215

Serafina

Enzo never came to dinner and Luca was called away on an urgent matter ten minutes into our meal, so it was just Veda and I. She tried to talk Lisa, the one who'd made the delicious meal, into sitting and eating with us, but she refused, claiming she wanted to take advantage of the men's absence to tidy up Luca's office before she cleaned up the kitchen and finished up for the night.

Veda was quiet during our meal, but then again, so was I. My stomach was in knots, and I pushed my food around on my plate, unable to eat more than a few bites.

"I know what you're thinking."

I looked up in surprise to find Veda's eyes on me. "I'm sorry?"

She gave me a small smile. "I know what you're planning, Sera. And let me be the first to tell you, it's not going to work."

I didn't insult her intelligence by pretending not to know what she was alluding to. "It has to work. I can't stay here and wait for my father's men to show up to take me home."

"What makes you think Enzo will allow them to do that? Did he say something?"

I shook my head. "No. He told me he and Luca would figure something out."

"Well, there you go. You have nothing to worry about."

I set down my fork and sat back in my chair, giving up all pretense of eating. "Then why did he tell me goodbye this afternoon?"

Veda's smile fell from her face. "He said that?" she asked quietly.

"No. Not with words."

She stared at me, not understanding at first, before saying, "Oh."

"I tried to talk him into letting me go. But Luigi knows I'm here. There's no way he can do that without paying the consequences. And I understand that." Tears of frustration filled my eyes, and I stopped for a second to get myself together. "But I can't go back there, Veda."

"Can I ask why not? What's so bad about it at home?" Her tone was genuinely curious, but it shouldn't have surprised me. In the short time I'd known her, she'd never struck me as anything but down to earth and caring. So, I decided to be straight up with her.

"My father only cares about me in so far as the price he'll be paid for my innocent body."

She stared at me for a moment. "But are you? Innocent?"

"No," I told her. "Not anymore. And therein lies the problem. Because when my father gets me back home, he'll have his doctor examine me. And when he finds out I'm not a virgin anymore, I'll no longer have any value to him." And I honestly had no idea how he would react to that fact.

"How often does he check that?"

"Whenever he feels like there's a chance somebody's penis could've gotten too close to me." I shrugged. "So it was a daily experience there for a while. It was the price I had to pay to be able to go to school."

"Oh, my god. Sera! I'm so sorry." Reaching across the table, she touched my arm where it rested on the table. "There's something wrong with your fucking father."

I looked her dead in the eye and laughed. "There's something wrong with every man in the mafia. Haven't you figured that out yet? I can't imagine Luca is the image of virtue."

She gave me a look that said I had a point. "No, he's definitely not. But I think he really loves me. In his way."

I immediately felt bad for my sharp tone. "I think he does, too," I told her gently, and I meant it. Anyone with eyes could see how obsessed the man was with her.

A smile lit up her pretty face, and I smiled back. But then my own problems came crashing back. Placing my free hand over hers, I squeezed, my desperation coming through no matter how I tried to hold it in. "Will you help me, Veda? Please?"

She was shaking her head before I even got to the end of my question. "I can't, Sera. I'm so sorry. I couldn't betray Luca's trust like that. Besides," she added, "I don't know that there's anything I could do anyway."

"I'm not asking you to betray anyone," I insisted. "I'm just…" I didn't know what I was asking, exactly. "Could you tell me how to turn off the cameras? Or do you know anything about the schedule of the soldiers outside guarding the house? I'm just asking for a chance," I pleaded when she kept shaking her head.

Her eyes searched my face. "What about Enzo?"

The question hit me directly in the center of my chest. "What about him?"

Concern for her friend clouded her features. "He cares about you."

"He's giving me back to my father," I retorted.

She pulled her hand from my arm and sat back in her chair. "I don't believe that, Sera. I just can't. I've seen the way he looks at you. And look at everything he went through to get you out of Mexico."

Putting my elbows on the table, I rubbed my face with my hands and shoved my hair back from my face. "I'm telling you, there's nothing he could do, even if he wanted to."

"You have a few days," she insisted. "He and Luca will think of something."

This time it was my turn to shake my head. "No, Veda. You don't get it.

You're not from this world. Luca will do what his father orders him to do. And Enzo will do what Luca tells him. It's the way they survive."

"There has to be something-"

"There's not."

She looked down at her hands, fingers laced together on the table in front of her empty plate. "I just can't believe he won't fight for you."

"I think he tried," I told her. Then I laughed softly as I looked away. "Or at least I like to think so." His words earlier that day came back to me. "But I think he's stuck in a hard place." I met her eyes. "You should understand something about this world you're living in, Veda."

"What's that?"

"These men"-my eyes swept the room, encompassing the entire house and everyone who was within it-"their loyalty to each other and to the family comes first. Before anything else. Before anyone else. Luca loves you. He does," I assured her. "But if he had to choose between you and his mafia family, guess which one he would pick?" "No," she whispered. "You're wrong."

"I'm sorry," I whispered back. "But it's true."

She frowned at me. "No," she insisted. "I don't believe Luca would do that to you. And I don't believe Enzo will do that to you. He genuinely cares for you. I can see it."

"Ask him what happened to Enzo's first wife," I told her. "Or ask Luca if you don't want to hear it firsthand. Then come back to me and tell me again how Luca would choose you."

"Enzo was married?" I nodded.

"How do you know?"

"Everyone knows," I told her. "It's part of the reason he got a reputation that traveled all the way up to Dallas." And beyond.

"What do people say about him?"