Page 60 of Ruthless Sinner
“Tommaso was near the bottom of the food chain. He extended his hand to the Castigliones symbolically, but it was more to benefit himself. He clung to the Midwest families like a leech, sucking us dry but never returning the favor.” My father rarely spoke of the Martinelli family. He brought up the rumors and the stories we all heard over late-night drinks, but it was never more than that. Tommaso was a selfish man who never involved himself with the day-to-day operations of the Family.
“Why didn’t you want to marry Lucrezia? If she could make you untouchable, isn’t that a good thing?”
Enzo quietly drives, pretending he isn’t here. There is nothing I could tell Adalina that I wouldn’t want him to know. He’s my best friend and my right-hand man. “Lucrezia Castiglione is, to put it mildly, insane. The rumors surrounding her are part fact, part fiction. They say she killed a man when she was twelve, that she fucked her father’s inner circle at fourteen, and that she wants to supplant her brother. She’s sixteen years old,” I explain, “and she is a very beautiful young woman, but I could never see a future with her. I wouldn’t say I’m afraid of her, but I would never be able to trust her.”
“Why me, then?” Adalina asks a moment later. “I’ve killed a man. I didn’t fuck my father’s inner circle of bodyguards, despite what he thinks, but I wasn’t a virgin when I met you.”
“When I saw you, I wanted you. I thought it was lust at first. I could have fucked mafia royalty from sea to shining sea, but there was something about you that called to me. Luc thinks I was trying to recreate the family dynamic I had in my childhood when I saved my mother from abuse.”
Adalina gently runs her thumb over the rigid splint encasing her wrist, feeling the rough edges and sharp corners press against her skin. “I don’t think Luciano likes me.”
“Luciano sees my attraction to you as a threat to the family,” I shrug. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with you.”
“Your attraction to me.”
I nod as she repeats my words. “Luc is right, in a way. I wanted to save you, consciously and subconsciously. But it was more than that. You weren’t just beautiful or good in bed; you were a breath of fresh air. Your soul was the yin to my yang, the darkness to my light, the chaos to my calm.”
Her eyebrows knit together, forming a deep crease on her forehead as she scowls. “I may have my moments of impulsiveness, but I wouldn’t label myself as chaotic,” she protests.
I snort at her, unable to keep a straight face. “Cara mia, you are the definition of chaos. That’s not a bad thing. It’s kept you alive.”
“Alive for what?” Adalina rolls her eyes. “Alive to suffer through my father’s abuse? To be locked up? To be forced to marry a stranger?”
Her unfeeling characterization of her life is depressing. “You are alive for a purpose, Adalina. You lived through hell for a reason. I don’t know why. I don’t know what your experiences have prepared you for. But I know that your life is only just beginning. You’re going to change the world. Your story is going to save so many lives.”
“But I don’t want to tell people my story,” she breathes, barely able to grasp onto the words with her oxygen. “I don’t want people to pity me. I see it in their eyes every time they look at me. ‘That poor Martinelli girl, a victim.’ But I’m not a victim, Dante. I don’t need a handout. I don’t want someone to hold my hand and coddle me. I can be strong on my own.”
I reach over to grab her injured hand, holding it gently in my own. I look at her bruised and swollen fingers, and I hate that this had to happen to her.
“No one is saying that you aren’t strong, Adalina. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. Fear drove me to stab my father when I was nine, but you never let fear drive you. You survived through sheer will. You didn’t let your father break you. You didn’t let his men tear you down. I want to hold you up and strengthen you, but I know that I will never be the force behind you. You are a complete person without me, cara mia. There is nothing I can give you to make you whole; I can only stand beside you and strengthen the parts where you are weak.”
“What’s in it for you?” Her eyebrows knit together in confusion. “What are you getting out of this?”
I shrug because I don’t know. I’ve never wanted a wife. I’ve never wanted children. I’ve never seen a family as an extension of who I am. I’ve always only ever seen myself and my future.
But when Adalina entered the picture, I began to see so much more. We can be so much more together. “You, my love, just you. That’s all I need.”
Epilogue
Adalina • 1 Month Later
“D
on’t touch me.” I point a knife at Dante and narrow my eyes. “I can do it myself.”
Dante stands two feet away with his eyebrow raised in disbelief. “You’re not going to stab me,” he replies in a dull tone. “You’ll need me to put that together for you.”
I stare down at the oversized box and shake my head. “Nope. I can do it myself.”
“You can’t even open the box.”
I’m back in a cast, as per Dr. Stone’s orders. After the swelling went down, he replaced the splint with a cast and said another four weeks would speed up my recovery. But my hand feels awkward and clumsy, and I keep dropping stuff. Dante repeatedly tells me to stop trying to be my own physical therapist, but what does he know?
“You know what I’m capable of. Back off and let me do it.”
Dante throws his hands up in resignation and takes a step back. “You’re being ridiculous, Adalina. Just let me help you.”
I stab the knife into the cardboard and start ripping a hole across the top. It snags on some plastic but keeps cutting through the material anyway. “You can put the bike together,” I stipulate. “But I’m opening the package.”