Chapter 35

I come to a stop before him, tucking my hands behind my back, standing about a food behind Christian, who doesn’t look back at me.

“She hasn’t given you an ounce of trouble, dad,” Christian sighs, pressing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “Honestly, this whole thing is ridiculous –“

“I’ll decide what is ridiculous, Cristian,” Don Romano snaps, interrupting Christian and pronouncing his name with a distinct Italian accent that makes it very clear that his name in this house is different than the name I grew up calling him.

Christian just shakes his head, inhaling deeply and dropping his hand from his face, turning to gesture towards me, exasperated. “Well, here she is, dragged across town for no reason. Opening opportunities for our enemies to see her in a car with me, learning who is holding her and where.”

Don Romano ignores his son, lifting a hand and beckoning me forward with a slight quirk of his fingers. I step forward three steps, swallowing hard and not even blinking. This man – the power in every line of him, even if he sits quietly in his chair…

God, he’s the most terrifying person I’ve ever met.

“What’s your name?” he snaps, glaring at me.

“Iris Smith,” I answer instantly, remembering Christian’s instructions to tell the truth and not try to be clever.

“And what are you doing with my son?”

I glance slightly at Christian, who nods to me, telling me to speak. “Um,” I say, not quite knowing what to say. “He’s…keeping me safe?”

“Safe?” the don asks, raising an eyebrow at me and then shifting his gaze slightly to Christian. “And why the hell would he do that.”

“Because…my boyfriend sold me?” I say, my sentence ending on an anxious uptick, more question than answer as I hope that it’s the right response. “And mafia families…think that I have information that I don’t?”

“Not an answer, little girl,” Don Romano says, snaping his fingers towards me and slowly standing to learn over his desk and glare at me. “I didn’t ask what story you told to get into my son’s hands – I’m asking why he’s keeping you.”

I hesitate, glancing at Christian, so on edge that I feel I could be standing on knives –

Christian, to my shock, just sets his jaw and crosses his arms, shaking his head at his father. “Lay off, dad,” he snaps, glaring. My eyes go wide to see him stand up to the scariest man I’ve ever seen, and new respect swells in me for Christian. I blink, looking at him anew for what feels like the hundredth time in a few days.

And I understand, suddenly, how Christian got his own reputation as the Mafia King, the man who has supplanted this man across from me as the true power in the city now.

Because while Don Romano is all power and force – Christian…

He’s got all of that, doesn’t he? Just tucked under the neat, dangerous veneer of a gentleman…

God, what the hell?

What crucible has Christian been through to turn him from the boy next door into…this?

Don Romano interrupts my train of thought with some harsh, dark laughter.

“Lay off?” he asks, turning his rankled attention to his son now. “Just because this stripper has somehow wrapped you around her finger –“

“Oh please,” Christian growls, taking a step forward and narrowing his eyes at his dad. “You’re being ridiculous –“

“Ridiculous!?”

The two start to fight in earnest then, throwing harsh words at each other as my eyes go wide, shifting between the two of them like I’m watching the tennis match from hell. I go stiff as the Don accuses Christian of keeping something from him, of having some kind of ulterior motive in keeping me close. Christian, at every turn, refutes the accusation.

Seeing that he’s getting nowhere with his son, Don Romano turns his eyes back to me. “Fine,” he says, his eyes lit with an evil, angry light now. “Then I’ll ask you. Why is my son keeping you close, instead of dropping you in one of the many flop houses at our disposal? What do you have over him?”

My mouth drops open because, well, I didn’t really realize that it was an option for Christian to drop me elsewhere. I realize, suddenly, that he actually is taking my safety very personally, keeping me under his own personal guard twenty-four seven. I glance at Christian, kind of moved by that fact, but Don Romano slams his hand flat on his desk, drawing my gaze back to him.

“Well!?” he shouts, making me jump.

And, unraveled as I am by the sheer power and terror of this man, I fall back on what Christian told me to say: the truth.

“Um,” I say, glancing at Christian again and then giving a hesitant little shrug. “I guess he just…likes me.”

Don Romano studies me for a long, long second and then bursts into laughter.

Not the laughter of a happy man, but instead the dark laughter of a man who finally sees the irony of the situation.

Slowly, Romano shifts his eyes to his son. “Seriously, Cristian?” he says, his voice derisive. “Of all the women at your disposal, you had to collect one more?”

Christian stays very still for a long moment and then gives a casual shrug, not bothering to look my way. “I like what I like,” he says, his voice somehow at once casual and daring his father to contradict him. “I don’t see any reason not to take what I like, just because the other families want her too.”

Christian turns his head then, looking me up and down in a way that feels…completely unlike the boy I knew, unlike the man who I’ve spent the last few days coming to understand. And, disconcerted, I wonder…just how much of all of it has been an act to lull me into a sense of safety.

Because right now…I feel anything but safe.

“She’s not your usual type,” the Don murmurs, sitting back down in his chair and relaxing a little, apparently satisfied with the idea that Christian is keeping me in his penthouse because he’s fucking me. Romano turns his eyes to me anew and lifts a hand in the air, spinning it in a circle. “Turn around, girl. Let me see you.”

I freeze, looking to Christian, who sighs but nods.

Slowly, awkwardly, I do as I’m told, turning in a circle for the Don.

“I like the look of her. She’s pretty,” the Don says darkly, amused. “Though you certainly tried to hide it, in that innocent little dress.”

“Oh whatever,” Christian sighs, and as I finish my turn I see his arms crossed across his chest. “Are we done here? Clearly, the girl isn’t any threat to you or your business. And I’d prefer to get her back to the apartment before anyone gets a trace on us.”

“We’ll be done in a moment,” the Don says, smirking. “But rumor has it that this young woman has…talents. I want to see her dance.”

I go completely pale before blushing scarlet, dropping my eyes towards the floor, completely mortified.

Seriously? Is this man going to…to make me strip for him, in this sun-soaked study?

“Dad!” Christian snaps, and I see him take an angry step forward, “that is completely –“

Don Romano bursts out laughing. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” he says, and I raise my eyes a little as relief floods through me. “I was just checking to see if your taste for the girl was genuine, Cristian.” His eyes are on me again, I see, and his smirk is very satisfied. “As much as I’d enjoy the experience, I know that you’re the jealous sort. If you’d been willing to share the girl, I’d have been…worried.”

I glance at Christian then, unsurprised to see him scowling. He gave away more than he intended to there, didn’t he?

“No,” the Don says, drawing my eyes back to him, where he sits smugly, like a cat with a full bowl of cream. “I’m very nearly satisfied that this girl is who you say she is, and not a threat. Just…one more thing.”

And then, to my shock, he leans forward and presses a button on the bulky phone sitting on his desk. “Carey? Yes. Bring him in.”

Christan steps forward again, anxiety in every line of him. “What are you doing, dad?” he asks, his voice tense.

“Oh, I just want to see where her loyalties really lie…”

My breath comes short as I turn, hearing the door behind me open.

And I feel all the blood drain from my face as I see precisely who is being dragged into the room.