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“Me too. For a moment, I wished I could shut off my brain and convince myself that I am worthy of you.” There were things about my past I hadn’t told her. My gaze intensified on her face as if I wanted to memorize every line, every curve, and every feature. From the arch of her brows that could communicate so much sass to the sparkle in her eyes that could bring a hardened assassin like me to his knees. I didn’t want to think about her mouth, her lips, which were right now sucking on…fuck. I swallowed. “That I’m not the bastard son of the Rossis. That I don’t kill people for a living, and I didn’t force you to marry me. That I don’t have to leave this fucking life and you after I set up Tommy to be the next boss.”

“Despite what I said, there has to be another way. Fake your death? You think I’ll find happiness knowing that?”

I reached out and, with the back of my hand, caressed her cheek. “You have to, Sunlight.” I swallowed through the tacks in my throat. “After all this, just focus on all the shit I brought down on you and your family.”

“That’s crazy talk and you know it,” she snapped. She pushed me away, but not before I saw the glistening of tears. “Well, what else should we make for dinner? Maybe we could start a countdown to your last supper.”

Her voice cracked with those last two words. I couldn’t stand it anymore. This distance between us wasn’t…us. I walked around the bed to her side and sat beside her, drawing her into my arms.

She turned into me and buried her nose at the center of my chest.

“I still hate you,” she breathed against me. “But I don’t want you to die, Sandro.”

“I’m not dying.” I chuckled.

She gazed up at me, cheeks stained with her anguish. “At the beginning of all this, I didn’t care if you burned in hell with all the Rossis.”

“I know. I saw that hatred.” I never wanted to see it directed at me again. I couldn’t get the image out of my head, and it gutted me each time I remembered it.

“But now, that’s not what I want.”

“Are you sure?” I teased.

“It’s not funny.” She tried to shove away, but I wouldn’t let her. “I would have married Gian…”

“Over my dead body,” I snarled. “And I mean it. I don’t know what I would have done and how it would have ended, but it would have never ended with you married to him. I might have risked Renz and you might’ve hated me for the rest of yourlife, but if it came down to you or your brother, I would always choose you.”

“Don’t ever make that choice.”

“What? You’ll sacrifice yourself.”

“We’ll all be alive. And if my brother died because of me, then you’d be consigning me to a life where I wished I was dead.”

And that was the only reason I didn’t risk Renz’s life. “I get that. But this is for you, Bianca. I had no business being your friend.” But she was the sun in my darkness. She was addictive. “I need your cooperation so I can get you out.”

It looked like she was going to argue, but it was as if a resolve crossed her face and I wasn’t sure I trusted it. “I could act like a dutiful mafia wife.”

My mouth twitched.

“Support my husband. Not complain about the time he spends away from me. And help settle problems with the WAGs.”

“I’m all for the first, but I’m not sure whether the second is in your nature, and I know the third comes naturally to you.”

Her brows furrowed. “How do you know?”

“It’s just in you to be empathetic, Bianca.”

“Not to everyone.”

I sighed. “Hold your temper with Raffa and Gian. And also Griselda.”

“Griselda? You think I’m going to fight with her overmy husband?”

“It’s not that,” I stressed. “She’s used to handling the Rossi women since Frankie became a widower. Joe’s wife left the family and disappeared. Technically, it should have fallen to Divina, but between you and me…she’s too nice. Griselda is more assertive.”

“Why do you need me if Griselda is handling things? Especially if our marriage is temporary?”

I was starting to hate the wordtemporary, but until I could figure out a way out of this mess, then I couldn’t give Bianca any hope that I was going to come out of this unscathed and alive. I’d made too many enemies as an assassin. Even if they couldn’t connect me to any of the kills, the fact remained I had a reputation.