away the hurt in her eyes more than I did in that moment.

“What…” she whispered all in one breath.

“He was cooking the books for Ivan Drozdov without our knowing. When I found out, it was just a domino effect. Tristian told him that he would kill you if he made him a made man and gave him twenty-five million dollars.”

“Wow. I saw the wire transfer. I guess now I know my worth.”

I grabbed her chin. “You’re worth all the money in the world.”

Her eyes lit up.

Hope.

I hadn’t seen it in so long.

“Ivan was using Tristian. Once Tristian killed you, Ivan was going to turn on him and save face to our family by telling us what he was capable of for a title and money.”

“He was sleeping with his wife?”

“Yeah. That’s what made Ivan turn on him.”

“I can’t believe this.” She shook her head. It was evident she was overwhelmed, and I couldn’t blame her. It was a lot to take in, and it was about to get much worse. “He was going to kill Naz for twenty-five million as well.”

“Oh my God!” She shot straight up, I went with her. “You can’t be serious?!”

“I’m so sorry, Eden. He only just decided that a few days ago, when he found out Naz was mine.”