9
Raella's POV
He had to be kidding. He had to.
Vincenzo guided me back through the kitchen, his hand in mine. I wasn’t sure I could navigate the restaurant alone right now.
I’d worked countless hours there—opening shifts, staying late into the night. On any other day, I could have found my way through the hallways with my eyes closed, even doing cartwheels if I wanted to.
But right now? My mind was a blank slate, frozen in place.
As we entered the kitchen, my gaze automatically landed on the counter where Vincenzo had killed the man. Only minutes ago, it had been a horrifying bloodbath. Now, though, it was spotless. The evidence of violence had vanished as though it had never been.
“Your guy works fast,” I muttered, almost to myself.
Vincenzo glanced at the counter and shrugged. “He’s had practice.”
A chill crept down my spine, goosebumps prickling along my arms. Who was this man?
He had saved my life, but then turned around and killed another not long after. People weren’t black and white. I knew that better than anyone, especially after everything my mother had put me through. There were no angels or demons, just shades of gray, a complicated mix of good and bad.
But Vincenzo? He lived in that gray space in a way that left me dizzy and unsettled.
“We’re getting married,” I said aloud, more to myself than to him. I wasn’t ready to process it, not by a long shot. I didn’t know if I could. But I needed to hear it spoken. Maybe then I could make sense of it.
Vincenzo nodded as though my words were just another fact to him, holding open the back door leading into the alley.
The air hit me immediately—cool, damp, and oddly familiar. The alley was dark, the ground slick with moisture. The smell of decaying food from the nearby dumpsters made my stomach churn.
It was all so mundane, so ordinary. I almost convinced myself that everything that had just happened was just a nightmare.
Then Vincenzo stepped in front of the daylight filtering through the alley, casting his shadow over me, and I realized just how real all of this was.
“I need my stuff,” I blurted out.
“Lorenzo will grab whatever belongs to you inside and bring it to my house later,” Vincenzo answered without missing a beat.
“No. Not that stuff. My stuff from home.”
“Like?” He raised an eyebrow, almost as if the request was beneath him.
“Like… normal stuff! Clothes, my phone charger, a toothbrush,” I snapped.
“I can replace all of that,” he said dismissively.
A pressure built in my chest, my freedom feeling smaller and smaller with each passing second. It was evaporating, slipping away like it had never existed at all.
“I don’t want to replace it,” I gritted out. “I want my stuff. I’m going to my apartment.”
Vincenzo barely looked up from his phone, then shook his head. “No, you’re not.”
“You can’t stop me.”
He exhaled sharply, as if I were irritating him. “I just made it clear that I can do whatever I want.”
“And you want to keep me here? Against my will?” I challenged, my voice shaking with frustration. “You want to kidnap me and force me to marry you?”
I didn’t think there was any hope of appealing to whatever shred of morality he had left. But then he stiffened, his posture rigid, deliberate.
“I want to keep you alive. I want to keep you breathing.” He stalked closer, his eyes hard. “You don’t have a clue how much danger you’re in. A sniper just tried to kill you and you want to march back to your apartment for a toothbrush?”
It sounded ridiculous when he put it like that.
“This isn’t about a toothbrush,” I bit back. “It’s about my freedom.”
“Take that up with whoever has a hit on you.”
“Feels like semantics,” I muttered, my voice full of bitterness.
He loomed over me, his figure blocking the fading light from the alley. “You don’t understand the danger you’re in, or the favor I’m doing you. You think you can just waltz back into your apartment, pretend nothing happened?”
I felt small under his gaze, the fight draining out of me all at once.
I thought I was safe, but Vincenzo knew everything about me—everything. And we’d only met twelve hours ago. How was that possible?
The thought made my stomach flip.
He was still standing there when the door swung open, the man who’d helped clean up the mess earlier, Lorenzo.
“The kitchen’s cleaned. The manager scrubbed the tapes. I got the backups too. When the cops ask, they’ll tell them the robbers were masked. Nothing to identify them.”
