Page 71 of Mine Again

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I shut the laptop and toss it aside. Flopping onto my stomach, I scream into a pillow.

Is this common on those apps?

They’re clearly not the way to go.

Maybe I will call Sebastian… eventually.

Christmas is around the corner, and he can wait.

Let him wonder.

Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned growing up aroundpowerful men, it’s this.

They hate waiting.

And I’ve decided to become very, very patient.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Luca

Icheck my laptop bag one last time, making sure everything I’ll need for Brazil is packed, then zip it closed.

Leaning back in my chair, I lace my fingers against my lips, eyes fixed on Isa’s sleeping form in the camera feed.

She’s so fucking beautiful like this. Hair spilling across the pillow, lips parted in the softest breath, the world shut out while she dreams. Innocent. Peaceful.

A peace I won’t know until I can lay eyes on her again. Until I can hold her in my arms.

I drink her in like I’ll never get enough, searing every detail into memory. The next few weeks will be hell without seeing her face. I’ve never been more motivated to knock over a job fast.

Pressing a kiss to my fingertips, I touch them to the screen, to her face, imagining the warmth of her skin beneath me.

I love you, Isa.

Be a good girl and behave while I’m gone.

When I return, you’re mine again.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Isabella

Idon’t pull out Sebastian’s card again until after the new year.

Not because I didn’t want to, but the holidays had a way of wrecking any plans I had for something new.

Mari and Mateo took their yacht out after Christmas for a few well-earned days off, but they never came back. The boat went up in flames. No bodies were recovered.

Mari had warned me something like this might happen, that it was part of the plan she and Mateo had worked out to escape the Mafia life.

Mateo never wanted to be Don, and in our world, the only way out is death.

So that’s what they delivered.

I would have celebrated their freedom if it hadn’t been for the man who stepped in right after.

Niccolo Romero.

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