Page 12 of Mafia Prize
“Mirabella?” Her eyes are red, but when she looks at me, her face is wiped clean of expression. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” I take a deep breath. “I wanted to see Andrei.”
She nods tightly. “I’ll take you to him.” She makes a hand gesture, and the guards fall away. “He is with my father. Come.”
She leads me to a small grove surrounded on three sides by a hedge. Andrei is there, and he’s alone. He looks up and sees me, and for an instant, an expression of shock fills his face. “Mira? What are you doing here?”
“Do not hurt him,” Natalya says to me under her breath. “Not today.”
Her words barely register. I take a step forward, and his gaze falls to my hand, to my bare ring finger. “You’re not engaged?”
“No. Uncle Renzo has the unenviable task of telling the Norcia family the engagement is off. Then again, he was so relieved he didn’t have to head up the family anymore that he didn’t even complain.” He doesn’t move, and so I take another step closer. “I’m sorry about your father.”
His eyes turn sad. “Thank you. We knew it was going to happen, and I thought I was prepared, but. . .” His voice trails off. “He had colon cancer.”
“Antonio told me.”
He nods. “He’s just been gone a day, and I miss him already.” He takes a deep breath and shoves his hands into the pockets of his overcoat. “Why did you come, Mira?”
This isn’t the welcome I hoped for. “I didn’t want you to be alone.” I feel like I’m walking on a thin ledge with deep caverns on either side. “I don’t speak the language. I neither have territory to offer, nor money. I bring nothing to the table. I don’t belong here, but if you will have me?—”
He puts out his hand to stop me. “You didn’t get my package?”
“Your package?” I look at him in confusion and then I remember the box that Elisa slipped in my bag. I pull it out. “This one? You sent me an engagement present?”
“Not exactly.” He shakes his head in wry amusement. “So much for my grand gesture. Open it.”
I unwrap the box warily. There’s a ring inside. But not just any ring. Nestled in the velvet is the thick platinum signet ring of the Sidorovs.
“I don’t understand,” I say blankly.
He puts a finger under my chin and tilts my face up. “It’s always been you, Mira,” he says. “From the first time we met. When your father accused us of sinking his ship and broke off our engagement talks, I asked Antonio to invite you to the poker game. You think I give a fuck about winning money from those guys? It’s always been you. You’re the prize.”
He takes my hand and slides the ring over my finger. “You seem to think I care whether you come with territory or money,” he says. “I don’t. You just said you bring nothing to the table.You’re wrong.You bring yourself, your mind and your heart. I don’t know how to make you believe me, so I’m going to give you this. This is my family ring. Whoever carries it wields my power and speaks with my voice. Take it, Mirabella. Use it. I don’t care. I just wantyou.”
My heart starts beating very fast as I stare into his dark eyes. “I love you,” I whisper. “I don’t need the ring. I don’t even need your family’s approval. I just need you.”
“Not that it matters, but Natalya already likes you,” he replies. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me closer. “As for the rest of them, you’ll win them over in less than six months.”
Our mouths collide, and Andrei Sidorov kisses me for the very first time. He devours me as if he can’t get enough, as if I’m the oasis after an arduous desert trek. And I cling to him and kisshim back. It’s taken us seven years to get here, a twisted, tangled road. But we’re here, and I’m never going to let him go.