Page 39 of The Mastermind (Mafia Rivals #1)

MADDELENA

Those precious few seconds in between waking and complete wakefulness where troubles, big and small, were suspended in a bubble and you could pretend they didn’t exist?

As the firstborn granddaughter of a mobster, I was desperately protective of those seconds where the world was full of non-threatening possibilities.

But, always, the bubble burst.

I groaned, opening my eyes as reality surged in like a rogue wave. My fight with Cesare last night. His dismissal. Trying to contain my distress as I showered and, for the hell of it, slid on the lace lingerie set I’d planned to wear for him when I saw him today.

Locking the door, tossing the key into the back of the bathroom cabinet so I couldn’t find it eas?—

Locking the door.

So why was it wide open?

Oh God. No, no, no!

I jerked upright.

Cesare occupied the armchair near the window, his eyes feverishly fixed on me. Something in his quiet watchfulness, the dark shadows in his eyes, locked my breath in my lungs. While I was in no way an expert, I was learning Cesare’s myriad expressions.

This one… wasn’t good.

‘Good morning,’ I said hesitantly, dragging my tousled hair from my face.

He followed the move, then chased it across my arm, my shoulders. My breasts. Searing every inch of flesh it touched.

A deep, long exhale expanded his chest, and one hand dropped between his legs to adjust himself.

But if I thought the sight of my body would alter the turbulent electricity careening around the room, I was wrong.

Hell, it almost felt like his arousal was an afterthought to a more significant subject.

I slicked my tongue over dry, swollen lips, wondering whether to stall or meet whatever this was head on.

He decided for me with one simple sentence. ‘I found you sleepwalking last night.’

Shitshitshit .

I tried to swallow and nearly choked. I disguised it with a throat clearing as I dragged my fingers through my hair again to buy myself time. ‘You did?’

His look of fury mocked my efforts. ‘First of all, you didn’t think to mention it before I booked us into a fucking overwater bungalow?

You’re lucky I was the one who found you before…

Cristu , Maddelena. You could’ve fallen into the ocean, been badly hurt.

Or worse.’ He spiked his fingers through his dishevelled hair, and I caught a haunted look in his eyes.

My heart lurched, then carried on lurching some more as my brain supplied the possibility that Cesare cared about me. Perhaps beyond temporary hot-enemy-fucking-it-out-of-our-system basis. ‘But I wasn’t,’ I pointed out a little sheepishly.

He levelled a searing glare at me. ‘For that there will be consequences, trust me.’ He took a beat, a few breaths, then ploughed on. ‘How long has it been going on?’

I suspected he could put two and two together if I answered with a precise timeframe.

But there was an off-chance that sleepwalking was all I’d done.

That the even worse flaw that had triggered both loathing from my father and grandfather but had given them no choice but to protect me – until recently it seemed – hadn’t been revealed.

So I dragged my gaze from his and shrugged. ‘A few years.’

He studied me for a minute, then his hand dropped back between his knees, and that look I’d first seen on waking up settled over his face.

This time when my heart dipped, it kept going, charting a path of terror all the way to my toes.

I drew my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, as if it would protect me from the grenade he was about to throw at my feet.

‘That wasn’t all that happened.’

My breath froze in my chest.

‘You also talked in your sleep last night.’

No. Please God no. ‘W-what… what did I say?’ I whispered, my lips numb.

His eyes had darkened until the grey was barely discernible from his pupils. The skin around his mouth was tight with fury. Grief. Regret. Disappointment.

For the darkest, most horrifying secret locked within my soul.

‘I think you know exactly what you said, bedda mia .’

Fear chiselled chunks out of my heart.

This was the reason Bonafacio had forbidden me from going to confession and downright laughed in my mother’s face when she’d hesitantly broached the subject of therapy.

Perhaps if that had been the end of it, the burden would’ve been manageable.

Instead, the third time I’d been caught sleepwalking and obliviously muttering the full-blown exchange I’d had with Giada about the night Isabella Salvatore died, and exactly who had pulled the trigger that ended her life, he’d summoned the three most terrifying capos in his hierarchy.

And between them I’d been left in no doubt what would happen to me if I ever divulged the biggest secret in the Mancinelli family.

The roar in my head that said I was about to pass out intensified. I barely clocked Cesare surging to his feet and striding across the room. In the next moment, a glass was being pushed into my hand.

Orange juice.

It was almost laughable, and deeply puzzling, how even now he was taking care of me.

He should have hated me with the fire of a thousand suns.

I drank half of the contents, almost regretting it when the noise in my head receded.

Because then I had to make room for what came next. And I knew it wasn’t going to be good.

He perched on the bed, never taking his arctic eyes off me. ‘Did your sister kill my mother, Maddelena?’ he grated out.

The chiselling ripped another chunk. ‘The real truth is I didn’t see it happen. So I don’t know.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means my sister never confirmed or denied it.’

A curse ripped from him.

‘Tell me everything that happened. Do not leave anything out.’

I didn’t. I recited memories locked in my brain for five years, and he listened with a frozen expression. Then stared at me for the longest time when I was done.

‘So what now?’ I whispered.

Mouth pursed, he exhaled audibly. ‘This is too big to let it go, Maddelena.’ Solemn. Grave. Final .

He’d never used that tone before and it scared the crap out of me.

‘Not even to protect me?’ I tried, lilting my voice in a sorry attempt to be jovial.

His expression didn’t waver. ‘No. My family deserves to know.’

