“Happy” doesn’t mean throwing him a party. It doesn’t mean telling him he’s handsome and smart without giving away the fact that I find him disgusting. It means giving him access to my body. Opening my legs for him. Letting him touch me, lie on top of me, fuck me. It means pretending I like it. No one is that good of an actress. Black Widow would snap him in two before letting him near her.

“I can’t promise that.” Sergio could very well outmaneuver Massimo, then I’m stuck… but this is a risk I need to take. “Okay. You annul and free Dario, then I marry—”

“No. I annul, you marry, then we dump him in Jersey.” He must see my alarm. “Alive. Ten bucks in his pocket.”

“And you tell him that if he comes back, you’ll kill me.”

“That’s a deal.”

This happened way too fast. I have to save Dario without his consent. It’s the only way. But I can’t condemn myself on a moment’s notice.

“Do one thing for me,” I ask.

“I don’t have time for this much horse trading.”

“Let me see Dario one last time. To say goodbye.”

“You trying to move in there with him?”

“Please. I won’t tell him about the wedding or getting let go. It’s just a conjugal visit,” I say.

“Cameras off, I guess, huh?”

“Gross, Emo. Yes.”

“Nice try. Okay, camera off, but mics on. And turned up. I hear a single word I don’t like out of either of you, he’s dead.”

“Deal. I will marry Sergio and keep him happy. And you’ll let Dario go.”

“After the wedding, he can go.”

“Right after.”

While I’m pleasuring Sergio, Dario will be set free. It’s poetic, if poems are ever horrifying.

“My word is good,” Massimo says. “I’ll be glad to get out from under this guy. He’s a pain in my ass. You can have your ‘conjugal visit’ tomorrow night. Now get out of here.”

He walks away, coat flapping in the wind, head down, having traded his sister for a chance to kill his enemies.

When Timothy takes me back, I check the street outside. The note is gone forever, whatever it meant. No Connor. No Remo.

We’ve been abandoned. My choice was made because there are no others. There are no rescuers in wait. I am all Dario has. My resolve hardens. I’m doing the right thing.

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

SARAH

I sleep like a woman with a clean conscience. I don’t even dream. Nine hours compress into a blink. Let the world turn. I’ve made my choices.

But I wake in a state of panic.

Will Massimo keep his promise?

Can he?

Will Dario stay away?