The Boy I Chose Became My Ruin

By the time the ice in my bourbon had melted, Matteo finally arrived.

He came through the back entrance of The Raven with blood still drying on his shirt. Judging by the way he moved, it was not his.

Matteo had always been quiet. Years of doing work for the Caruso family had taught him to enter a room without wasting a sound, but tonight his steps were rushed and uneven, nothing like the man who could cross a room full of armed men without making a floorboard complain.

He stopped in front of my desk.

"Vivian," he said, breathing hard. "Let Elena go. She isn't part of this life. She doesn't know what she walked into."

I lifted my eyes to him.

Elena's phone lay beside my glass. The screen still showed the private flight confirmation she had been so proud to bring me. Two seats from Teterboro to Palermo, leaving the morning after the council. A villa outside Cefalù. A message from Matteo's encrypted number telling her to be ready once his last job was done.

I tapped the phone once with my nail.

"I take it you got my gift."

His gaze dropped to the silver envelope Marco had sent him earlier. Inside were screenshots from Elena's phone and the clinic report she had waved in my face before Marco proved there was no pregnancy.

For a few seconds, Matteo said nothing.

Then he did something I had never seen him do.

He lowered himself to one knee.

Marco's face hardened behind me.

In twelve years, Matteo Greco had climbed from a pit fighter to the most feared man at my side. He had been beaten by rival crews, shot in alleyways, and tortured by men who wanted Caruso routes, names, and money. He had never begged. He had never cried out. Once, after taking a bullet meant for me, he stayed on his feet long enough to kill the shooter before collapsing in the alley behind me.

But now he knelt in my office for Elena Voss.

"Vivian," he said, voice rough. "Please. Let her go."

I looked at him for a moment, then laughed.

The Raven was quiet around us. Upstairs, city councilmen and developers were eating dinner under warm lights, pretending they did not know whose club they were in. Down here, behind a locked steel door, Caruso business was handled without witnesses.

In two nights, my grandfather would gather every captain in New York and name me heir.

Matteo was supposed to stand beside me.

I walked around the desk and stopped in front of him.

My fingers brushed the scar beside his right eye, the one he got at nineteen when he stepped between me and a knife in Queens. The blade missed his eye by less than an inch. He had laughed through the blood that night, and I had cried later in the car where no one could see.

"Do you remember this?" I asked.

His jaw tightened. "Vivian…"

"Shh."

My hand moved from the scar to his cheek.

When he looked up, I slapped him.

The sound cut through the office. Blood rose at the corner of his mouth where my ring had caught him, but Matteo did not move. He stayed on one knee, head turned slightly, as if he had already decided to take whatever I gave him.

That almost made me angrier.

I caught his collar and pulled it open enough to see the black V tattooed over his heart.

He had carved it there years ago and called it a promise.

I pressed the edge of my ring against the ink until his chest rose sharply.

"You put my initial over your heart," I said, "and now you kneel in my house for another woman."

Matteo slowly lifted his eyes.

They were full of bloodshot rage, but he still did not stand.

"Let her go," he repeated.

The last warmth in me went still.

Before I could answer, a scream came from the hall.

"Matteo!"

Elena stumbled into the doorway between two of my men, one hand pressed to her side. Blood had soaked through the pale dress she had chosen for her little performance. Not enough to kill her, not even close, but enough to look convincing to a man already desperate to believe her.

Marco's mouth tightened.

"She broke a glass in the blue room and cut herself before my men could stop her."

Of course she had.

Elena saw Matteo and sagged as if her bones had given out.

"Don't beg her," she cried. "She wants this. She wants you on your knees."

Matteo's face changed the moment he saw the blood on her dress.

"Elena."

He pushed himself up and crossed the room before my guards could stop him. Elena fell into his arms as if she had been waiting for that exact moment, her fingers twisting into his shirt.

I watched her bury her face against his chest.

Then I saw her look at me over his shoulder.

She smiled.

Marco's voice turned cold. "Miss Caruso, this woman is a problem. Give me the word, and I'll make sure she never becomes one again."

Matteo looked back at him.

The room went still.

Most men in New York knew better than to stand between Matteo Greco and something he wanted. My guards knew it too, because when he lifted Elena into his arms and walked toward the door, not one of them moved fast enough to stop him.

I picked up the pistol from my desk.

"Put her down."

"She needs a doctor," Matteo said.

"She needs a better act."

He ignored me and kept walking.

So I shot him.

The bullet went through his right thigh. Matteo hit one knee with a muffled groan, but even then, he did not let Elena fall. Blood spread quickly through his trousers and dripped onto the dark floor.

I kept the gun aimed at him.

"In two nights, every Caruso captain in New York will be at the council," I said. "My grandfather plans to name me heir, and he expects you beside me. Are you really going to turn your back on this family for her?"

Matteo braced one hand against the floor and forced himself up again.

For a moment, I thought pain might make him think clearly.

Then he laughed.

It was low and bitter, almost too quiet to hear, but it made the anger in my chest snap. I raised the gun again, and Marco caught my wrist before I could fire.

"Vivian," he said sharply. "Not here."

Matteo walked out with Elena in his arms, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He did not look back.

This was the first time he had ever disobeyed me.

I stared at the closed door for a few seconds, then laughed despite myself.

"Elena Voss," I said.

Marco lowered his hand from my wrist. "I'll have her traced."

"One hour," I said. "I want her real name, who paid for that flight, and why Matteo Greco suddenly believes the Caruso family owes him blood."