by Jax Hart
“Feeling shy, Baby Blue?”
She evaded my question, “Look I need to go alright. My Uncle is going to flip his shit if he wakes up and finds out I’m not home.”
Something tightened in my gut. She doesn’t belong to me yet. Even the thought of a guardian, an Uncle—some other man having more say over her legally and otherwise makes me want to break shit. Or kill something. Hell, both.
I blew out a breath. “I’ll find your friend and take you both home.”
She nodded barely looking at me. My fists clenched. I had her. I knew she felt this… this… thing between us.
I lifted her chin, caged her with my body, “This thing between us isn’t going to go away just because you want to ignore it.”
“I know. But that doesn’t mean that I wish…maybe it would.”
“Scared, Baby Blue?”
“Terrified.”
“And here I thought you were some badass, super girl with mystical powers,” I teased while fingering a lock of her blue hair.”
“Oh, I am. I’m just not convinced you’re worthy of all of my awesomeness.”
“I’m definitely not. But I’ll still take it all anyway.”
“I know.”
Her hesitant eyes finally met mine and I did something I never do. This time when my mouth lands, parting hers—I woo the fuck out of her with my kiss. It’s tender. Slow. The seduction my high school girl deserves. I felt the second she gave in to me and her body became soft and pliable.
“Tell me your name. We can do this the easy or hard way, Blue. Up to you.”
“Diana. Diana Palermo.”
“Palermo?”
She nodded. “My great-grandparents left during WWII for America. They didn’t want to forget their homeland so when they emigrated, they made Palermo their last name.”
Something ugly twisted in my gut. Could she be a test? A trap? Did Constantine’s family finally want vengeance. Did they finally figure out it was me? Or did one of my enemies put her in my path as a way to derail me or test my will?
My hips moved closer. My grip on her chin became a demand. “Who are you?”
“Nobody. Just a girl with no family.”
I snorted, “Oh you are somebody alright. Don’t underestimate me. I’ll love you and break you all the same.” I want this girl something fierce, but was I ready to risk everything I worked toward for her? The scale hasn’t completely tipped her way yet even though momentum is swinging her way.
Her tiny hand rested on my forearms. “I promise the same. I could love you or kill you with the flip of a switch.”
My lips smirked because her answer was so perfect. “Ah, you are Ying to my Yang, Blue.”
She smiled faintly, “You have no idea.”
I don’t know where in the fuck this is heading all I know is that I’ll do anything to make this magic last before the reality of what and who I need to be awaits after graduation.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I HAD ROQUE DROP me at Tati’s. I lied and told him it was my house. He’d find me sooner rather than later. But I fucked up again and need to either come clean with Zio about my conflicted feelings or we needed to decide to run. Again.
With a heavy heart, I lifted the corners of the curtain framing Tati’s window. An untrained eye wouldn’t notice all I saw.
He left security on my ass. There were two men on either ends of the street. One was smoking while nursing a coffee, the other was in an SUV wearing shades despite the fact it was barely dawn.
I let Tati sleep and pulled on a hoodie that I found in her closet. Hopefully, it’d help disguise my blue hair as I snuck out. Zio had been lighting up my phone with texts. I grimaced knowing I was about to break the only man’s heart who truly loved me. The one person who knew my complete truth and who championed me through it all.
I pulled up my Uber app and ordered one to pick me up three blocks from here. Sneaking out of Tati’s house was easy. None of the hired surveillance noticed me creep out the backdoor and race into the woods.
I hopped into the backseat of the Uber after double checking it was the right car and head home to face the music.
Zio’s back was stiff as a board as I walked in. He wouldn’t turn to face me. Instead he sipped his black coffee while staring out the kitchen window.
“I’m sorry, Zio.”
“Scusi?”
My head hung with shame. My cheeks flamed as red as my real hair. “I tried to fix what happened.”
“Did you?” He turned to face me.
“I don’t know.”
