Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I smirk at her. “You want me to say it?”
“Yeah, I want you to say it. I mean, not now, you asshole, but—”
“I love you, Kacia.” I kiss her neck and hold her tight against me. “I’ve loved you since I saw you in that room. I love you, and I won’t let you go.”
“I love you too,” she whispers, and I kiss her, lingering on her lips, letting myself fall into her taste. Nothing from here on out will be easy. The capos will make life hard, there will be issues with the Greeks, and the Russians are coming—
But I have Kacia. I have my life. I can be more than a soldier.
That’s good enough.
Chapter 31
Kacia
Six Months Later
I curl my toes into the sand and lean back in my beach chair as the waves slam against the shore. It’s a perfect day, the sun high in the sky, wispy clouds floating across the blue like jellyfish in deep water, and the private beach is our own little paradise.
“Not quite Crete, but it’ll do, yeah?” Adrienne looks up at me from where she’s lying on her towel and grins. “You didn’t tell me the Valverde family had a big house in Avalon. It’s actually pretty nice.”
“All the mobsters have houses in Jersey and they’re all obscenely expensive.” I look at her and wink. “I thought you knew that. Because of you and your family.”
“Oh, you’re right, my family, my mistake. Everyone knows it.” She stretches her legs and sighs. I laugh to myself because even after all this, I still have no clue how Adrienne’s connected to the crime underworld. “This is a good life though, isn’t it? Sometimes you can forget all the blood it takes to build it.”
“Enjoy the calm while it lasts. We’re going back to Greece in the morning.”
“You’re really doing this, huh?”
“I told you, I’m the new liaison. You have no clue how much I had to fight with Luca’s father, but it’s happening.” I’m not even exaggerating—I had to yell at him more than once to get him to agree to this. As it turns out, Roberto Valverde is a ruthless, brutal man, but he gives in eventually if you’re persistent enough.
It helped that Luca had my back.
“I’m going home to LA when this is through,” she says, not looking at me. “I’m not sure I can go to Greece.”
“Yeah? Why’s that? Because you had a torrid affair with a gangster there?”
Her glare is sharp. “You don’t know anything about what happened on that island.”
“Because you won’t tell me,” I say softly.
She looks away and stares at the water for a while. Eventually, she gets up and looks toward the house. “Your man’s coming,” she says as she grabs her stuff and walks off. “I’m going to take a nap. See you later?”
“See you,” I say and watch her go. Adrienne’s been weird ever since she got back from Crete. She stayed way longer than anyone expected her to, and I heard she got into something intense back on the island, but I still don’t know what. Yiannis won’t tell me, and she’s not talking.
“How’s she doing?” Luca asks, sitting down beside me and leaning over to give me a quick kiss.
“Better, I think. Hard to say. She’s been so quiet and moody.”
“You’ll get the story out of her eventually, just be patient.” He leans over and puts a hand on my belly. “More importantly, how are you feeling?”
I laugh and cover his hands with mine. “I feel fine, okay?”
“You’re pregnant, you got to expect a million questions.”
“It’s still early so please don’t go around telling everyone.”
“You have no clue how badly I want to scream it every time we see the boys. An Italian man got his wife pregnant, the entire fucking city should know it by now.”
“We’re in Avalon, not the city, so just be quiet.”
He laughs and kisses me and I snuggle up against him. We sit like that for a few minutes, watching the ocean waves. Back in the house, Tony and Niccolo are probably already drinking, and I bet Adrienne’s doing her best to ignore them both. It’s been an idyllic week down the shore, but everything has to end.
“Things are going to change, you know,” I whisper and kiss his shoulder. “Can you handle it?”
“Better question is, can you? You’re starting this new liaison deal with a baby in you.”
“A baby that won’t come for nine months.”
“Then what?”
“Then I negotiate with a baby on my tit. What do you think?”
He glares at me. “Not funny.”
“I’m not trying to be. Come on, Luca, we’ll figure it out. We’re in this together, right?”
“We’re in this together,” he agrees and hugs me tighter. “I love you, you know that?”
“I love you too.”
“You made me want to be a better man. No, don’t make a joke, just listen. Before you, I was just a soldier. I did what I was told and I killed without remorse. Now I’m about to be a father, and I’m a husband, and I feel like I’ve got purpose beyond whatever orders come down from above. I feel like I’ve got a future.”