by Penelope Sky
“I think you’d be a good father too.”
He laughed like I’d made a joke. “No kids for me. I’ll stick to condoms.”
“Well, one day, you’ll ditch the condoms. And if an accident happens…don’t worry about it too much.”
“I’m not stupid enough to get into that situation in the first place.” He signed an entire stack of papers then pushed it toward me. “But good thing it worked out well for you.”
“Really well.” I added all my signatures to the papers then pushed them back. “The place is officially yours. Don’t fuck it up.”
“I’ll try,” he said. “I’ll wire your money later.”
“Alright.” I was officially retired. I had my billions, and now I had nothing to do with it. I already owned my house, and my pregnant fiancée didn’t want to travel anywhere while the kids were so young. It was time to settle down for the quiet life Crow swore I would love. “I guess I should head home, then.”
“Yep.” Bates rose to his feet then came around the table. He did something we hardly ever did and pulled me in for a hug. “I’m proud of you.”
“For handing over everything to you?” I asked with a smirk. Now Bates had everything, the entire company to run however he wanted. He was officially richer than me, and he would probably gloat about it.
“No.” He clapped me on the shoulder before he pulled away. “For being happy.”
26
Siena
I left my house for good this time—and decided to sell it.
I knew I wouldn’t be needing it anymore.
After digging through the boxes in the attic, I found the item I was looking for. Pearl white and made of satin, it hadn’t collected dust all these years because it’d been perfectly preserved. I felt the material in my fingertips and tried not to cry.
I wished my mother were here for this.
I carried the dress back downstairs were Landon was waiting for me.
“You got it?” He placed his hands on my hips as he helped me to the ground. Then he pushed the door back into the ceiling.
“Here it is.” I held it out for him. “It’s beautiful, huh?”
“It’s definitely got a distinct style…”
My parents got married twenty-something years ago, so the style was much different then than it was now. “That’s what I like about it. It’s unique, special. And Mama looked so beautiful in it.”
My brother gave me an affectionate look. “You’ll look beautiful too.”
“Thanks, Landon.” I placed it on the couch and took a look around the house. “I’m selling the place. Not much reason to keep it anymore.”
“Makes sense. But I have a better idea.” He examined the living room and the kitchen before he turned back to me. “Give it to me. You’re going to be a billionaire tomorrow, so it’s not like you need the money. And the house stays in the family.”
“Not a bad idea.”
“Plus, you don’t have to move all this stuff.”
“Well, you aren’t being hunted anymore, so you don’t have to lay low. You could get a better place.”
“But I don’t have a job.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “So living somewhere for free would be ideal. And, more importantly, I bought you a house in France that you couldn’t stand for more than two months. So, you owe me.”
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to guilt me. You know I want you to have it. Maybe you could meet a nice girl and shack up here.”
“Or many not so nice girls…”
I swatted his arm playfully. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Am I giving you away? Is there something I need to know?” He walked with me to the door.
“No. We’re just going to the town hall and signing the paperwork. Nothing fancy. We’ll have our fun afterward.”
“That doesn’t sound romantic.”
“But it will be—for us. Since I’m pregnant again, I don’t want to wait around until I’m huge again. Last time, I was so uncomfortable and so hideous. I want to get married while I can still see my feet.”
“Understandable.”
“Then we’re going to have dinner at our place.”
“Okay, that does sound boring.”
“But it’ll be a romantic evening under the stars in the backyard. We’ll enjoy the summer evening together. Trust me, it’ll be nice.”
“How nice can it be when your kid is in the house?” He walked out the front door with me, to where one of Cato’s cars was waiting.
“That makes it even better.”
He glanced at my old car off to the side, the thing I hardly ever drove anymore. “Can I have that too?”
“Geez, you’re cheap.”
He shrugged. “If you aren’t going to use it, why not? You’ll probably get a Ferrari or something.”
I laughed. “I can’t see myself in a Ferrari. Cato will probably never let me drive my own car again.”
“Then I should definitely take it.”
“It’s not really your style. It’s cheap and dusty.”
He examined the car, seeing the dirt covering the paint and the windows. “With a little attention, it’ll look brand new.”
“Alright, it’s yours. You want my old job too?”
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ll find something else. But for now, I don’t mind retirement.”
“When Cato opens a new business, I can get you a position there.”
He shook his head. “No. I’m not interested in a handout.”
I gave him an incredulous look then stared at the car and the house. “Really?”
“It’s different with you. You’re family.”
I headed to the car and watched one of Cato’s men open the back door. “After tomorrow, Cato will be family too.”
Our wedding day wasn’t traditional in any way whatsoever.
We decided to get married at the town hall with a few friends and family members before we returned to our house for a private dinner. It wasn’t fancy, but it was certainly special to us.
We agreed to see each other for the first time just before we left for the town hall. He would wait at the bottom of the stairs for me, and I would make my grand appearance walking down all those flights of stairs in my mama’s wedding dress.
