Page 96 of The Rise of an Heiress

“Don’t fucking get used to it.” He waves his arm at me to go away. I laugh. “But I’ve been a goddamn asshole especially to you. You don’t deserve that disrespect, and if any man says shit to you, you better put a bullet in his skull.”

I squeeze his hand. “I understand where you were coming from.”

“A part of me thought they could be using you, and I didn’t want to see you get hurt. And the other thought is, if he really did love you, and if you married into the Cosa Nostra, you’d leave us behind. I thought he was going to ruin things between us.”

I sigh. “Dom, he would never come between us. He’s made that very clear. He would never try to, and if he was the type to, I would’ve never fallen in love with or married him. Whether you like it or not, he accepts you. You need to learn to accept him, too.”

“I know. I’m working on it, as you’ve probably seen.”

“Yeah, you lost a Ferrari in exchange for friendship,” I joke.

“Once I’m better, I’m getting that rematch,” he replies. “Plus, it couldn’t hurt to have their support. It’d sure make life easier organizing trade routes.”

“See! And you called me stupid,” I say smugly.

His face is racked with guilt. “I really am sorry.”

“Stop apologizing. I forgive you. Now, if you’re really sorry, you’ll do everything in your power to heal as quickly as possible. And don’t act like you’re too good for physical therapy. This was a serious injury, and you just had major surgery.”

“Deal,” he says.

I kiss his cheek and leave.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Nico

Aweek’s gone by, and Anya’s healing like magic. I took the week off just to be around for her, but she won’t stop working. She’s constantly making calls to either Donna, her friend, Max, or the university to figure out what credits she needs to make up. I suggested she not finish school since she was going to be the boss anyway, but she argued she needed to have a leg up on her men. She’s going to do so good as their new leader. She talks about her ideas with me all the time.

We also needed to legally declare her alive and Natalie dead; otherwise, our marriage is invalid. Which is why we have a bunch of people from the social security office coming to our penthouse tomorrow. Luckily, my family’s influence and money got us around most of the protocols, so we’re able to expedite the process.

I also paid extra to make sure she took my last name and had our marriage license validated, effective immediately. She was going to be Mrs. Delucci—well, Mrs. Liu-Delucci to the world as soon as fucking possible.

I wanted to just hack into the systems to change it, but she made a good argument.We can’t just hack into people’s memories and change them.She was always arguing with me. I loved it. Mostly because it was followed by really great make-up sex.

Then there was the wedding, but luckily, Donna decided to become the self-appointed wedding planner. We also needed to brief Anya and get her some media training. We can’t have her caught off guard. While we can keep most of our dealings private, my family doesn’t have a low-profile lifestyle. Page Six and dozens of others have already reached out about our relationship. We came up with a good cover-up story on how and why she’s suddenly called Anya. When you tell people you were in witness protection, they’ll literally eat up anything you say after. Anya is used to an extremely private lifestyle, having been in hiding most of her life, and all of that is about to change, as if she wasn’t dealing with enough already. In truth, we have a lot of work we need to do.

Dom’s also healing. The doctor said he should be able to return to Chicago next week. Anya tried to convince him to stay longer, but I shut that down. I don’t want to be a dick, but it’s not like he wants to stay here longer than he needs to, either. Plus, I plan on having my way with my wife, without holding back, once she’s fully healed and doubt he wants to be around for that.

Anya and I relax on the couch, watching television, very domestic. We aren’t good people, but damn what a match we make. Life in the Cosa Nostra and Triad is going to be interesting with her by my side. As she leans into me, I can’t help but note that she’s initiating affection more and more. I kiss her forehead.

“Just say what’s on your mind,” I say to her.

I could always tell when something was on the tip of her tongue.

“I’m just thinking about what comes next.”

My wife had a real problem with living in the moment. Life was going to pass her by if she didn’t have me but, luckily, she does.

“Are you telling me you want to add more stuff onto our never-ending to-do list?” I chuckle.

“Well, we still need to figure out which publication the publicist is reaching out to—your mother won’t stop asking me about it—how big this wedding is going to be, and our living situation.”

“We’re living here,” I say like she’s gone mad.

“You can’t just decide that for the both of us. I love my penthouse.”

“So, keep it, but we’ll live here.”

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