VINCENZO POV I SPENT the next few days setting up things for Valentina.She presented me with a list of things she needed right away, like an obstetrician. The doctor, rumored to be the best in Calabria, would see her beginning next week. In the meantime, they recommended prenatal vitamins, which I had Marco pick up at the pharmacy.Valentina’s list also included healthy foods, pasteurized cheese, and decaf espresso. Comfortable clothes and lotion for her belly. Pregnancy books and morning sickness relief.I bought it all and rushed the delivery. Whatever my piccolina needed, she would have it.She seemed to come to terms with having the baby. I knew she was working on her list of conditions for our legal agreement, which I would have drawn up and signed. There wasn’t anything I would refuse her, as long as it kept her happy.I very much looked forward to the cVinings and back rubs. Feeling my child move inside her womb. Seeing her tits grow larger as they readied to produce milk.I

VINCENZO POV EVERYONE in my household hated me. It had been two weeks, and Dimitri still wouldn’t speak to me, his eyes full of sadness and heartbreak. Zia was furious that I’d sent Valentina away. I couldn’t tell her why, except to say that Valentina had betrayed me. Zia replied that it was nonsense, that Valentina was in love with me and I had ruined it with my temper.I didn’t have the heart to correct her. Even Marco seemed to tiptoe around me, acting like I was a volcano that might erupt at any moment.Perhaps I was a bit on edge, but wasn’t I allowed? I was the most important man in Calabria, perhaps all of Italy, and I had a secretly gay son and a gold-digging traitor pregnant with my child. I increased the speed on my treadmill and my legs began to burn. I’d already logged one hour running, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep going. But I couldn’t stop until I was exhausted. It was the only way I could sleep.I had removed all traces of her from the house. I forb

Quando il diavolo ti accarezza, vuole l’anima.(When the devil caresses you, he wants your soul.)~~~ Italian ProverbVINCENZO POV ~~~~I often dreamed of blood. Rivers of it, filling my mouth and choking me. Drowning me and everyone I cared about, with no hope of survival.The dreams started back when I was a foot soldier, still being groomed under my father’s watchful eye. In those days, the boss’s son did not receive a pass on the more gruesome of tasks. No, they used those tasks to harden me, to turn me from a boy into a man. A man capable of leading the world’s most dangerous mafia. The ’Ndrangheta.There had been no choice for me, no other life to consider. As the years went on, I followed instructions and never dared show a hint of weakness. Torture and killing became second nature to me, work I learned to love. It earned me respect from my ’ndrina brothers and fear from my enemies. Whispers followed me wherever I went, the tales of my cruelty spread far and wide.This made my

VALENTINA POV ~~~I hadn’t heard that sexy Italian rumble in weeks. My chest cracked, little fissures of misery opening up again, all the aches I’d tried to bury. I didn’t want to miss him. I needed to keep hating him. I should keep hating him. He certainly didn’t deserve my forgiveness, the dick.“Go ahead,” Dante said in English. “You are on my car’s speaker.” “Tina,” Vincenzo said calmly. “Are you well?”Tina. Not Valentina or dolcezza. Tina, as if I was an acquaintance or old friend. Prickles of sadness coasted under my skin and buried in my chest like needles. If that was the way he wanted to play it, then fine. “Just great, il Diavolo. You?”He didn’t answer for a long second. “Dante will take care of you. I will see that he sends you wherever you wish to go—with my blessing, of course.”A lump formed in my throat and I couldn’t speak. He was washing his hands of me, for good this time. I shouldn’t have been surprised. It was exactly as I had told Dante. Vincenzo didn’t want

VALENTINA POV ~~~Clean and modern, Dante’s beach home was the complete opposite of the castello. The property stretched out along the Gulf of Naples, each room boasting a magnificent view of the water and Vesuvius. Mariella lived here, while Dante’s wife and children were somewhere else, and he had the luxury of going back and forth, the cheating bastard.Even though Dante was hardly around, his guards were always present, as was Mariella, which meant I was never alone, and I was exhausted from it. Most of my time was spent wondering if this was the day I’d be tortured or raped in revenge against Vincenzo. Or worse, the day Dante realized I was of no use to him and put a bullet in my brain.I hardly slept. I ate to keep my stomach settled, but I worried that each bite of food was poisoned. Every noise made me jump, and my nerves felt stretched to the breaking point. How much more of this could I take? How much longer before they realized I was pregnant with Vincenzo’s baby? What w