Sweet Temptation

“You lied about Andrea.”

“I didn’t lie. I omitted part of the truth.”

Luca’s lip curled in a dangerous way. “Some might say omitting part of the truth is lying.”

“The only opinion that matters to me is yours.”

Luca came closer. The gun still hanging down in a relaxed way. The sight might have fooled someone who didn’t know Luca as I did. Luca was a born killer. Few men were as dangerous as him with and without a gun. “If that were true, you would have told me everything when I asked.”

I nodded. “Andrea was my soldier. When I killed him, it was under Philadelphia’s ruling.”

“Philadelphia is mine, Cassio. Everything in the east is mine. You and all my other Underbosses rule over my cities in my name. Don’t ever forget that.”

“I don’t. But you trust me to rule in Philadelphia as I see fit, and you know I do it well. You don’t expect me to tell you about every incident in the city. You trust me to deal with them myself.”

“I expect you to tell me when there’s a traitor in the Famiglia.”

“Andrea was a rat.”

“Was he? Or was he just the man who fucked your wife?”

With anyone but Luca, I might have attacked. I stifled my fury. “He was both. The Vice President of the chapter of the Tartarus MC in Philadelphia that I dismembered told me they had a contact and the description fit Andrea.”

“Did you press a confession out of him?”

“It’s what I should have done,” I admitted. I held Luca’s gaze. “When I came home after attacking the clubhouse, I found my naked, heavily pregnant wife riding my brother-in-law—her half-brother—under my roof with my little son downstairs thinking they were playing some game. When I confronted Andrea, he bragged to me about fucking my wife from the first day of our marriage and that my children weren’t mine. I beat him to death with my bare fists, broke every fucking bone in his body, smashed in his cheating face until his eyes popped out, and I would do it again.”

Luca nodded because jealous rage was something he understood only too well. “Did you kill Gaia?”

“No. I didn’t even consider it,” I said. “She killed herself, like I told you. She missed him too much.”

The pain of the past didn’t come this time. Gaia was the past. Giulia was my present and future. She’d showed me what it meant to love a woman as fiercely as I loved my children.

Luca sheathed his gun. “I expect the truth from my men.”

“I didn’t want anyone to find out that Gaia had cheated. Some people did, of course, and their reaction was bad enough.” I hated admitting this, but Luca needed to understand. I swore to Giulia that I’d return to her, and I had every intention of keeping that promise.

“I understand,” Luca said simply. “I’m going to make sure Felix keeps his fucking mouth shut unless you want the truth out.”

The truth about Daniele and Simona, about their blood, and why they didn’t look like me. “Daniele and Simona are my children in every regard that matters. They can’t ever find out the truth.”

“They won’t.” Luca picked up his phone.

“I should handle it.”

Luca smiled wryly. “Your wife might not be happy if you kill her father, and Felix might count on it. Felix knows I wouldn’t hesitate to end his sorry life, however.”

I inclined my head. Luca had killed family members before, so Felix definitely couldn’t hope for mercy.

Luca pressed the phone to his ear. “Ahh, Felix, I hear you acquired some interesting tidbit of information. Have you told anyone yet?” Luca waited. “And it’ll stay that way. Understood? I think it would be best to discuss the matter in person, just so I can really get the message across to you.” Pause. “No, you will meet me in New York tomorrow at four p.m. Don’t make me wait.” He hung up.

I nodded my thanks because the actual words would never pass my lips.

“You should go to your wife now.”

I turned around and headed to the door, but before I could open it, Luca spoke up again, “This was your last omission, Cassio. Even three children won’t protect you next time you lie to me.”

“I know.”

I left. Faro still waited in the corridor and almost sagged in relief when he spotted me.

He waited until the elevator doors closed before he said, “I thought I wouldn’t see you again.”

“Luca knows I’m worth more alive than dead.”

Faro shook his head. “If you say so.” He regarded me closely. “Do you want to talk?”

I grimaced. “I don’t need to talk.”

The second I stepped into our house, Giulia stormed toward me and embraced me so tightly I worried she might bruise her bump. Her eyes were red. Daniele stepped into the foyer behind her. At twelve, he was almost as tall as Giulia. I still remembered when he’d clung to my trouser legs.