Chapter 2

Donatello appeared behind me. "Who are you texting?"

He frowned and reached for my phone.

I put it behind my back. "No one. I was just checking the news."

"Really?" He eyed me suspiciously and kept closing in.

My heart pounded. I thought he was about to find out what I was doing.

"Donatello! Don't let the food I made go to waste. Come on." Gia's voice came from behind him.

Donatello's face relaxed at once. He called back to her with a smile, then pulled me over to the table.

Gia looked me over.

"You really do look like one of those actresses in spy movies!

"Donatello just told me you're the best killer he has."

Donatello gently stroked my back and whispered in my ear, "She's still a Ferrini. It's better if she doesn't know who you really are."

Of course. Letting someone from another mafia family into the Vicari family's safe house was dangerous.

Yet none of that had occurred to him when he brought her here.

Gia explained that she came from a distant branch of the Ferrini family and had no idea what they were really involved in.

She set down her knife and fork, grinning. "In high school, we were telling our classmates about our families when we realized we were sworn enemies."

Donatello joined in. "Our classmates even asked if we'd end up like Romeo and Juliet."

My hand froze around the knife.

Gia raised her eyebrows and kept going. "I still remember when we actually played Romeo and Juliet.

"We turned it into a rock musical. The looks on our teachers' faces..."

They caught each other's eye, burst out laughing, and started reminiscing about high school.

Donatello was all smiles.

I'd never seen him so relaxed and happy.

I hadn't known him in school, but I'd been curious about those years. Once, I'd pointed to an old photo of him and asked if he'd liked anyone back then.

He'd just held me without a word. After a long pause, he'd said, "There's nothing to tell."

It turned out there was plenty to tell. Just nothing he wanted to tell me.

A scrape of metal.

I'd pressed too hard and scratched a line across my plate.

The laughter stopped.

"I'm going upstairs." I got to my feet.

Donatello caught my wrist, looking worried. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, an engine roared outside the door.

Goosebumps broke out all over me. I pulled free of him without thinking and raised my gun.

But he just patted my shoulder lightly and said to Gia, "Your harp is here."

The high beams glared through the glass, lighting up almost the entire living room.

Donatello seemed to have forgotten his promise that only he, Antonio, and I would know about the safe house.

Now it wasn't just Gia. Even a moving company called Fast Move knew!

"That breaks the safe house rules," I said, keeping my voice down. "What if one of those movers works for our enemies?

"They can't come inside. Our safety is at stake!"

"Carla, you're being too suspicious!" Donatello put a hand to his forehead.

Gia hid behind Donatello, frowning too.

"Carla, your boss already said yes. Why are you being so stubborn?

"You know what happens to people who go against the Don's orders."

Watching them back each other up, I felt like they were the married ones.

There was none of the tenderness he'd shown when he proposed, none of the warmth he'd shown when he wrapped the rosary around my wrist.

Donatello just frowned and stared at me.

The words slipped out before I could stop them. "I'm not just an employee. I'm also..."

Then I stopped. I'm also the Donna? Am I going to give orders as the lady of the house?

Could I even say that out loud?

We'd rushed through a ceremony between assassination jobs, but we'd never made the marriage legal. In the eyes of the law, I wasn't his wife at all.

I watched Gia hold on to Donatello's sleeve.

The rest of the sentence stuck in my throat.

I quietly put the gun away with a rueful smile. "You're right. I was just a little on edge. I'm sorry."

I stepped aside and let the movers through.

As I watched the strangers enter the safe house, the last of my hope died.