Chapter 4

I walked away. I didn't care what shade of purple Jace's face was turning.

I didn't make it more than a few steps before he grabbed my wrist again, so hard I thought the bones might snap.

His face was twisted up, right in mine. "You won't even take my money? Who are you trying to impress?"

"A stranger? I had you in my bed for eight years, and now I'm a stranger?"

That was twice today he'd put his hands on me. If Rafe saw this, he'd kill Jace a dozen different ways.

Then again, if Rafe so much as smelled another man on me, I wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.

"We're done, Mr. Mancini. Stop making a scene."

I wrenched my arm free with everything I had. "People are going to get the wrong idea."

"And just so you know, my husband gets jealous."

Jace blinked. Then he snorted, and his eyes ran over my "clearance rack" dress like it smelled bad.

"Husband? What's he do, deliver pizza? Or is he mopping floors right next to you?"

He clearly thought I was either lying to save face or trying to get a rise out of him. The anger drained off his face, and that smug look came right back.

"Okay. Enough with the drama."

"Three days from now, the Syndicate's throwing its big charity gala downtown. That's the real big leagues."

"The Santangelos will be there. I'll bring you. Let you see what real power actually looks like."

He looked me up and down and wrinkled his nose.

"Not in that, though. Go buy a real dress. Don't embarrass me."

"Nobody walks in on my arm looking like that."

The Syndicate gala?

Rafe had arranged for the Santangelos to host it this year. To celebrate my pregnancy.

"Thanks, but I'll pass."

That was the last straw for him. In his head, I was being ungrateful and pushing my luck.

"Fine! Great!"

"Wow, Nina. Look who grew a spine."

"A few years on the street and suddenly you think you're hot shit?"

He jerked back and yelled to his guys.

"She doesn't want to come? Her loss! Call Gianna and tell her to get her best dress ready!"

"I'm taking her, and everybody's going to see who actually belongs next to me!"

I didn't feel like fighting. Rafe was probably already getting impatient.

On my way out, I looked back at Jace one more time. Honestly, I felt a little sorry for him.

"I hope you still feel this good in three days."

Once I was past the gate, the cold air filled my lungs and settled my stomach a little.

My mind drifted back to that gray, rainy afternoon four years ago, outside the church.

I'd stood there in my wedding dress, my hands on the locked iron gates, waiting for my wedding to start. What I got was Jace on the other side, looking almost bored.

"Gianna's pregnant. The doctor says it's a boy."

"Look, if I want my uncle's seat, I have to marry a Ferraro. It's business, Nina."

He even reached through the bars, took my hand, and swore to me.

"Just give me a year. As soon as I'm Capo, I'll divorce her and marry you. I promise."

That was the moment something inside me died.

If he could marry for business, so could I.

That night, I called my father for the first time in years. The Santangelos had asked for my hand once, a long time ago. I'd said no and walked away from my whole family to be with Jace.

This time, I told him to say yes.

By morning, I was on a private jet to Naples.

In an old stone church on the Amalfi Coast, Rafe Santangelo, the Don that every family on both sides of the Atlantic was afraid of, got down on one knee in front of me.

It was a tiny wedding. Our son, Leo, came the next year.

Now I was pregnant with our second.

If Rafe hadn't flown back to Chicago to clean house and find the rat in his operation here, I never would have laid eyes on Jace again.

And I definitely wouldn't have had to stand there and watch him strut around like he owned the place.

Behind the gate, I could still hear Jace yelling at his guys to get Gianna's dress ready.