“Sit,” he commanded before pouring me a coffee and adding a smidge of cream. “Tell me everything Romina. Everything.”
I swallowed hard. “I-I think… he likes me. Really likes me.” Zio studied me hard for a few seconds.
“You foolish girl. A man like Roque Salvatore cares for nothing. Especially a slip of a girl he almost killed decades ago. Did you fuck him, mi amore?”
I shook my head. “Well at least you’re still a virgin. We can use that.”
“I’m not using my body in this war I’m not sure I still want to fight.”
“How easily did the might Diana fall, eh? All it took was your first taste of passion. He’s just the first man to awaken the pleasures of the flesh in you. That’s all.”
“It’s not that simple Zio. I’ve told you every detail of us… of him. But unless your me, you can’t really understand. It’s like our souls twisted together that day, during the massacre. We were both practically kids caught up in some war we were born into. He didn’t want to kill me. I know it.”
Zio raised his head. “And yet he did. He did kill you. The girl you were died that day and you changed. You became someone else, literally.”
“I don’t feel the same need for vengeance anymore, Zio. What if I could win? What if we both win by making him love me? Love us? Doesn’t love trump evil after all?”
“You could try. But heed my earning, that man will never love the way you think he will. Roque Salvatore has been training his whole life for one thing only: To be the most powerful mob king the world has ever seen. You have two choices now: Cut and run or stay and seduce the dark king into letting you be his queen. There are many ways to take a man down. And I love you too much, I’ve cherished you too much to set you on this path, but it seems you’ve already set yourself on it. You could hold his black heart in the palm of your hand and decide if he’s worthy of yours. If he betrays you, your break it. You break him and get your revenge. But you’d have to give him all of you. You’d be his lover; his confidant be everything to him, but the danger is he’d have the power to break you too. Are you willing to risk it all to find out if he can change for you?”
I held my head in my hands, confused. Because I really wasn’t sure. Roque is a tornado; he’d consume all of me I just know it. But the high I get from just breathing his air makes me stupidly want to risk it all.
My phone pings with a text: Get ready Baby Blue, the big, bad, wolf is coming for you.
Me: How did you get my number?
R: I can get anything I want. You are at the top of my list.
Me: ***Eyeroll***
R: So, going to hurt you for that.
Me: ***Double eyeroll***
Zio frowned, muttering in Italian under his breath. With a sinking heart I knew how much I’ve let him down. But maybe you can change fate? Maybe the Fiorelli’s and the Salvatore’s don’t need to be at war anymore? Maybe just maybe it’s our destiny to change all that and start a new era together?
After a long hot, bath, I opened up my laptop and connected to the wireless spy devices I planted the night of the party. When Roque was in the shower, I moved two to his room. I might be a stupid, foolish girl who just got her first taste of passion, but I will be somewhat careful about it.
“…yo! You in there, bro?”
“What?” I hear Roque bark. It sounds like Johnny entered the room. Rafe and I are going into the city tonight. You in or
are you going to sit here pining over that high school piece of ass?”
I gasped, as the sound of a fist meeting a face ensued as well as tumbling furniture and grunts. “Don’t ever disrespect my girl again.”
I closed the app. I’d heard enough. Roque really does care for me. Maybe his soul isn’t so lost as we both thought. Maybe there is hope for the dark one after all and that hope is me.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“THAT GIRL HAS YOU ALL JACKED UP.”
Sweat dripped down my face but I ignored Johnny and lifted the rack of weights above my head, doing five more sets than he did.
“Are you seriously going to a Homecoming dance? At a high school?”
“You’re going with me.”
He shook his head, “Fuck, Roque. You are losing some serious street cred, pining over some steampunk girl.”
“She’s so much more than that.”
“Is She? Talk like this is going to get you in trouble, bro. Your primed to take it all. Game over. Your cousins got Chicago locked down. They took out the Chinese and the Russians. All you have to do after graduating is build that empire man. You and I are going to be unstoppable. I’d never put a hit on you, bro and I know you’ve got my back. Don’t let some voodoo pussy fuck with our plans.”
