Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“It’s not in your best interests to protect a piece of shit like Dragonetti. What did he say?”
“Nothing nice, okay?”
Luca grunts and shakes his head. “Dragonetti hates the Greeks more than most. I knew I’d have a problem with him, I just didn’t think he had the stones to come up here himself.”
“Did he really lose his son?”
Luca hesitates. Some of his rage bleeds out, but he doesn’t move, only keeps me pinned back against the wall. He’s a monster, a brute, a beast, and I find him strangely beautiful in this moment, torn between anger over a man coming too close to his wife and sadness over the horrors of the past.
“Yes, he did. A lot of capos lost sons and brothers and friends to the war. Same with your family too.”
I chew my lip and nod. “There’s a lot of resentment. I don’t really blame him for hating me, if I’m honest.”
“I don’t either, but I do blame him for being unable to control himself.”
“How many more guys feel that way? It won’t ever get better, will it?”
“Maybe it’s time we tried to heal the rift between our people.”
“You can’t really think that’s possible.”
He tilts his head. “You better hope it is. My father wants us to connect back with the crime lords in Greece. He wants us to prove that marrying you was worthwhile.”
“They’ll never do it. They hate you as much as you hate them.”
“Then we’re fucked. You don’t seem to understand your situation yet, do you?”
“Luca—”
“Listen to me. I don’t know what Vinny said to you, but I can guess it was ugly. That’s not the last time you’ll hear something like that from a Valverde capo. They despise you for no good reason, Kacia, and if we’re going to change their minds, we’re going to have to pull off the impossible.”
“He wants to kill me,” I say quietly, unable to meet his gaze, but he tilts my chin up and makes me look him in the eye.
“They all want to kill you simply because of who you are, and don’t you forget it.”
“How are we supposed to do this then?”
“Let their hate fuel you. Make their hate the reason you keep going.”
“Easier said than done.”
“Don’t you want to show those ignorant fucks that you’re not some worthless Greek whore?”
I bristle, glaring daggers. “I know I’m not.”
“I know you aren’t too. I wouldn’t have married you and spared your life if I thought that. But they do, and you can either roll over and let them define who you are, or you can do something about it.”
“Why are you doing this?”
He doesn’t answer. Not at first. His hand slowly slips back into my hair and tightens, not so hard that it hurts, but enough to know that he’s in control. My hands press against his chest, and I want to shove him away, but I don’t. Instead, my fingers curl, the tips pressing into his muscle.
“Because when I look at you, I don’t see some Greek mafia daughter. I don’t see a girl that hates my family the way I hate hers. I see a girl that’s scared, and angry, and doesn’t want anything to do with all this shit, but is stuck in the middle of it anyway. I’m right, aren’t I? You left Greece because you wanted to get as far from your family as possible. You talk like an American, act like an American, because you didn’t want to be like them.”
“You’re right,” I whisper. “I’ve barely been in contact with my father ever since I moved here.”
“That’s why I’m doing it. I want them to see what I see.” He leans forward and I think he’s going to kiss me, but instead his lips brush against my cheek, coming up next to my ear. “Next time, little flower, don’t answer the fucking door.”
He releases me and walks away, disappearing into the bedroom, and I slowly sink down to the floor and hug my knees to my chest, shaking.
Chapter 11
Kacia
I brush my teeth and stare at myself in the mirror.
It’s like I barely recognize myself. Bags under my eyes. Hair is a mess. Hell, I’ve lost a few pounds from stress. So much has happened so quickly, and I feel like I’m circling a drain inches away from spilling into the sewer and disappearing forever. I’m losing myself, the girl I want to be but can’t quite grasp.
I left the family. Not without my father’s permission—but still. Few Greek women in my family get to go out on their own for as long as I did. I went to college. I got a decent job. I had friends, an apartment, an entire world. I still remember the guy that served my coffee most mornings, this young kid with tattoos and gauged ears, and the homeless man on the corner outside of my office with the sign about being a veteran, and the feeling of sunshine on my skin, and the simple comfort of sitting on my couch with my friends and watching a movie like a normal human being.