Mafia Wife (Mafia Series Book #2)

Part 15

"Are you out of your mind?"

"What!"

"Gabriella, do you know what you've agreed to?"

"Not really, because he didn't say."

She knew that wasn't exactly what Lucas meant, but, she didn't have another argument to help plead her case. Desperation was her only solution.

"And that's the problem," he replied before throwing himself on the nearby couch. He leaned his head back, his eyes closed, as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do you know how bad it could be?" he asked, never looking at her.

"I-"

"No, you don't."

"I know him."

"So you've always known what his job was?"

"...No."

Alright, so maybe she knew a fake version of Vincent. It couldn't be anything that would put her in danger, could it? Then again, she hadn't asked. And she knew what happened at the little retreat. Niccolo and her rushed into marriage to ensure that no one else would force matrimony on her.

So sure, he wasn't exactly... good. But, the main reason why she said yes still applied. They didn't have any other options. In retrospect, she could have perhaps laid out more conditions but she had been caught off guard.

Plus, he had to actually pull it off. Which wasn't a done deal.

She wasn't saying that she didn't want him to succeed, because, of course, she did, but - the Devil was unpredictable. And if he were so easy to take down, wouldn't they have done it by now?

"If I said no, do you have another way?"

"No."

His answer came quicker than she expected.

"I'm one person. I don't know who to trust, I don't know who to reach out to... I dropped out of this life. I did what I could for Nico because I owe him that much. I don't have any power and I don't want any."

She might not have understood before, but she did now. It was a slippery slope, and it was certainly worse for him since he had known this life, he had seen everything it could bring, everything it could give.

Gabriella wished she could walk away from it all, but she couldn't. At least, not now. Not when she had to locate her brother and mother, not when Niccolo was being held captive. She knew she sounded ridiculous. Now it was that, and later it would be something else.

There was no getting out because... there was always an aspect of her life that was tied up in this bullshit. Once Niccolo was free, she owed Vincent something. And that something would probably not be clean-cut.

There would always be ties, a thread that forced her back in.

Lucas was smart. He kept himself as far away from it as possible. But it also meant that if Gabriella didn't put herself on the line, there were no other options, no other ways to help Niccolo.

"I wanna help him."

"I know..." he sighed, before sitting back straight once more. "The problem is, I don't think your imagination is enough to comprehend what you agreed to..."

"What do you mean?"

Lucas rolled his lips together and only met her gaze for a brief second before he shifted his glance to the ground. "What's the worse that he might ask?"

"Loyalty?" She shrugged. "Help him with a crazy plan? Be bait?"

"Marriage," he suggested. "He could ask you to divorce Niccolo, marry him, his kids. He could ask for a child. He could ask you to sell your body and use you as a prostitute to get information from certain people. He could ask you to kill someone. Steal."