Chapter 2

Adrian says nothing, and I take his silence as an answer.

"Fine. You think I wanted to see you again?"

"I'm with your brother now."

I turn and walk away.

A sharp crack sounds behind me, but I don't look back.

I circle half the ballroom before I find Nico on a couch with Tessa, playing some stupid hand game.

"You lost again!"

Tessa laughs and holds out her hand.

"Come on. Let me hit you."

Nico grins and gives her his hand.

I stop beside him. "I wanna go home."

"Give me a little longer. We just got here."

"I'm tired. I wanna go home now."

Tessa snorts.

"Seriously? You're tired already? That's kinda weak."

Nico looks ready to agree with her, and something in me finally snaps.

"I'm only gonna say this one more time. I wanna go home. If you're not leaving, I'll go by myself."

Tessa laughs.

"Talia, we're halfway up the mountain. You don't have a car. What are you gonna do, walk home?"

"None of your business. We're done."

I turn and walk out.

Nico promised he'd love me and take care of me.

Now he keeps leaving me behind for another woman.

Nico finally catches up to me at the front of the estate and pulls me into his arms.

"Talia, what are you doing?"

"Fine, I'll drive you home. But stop talking about breaking up. I'm not letting you leave me."

I don't have the energy to fight with him.

"Nico, if you like Tessa..."

"I don't like her! How many times do I have to tell you? She saved my life. That's it."

He cups my face.

"I don't even look at her that way. You're the one I want."

Then he kisses me.

"Jealous?"

He smiles against my lips.

"I'm sorry, babe. I swear this won't happen again."

"Just take me home."

"Okay."

He takes my hand and starts toward the parking lot.

His phone rings, and I recognize Tessa's ringtone immediately.

He doesn't even have one set for me.

Nico answers, and his whole face changes.

"What? Someone drugged you? Stay there. I'm coming."

He starts to leave, but I grab his sleeve.

"Nico! Call security. What can you do that they can't? You promised me..."

He jerks free.

"She's drugged. How am I supposed to leave her there alone?"

"What about me?"

"She's in trouble. That matters more right now. Wait here."

He runs back toward the estate.

I watch him disappear, then turn and start down the road alone.

Five years ago, I came to New York alone, and my luck couldn't have been worse.

I took one wrong turn and ended up in a part of the city I had no business being in.

A couple of armed men cornered me before I could get out.

Adrian was the one who got me out of there.

I had nowhere else to go, so I kept following him.

At first, he couldn't stand it. Eventually, he stopped trying to get rid of me.

He told me he had no real family and nowhere he called home.

Back then, he used his mother's last name. Vittori meant nothing to me.

"Sticking with me won't do you any good."

"I don't care. You saved my life."

For two years, it was just the two of us.

Everything changed after one of Adrian's jobs went bad.

He got me out, but someone drugged him in the process.

By the time we made it home, he was burning up and barely holding himself together.

That night, he pulled me against him, and we slept together for the first time.

The next morning, he could barely look at me.

After a long silence, he took my hand and slid his mother's ring onto my finger.

"I have no money, no family. But if you'll have me, I'm yours."

"Marry me, Talia."

I blink, and the dark road comes back into focus.

My foot catches on a rock, and I hit the ground.

Pain shoots through my knee, and for a second I can't get back up.

The road is dead quiet.

"Liars," I whisper. "Both of you."

I spent two years looking for Adrian.

I took whatever jobs I could find and followed every lead I got, refusing to believe he was dead.

And now the man who was supposed to have died three years ago is alive, running one of the most powerful Mafia families in New York.

He looks me in the face and says he wishes he'd never saved me.