Undressed By The Mafia God

She began stirring the cup slowly. The spoon tapped lightly against the ceramic while the kitchen stayed otherwise silent. "We built a paradise inside one another, Carol. And no matter how much the world is burning down around us, we have each other. I know that. Luca knows that. I have a man that I am ridiculously obsessed with."

"So no, no one should check in with me. No one should wonder whether I am going to suddenly fall apart and beg everyone to spare Valentina because she is my sister." She swallowed.

The hurt was still there. Nothing could remove that. This was still Val. The sister whose happiness had once mattered above hers.

"No one should doubt that Valentina will pay for every ungrateful and selfish decision she has made. She knew what Luca meant to me. She knew exactly what that man had become in my life. She knew what we had survived together. She knew what losing him would do to me. And she still decided that she knew better."

"If my sister has to be the lesson to anyone who intends to mess with my husband, then so be it. I may not be able to end her myself. But I sure as hell will not be standing in the way of whoever will be getting it done." She held the cup in her hand.

"Let’s just say Massimo got the perfect Donna in you," Carol said. "You are everything he always wanted me to be." She turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Veronica stayed where she was. She simply stared after her, the words biting. Her eyes started burning again.

The devil had really scored points with this one. Valentina had managed to drag the monster inside Veronica into full view.

That monster had something to protect.

A home.

A husband.

A child.

She did not even realise the cup in her hand had tipped until the hot liquid spilled over her hand. "Ah!" She yelped and dropped the entire cup.

It shattered against the kitchen floor, tea splashing across the tiles as Vee jerked her hand towards her chest.

"Fuck!"

Of all the hands. The skin there had only recently closed and healed, the scar still tender. It burned viciously beneath the scalding liquid.

"Goddammit!" She cursed again, from anger and sheer exasperation than the pain itself.

*****

Luciano Genovese had always anticipated one thing. When enemies ran out of options, they looked for other enemies.

Desperation made alliances faster than loyalty ever could. Enzo had done it once. Luca had anticipated it.

Valentina was doing the same now. Luca had anticipated that too. So it came as absolutely no surprise that Renato Bastione was currently sitting across from him in Marco’s office, looking far more comfortable than a man in his position had any right to be.

This time, Luca had not abducted him. Luca had invited him like a civilised human being. Mostly because this time, he was offering Renato something in return.

"I do not trust you, Luca. You are a slippery snake, and if this does not go the way you promise—"

Luca cut him off immediately. "You do not threaten me, Renato. I could just as easily have had you taken like the last time and still had you bring her to me. The only reason you are sitting here voluntarily is because I decided cooperation would be more useful than force."

Renato gave him a humourless smile. "How generous. You expect me to believe this is simply cooperation?"

"We both want something and, for once, those wants happen to fit neatly together." Luca’s eyes stayed cold.

Valentina believed she had found herself an ally because she had gone looking for one of his enemies.

That was her mistake. Enemies were useful. Sometimes far more useful than friends.

"I wanted this plan to make a point before she dies," Luca said, his voice turning harder. "So sit there and shut the fuck up. You’ll get what you want."

Renato relaxed then, settling farther into the chair. Valentina’s plan had been childish, of course. Childish in the way only someone who did not truly understand how the mafia worked could manage. She knew enough to be dangerous and nowhere near enough to realise how much she did not know.

The girl was truly a child. He could have put a gun to her head the moment she walked into the Bastione Casino and called it revenge for Marco having his finger taken off. There would have been a certain satisfying symmetry to it.

But Luca’s deal was better.

Far better.

Luca had come to him sooner, and Renato might have disliked the man intensely, but he knew better than to cross a Genovese.

Besides, there was another benefit. His father would be very interested to learn exactly who the traitor inside the Bastione famiglia was.

That alone made tolerating Luca worthwhile. So Renato had listened patiently when Valentina presented her grand plan, nodding along as though she had uncovered some brilliant weakness nobody in organised crime had considered before.

She would walk one of Renato’s men through the private section of Commissioned.

Simple.

Everyone there knew her as Marco’s wife. She had spent enough time around the famiglia that seeing her would not immediately raise suspicion, and she believed Luca was desperate to keep news of her betrayal contained. In her mind, that meant he would not have warned his men or placed Commissioned on high alert because doing so would require admitting exactly who had turned against him.

There was some logic in it. Just not enough. Valentina intended to use that familiarity to get Renato’s man through the private section. Once inside, his man would take down the first level of security, creating the opening the rest of Renato’s people needed to pour in.

And Renato had agreed. The poor woman had probably walked away convinced she had finally found someone willing to help her rid the world of Luciano Genovese.

Instead, Renato now sat in Marco’s office with the man himself.