What then?
And what would he do with the information?
But she wouldn’t let herself go there, not now, not yet. Instead she locked her knees for courage. “I know Sicily has a long, complicated history with the mafia. I know that the Italian government has tried for years to rid Sicily of the mafia but without great success.”
“And why do you think?” he asked, watching her from beneath his thickly fringed lashes.
“Because by all reports, the mafia leaders are very clever.”
He held her gaze, his dark eyes searching hers. “Or perhaps the mafia does not exist.”
So that’s how he wanted to do this. They were to pretend she was misinformed, confused, off base.
He wanted her to believe the mafia didn’t exist. He was asking her to accept that organized crime was a Hollywood fabrication. He was asking the impossible.
She wasn’t that girl. She knew better. She knew the truth.
Jillian had lived through things, experienced things most people only read about in books or watched on TV. Her father, while presenting a charming face to the world, had the callous heart of a killer. Her father.
“Is that what you want me to believe?” she choked.
“You must have had one miserable childhood, because you’re completely incapable of trusting another.” “I’m completely incapable of trusting you.”
“Just me?”
“Just you,” she retorted, even though it was a lie. She didn’t trust many people. She certainly didn’t trust powerful men and still didn’t know why she’d decided to trust Vitt nearly two years ago.
“Why?”
“You know why.”
“The Mafioso thing again?” he asked, sounding bored.
“Yes, that. It’s never gone away. It will never go away—”
“Which is a dilemma, isn’t it? Because now you’re my wife. Married to the mob. What will you do?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, throwing her head back, temper blazing even as tears shimmered in her eyes. “None of this was supposed to happen. It’s the worst thing that could have happened.”
“Why?”
“Because it’d kill me, Vitt, it would if my son grew up and became someone like you.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
IT’D kill me if my son grew up and became someone like you.
It’d been two hours since Jillian had said the words but they still echoed in Vitt’s head.
It would kill her if her son were like him…it would kill her…
Unbelievably hurtful words, especially considering they came from the mother of his child.
The worst of it was that she didn’t know him. She couldn’t seem to see who he really was. But he wasn’t used to explaining himself, or opening his family or life to scrutiny.
Frankly, he didn’t care what people thought of him. And he answered to no one.
Because no one could touch him, although in the beginning everyone had tried. Prime ministers, presidents, parliaments, governments. Police in every country.