Page 18 of The Demon
I stare at him in confusion, as he growls, “Nobody is dying on my watch, and especially not my fucking wife.”
The power in this man has me melting inside and as the passion flares in his eyes, I whisper. “What if I’m never your wife? What if you can’t protect me?”
“Trust, Eliza. You will learn how to fucking trust me if it kills me.”
He releases the pressure, but his fingers linger on the nape of my neck as he stares down at me and I register the desire lit in his eyes.
“It would be so easy to give you what you want.” He says with a tortured sigh.
“Then what’s stopping you?”
“I want to do this right.”
“What?”
“Marriage, to you.”
“I’m confused.”
He shrugs, “Why?”
“This is business, you said so yourself. You even promised to replace me, so why do you care?”
“I don’t.”
I turn away and he says unemotionally, “I care for nothing but Club Mafia.”
“Tell me about it.” I’m interested to learn what makes a man like this care, and he turns to me, his eyes flashing dangerously. “I would kill for them.”
“Them?” I wonder about this pact he made, and he nods.
“You talk about trust, Eliza. I trust them with my life. They are my blood brothers, and brothers in arms who are relying on me to end this once and for all.”
“End what?”
I’m mildly curious because I suppose it never occurred to me that he had his own agenda and he turns away and says bitterly, “All our lives we have been controlled through fear. To understand it, we became it.”
“I don’t understand.”
He sighs heavily. “There were five of us originally, but that number has extended as more people joined. To marry for power was our plan to escape our hated fathers. Become greater, even more powerful than them, and live our lives on our own terms. Then we met Winter.”
“Winter?”
He nods. “Angelo’s twin sister. She came to live with us at Rockwell Academy and, like you, she was doomed to a hateful marriage with no choice or say in her future.”
“I know a lot about that. I feel for her.”
“Her time ran out.” Malik’s eyes glitter as he spits, “She never returned one night, and we learned that she had been taken by Massimo Delauren.”
Now I understand and my heart goes out to him and Winter. The mother of the small child I loved like a son and the wife of the most feared mafia don in the world.
“Our mission became about more than our own lives. It was all about setting Winter free and bringing her home. To bring her back to Alessandro.”
“Alessandro? I thought you said her twin’s name was Angelo.”
“Alessandro and Winter fell in love. They formed a connection that none of us knew for sure but suspected all the same. What we didn’t know was that one night led to Frankie and when Winter was set free, she lost her memory in the process.”
“How?” I’m fascinated by his story and am hanging onto every word, and he runs his fingers through his hair and says sadly, “She injected Massimo with a lethal cocktail of drugs and when he collapsed he took her down with him. She hit her head and blacked out and when she woke up, her memory was gone.”