I wore the bracelet Cato gave to me, along with pearl earrings and a pearl necklace. My mother had been a classy woman, so her dress was classy too. I stepped out of my bedroom and reached the top stair, my eyes immediately looking for Cato at the bottom.
There he stood, in a deep blue suit with a matching tie. His eyes had been focused on my position because he’d been waiting for this moment for a long time. The second he saw at me, his eyes homed in further, and the corner of his mouth rose in a smile. Showing the boyish charm I loved, his eyes sparkled with love.
I gripped the rail as I moved down to the bottom, keeping my eyes on his the entire time. He was the last man I’d expected to fall in love with, and the last man I’d expected to trust so deeply. And he was definitely the last man I’d expected to risk my life for. Now we had a family together, another little one on the way.
A lot had changed in a year.
I reached the bottom floor, and he circled his arms around me. His hands rested on the steep curve in my back, and he pressed his forehead to mine, his eyes on my lips. Time seemed to stop as he held me in the entryway, in no rush to head to Florence to bind our lives together forever. He didn’t press his lips to mine to kiss me, probably wanting to wait until I was his wife.
My arms rested in the crook of his, and I enjoyed the silence with him, the hum of love that vibrated between us. Our love had deepened so much, and just when I thought I couldn’t love him anymore, I did. He was the father of my children, my protector, and my provider. He was everything to me.
He rubbed his nose against mine. “Let’s get married.”
Cato arranged for the town hall to be open late so we could have a private ceremony. We signed all
the paperwork and exchanged our vows before the clerk married us in the eyes of our friends and family.
It was the same experience many other couples had, but it felt special to me. It seemed like we were the only two people who really loved each other like this.
He cupped my face and locked his eyes on to mine. “I do.”
I said the words back. “I do.”
He didn’t waste any time leaning in and kissing me. It was a soft embrace but one packed with his undying love and devotion. He kissed me like his mother wasn’t watching, and my brother could look away if he didn’t like it—which he probably did.
Cato rested his forehead against mine when he pulled away. “Mrs. Marino.”
“Husband.”
He smiled. “I like that.” He took my hand and guided me to our family.
Chiara held Martina in her arms, and she handed her over so we could hold her on our special day. “Congratulations, you two.”
“Thanks, Mother.” Cato kissed her on the cheek.
I held our daughter and looked down into her face. “We’re going to miss you. Have fun with Nana. We’ll see you in a few days.” I kissed her forehead before I handed her to Cato.
He rocked her back and forth gently before he did the same. “We’ll see you soon, sweetheart.” He handed her back to his mother.
“Let’s take some pictures,” Chiara said. “That way you can run off and live happily ever after.”
You might also enjoy this series by Penelope Sky
The Skull King
Keep reading for a teaser from The Skull King
The Skull King Prologue
Two Years Ago
Balto
The Mediterranean style mansion was several miles outside of Florence. Tucked away behind lush landscaping and a limestone wall, it carefully hidden in plain sight. The iron gates with his family seal integrated into the metal were left wide open.
Tensions ran high.
This was the deal of the century.
Lucian was getting what he wanted.
As was I.
But we were exchanging two extremely valuable things, commodities men would sacrifice anything to get their hands on. Neither one of us wanted to give up what we had, but we also needed what the other offered.
Instead of meeting in a neutral, third-party location, I agreed to meet him at his estate. He might assume he had the upper hand, but I never went into a meeting without being prepared for battle.
Lucian sat across from me, a man nearly ten years older than me, with greasy black hair, sparse eyebrows of the same color, and lips so thin they looked like pencil marks. It made him appear constantly displeased. A gold cross hung around his neck, visible in the V neck of the shirt he wore. It was a hot summer day, humid as fuck, and it was no time to wear a suit.
I didn’t even own a suit.
Fuck that shit. I didn’t need a designer suit worth thousands to prove my worth. I could be buck naked, and people would know exactly who I was. They would know exactly what I was capable of.
He took one more drag of his cigar then put it on out in the ashtray. “You first.”
I’d already agreed to have the meeting on his property, but that was because I was fearless, not cooperative. His limestone wall and armed men would be helpless if I decided to turn on him. I had every single man on this property targeted by a sniper, not to mention the man I’d brought with me to this rendezvous. I always came prepared—and I outsmarted my opponent before he even realized his lack of cleverness.
I pulled the box from my pocket and set it on the table in between us. We sat on the back patio of his home, a large area hidden from the sun by a thick overhang. There was a hammock to our left, a large patio seating arrangement to our right, and a huge pool with several naked girls splashing around.
I saw tits all the time, so I didn’t look.
The second Lucian spotted the box, his eyes widened with greed. His eyes needed several seconds just to acknowledge the ordinary box before he even reached for it. Like it was a bomb that could go off any second, he handled it with the utmost care.
