Borrowed Bride: A Fake Marriage, Secret Baby, Dark, Mafia Romance (Mafia Lords of Sin)

We are meant to stay and wait for Marco to return, but no sooner has he left than Freya begins crying loudly from all of the noise. As soon as the shooting happened, I tucked her into her bassinet and hid her in the closet in the hopes of saving her life.

My eyes lock with Dante as the wails of a baby fill the air, and I find myself hoping that he will bleed out so my baby will remain a secret for a little while longer. As it turns out, his wound is only superficial. He stands strong and I have no choice but to show him Freya.

He takes one look at her, and then suddenly he’s carrying her and dragging me out of the church through the back door. He tells me over and over that it’s not safe and we need to get away from here because no one in that church will pale at harming a baby.

When I try to fight him, he grabs my arm and tells me to listen to him, as a father speaking to a mother. He can’t protect his own son, so he will help me protect my daughter. I try to lie and tell him that the baby isn’t mine, but he doesn’t fall for it. “Your eyes,” he tells me. “I can tell by your eyes that you would die for this child.”

A few hours later, Dante is true to his word. Freya ends up with Tara and Dante at a safe house in the city, and reuniting with Tara is more overwhelming than I can put into words. Tara brings me a change of clothes and I dress in jeans and a T-shirt while warning Dante that Leo suspected I would leave him. This whole thing looks like an elaborate plan from the outside and he will come for me.

Dante assures me it won’t come to that, and to prove to me that he’s trying to end the war and keep everyone alive, he then takes me to a safe house on the outskirts of the city to face Marco. With Freya safe with Tara, the only person I trust without a doubt, I tell myself that no matter how this goes, it will be worth it to finally get answers.

Which is why, five hours after the carnage of my supposed wedding, I stand in the lounge of a run-down building eyeing Marco as he walks through from the kitchen.

He stops dead in his tracks when he sees me, and the glass of water in his hand slips from his grasp. It crashes to the floor and shatters, sending glass and water over his bare feet but he doesn’t even flinch. His naked torso is wrapped in a multitude of bandages and part of his face is swollen from too many punches.

And just like in the church, my heart throbs like a bruise at the sight of him. Love and doubt war with each other inside my chest and I almost can’t breathe when he locks eyes with me.

“Gianna,” he says, and I nearly melt for him right there and then.

“Marco,” I reply.

There’s a moment when time freezes, and we both stare at one another, waiting for the other to move or speak first. The air is thick with tension and the sharp scent of antiseptic.

Then Marco rushes toward me, scoops me up into his arms and kisses me so hungrily that I momentarily forget my own name. Nothing exists but the firm press of his body and his hot lips crashing into mine over and over. He kisses me like he’s trying to consume me, and I give in to it for a few desperate minutes.

My hunger and love for this man haven’t faded one bit.

Then I push him away, and we stumble apart as reality crashes back into my mind. No matter how I feel, no matter how I yearn for him, it’s not worth it if he is the monster in the dark.

“I missed you,” Marco croaks, dragging one hand through his hair. “I can’t believe you are here.”

“I told you,” I say shakily, fighting to remain confident. “I need answers.”

“Anything,” he says, and his voice is soft. “I will tell you anything.”

“I learned some … horrifying things about you, Marco.” My voice trembles. “I need to know if they are true.”

“Is that why you left?” he asks, taking a step forward.

I take a step back. “One thing at a time.”

He nods. “Okay. Ask me.”

I spent twenty minutes telling him everything about Fawn. His shock is visible on his face as I explain how she came to me in the hospital after an accident and how she presented me with an ultimatum to protect myself. I tell him everything she told me, and Marco’s face is a flip book of horror, pain, and sadness.

“How could you?” I ask as tears threaten behind my eyes. “How could you do that to someone you love? To anyone? People aren’t a commodity, Marco. You can’t just sell them off because the money is good!”

Marco doesn’t speak. His dark brows knit together as he appears to be processing everything I’ve said, and it’s almost infuriating. My heart races, and sickness takes hold. Where is his immediate denial? Why is he just sitting there?

After a long period of silence, Marco stands. “Follow me.”

“What?” I step back as he passes me, then I follow him down a hallway to a small office at the end. The air is thick with dust and I cough slightly as Marco approaches a small wall safe. He enters the combination, then opens it and pulls out a thick tan file. Then he hands it to me.

“What is this?” I ask, moving to sit in a leather chair near the desk.

“Open it,” he says in a strained voice.

I do as he asks. What’s inside makes my stomach cramp with nausea. There are pictures. Hundreds and hundreds of pictures of women and children. Their photos spill across the page, taped next to paragraphs of information and large sums of money scribbled in red.