Brushing past him, I grabbed 75lb dumbbells and worked on some bicep curls. “She’s perfect for me, bro. She’d fit in our world.”
“Nobody fits in our world. Your deluding yourself. Love isn’t in the cards for us. Wake the fuck up, Roque. You already know that.”
I did. But I was a stubborn mother fucker. Too stubborn to listen despite my inner voice screaming I should.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MY TEMPLES THROBBED. “What in the heck was I thinking taking a coding class?” My eyes burned from the glare of my laptop monitor. I’ve been working on this app project for weeks and not getting anywhere.
Roque’s been texting all day trying to get me to get together. But I can’t. As much as I want to run away with my rogue Roque. I still need to be a regular high school girl pulling decent grades.
A sharp tap interrupted me as my fingers hovered over the keyboard. “Diana? There’s someone here for you.”
Zio’s face was flushed. The vein in his temple throbbed. His fists clenched and his eyes were narrowed.
“You let him in?”
“I thought about pulling the Glock from the back of my pants and putting two in his head.”
“Zio…,” I sighed, rolling my eyes.
“Are you sleeping with the enemy, Romina?”
“Not having this conversation with you.” I shut my laptop, fluffed my hair and got pissed that I even did that for Roque. I was fierce. Fierce girls don’t fluff, right? I pass him at the doorway and whisper, “One: don’t embarrass me. Two: don’t kill my boyfriend and three: don’t blow our cover.”
He studies my teasing face. “He’s changed you… what? Boyfriend!” he practically shrieks, muttering in Italian.
“He has.”
“I don’t like it… don’t trust him.”
But I leave already caught in the gaze at the base of the stairs drawing me down like a moth to a flame.
“Hey,” I squeaked out. He’s dressed. I mean dressed in a full suit. Crisp tie. Shined shoes. He looked every inch of an il sovrano. The ruler.
He frowned as he studied my paler than usual face. “You okay?”
I smiled faintly. “My eyes ache. My head hurts. This coding class I took as an elective is killing me.”
“I can help.”
“I’m tempted but that’s okay. I need to figure things out for myself.”
His lips curved. “I know. I’m even more into you for that.”
I felt Zio at my back like an ominous thundercloud.
“Can I make you an espresso?” I asked Roque in perfect Italian.
“Fuck, I’m so into you,” he exhaled as Zio passed us.
I grinned. “Zio thought I should learn.”
“He taught you?”
“That and just about everything.”
“Hmm,” he stroked his chin. “What happened to your parents again?”
“Car crash. Drunk Driver. Icy roads…,” I broke off. A flash of pain filled my face as all I remember Papa, getting gunned down and the time my mother was shoved in the back of a car never to be seen alive again. He noticed the pain in my eyes and gently caressed the side of my cheek with the pad of his thumb.
Zio banged pots and pans around, muttering in Italian under his breath. “You can’t stay. She needs to eat then do her schoolwork. What do you want with a high school girl anyway, eh?” Zio turned, pointed a chopping knife at Roque before expertly dicing onion for the sauce he was preparing on the stove.
I swear Roque’s eyes which at that moment were the pure aqua blue color found in an ice cap, twinkled as he took in my Uncle puttering around our small kitchen. He dropped into a seat at our table. “This smells like home…”
“Italy?”
Roque nodded, “Palermo.”
My palms sweat. Zio’s cursing became louder as his sauce bubbled over the top of the saucepan. The pulse at my throat beat faster. Did he know? Has he been toying with me this whole time?
I cleared my throat. “What a coincidence?’ I smiled a little too wide.
“Maybe it’s just fate, Blue.”
I jumped as a pan got thrown into the sink. Zio turned, in his eyes was all the rage he held onto for two decades. His fists balled. He might have walked away from mob life, but vengeance was in our blood. But unlike me, he wasn’t falling for the enemy.
