“Get off—” She couldn’t even get all the words out before Nero slammed his mouth down on hers. Elle’s lips moved with his.
No! Elle stopped kissing him and tried to break her mouth free. “Stop it.”
Nero took her mouth again while his hand tangled in her hair.
Elle’s tears broke free. “Please,” she managed to get past his tormented kissing.
Nero pulled his mouth from hers. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t think you saw them. I didn’t want you to find out that way.”
“Everything has been a lie, Nero.”
Nero swept her tears off her face. “No, it’s not.”
Elle looked past her tears and into Nero’s emerald eyes. “So, when we were in the supply closet and I asked you why now, that wasn’t a fucking lie?”
When Nero didn’t respond, she had her answer.
“You were forced to be with me, and it was so bad for you, you fucked Stacy the first night.” Elle squeezed her eyes shut. “In the same bed you fucked every other girl and you fucked me. I gave you something I can never get back.” Elle opened her eyes to look Nero in the face so he could witness what he did. “Then you made me fall in love with you, and that’s why I hate you the most.”
With one fell swoop, Elle’s once-mended heart crumbled into tiny particles, unable to be repaired. Her mind, body, and soul knew Nero was her one true love—the thing inside her she couldn’t ever describe. She knew, however, even though he was her true love, that didn’t make her his.
Nero grabbed her face in his hands. “Don’t do this. Baby, I—”
“Let me go. Please, Nero, let me go.” Her eyes created new tears to take the place of the ones he wiped away. Elle’s eyes pleaded to him. Let me go. She saw the war take place behind his eyes before he finally did.
Nero reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box wrapped in a pink silk ribbon. “I was going to give this to you tonight.” Nero grabbed her hand and placed it in her palm.
Elle shook her head. “I don’t want it.”
Nero’s voice turned dark. “Take it.”
Elle held onto the box just so she could get away from him before she changed her mind.
As Nero took a step back, she was able to open the door. Elle held the doorknob in her shaky hand, taking one last look at Nero. Then she pulled the door closed.
Elle finished going down the hall, barely able to hold her own weight. When she got to the foyer, she saw Amo and Vincent nervously waiting.
Elle tried to quickly wipe away her tears. “Vincent, can you give me a ride?”
“Sure, sweetheart.” Vincent walked to the front door and opened it for her.
Elle stopped at the small table beside the door that used to only hold flowers; now, it was filled with pictures in pretty frames of Nero’s whole family. She placed the box Nero had given her on the table and went out the front door.
* * *
Dante sat back in his oversized leather chair, frowning. I just saved her fucking life.
Dante understood why his family had become infatuated with her. Truthfully, he had known they would the moment he watched the tape of her running out from behind the garbage can.
I did her and Nero both a favor. Dante had learned his lesson years ago not to get involved with women besides fucking. He thought his son wouldn’t love a woman at least for a few more years, but he should have known Nero was a chip off the old block.
He heard the door knock for a split-second and watched Lucca and Sal enter.
“The girl said she passed him on the way to work. Heard him and another guy talking about how the boss gave him a job.”
The guy had come into his hotel, sketchy-looking as fuck. In this business, you just know when someone is up to no good. They were patting him down when he tried to pull out his piece. Thankfully, it had all happened by the alleyway door, and they had been successful in taking care of the problem. We thought.
Lucca crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “There’s only two families in this city.”
“Think they are trying to take back control?” Sal asked.
The Caruso and the Luciano family used to share the city before Dante’s time. Both families had an understanding, but over time, a war had broken out between the two; the Caruso’s had won, taking control of the city and giving the Luciano’s a small piece.
“Possibly. Let’s keep this between us for now. They don’t think we know anything, so we all need to keep this quiet and look into this ourselves. I don’t need a war on my fucking hands unless they ask for it.”
Lucca and Sal nodded in agreement.
Dante pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve been hearing whispers of a fucking mole.”
“What do we know?” Lucca asked.
“Not much. All I know is they’re doing it right this time. We’re not going to fucking suspect him for a while, years maybe.”
“All right, we’ll look into it.” Lucca nodded.
Dante decided to tell them what they had been wondering the moment they walked in the door. “We let the girl live; for now, anyway.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
February
Elle grabbed a lunch tray, thinking about how badly her eyes hurt. She hadn’t been able to stop crying until she walked through the school doors this morning. No matter how many times people had laughed at her and hit her, nothing had ever hurt worse than this.
She saw Nero everywhere; she couldn’t escape him. She was going to have to see him every day until she graduated, and that was what was always going to be the most painful. The constant reminder of how fucking stupid I was. Not to mention, it was only the first day since they had broken up. It was the second week of February, and Elle wasn’t set free until the second week of June.