“What is this?” I whisper as my hands tremble while flipping the page. “A trophy book?” So many of the pictures are familiar from my own investigations and Fawn’s story roars in my mind.

She was telling the truth.

As I study the pictures, Marco pours us a drink from a bottle of scotch and sets my drink in front of me.

“Yes, I am responsible for those people disappearing,” Marco says, and he leans against the desk in front of me. “It’s because I saved them. After what happened to my mother and sister, the sheer audacity that some of these families think they are owed a daughter just because they’re in charge sickens me. I meant it when I said I keep people safe. I learn of wives and daughters being abused, sold off, and hurt, so I save them. Rescue them. Give them new identities and new lives, and then kill their abusers.”

Marco’s next breath trembles audibly, and he drains his glass in one gulp. “The money at the bottom? That’s how much I set them up with in their new lives. It’s a secret of course, so if people think I’m in human trafficking, then it’s the perfect cover. But all of them are alive and safe in new lives. I could call any one of those people and they would answer. In fact, if you need to …”

Marco digs his mobile out of his pocket and hands it to me.

“Call them all if you must.”

I am stunned.

My head spins and the pictures blur together as I stare down at them. Could it be that Fawn was wrong? That she believed the lie that Marco let exist in the world just so he could keep all of these people safe?

My heart pounds against my ribs like a rock and I swallow down the acidic taste of churning gut.

“And Fawn?” Marco remarks, puffing out his cheeks. “Fawn being alive makes sense, and if she’s mad at me then it explains why several of my lieutenants have been assassinated over the past year, but it wasn’t me that hurt her. I swear to you, Gianna. I had no idea she was trying to kill me and I certainly never sold her. All these years, I thought she was dead. Genuinely. Someone else is the bad guy here. I have no clue who but it’s not me.”

I slowly close the folder, knowing how dangerous it would be for this file to fall into the wrong hands. If anyone learned the truth, all these people living new, safe lives would instantly be at risk.

I look up at Marco through tear-filled eyes, and it’s like I’m seeing him for the first time. That tender man I would watch with Emilia wasn’t some trick. That was Marco in his true form. The aggressive, war-torn bully is the disguise.

How could I have doubted him?

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper through my tears. “Everything was fitting, you know? And after Tara, I was so scared that I⁠—”

An explosion of gunfire suddenly erupts in the distance and I lurch upward as Marco pushes off from the desk.

He looks past me, then he cups my face and looks deep into my eyes.

“You being safe and alive is all I care about, do you understand? Nothing is more important to me than that. Here.” He digs around in his pocket once more, then pulls out his wallet. A second later, he presses the American Express Centurion Card into my palm.

“What? What is this, what are you doing?”

“Use this,” he says. “It’s your turn to take care of yourself, Gianna, because Leonardo won’t stop. To him, I’ve ripped apart his family and now destroyed his wedding. Only one of us will walk away alive.”

“No!” I clutch at his chest. “I don’t want to lose you again! We’ve just learned the truth and I want to stay⁠—”

“No.” Marco kisses me deeply, pressing himself against me as if he’s trying to imprint his presence. “The war won’t stop until it consumes us, but not you, okay? You go. You hide, and you live, and then when it is safe, I will know how to find you.” He glances at the card. “I won’t risk your life. I will end Leonardo. I will find Fawn. I will make things right with her, and then you will be safe.”

I want to stay, but Freya needs me. I open my mouth to tell him the truth, to tell him that he needs to survive so he can come and be a father to his daughter, but all I do is squeal as the distant sound of a door splintering reaches my ears.

“Quick!” Marco takes my hand and we run into the hall but skid to a stop as Fawn, dressed in her assassin outfit, stands in our way. But I know it’s her, I’d recognize those cold eyes anywhere.

“You,” she snarls when she locks eyes with me. “I warned you, Gianna. I fucking warned you!”

She flies down the hall toward me, but Marco throws me against the wall and intercepts. As they grapple, Marco yells at me to run so that’s what I do.

With the card clutched in my hand, I sprint through the house and stumble outside to find an overturned motorcycle and Dante panting heavily with two dead bodyguards at his feet.

“Dante!” I yell, running toward him. “You have to get help! Marco, he⁠—”

The house behind me suddenly explodes in a gigantic ball of flame, and the force of the explosion sends me crashing forward into Dante’s open arms with a scream. We both hit the muddy ground as flames engulf the house; pieces of wood and brick begin to rain down around us as I roll over, completely winded.

The house is ablaze, crumbling in on itself and with it, my heart shatters into a thousand pieces in my chest.

“Marco! No!”