“This little mafia princess is engaged to Lorenzo Giovanni. Our new client!” Cindy sounds like she’s trying her best not to speak at a normal volume, and her rage-filled tone of voice tell me that she’d prefer to scream it at the top of her lungs. She waits for a moment as if she expects Silas to answer. He doesn’t say a word. “She didn’t tell you about that when you helped her out that night, did she? This whole deal has gone to shit. I don’t know who wants her so badly that they’re willing to throw this much manpower into the operation, but whatever their motive, we don’t need any part of it. You brought her into our world, and you’re gonna get her right back out of our lives. My vote is we leave her right here. Let her mob boss daddy save her next time. Or Giovanni. And you’ve got a screw loose if you think I’ll support any hair-brained decision of yours to bring her back to our place. She not your responsibility. Anyway, I’m done. I’m out. Make sure you keep her the hell away from our people.”

Silas doesn’t reply, and to be honest, I’m tired of hiding out in my bedroom. I shut my eyes tight as if it’ll help. It won’t. Time to face the music. I return to the living room to see Cindy heading out the front door of my condo, leaving Silas leaning against a wall.

He lifts his head and locks eyes with me. “She’s right,” he whispers when I’m within earshot, and I wonder what is it about him and his mother that they refuse to raise their voices here. “You’re not our problem.” Those blue eyes are ice cold all the way to their depths now, and his throat works around a harsh swallow. “If there’s one thing I don’t tolerate, it’s lying. I gave you enough opportunity to tell me the truth. You practically lured my mother here to face what? For four hired hands to rough her up and pistol whip her? I don’t appreciate that you’ve put me and mine in the crossfire of your domestic dispute. This has to be some kind of game for you, but your old man and your husband-to-be are people I depend on for my livelihood.”

I can’t argue with him. He’s right.

“I should have let these thugs have you,” he continues in a low voice that’s starting to really frustrate me. I want him to scream. I want him to be true to the anger on his face. “Do you realize what your old man will do to me when he finds out I messed with his daughter? An engaged woman? You can’t imagine what kind of turf war that can create for my club, can you? It’s because you’re too damn secretive and fucking selfish…”

“Don’t put that on me. I begged you to bring me back here. All I’ve been asking is for you to take me home. Or just let me leave. Why did you think that was? Instead, you kept up your crusade to lock me up like a prisoner at your beck and call! I’ve been treated like a captive for my whole life, under my father’s thumb. I won’t do it anymore.”

“Just stop right there. If you’d told me who the fuck you were, I’d never have gotten involved, okay?” The way Silas spits out the words hurts like hell. “And did you forget you’re engaged? You have a fucking fiancé, Sabrina. What about that information?”

“Oh, you think that was my choice too?” I shout.

“Keep your voice down. Listen. You let me fuck you…and you’re engaged?”

“I haven’t been with Lorenzo. Or does that even matter to you?” He doesn’t answer. “Wait…you really think that I’d be that conniving or manipulative? That I’d intentionally sleep with you, and feel what I felt, despite the fact that I’m supposed to be engaged to one of the most powerful men affiliated with my father?”

“Are you?”

“If you think I planned on jumping into bed with you, or what happened between us, then you have a much bigger problem than I thought. Get the hell over yourself. I don’t believe you can be so damn naive.” I take a seat in the nearest chair that’s still upright, taking a shaky breath as I lift my feet up onto the cushion and grip my knees to stop them and the rest of my body from trembling out of sheer rage. “None of this was my choice, from start to finish. I didn’t agree to the engagement. I didn’t seek you out. I didn’t plan on sleeping with you. I’m not one of the wildcats who hang around your club, either. Blame me if you want, but you’re not some innocent bystander. You can’t make me forget that you just did an illegal arms deal with Lorenzo!”

“You knew about my business with Giovanni? You’ve known all along?” The questioning in his voice pierces through my rage.

