Semua Bab THE MAFIA KING'S OBSESSION : Bab 21 - Bab 30

Lianna“I won’t, Aunt Lianna.” She gave me a hug. Again came the thought that I had missed out on the first years of my niece’s life. I didn’t know her. I hardly knew Bianca anymore or Luke.Were Luke and Bianca really planning an attack on the Benedetti family? What did that mean for Cassian?Cassian walked with us to the door. Once they had driven off and were out of view, he closed it. We stood in the foyer.“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done what I did.”An apology was the last thing I had expected. If he had locked me in a room, been a beast to me, it would make more sense. I could hate him. But an apology? Him offering to take me to my sister’s?“I hope we can forget it and start again,” he added.I think both of us found it hard to hold each other’s gaze, and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about what happened, so I nodded. “Okay.”He smiled a small smile. “Thank you.”“If you ever do something like that again, Cassian, I will kill you.”His eyes narrowed, and

LiannaBeing locked away with the nuns for five years had been easier than this. I didn’t have to face anything. I could think about it. I could get angry about it. I could blame everyone and everything, but I didn’t have to face them. Now I sat beside Cassian in his car as he drove me to what should have been considered home to me. The thing was, I didn’t know what was home anymore. I didn’t know where I belonged, who I was. Who I was meant to be.I looked at Cassian, at his profile. At a glance, the set of his jaw told of power, of strength, while his eyes betrayed a depth beneath this outermost layer.Gave a glimpse into the darkness there. He kept his attention on the road while I studied him, wondering who this man was. What was expected of him.Wondering what the hell had happened between us yesterday.They’d examined me on the day of the signing. His father had wanted to be certain I was intact. A virgin. Was it only to humiliate me? To break my father to the point he could no

CassianI knew it wasn’t right, but I did what any man would do in my situation. I fished out the letter Lianna had thrown into the trash and read it.If I hadn’t been sure before, I was now. The fucking bastard of a father was too weak to stay alive. Too weak to take responsibility even in this, his final letter to the daughter he betrayed. Did he even know what his letter would do to her? Did he know it would only add to the guilt she already felt with his loss?Fucking bastard.I paced my study, phone to my ear, when, finally, Roman picked up on the fifth ring. “I need you to do something for me, Uncle.” I rarely called Roman that. Only when I needed to trust him absolutely. “Just for me.”“What is it?” he asked. He was too smart to agree to something without knowing the details.“I know we have Luke DeMarco under surveillance, but I want more. I want to know where he spends his nights

Cassian“I am not hungry.”“But you are stubborn,” I said to Lianna, leaning in closer. “You are eating.Choose something, or I will choose for you.”She glared but acquiesced. “Fine. I’ll have the mushroom ravioli.”“Ravioli it is,” the waiter said, giving me a look and taking our menus.Once the clothes had been paid for, Lianna had dressed in the black backless dress, and we had headed to a small Italian restaurant for dinner.“I can’t show my face at Nordstrom again. You know that, right?”“No one saw your face,” I said, winking, as I picked up a piece of bread and dipped it into a bowl of olive oil.“You make me so mad!”I chewed on the bread. “They have the best olive oil. You know, it’s made from their own olives from their groves in Tuscany.”She took a piece of bread and vio

CassianGrowing up, I had loved coming to the house in the Adirondacks, but that felt like a hundred years ago. Now, as we neared the property, Lianna sat beside me in the car, everything about her tense. She looked beautiful in the cream colored dress I had chosen, her auburn hair piled high on her head, dark eye makeup accenting the almond shape of her whiskey colored eyes.I touched her knee as we pulled up to the security gate.She startled“You will be fine. I will stay with you.”She nodded, but the tension kept rolling off her.I hated this. Knew as I waved to the guard and pulled around back to the garage that she was here to be shown around, shown off, a token of my father’s of my family's triumph. I also knew my father had not forgotten what she had done at the funeral. He would punish her for it, and I had a feeling he’d do it tonight.I just needed to keep her reined in nice and tight.