Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“Yes, I fucking can.”
One step forward. Twenty-five steps back. Over and over. Our relationship worked in Taormina because it was just a summer fling. Maybe we needed to go back to that. Accept that was the only thing that would work between us.
“A lot of people don’t like me. A lot of people want me dead. Me—not you.”
“And I’m the perfect target to hit you where it hurts.”
“You know how pirates have a code among thieves? We also have a code among criminals. We don’t fuck with people’s families. Period.”
“And you trust that every asshole out there is going to stick to the code?” I asked incredulously.
“I believe most would, yes. But I would never let you be in danger, regardless. Would never let you be accessible to the wrong people. If you were mine the way I want you to be, you’d be guarded better than the fucking pope.”
I didn’t want to be guarded like the fucking pope. “Has anything ever happened to your family? Your brother . . . is that why he died—”
“No. And I don’t want to talk about him.”
“I’m not asking you to.” I had no idea what could make him so distant like this. He was never evasive or closed off. An open book. So whatever happened with his brother, whose name I didn’t even know, was serious. “But has anyone ever come for your family—”
“No. My dad died because he drank too much wine and ate too many cold cuts.”
“How long have you been doing this?”
He started to calm down as we steered away from the topic of his brother. “I’ve been the emperor for five years. The four years before that were spent with Cosa Nostra and their partners in Florence.”
So in the five years he’d been doing this, no one had ever tried to hurt his family. “You don’t have anyone there to protect them in case?”
“Cosa Nostra look after them on my behalf.”
“So that’s where you were that night you left.” I’d stayed in the room while he’d left late in the night, not coming back until an hour before morning.
“Yes.”
“Do you pay them?”
“No. We built a close relationship through my years of service. And I’ve also pardoned them from the jurisdiction of the Roman Republic—and as a thank-you, they protect my family.”
“You pardon them?”
“All the criminals throughout the country pay tariffs to the Roman Republic. That’s the price they pay for the operations to continue without impediment by the police. Sicily was part of the great unification of Italy in 1860, but because they’re technically an island, I was able to get them an exemption.”
“So, do they traffic and—”
“No. They adhere to my laws. They just don’t pay tariffs.”
His job really was complicated and complex and . . . just a lot.
“I would do the same for you. And if it came down to it, I would fall on the sword, jump on the grenade, take the bullet, whatever it fucking took to keep you safe. My life is dedicated to my country and the people in it, but they all become second to my family—and you.”
This had become heavy so quick. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“No. This problem isn’t going away.”
“Well, I’m not sure if this is a problem I want to have.”
He winced like my words really hurt him.
“I’m not sure if I want to be guarded every hour of every day. I’m not sure if I want every car I get into to be filled with guns. I’m not sure if I want to have a husband who could literally die any day. To have children with a man who could leave them without a father. It’s just . . .”
“That’s the price you pay to be with me—and I promise I’m worth it.”
A wave of guilt washed over me. “I know you are.”
“You don’t need to decide right now. Let’s just see where it goes.”
“The longer I wait, the harder it’s going to be.”
“Sweetheart,” he said calmly. “Let’s just put a pin in it for now.”
The calmer he was, the more panicked I felt. He didn’t understand the stakes, didn’t understand the depth of implication. “I’m already falling in love with you, and if I let this go on much longer, I’m never going to be able to leave.” I said it all in a single breath, needing to get it out but also regretting the fact that I let it out at all. “So, I do need to decide . . . while I still can.” My eyes shifted away the second I finished speaking, not wanting to see his reaction to what I’d just vomited across the table.
The waiter crossed the room at that moment and placed our dishes in front of us. Hopefully, that would be enough of an interference that we could both forget what I’d just said. I watched him leave out of the corner of my eye. I glanced down at my steak before I found the courage to look at Constantine.