This behavior isn’t like me at all, and it’s getting us nowhere. “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I really had no idea who you were when we met on that elevator. When I woke up on your bike, that put my guard up, and I figured out the rest when I saw the briefcase. My father and his men have kept me so far under lock and key that they didn’t think twice about sticking me here to live next door to Lorenzo. Everyone wants me for something. My father’s enemies see me as bait, or as a bargaining chip. To Lorenzo, I’m leverage. Marrying me is just a stepping stone. It solidifies his place as one of my father’s key allies so he can extend his power and reach, and maybe he wants to worm his way in to have better positioning for extra territory when my father eventually dies. Nothing more. Anything he feels for me, or thinks he feels for me, or says out loud for the world to hear, it’s because to him, I’m a possession. And trust me, I’ve done my fair share of trying to escape it all. I’ve run off more times than I care to admit, and I’ve fought off guys worse than the ones who showed up today and the ones who darted me. These guys were child’s play. They just happened to catch me off guard, but if they didn’t have my—” I pause, forcing myself not to add to the problem.

“If they didn’t have what? Finish what you were saying.”

At this point, Silas knows about eighty percent of the whole story. The part he doesn’t know is that Lorenzo has been holding my best childhood friend, Jordan Bain, in what he calls a secure location, to make sure I don’t run again. He threatened—no promised, because he can back up his threats with action—that if I didn’t go through with the wedding, he’d make sure Jordan would never be seen again. I couldn’t let that happen to him. We’ve been friends since childhood, were best friends in high school, and went to the same college. Jordan isn’t just anyone. He’s the closest thing I have to family. Up to the time of his kidnapping, he was the most predictable, dependable person in my life. I can’t let them wipe him off the face of the earth and make it like he never existed. Which is the reason I agreed to go through with the marriage to Lorenzo.

At the moment, there’s nothing Silas can do about my best friend, so why bother telling him? Sure, keeping secrets is my default setting. I’ve grown up shrouded by secrecy and silence. It’s the reason I carry around fake ID and won’t open up to just anyone. Silence keeps me alive because who I am is the thing that makes me a perpetual target.

I refuse to put Jordan in any worse danger, so I keep this last detail to myself. “Lorenzo’s dealings are no secret to me. I’ve known long before I met you. The truth is, I overheard the deal you were discussing with him and decided to stay out of the way. I didn’t want to know. I’m sure you can tell by now that he’s an arrogant, condescending, scheming, power-obsessed human being. And he’s ruthless too. I had a feeling things would go badly between the two of you, and I was already on my way to an event, so I left. Then I got shot with that stupid tranquilizer dart. We know how the rest of the story goes from there. Fill in the blanks. Better yet, just forget it, Silas. You’e smart to walk away now. It’s best for everyone.”

“We’re done talking,” he says, pounding his fist against the wall.

But he doesn’t leave. And I need a minute to clear my head. After that, I’ll pack a bag and do what I can to disappear. We’re both silent for what feels like forever. I can’t think past all the dots he must now be connecting.

Silas clears his throat and glances over at me. “We’re going back.”

Does this man have a death wish? Was he not listening to everything I’d just told him?

“But—”

“I don’t want to hear it. Just sit there, be quiet, and give me time to figure out a plan so it doesn’t look like I’m the one who kidnapped my client’s future wife.” Silas wraps up his order with a menacing glare.

“Fine.” I purse my lips, fighting down my temper with every bit of willpower I can find as I launch out of the chair to stand. But there isn’t much left.

I’m at the end of my rope and he’s still trying to control the situation.

To control me.

“No, you know what? That’s not fine. First of all, I don’t have to listen to you, or shut up and let the men think for me. You do know there are other things you can do for money that aren’t illegal, right? You don’t have to run guns for my father or for Lorenzo. Don’t give me that bullshit, don’t use me as an excuse to keep making bad choices, and don’t tell me to shut up!”

My voice reaches a high-pitched, deafening screech for the last half of the statement, and Silas reaches between us and puts his hand over my mouth.

“Stop talking!” he demands in a whisper. His muscular body covers me, and I become vividly aware of his radiating body heat. “Nothing I do is any your business, Sabrina. None of it.” He breathes the words like a threat, so close to my mouth his breath plays across my tear-streaked cheek, so close that we’re inches from a possible kiss.

I can’t look away from him, and raise my chin a fraction higher. The small gesture causes his jaw to harden, and he presses himself closer to me until we fit together like two missing pieces of a puzzle, even in the middle of our confrontation.