Page 28

Aria

Leo, Saverio, and my dad sit at the table and wait for me to start talking as I pace the living room in Leo’s penthouse.

“He didn’t hurt me. Not once,”

I start by telling them, needing them to know that.

“He took care of me. He kept me safe.”

“He took you. Period. End of story. Gia told me how he threatened her, Sammy, and Jonny, and about your deal for the week with him. Do you know how panicked she was when she called to say you missed your check-in call with her? She thought you were dead.”

Oh my God, I forgot to call her last night.

This is all my fault.

I was too caught up with everything last night to even remember I had to call her. Today, too.

Daniil is bleeding out and might die because of me.

“How could you do this?”

my dad asks.

“With a Bychkov? You put your sister and this family at risk. He’s not a good man, Aria. He’s not good enough for you.”

“And you’d call yourself a good man? Would any of you call yourself good men? In all the ways normal people constitute a good person? Don’t pretend you are and don’t treat me like I’m dumb and oblivious to what you all do.”

“Aria–”

Sav says, but I cut him off.

“You don’t know Daniil like I do. He’s a deeply hurt man who’s done what he’s needed to do to raise his brothers and create a life for them that’s better than what they would’ve had. He stepped up to raise them when he was only eighteen and his youngest brother was seven. He’s a good man and he deserves my love.”

“You can’t love him,”

my father says, and I choke out a humorless laugh as tears sting my eyes.

“Well, too bad, because I do. What do you know about him that I don’t that would stop me from loving him?”

“We know how he does business, Aria.”

“I don’t care about his business. I care about him. I’m not a business transaction, so it shouldn’t matter.”

“How do you know that? He might be looking for a way in with us,”

Sav suggests.

Smiling, I shake my head.

“You’re awfully full of yourself.”

“It happens, Aria. Don’t be na?ve. He took you away to a safe house like a pussy because he knew we’d come for you.”

“A pussy?”

I balk, never having used that word in front of my family in my life.

“He’s already killed two people to uphold my honor. He’s done a lot of bad in his life, and will no doubt continue to do so, but he’s good to me. He’s good for me,”

I emphasis, clutching my chest.

“Daniil deserves my love and he deserves to know how I feel.”

“He’s already killed for you?”

my dad asks.

“Yes. The night we met in the club, he stabbed a guy for touching me, and then killed the next one who touched me and wouldn’t let go until both me and Sammy punched him. He killed another guy last night just for being an asshole to me.”

“Huh,”

Sav grunts, looking defeated.

“He held Sammy captive, Aria,”

Leo says, finally speaking.

“He didn’t hurt him, did he?”

“No.”

“He didn’t hurt him because he promised me he wouldn’t. His word is good, Leo.”

“So I’m supposed to overlook it because he kept a promise to you? He held one of my men captive, Aria.”

“I know, but–”

“You were okay with having the man who has protected you for the past five years be held against his will so you could fuck a man not worthy of even kissing the damn floor you walk on?”

my dad asks harshly, making my stomach drop at how crass he is.

“Don’t talk about him like that,”

I say harshly.

“I won’t stand here and let you speak about him like he’s a piece of shit. And if Daniil was here right now to hear you say shit like that about me, he’d kill you. I don’t need your approval.”

“But you do,”

my dad counters.

“We could always just wipe them out, and then what?”

My mouth goes bone dry.

“You wouldn’t. You can’t.”

“No, he can’t,”

Leo says.

“And I’m not doing that, Uncle Richie.”

Leo pulling rank and calling my dad Uncle Richie instead of Rich or Richard has me smirking.

“She’s my daughter, Leo.”

“And this concerns the family, which I’m in charge of. We’re not going to war with the Bychkovs and we’re not killing them off. Does Aria seem like she’s in need of vengeance? No, she’s in love.”

Leo has to understand how I’m feeling. My parents’ marriage was just one of mutual respect and a partnership, not some whirlwind love affair that made me believe in soulmates like Leo and Abri.

They made me believe, and now I’ve found mine. My soul recognized Daniil’s before I even saw him. I felt his presence and knew he was special.

I knew.

He’s mine. He’s my man. He’s my forever.

We’re connected in a way that I had only dreamt of happening for me, and I’ll fight to be his so long as I have the ability to.

“Clean yourself up and I’ll take you to him,”

Leo tells me.

“He’s alive? You know where he is?”

“I know everything that happens in my city. Go clean yourself up and we’ll go.”

I hurry off to the guest bathroom and look down at my blood-stained hands, blinking away fresh tears.

He’s alive.