The Mafia's wife

uc

, which was, if she was honest with herself,

s, none of the ordinary chaos she used to fall asleep to without noticing. Just silence, thick enough to

n, grabbed her cigarettes off the nightstand, and went looking for a doo

currently living here - and Vladimir Ivanov standing at the counter in the low light, shirtless, a glass of w

oth st

have knocke

six hours?" Maria raised an eyebrow, refusing to let her eyes do anyth

we're past knocking, we

, and something in his expression told he

he movement required, like he needed something to do with his han

here's a difference bet

of a man being pushed somewhere he hadn't agreed to go. "Miss Benedetti.

else to be." She pulled a cigarette from the pack and lit it against the stove's pilot light r

care. You c

utside. You were an unfortun

y the places she'd been trying not to look "Because from where I'm standing,

herself a second she didn't need.

e'd noticed about her at dinner. "You don't like being predictable. I understand that. I don't like bein

s own line back at him. "You're s

decided wha

kind of quiet that made her aware of every inch of distance between them across the kitchen island. She h

ause the alternative felt more dangerous than she wanted

y know since when. Your intelligence file o

o hear yo

W

nsaction that went badly," Maria said, and her voice had lost its edge without her permission, g

istened to my mother's house burn with her still inside it, because the men your family sent didn't check the basement carefully enough to find me first." His voice was flat, controlled, the voice

't think 'not well' and 'neve

ted, harder than she deserved, given tha

nd meant it more than th

eyes found hers again, sharper now, testing her the way she'd tested him. "Your turn. T

ryone - her father, Sal, the doctor two states away who didn't know her last name. But something about the row they'd just walke

is face carefully for the reaction, hating how much she cared what it would be. "

eed to know

t very still

ice came out steadier than she felt, years of practice keeping it that way. "Which is exactly why you're

shifted again, sharper now, less like enemies circling and more like two

quietly. "You don't trust me.

ded I wasn't going to be the only one standing here with all my armor still on." She stubbed the cigarette

d, though something in his tone sugges

me physical weight she'd felt across the dinner table the night before, lik

akes you weaker. I think it makes you the only person in either of our families

uld have meant admitting how much the sentence had gotten to her, how long it had b

ad, turning for the hallway before he

to the dark, quieter than before. "I don't th

that either. But s