Page 10 of Dangerous Games of Trust

“To get you out of there. There was no way in hell I was going to let you marry Alex. I thought I had a deal brokered with Enzo.”

“Because you wanted me for yourself?” I push, needing to know exactly what this is. He could get anyone to come work with him, but he’s gone against the biggest mafia families around to have me. He created enemies, and he knows it.

“Don’t make me regret my decision to save you,” he cuts out, his voice almost furious. “I’m not my pa. That piece of shit thought he was going to get his hands on your papa’s very lucrative online gambling business when he got you, it’s what he was so desperate for. A big fuck you to Enzo. The two of them have been fighting over shit for years, and he believed with your papa’s enterprise firmly in his hands, he would finally have something over him. Something he stole from right under his very nose, and Enzo had no idea.”

I blink back at him. “Let me get this straight—you’re interested in acquiring my papa’s online gambling enterprise? So we can fuck over Carlo?” I fucking knew there was more to his helping me and my brother. This was what Maddox was talking about, that he has his own agenda, but at least he’s coming out with it and not hiding stuff from me.

“We don’t wish to buy it. You have the ability to access everything he was working on, and we know how to operate it. We can team up,” he says, hopeful. “It’s win-win. You get your life back, and I get my pa out of mine.”

“Why would I team up with you for anything?” I stand, trying to get space from him so I can think.

“Because this is the way you get your life back. You want the power to have the life you want without some asshole or three dictating it for you. This is business. You have something I want and I’m willing to trade something I have in return. We will both come out on top in the end.”

I straighten my shoulders, wishing I had more information to go off. I know he’s right. Without his help, what my papa created is useless to me. But if I go into business with him, will he own me? Am I jumping from being owned by one mafia family to another, just in a different way, or will I really be able to gain my independence and get my life back on track? “I have conditions...”

“We can talk conditions, but know your brother is already one hundred percent on board. He leaves the comfort of my protection and Enzo will kill him for betraying him and going against the family, just like your papa did. There are men all over this city who are loyal to Enzo, and they will be searching for him already. You need to remember he betrayed his brothers and the family name for you.”

A silent gasp escapes me, a fresh wave of pain radiating through my chest for my brother. “I didn’t ask him to,” I cry, knowing he did and that I owe him everything for the sacrifices he’s made for me. “I don’t understand why he even did. One minute he was telling me to fall in line and do what the Morettis say, the next I’m here with you.”

“A person can only be pushed so far, Red. Your brother had his limits, and when he worked out Enzo was the one who gave my papa access to you the night of the rehearsal dinner, he knew he had to intervene. Dani might have helped to twist his arm a little as well.”

My eyes go wide in shock. “You set them up! Is she just using him because of you?” I screech in disgust, unable to contain my revulsion. Dani isn’t the person I thought she was at all.

“No more than he’s using her,” he snaps back, a deathly serious tone to his voice. He’s protective of Dani, that much is obvious.

Maybe I’m focusing on the wrong thing, because Marco is a big boy who doesn’t need me getting involved in whatever it ishe’s got going on with Dani. The reality of what he just said also registers. “Enzo and Carlo were working together?” I ask, confused.

He nods, and dread fills me, knowing what this means.

I swallow the lump in my throat, thinking back to what Valentina said to me that night,You won’t be laughing tomorrow, sweetheart. Enjoy your last night of freedom.She wasn’t talking about me marrying Alessandro, she was saying that because she knew Carlo was coming for me that night. I knew his parents hated me. All that baby stuff she was spinning that night was just bullshit. She didn’t want me anywhere near her precious son, and she was about to get rid of me. “Is Enzo hiding him now?” I gasp in horror. If they’re working together, I’m truly fucked. But also, teaming up with Geovani to destroy his pa could lead to taking out Enzo at the same time.

“It wouldn’t surprise me. They have been conspiring for some time, but your friend Alex doesn’t know that little piece of information just yet.” The suspicious way he says it has me questioning how he even knows.

Panic and a little excitement race through me. I walk toward the window, looking out over the cityscape as my thoughts start piling up on each other. Valentina knows more than she’s letting on, she must, and with Enzo and Carlo both working together, we’re all in more trouble than we thought.

But we could turn this all around in our favor.

“Why don’t you hand me back over to them then? Don’t you work for Carlo?” a whisper escapes my lips, maybe I’m testing him, I don’t know.

I feel him right behind me. His hand comes to my hip as he moves me to face him again. “No fucking way, Red. I work for myself. Carlo and Enzo are never getting their hands on you or anything you own.”

“What if I decided this life isn’t for me and I take off, you said I was free to go?” The words tremble out of my lips, betraying the strength I’m trying to show.

His lips drop to my earlobe, and a shiver runs right through me. “Then I will follow you like a fucking shadow for the rest of your life.”

A gasp escapes me as I struggle to mask the fear that instantly surges through me. “What if I just disappear?” I whisper, my stomach sinking. I knew the newfound freedom was just an illusion.

His eyes meet mine, staring right into the depths of my soul. “You can’t hide from me, Red. You’re mine. I will always find you.”

His!A shiver runs down my spine because I believe him. He was at the club the night I tried to run, and I knew it wasn’t a coincidence back then. From what he’s saying now, my guess is he was tailing me all along somehow, and he intends to for the rest of my life. What I don’t understand is why? An idea occurs to me. “I could sign it all over to Marco. My papa’s businesses should have been his in the first place.”

“Is that what you really want? See, I think the girl I spent so much time with just a few months ago was hell bent on destroying the family who took hers from her. She’s still in there, isn’t she?”

I take a step away from him, running my fingers through my long curls as I try to get my erratic heart under control. He looks at me like I’m powerful, like I could change the world if I tried, and he makes me believe I could. “I’ll come work with you on one condition. You help me destroy Enzo,” I say the words that have been sitting on the tip of my tongue for so long.

“If you’re up for it.” With a touch of arrogance, he raises one eyebrow.

With each passing second of him staring at me, my heart beats faster, panic and anticipation overwhelming me. I’m safe here with him, alive. But out there alone, we both know I have no chance against the biggest underworld leaders this city knows. I’d be dead within the hour. Also, the deal he’s offering is win-win.

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