How many times had they done this? How many times had they used the same routine?
Vincenzo nodded at him. “Tell the kitchen staff to wait half an hour before they call the police. It’ll give me time to get Raella out of here and into safety. We don’t know how many hitmen are out there.”
“My friends!” The realization hit me like a slap to the face. How could I have forgotten them?
“They’re fine,” Lorenzo said nonchalantly. “All the shots went through the windows. I got them to safety while the shooting was going on.”
Relief surged through me, only to be replaced with a new sense of panic. “They have to come with me. You said it’s not safe here. What about them?”
“Let me handle it,” Vincenzo said, his voice cold.
“Right, ‘cause you’ve been so great at handling things so far.” My voice was sharp, laced with anger. “You showed up, and my entire life is a mess. I don’t even know if I’ll have a job after today. You’ve probably gotten my friends fired.”
“If your friends are in danger, it has nothing to do with my choices,” Vincenzo growled. “It’s all on you.”
I froze, unable to comprehend his words. “Me?” I hissed, incredulous. “You’re blaming me?”
“You think everyone at that party wouldn’t have killed to be in that office?” He moved closer, his voice low and dangerous. “Do you think the other women would have congratulated you for a job well done?”
Lorenzo stifled a laugh, but I ignored it. My body was burning with shame.
“I never would have touched you if I’d known—”
“But you did. Choices and consequences, Raella.”
“Stop saying that!” My voice cracked.
He stepped closer, not touching me, but his presence still so overwhelming that my heart skipped a beat. His scent, his warmth—it all threatened to pull me back into something I didn’t want to feel.
“Don’t pretend you wouldn’t have walked away from me,” he murmured. “You knew who I was and still decided that whatever consequences came with being with me were worth it.”
His words dug into me like a knife. He was right. I had known. And I still hadn’t walked away.
Vincenzo seemed to take my silence as agreement. “Good. So we’re in agreement, then. You’ll play my wife, and I’ll handle whoever is after you.”
“I haven’t agreed to anything.” I almost laughed at how absurd that sounded.
He grimaced. “On second thought, maybe I should get an actual chain.”
I rubbed my temples in frustration, feeling the weight of the situation pressing down on me. “I appreciate your help, but this is my life on the line. I don’t even know you. I’m not marrying someone I don’t love.”
The words spilled out before I could stop them, but as soon as they left my mouth, I regretted them.
Vincenzo leaned back, studying me carefully.
He knew too much about me already. I didn’t need to hand him more ammunition.
“Unlike whoever you ran from before,” he said quietly, “I have the power to drag you back. I’ll do it as many times as it takes.”
“But why do you even care?” I asked, my voice almost trembling. “Who am I to you?”
He raised his hand, gently brushing his fingers across my cheek. “No one. Just an empty vessel I can use as bait, as a wife. That’s what makes you perfect for this.”
I shuddered under his touch, even as I hated him for it. He was right. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
“I’m not going to be your bait,” I said, my voice firm, though it wavered with uncertainty.
“Then your friends will die.”
The way he said it stole my breath. No warmth. No hesitation. Just cold, brutal truth.
“You told everyone at that party your name was Carmella,” he added. “They might not know any better. They might go after the real Carmella.”
My heart sank. “Her apartment…?”
“Compromised,” Vincenzo confirmed. “Both of you need protection. My services now come with a price. Cooperate, and I’ll keep your friends alive.”
It felt like I had no choice at all. No choice but to make the best of a bad situation.
“As soon as I know my friends are safe, I’m gone.”
Vincenzo nodded, the hint of a smile in his eyes. “If your friends are safe, that means the threat’s dead, and I won’t need you anymore.”
Slowly, I extended my hand toward him, a gesture that felt like surrender.
His hand enveloped mine, and the warmth of his touch flooded me with memories I didn’t want to remember. His breath on my neck, his hands on my body. I pulled my hand back, quickly wiping it on my pants.
Vincenzo smirked. “This should be fun.”