Page 54 of He Should Be Mine

But I see the cracks forming already.

My stomach twists. I rub my jaw with the back of my hand. This isn’t guilt. It’s rage, deep and bitter and bone-cold. I want Riccardo dead. But beneath that is fear.

Fear that this will take too long.

That while I’m sitting in backrooms and trading promises, Riccardo will get bored, or worse, angry, and hurt Molly worse than he has before. That I’ll look up from some ledger of debts and loyalties and find out I’m already too late.

“Dario?” Carlo says.

I blink. “Yeah.”

“You good?”

“Fine.”

He gives me a look that says he doesn’t buy it. “You’re doing this for someone.”

I don’t respond. I don’t know what to say. Am I really so easy to read? Does doing this for someone make me look weak? My heart would be racing if it wasn’t already beating for Molly.

“You’re smart,” he says. “But smart men do stupid things when they’re in love.”

Dante doesn’t even glance over. “Love gets people killed.”

“I know,” I say quietly.

Carlo leans back in his chair. “Then don’t let it make you sloppy.”

I look around the dangerous men in the room. None of them look like they are changing their mind. If anything, they look more assured. But I guess that makes sense. Underneath the violence, the crime and the danger, the mafia have always been about one thing, and one thing only.

Family.

And what is family, if not love?

“I won’t get sloppy.” I mean it.

Because if I do… I’ll lose Molly.

And that’s not a price I’m willing to pay.

Carlo rolls his shoulders. “So. Riccardo.”

“We do it in stages,” I say. “Take out his inner circle, leak some information, cut off his income. Let him flail. Let him sweat.”

“Then we kill him?” Nicolo asks.

“No,” Dante says. “Then I ruin him. Kill him after. When he’s already bled out everything that made him dangerous.”

I nod once. “I want him afraid. I want him begging. And then I want him gone.”

Carlo lifts his tumbler. “To Riccardo’s slow, miserable death.”

We clink glasses, and the room falls quiet again. The plan is set. The alliance forged.

But in the back of my mind, there’s only Molly. His too-big eyes. His carefully careless laugh. His trust.

Hold on, I think. Just a little longer.

I’m coming.