Roque stood, amused by Zio’s antics at his presence. He slipped off his suit jacket. “Smells… delicious. Maybe I should stay for supper?”
“Stop provoking him,” I hissed, grabbing his hand. Sparks shot between us where we touch. Zio’s eyes narrowed to slits as he took in our linked hands. “Traitor,” he mouthed in Italian.
I pulled Roque into the family room, away from the judging gaze of my uncle. In seconds, I was pinned against the wall. His hands were in my hair. Mine tugged his head to mine. Lips parted. Voices sighed in sweet ecstasy as our mouths met and our souls sung at being in each other’s arms.
I felt him. All of him yearning as he strained against me. I’m a stupid fool because I can’t stop wanting him. Me, the stupid girl who this beautiful, fucked-up monster almost killed wants nothing more than to let him destroy me again.,
He reluctantly pulled away. His beautifully sculpted cheekbones were flushed with desire. His eyes glowed with it.
“Fuck, baby blue. I’m trying to be the good guy for once, but I don’t think I can when it comes to you.”
He seemed almost vulnerable as he looked at me with such heat; such raw intensity that his jaw worked. And I wondered if maybe this man would break for me. He’s my first taste of passion and probably my last. I couldn’t ever imagine anyone else making my fire burn as long and as hot as he has.
He finally shook his head, stepping back. “I’m needed in New York. I’ll be gone a few days.”
In the blink of an eye, he changed from my flushed wanna be lover to every inch a young Don, as he smoothed the fabric of his suit and checked his cuff links.
“Business? With Johnny?”
His eyes darkened, he tipped my chin hard, holding my face firmly in his hand. “Don’t ever ask about it. Do you understand?”
“Sure, Ralph.” I dropped his fake name sarcastically.
He laughed, “I’m interviewing for an internship on Wall Street. Rafe hooked me up, Blue. It’s nothing more than that.”
“On a Saturday night?”
“Oh, we’re going clubbing first.”
My fists curled as images filled my head of every hussy imaginable running their hands on him. Of him, flirting and laughing and letting them.
“I’d take you but you’re not even an adult yet.”
“Yet you kiss me like I am.”
“True and pretty soon�
�I’ll do a lot more than that.”
I said nothing as I sagged against the wall and watched him walk out softly shutting the front door as he exited.
My butt slid down the wall. I sunk to the floor. My finger traced my bee stung lips, still swollen from his kiss.
Where did I go from here? To I come clean and tell him who I am? Do I let myself fall knowing at any second this thing between us could explode?
If he truly has feelings for me will he hate me that the girl, he is falling for is a complete lie?
My head banged against the wall. He’s a drug I can’t quit. I never could. But instead of breaking my addiction all I’ve done is made it worse.
“Romina?”
“How can you even look at me? How?”
Zio shuffled over, sighing, “Easy. I love you little lioness. I’ll never turn my back on you. Never.”
“But I… love him. I’m falling in love with him.”
“Love is a lie. Love and hate are a coin, bella. Yours has flipped. It won’t take much to flip back again. Things between a man and woman...,” he gestured with his hand… “they can get complicated.”
“I know,” I sighed. “He’s going to New York. Clubbing with his boys.”
“Come. Eat your supper. Finish your schoolwork and go find a party.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Go party. Take pictures with your phone and put it all on that what’s it called Snapchat?”
I rolled my eyes. “Zio you are a genius.”
He nodded. “I still want to hurt that fucker. Go kiss another boy. Dance.”
“Who are you right now?”
He shrugged. “Go. Do it. Otherwise how will you know if it’s him or just your first awakening of desire?”
“Is this the part where you give me a sex talk?”
“Do I need to?”
I shook my head and stood. “No. I’m good. We’re good.” I squeaked, bounding up the stairs. I grabbed my phone off the bed and texted Tati. Zio’s my second father. I hid nothing from him but talking to him about s-e-x with Roque? I’d rather be interrogated by all five families.
