Page 3 of Of Lies and Shadows

I can feel Bruno’s gaze at the back of my neck, and I want, no, I need to turn to see what he’s trying to tell me. But I don’t move.

“Francesca, reply.”

Don Salvatore watches me with a glint of approval. “Wary and cautious. Good.”

The chill in his smile sinks into my bones.

“She may be the perfect choice after all.”

My brows draw together.

He leans forward. “Your father says you’d do almost anything to get out of the mafia life.”

I glance sideways at my father.

Of course he knows. He’s always known. He justdoesn’t care.

I nod slowly.

“What if I allow you out?” Don Salvatore continues. “No strings attached. A clean break. A life away from the famiglia… with a generous bank account to start over.”

For a second, I feel it, a pinprick, bright and sharp…hope.

But the excitement is drowned in dread just as quickly.

If what he’s offering is true… then whatever they’re about to ask me is probably going to kill me.

Chapter One

Dante

“This is ridiculous. I don’t have time for this.” I shove the folder my aunt places on my desk right back at her.

“You have to make time, Dante.” She pushes it toward me again, firmer this time. “I’m sixty-three years old. I have a husband and a life to get back to. I love your twins, truly I do, but I can’t keep playing nanny.”

I take off my glasses and press my fingers to my eyeslike I can push the headache back into my skull where it belongs. “Their mother just died.”

She was my wife, on paper, at least. It would feel hypocritical to play the grieving widower. Maria had been smart. She got pregnant and trapped me in a marriage I never wanted.

And I was the one who let it happen. The one who trusted her when she said she was on birth control.

She won the game, and I got my heirs. So, in the end, it was a draw. I didn’t hate her. She did what she had to do to secure the position she craved.

For five years, our marriage was almost amicable. She had her lovers. I had mine. We played the part of a united front when my father died, and I became the capo of the Forzi family.

I wished her no harm. I stood by her side when she fought the cancer that eventually took her.

And when the end came… I was there.

“She died four months ago, figlio.”

My aunt sighs as she sits down.

“They’re five years old, Dante. I can’t keep up with them. They need someone who’ll be there for them, someone who knows how to help them deal with their grief.”

“You’re family. Who better than you? Just a few more weeks.”

“No. You’ve been saying that for two months now.” She folds her arms, steel behind the softness. “I must go back to my life, and you need to step into yours. You’re a single father now unless you’re ready to?—”

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