All Chapters of Through Smoke and Steel: A Mafia Romance: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

❦ Rosalind ❦ “Look alive, Dante.” I offered with a bright-eyed smile as I slipped past him into the car. He gave me a wary, confused look, clearly trying to figure out why I looked so cheery after being kidnapped the night before.He must think I’m crazy. Only a madwoman would have this glint in her eye after nearly dying.I’d spent the first half of the day going over my new plan, eating more food than I had in one sitting in years, and burning calories just imagining Viktor’s face when he realized I’d played him.Dante kept glancing at me through the rearview mirror, probably considering whether he needed to book me a psych evaluation. I returned his looks with extra-wide smiles, which only made him look away faster.My new phone buzzed. I looked down to see Juliana’s name pop up.Juliana: I know your secret, bambina. You’re having too much fun to want to return to boring Boston.The nickname sent heat rushing through me. Viktor called me that.Me: Nothing fun about a burial and da

❦ Rosalind ❦ “Who are those?” Marcus asked, his tone grave. “Viktor’s men, to amp up my security so I don’t get kidnapped again. We made a truce.” “How could you be so careless?” Against my will, I flinched. Marcus’s usually cool tone had lowered to a growl, not unlike the one a rabid dog lets out before the flash of pathogen-infested fangs. I squared my shoulders, reminding myself that we were boss and employee, no matter the experience, age, or apparent spite. “It was a smart, calculating move. He’d just killed a man in my range, what else was I supposed to do?” I spat back. I climbed the stairs, passing Claudia, who glanced at Marcus’s form following behind me. “That was an act of war. You should have ordered a bullet between his eyes and reminded New York that the famiglia is not to be disrespected.” Turning around just in time to see spittle fly, I paused on the stairs, standing a head taller than him as he stood a few steps lower. I found the advantage comfo

❄︎ Viktor ❄︎ I’ve committed murder for way less, and as I watched Rosa grind on a man, a man that wasn’t me, the urge hummed like a live wire. Silent but dangerous, invisible but all-consuming. She looked like she wanted to be fucked. The liquid slithered down my throat, dry and tasteless, and when I couldn’t take it anymore, I walked away. “Do you have his position?” I asked Adrian through the earpiece, my voice low. “West bathroom. It’s been exactly one minute, thirty-four seconds.” “Let’s hope he can’t get off for long then.” Primo, Giancarlo’s dog, was at this exclusive afterparty. And I just wanted to talk to him. With my fists. I wasn’t going to let one scatterbrained heiress ruin it for me. But alas, one glance at the satisfied face of the sucker who’d been groping her, and my feet moved toward him instinctively. Setting my glass on the onyx counter with a click, I surveyed the space one more time before speaking. “Dominic.” I failed to soften the rough edge

❦ Rosalind ❦ Thanks to my strong pelvic muscles, toned from yoga, I did not piss myself when the shot rang out.Walter, one of Viktor’s younger men, had watched us enter the compound with a masked figure sneaking up behind us.He’d shot the intruder down, and Viktor ordered the body to be taken away amidst my shocked expression.“What if he had missed and blown my head off?”“He never misses,” Viktor mumbled, limping into the house in pain.An older woman dressed in a monochrome outfit, hair in a tight low bun, who I assumed was his maid, approached us. Viktor waved her away with orders to make him dinner.His room was a spitting image of his dark disposition. Dark drapes, dark furniture, and I thought that even during the day, the space would still hold its dark, moody look.He swiveled a chair and sat heavily on it, his breathing ragged.“Come here.”I turned to him, distracted from studying his room.“Me?” I squealed, pointing to myself like a clueless rabbit. I almost mentally sm

❦ Rosalind ❦ Not wanting to be caught dead in Viktor’s room when he returned, I left the room minutes after him, and out in the hall, just as he’d said, were guest rooms with the tags flipped to unoccupied.I left the tag on my door unflipped. I did not want him knowing what room I was in. He probably had cameras and would find out eventually, if he was into that kind of thing.My ears still tingled with the heat of shame. I’d totally forgotten myself, alcohol wasn’t even an excuse. I’d humped him so crassly, like a whore.Fingers trembling, I slid down the door, wrapping my arms around my knees.“Come on, baby, you know I didn’t mean to hurt you. Let me make you feel good again.”I pressed my palms to my ears, desperate to keep the memory at bay.“Stop acting so prude. You know you want it.”He’d hurt me. Didn’t stop when I’d asked him to.The day I’d decided to have my first time with Orlov, he’d taken it roughly.Torn off the lingerie I’d dressed up in without so much as a glance.