“It’s just a diamond, Lucian. It’s not gonna break.”
His gaze flicked up, and that oily look in his eyes deepened into a callous expression. As an Italian, he had thick hair on his chest that contrasted against the gold jewelry he wore. He was a slimy man, a man who couldn’t get those women into his pool unless he paid them. “Sir Francis Drake took these from the Sentinelese off the coast of India hundreds of years ago. Only three in existence, these are no ordinary diamonds—but skull diamonds. So I will take my fucking time.” He lifted the box and popped the lid.
Inside the velvet lining sat the large diamond, carved perfectly in the likeness of a skull. Lucian wasn’t the kind of man that needed money, but he liked to collect expensive things nonetheless.
He stared at it for minutes, not to determine if it was genuine, but to appreciate its allure. “Beautiful.” He shut the lid then slipped the box into his pants pocket.
“Your turn.” I had all three diamonds, and the only reason I was giving up one was because Lucian had something I wanted. While he was a greasy man without a spine, he was brilliant. He knew how to construct special kinds of bombs, from small ones that were completely undetected, to large bombs that could destroy an entire city. They weren’t ordinary, instead specially designed so they couldn’t be defused once activated. They could be remotely detonated. And most interestingly, he created bombs that could be ingested. They could survive the lining of the stomach for twelve hours before the acid disintegrated them. But even those could be remotely detonated, exploding a man from the inside. The Skull Kings were a ruthless band of thieves and tyrants, but even we didn’t have access to that kind of fun. It would be an excellent torture technique, and it would also make it easier to conquer those who hadn’t been conquered before. Lucian was the only one with those explosives—and he was very selective about who he shared them with. It would give me an advantage my enemies would never have.
Lucian rose to his feet, not to retrieve his end of the bargain, but to dismiss the conversation.
My heart rate didn’t change. My adrenaline didn’t kick in. The move was anticlimactic because I expected this. Little was known about Lucian, including the validity of his word, so I didn’t arrive with high expectations. A man’s reputation always preceded him, and if he didn’t have a reputation, good or bad, that was never a good sign.
“We’re finished here, Balto. I got what I want—but you won’t get what you want.” A man of short stature, Lucian was only intimidating because of his obsession with explosives. There was no way to know where he kept them—or if there was a detonator in his pocket.
I didn’t rise from my seat, not finished with the meeting. “I don’t care how a man earns his living. I don’t care if he kills for a paycheck or he sells bread at a bakery. A man’s worth is dependent on his word. When the money, guns, and women are gone, that’s all we have left. Lucian, think about what you’re doing. Think about what kind of man you want to be.” My black T-shirt was thin enough to allow the slight breeze to breathe across my skin. My jeans felt a little loose because I wasn’t packing a weapon. I’d agreed to leave my pistol off the premises.
Lucian cocked his head slightly as his oily eyebrows rose up his face. “I want to be the man who outsmarted the Skull King. Now leave my property—and have a good day.” He extended his hand to the edge of the patio where the front of the house was located. My men waited there for me, prepared for anything.
I still didn’t rise. “My reputation precedes me—and I earned it. I strongly suggest you sit back down and finish this deal as planned.”
“Are you threatening me? You’re surrounded and outnumbered.”
“Am I?” I asked, maintaining the same calmness because that would only annoy him. The second a man got angry, he lost. And I was doing laps around this loser.
His eyes narrowed farther.
I
waited for him to make the right decision and sit back down. He had no idea what was waiting for him at the front of the house if he didn’t uphold his end of the deal. Maybe he’d taken the most valuable diamond in the world, but he was about to lose something that couldn’t be replaced.
He chose wrong. “Leave. Now.”
I knew he wouldn’t shoot me because that would start a war he would spend the next decade fighting. But he’d crossed me because this exchange was personal rather than professional. I rose to my feet and left the table, walking beside him as we returned to the front of the house. My three cars were in the driveway, windows tinted and bulletproof.
We approached the gravel walkway as his armed men stood at attention, watching me closely in anticipation of a sudden movement.
“Leave,” Lucian said. “Before I tell my men to open fire.”
I walked to the middle car and opened the back door. Handcuffed and bound, a man sat in the back seat with the same oily black hair. His face didn’t have a single bruise because he’d been treated well while in my captivity. But all of that was about to change.
I yanked him out of the car.
He started to scream against the gag that swallowed his words.
Lucian stepped forward, visibly pained to see his brother be yanked out of the car and pushed to his knees on the gravel. “Let him go.”
I grabbed a pistol from one of my men and pointed it at the back of his brother’s head.
“Fire!” Lucian ordered.
Before his men could do anything, each one was hit by a sniper. They crumpled, dead around him.
His brother shook as he rested on his knees, his back rising and falling as he breathed through the tears that grew in his eyes.
Lucian held up his hand. “Alright. I’ll give you what you—”
