Chapter 3

Marco had always been a man of his word, gentle with me in a world that was gentle with no one.

He never once flinched at the burn scars the fire had left on my body. Instead, he told me I was an angel who had walked out of the flames, and that for as long as he drew breath, he would stand between me and every storm the Families could send.

With him, no matter how bitter the quarrel, he never went cold on me, never let his temper off its leash. He would coax me back, patient, again and again.

But this time, after Salvatore poured his poison into that phone, Marco said nothing. Not a word.

When Salvatore ended the call, triumph settled over his face like a man collecting on a debt.

"Well? Still not going to tell me where Bianca is?"

The enforcer finally lifted his hand from my mouth.

I stared Salvatore down, fury burning in my chest. "You've broken into my home, put your hands on me, spread lies to a man's face. Every one of those things breaks the code, Salvatore. Even in your world."

I wanted nothing more than to tear this fool apart.

My defiance only fed his rage. "The code?" He sneered. "Then let me show you what breaking it really looks like."

He barked an order at his men. "Take this place apart. All of it."

They moved at once, no hesitation, the way soldiers move when a Don has spoken.

In minutes my neat little apartment became a graveyard of splintered wood and shattered glass. Nothing was left standing.

Grinding my teeth, I spat, "So brazen, so lawless. You're not afraid the reckoning finds you?"

He laughed, cold and full of scorn. "The reckoning is for leeches like you. You've bled Bianca dry for years. Don't you know how much you've skimmed off her? Everything in this place was bought with her tribute. I'm smashing what's mine. Where's the crime in that?"

His words carried the weight of a man passing sentence, as if he sat as judge and not as the criminal he was.

I checked the time. Less than thirty minutes until Bianca's fabricated lost heir.

The real sit-down was about to begin.

I forced the rage down, tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear with one unhurried motion, and let a faint smile settle on my mouth. "Why don't you wait a little longer? Your dear wife will be reaching out to you very soon."

My calm only made him more frantic. His eyes burned.

"Still stubborn? Fine. Today I ruin your name in front of everyone."

"Bring her out."

The men dragged me to the gate of the complex.

The noise pulled a crowd fast, the way blood pulls sharks. Dozens of eyes turned on me, whispers swelling into a storm.

Salvatore seized it, broadcasting my so-called sins loud enough for the whole street to hear.

And they swallowed every word.

"Disgusting. Her age, and still leeching off her pregnant best friend? That's as good as murder."

"Right. That poor woman's too kind. Me, I'd have thrown her out years ago."

"Classic false blood-sister. All warmth to your face, all knives behind your back. My wife had one like her, drove her into debt and darkness. She's still not right in the head."

"She's a vampire, that one. Family first, then friends, then whatever husband's fool enough to have her. Everyone she touches is cursed."

"And filthy with it. A married woman still chasing pretty men, playing the mistress. Rotten luck sharing a block with a tramp like that."

Spit and curses rained down, painting me as something vile and beyond saving.

Salvatore looked down at me, that smirk full of provocation.

"Well? Still want to keep that hard mouth of yours?"

He thought he had me cornered. That I would crack under the weight of the shame.

Instead I laughed, cold, and lifted my chin.

"A great Don of New York, and this is the best you've got?"

"A few neighbors cursing me? Let them spit until their throats run dry. All I do is move to another block, and it's finished."

"If you truly want me ruined, Salvatore, you should've called in the ones who put a spectacle before the assembled Families. Let them stream it wide. That way, maybe, just maybe, you could make my name a curse across the whole country."