Page 82 of Dark Breaker

“Fine. Bye.” I hang up.

Well, it was worth a try. I feel dirty, like I’ve gone against my morals just by asking. But I had to.

For Fabio and I. For the future we could have had.

Still, I know Massimo is right. It was a selfish request. An assassination attempt against the Jackal, whether successful or not, would start a war.

I have to remember why I married Fabio in the first place. To protect my brothers.

Not for love.

Never for love.

I smile sadly as Giuseppe wheels my Vespa into view.

I hop onto my bike and strap on my helmet.

“Everything all right,signora?” Giuseppe asks.

“Never better,” I lie.

14

Fabio

Iwant to follow Rosa when she leaves. I want to protect her, like she asked me to do. And I will. I already have my guy downstairs following her. He’ll be gathering another four of my men to watch over her at the university. I plan to join them later after I get some things done.

When she basically admitted that she liked me, I almost told her her feelings were reciprocated. Almost. But I didn’t want to raise her hopes, or lead her along in any way, so I convinced her that what she felt was simply lust. Because I meant want I said: I can’t let myself get too attached to her.

Yet I know I’m falling for her. I wasn’t kidding when I told her I think about her all day.

Falling for her terrifies me more than anything else in my life. Because if I lose her I lose everything. I would give up the business, exactly like I told her. And the Jackal would be more than happy to take it from me.

Father would disown me. Nicolo, I have no idea what he’d do. Probably never speak to me again. Our allies, the Morettis and Amatos, would desert us. They’d force me to divorce Rosa, no doubt, since I’d be of no use to them anymore.

Fuck.

Yes, I can’t fall for her. Doing so will only ruin everything. I have to harden my feelings. Force them to the back of my mind. It’s something I’m good at. I’ve been doing it all my life. Being cold-hearted is the only way to succeed in this business. It’s worked for me all my life.

Until Rosa.

Fuck.

I head to my laptop. I have some condominium plans to approve for one of our new sites. Plus some income reports from the different dealers we have in our network. I always like to check for disparities among the incomes—it helps me to pinpoint those dealers who are trying to embezzle family money.

Before I even get started my phone buzzes. I grab it and accept the call.

“CiaoFabio,” Nicolo says.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“Got some news,” Nicolo replies. “Germano turned up.”

“So the Jackal didn’t kill him after all,” I say in wonder.

“No, but the Jackal tortured him pretty badly,” Nicolo tells me. “Germano had most of his teeth pulled, along with his nails. All his fingers and toes were broken.”

My grip tightens on the phone. I can’t stand it when someone hurts my people.