Eric had managed to get video footage from a neighbor’s security camera that showed the man who’d left the flowers on Natalie’s doorstep. But people aren’t stupid. He’d had on a hoodie with a baseball cap underneath, the rim pulled low over his face. It could be anyone and I didn’t really expect whoever had done it to be waving their fucking hand in the air. This was to let me know they’d found a weakness. That they are not above using that weakness, hurting it—hurting her—to hurt me.

This is mafia life. No one is safe, not if you’re the fucking boss, not if you’re a foot soldier. Not if you have any connection to any of us. Because it’s what I would have done, too. I’m not above exploiting my enemies’ weaknesses, no matter how fucking innocent.

Karma. What goes around comes around. I guess it’s coming for me.

And that’s fucking fine. Me. Not her, though. She’s clean. She’s not part of this.

“Why are you so quiet?” Natalie asks. She’s sitting beside me and we’re driving up to my father’s house for Dominic’s birthday. I’m planning on spending the week up there, but Natalie needs to be back by Monday for classes.

“Nothing. Just preparing myself for the visit.”

“You’re making me nervous and I’m already a little anxious. Nauseous even.”

Things are happening at break-neck speed for us. I know she’s feeling a little swept up. And there’s nothing I’d like more than to slow down time for a little while. Maybe take that trip Salvatore suggested, go away with her. Somewhere warm and quiet. Somewhere where it’s just us.

Because time is running out.

Last night in the study with Natalie, that music, her, us together, it’s haunting me. My own words keep repeating in my mind and I can’t help but feel their warning. It takes all I have to keep it from dampening everything. From stealing the joy from everything.

It’s dark when we arrive at the foreboding gates of the Benedetti family home a little before seven at night. They open as we approach, closing only once we turn onto the long drive leading to the mansion looming in the distance.

I glance at her, squeeze her knee. She’s staring wide-eyed at the house. “Ready?”

She nods.

“Don’t look so worried. I told my dad he’d better be nice to you.” I wink, but she pales. “I’m kidding. Relax.”

“I don’t know why I’m so nervous. It’s stupid.”

“You’re with me. Don’t be nervous,” I try to reassure her. “Oh, there is one thing. Dominic can sometimes be a dick. Just ignore him.”

“Aren’t we here for his birthday?”