Fear resurged, locking in my heart. Most people pondered at some point or another when and how they would die. Those from violence-mongering families like mine risked it becoming a preoccupation.

Knowing that I could sign my own death warrant by revealing my flaws was why I hadn’t fought Bonafacio’s ban on me having relationships.

It was the reason he and my father hadn’t pushed me into marrying until they could find a husband they could fully control. The hands I raised to my face shook uncontrollably, the tears I was trying to hide unstoppable.

‘When?’ I whispered, abstractly noting the macabre peace in knowing when I would die.

He didn’t reply immediately. To my surprise, he captured my trembling hands and drew them down from my face. ‘That’s to be decided. But probably not before Orazio’s birthday.’ He must have read the question in my face because he added, ‘He’s turning eighty next month.’

He surged to his feet and prowled across the room, digging his fingers through his hair. As he turned, I caught the anguish on his face. And my belly dipped in alarm. He might not have relished turning me over to the firing squad that was his family but Cesare planned on doing it anyway.

I drew the duvet off me, planted my feet on the floor, relieved to find the weakness from before had receded. I rose and headed for the clothes strewn at the bottom of the bed. ‘So I have until then?’

Eyes so dark they were almost black narrowed at me. ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’

I froze. ‘L-leaving. You can’t… you can’t expect me to stay.’

‘I fucking can and you fucking will.’

My bewildered gaze darted to the bed. ‘You can’t possibly want to… to keep doing this…?’

‘Why the hell not? You haven’t stopped being beautiful just because you’re carrying a horrifying secret.

’ He ignored my flinch, a rough fury building in his face as he closed the gap between us.

‘And I sure as fuck haven’t stopped craving you.

’ He dragged his fingers through his hair once more.

‘And even if I had…’ He exhaled, the same bewilderment ploughing through me, visible on his face. ‘I don’t think I can let you go.’

‘What are you s-saying, Cesare?’

‘I’m saying that once this comes out, the best protection you’re going to find is with me.’

I swallowed. ‘What?’

‘A few things are falling into place, bedda . Correct me if I’m wrong. You’ve been forced to carry this on your own, haven’t you?’

There was no point lying, so I nodded. ‘Sofiya and Giada know, but I don’t think Jacinta or Ciso do. And my mom, obviously.’

‘And I’m guessing nothing’s been done medically about it?’

I laughed. ‘What do you think? All I got was a warning from my grandfather about the consequences if I…’

His jaw rippled with fury. ‘I get the picture.’

Again, my heart lurched at his reaction. ‘You seem angry on my behalf. Why aren’t you more angry with me?’

The question seemed to take him aback. Then another wave of pain swept across his face. I wanted to step to him, pull his hand to my chest and soothe. I also wanted, desperately, to take back the question. But I pursed my lips tight and waited.

‘I am. You knew the truth and you didn’t tell me, but I also get that with our history, confession wasn’t the best option for you.

Also… you didn’t pull the trigger.’ He shrugged, dragged his hands down his face.

‘It could be the way I’m wired but… she’s gone.

I wasn’t around when it happened and I’ve made a certain peace with it.

But Rafaelle…’ He stopped again and winced.

‘He was there. Amongst all of us, he was the most affected.’ His eyes met mine in clear warning. ‘He won’t take this well.’

Fear sloshing through me like a drunken sailor on a storm-tossed boat, I nodded.

‘I think in some ways, the story of our feud prepared all of us. And at the time, we took down enough of the people he thought responsible for everyone to feel somewhat… avenged.’

Horror moved through me at the cold way he discussed his family’s way of grieving.

It was mine’s too, but it still didn’t stop the surge of dismay.

Of recalling how many soldiers from my family and other smaller outfits across the United States and around the world had been slaughtered in payback for Isabella Salvatore’s murder.

The question boiling at the back of my throat seemed almost nonsensical, but I asked anyway.

‘And now? Aren’t you… Are you okay with re-igniting the war?

Because you know as well as I do that Bonafacio isn’t going to let you take me or…

my sister without retaliation. Many more people are going to die when this comes out, Cesare. ’

His nostrils flared and for a moment he looked positively livid at the obvious truth. Then his face settled in cold calculation. ‘Like I said, some outcomes are inevitable. But I have a couple of weeks to see how I proceed with this.’

‘And what am I supposed to do in that time? Be at your beck and call?’ My insides jumped in confused elation, in direct opposition and in mockery of the dissent I tried to project.

His hand curled around my nape, used the hold to propel me closer. ‘Nothing has changed, bedda . You will do exactly what I want when I want.’ His words said one thing, but there was an undertone within it. A… pleading .

Cesare wanted me to comply… because he feared for me.

‘And then what?’ I murmured. ‘You hand me to your executioner in two weeks’ time?’

He fused his mouth to mine, and I sank into the kiss, eager for the relief from fear. From grappling with the repercussions of what I’d done. And, Jesus, they were endless. I hadn’t just thrown myself into the lion’s den. My carelessness had dragged my sweet, fragile sister in too.

My brain threatened to dissolve beneath the onslaught of his rough passion. Only when I was breathless and clinging to him did Cesare raise his head.

Fierce charcoal-grey eyes pierced into me. ‘You’re mine, bedda . No one lays a hand on you.’

Until I decide otherwise.

The unsaid words rattled in my brain long after he’d ripped off the lace I’d put on with seduction in mind and pushed me back on the bed. Long after I’d spread my thighs and he’d dropped to his knees to feast on me like a starving man at a banquet.

And much, much longer after he’d fucked me into the mattress and roared his most frenzied and agonised release yet.