Page 119 of Sins of the Orchid

It was the reason my father didn’t want Adriano pulled into the Cosa Nostra. Her old man wanted Amore to marry someone with connections to the Cosa Nostra but wasn’t integrated in it; had no position in it. When Amore came into my life, I was already knee and elbow deep in the Cosa Nostra.

More than anything I wanted to kill her father. Luigi too. Except, I wouldn’t win that way. I’d lose Amore the same as if I let the fucking contract play out. For the first time in my entire damn life, I had no solution.

On my third glass of whiskey, straight up, no ice, I’d gone over every possible scenario to get out of the contract, without killing her family, or my own brother, and marry my girl. I could keep her safe with or without the Cosa Nostra.

I even considered kidnapping her. The more time went by, the better the idea appeared. Or it could have been the whiskey talking. Pouring myself another glass of whiskey, I downed it in one gulp. Except this dull bitterness that swelled inside me refused to go away.

Amore had fucked with my head and taken my heart. She’d created an obsessive monster out of me. I called her my little sex monster; the truth was I was the same way for her. I was so worked up that my shoulders were stiff with tension. My teeth clenched and my jaw ached.

No woman touches you either, Santi. You are mine.Amore’s words rang in my ears from our last night together in Italy.

Goddamn it, I was hers. The wordsmineandhersscreamed in my head.

In one swift move, I threw the glass and watched it fly through the air, liquid spilling out of it like blood spilled, before it shattered against the glass.

Renzo burst through the door, prepared to shoot someone. I didn’t even bother looking up.

“What happened?” he questioned, checking out my office as if he expected someone to be hiding in the corner. His gun was pulled out, his shoulders tense.

The image of Amore, her wild red mane flowing through the air as she ran towards me at the airport, her soft smile, her green eyes shining with happiness. Her lush lips wrapped around my cock and a hazed, desire-filled gaze. Her soft admission that she wanted to please me.

Fuck. Even if I wanted to let her go, I couldn’t.

I fisted the contract in my hands, tempted to shred it and kill anyone that dared to challenge me when taking Amore as my bride.

Kill her father. Kill her brothers. Kill my brother.

These were all men she loved, and they wanted to take her away from me.

“Santi, what happened?” Renzo repeated.

I lost her, that’s what happened.

CHAPTER42

Amore

Isat on the same beach in Genoa where Santi and I spent days sunbathing, making love in the sea. Everywhere I looked, I saw ghosts of us, his hands on me, his lips on me. I left the Milano office in the middle of a meeting and begged DeAngelo to bring me here. We ran into Lorenzo on our way out of the building and he insisted on coming too.

Unplanned, impulsive actions were dangerous, everyone warned. I didn’t care; I needed to be alone. My heart ached worse with each beat. Each breath sent sharp pain through my constricting lungs. I struggled to grasp what could have changed in a matter of a few days. Only two days ago, he sent a message saying he was coming this weekend and now… he’d dumped me.

My first break-up. Yet, it felt like so much more. Like my world and my heart shattered into a million little pieces. My first crush. My first love. My first heartbreak. Santino Russo was really going for first prize in everything.

My face was wet with tears. No matter how many times I dried them, more came. The warm, glowing feelings from the last week were replaced by emptiness and coldness. My mind spun, turning over every text, every word from the last week, desperate to find something to hold on to. Anything that could somehow reverse his message so that all would be well again.

Another tear rolled down my face and I angrily brushed it off.

This… well, this fucking hurt. It physically hurt, leaving me with a large void in my heart.

Sliding the phone open, I read the message for the hundredth time.

*This is not working. We are not working. It has to end.*

It was unexpected. We’s spent the entire week together; we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. He talked about discussing this with Dad. About coming this weekend because he couldn’t keep away. Told me we’d work it all out together. And now this.

I gave him my heart, unconditionally and fully. I trusted Santino Russo to take care of it. He’d held it in the palm of his hands for years. And now, he shattered it with one text message. He drove a knife through my heart and destroyed it. But not my love for him. Why couldn’t it destroy my love for him? I was such a fool, but I had loved him for so long that I didn’t know how not to love him.

I needed him with a desperation I couldn’t understand. I felt at home with him, safe and loved. Ilongedfor him.