Chapter One
Aria pulled herself out of her bed and wrapped a robe around herself. Her husband of twenty-five years had just left after raping her. Most people in her world would call it her wife’s duty, but she just considered it rape. It was always painful, and she got no enjoyment from it at all, but he didn’t care as long as he got what he wanted.
This time, he was extra brutal because he was pissed that he’d lost two daughters and couldn’t use them as offerings to a madman.
However, he gave her some hope this time and told her she was too old to have children. Besides, she’d only given him daughters and was frigid. He didn’t want to waste his time on her anymore.
Forty years old, she’d never known what it was like to have a man make love to her. Her father had given her to Lorenzo Moretti when she was sixteen. Women who grew up in the mafia world they lived in didn’t get many choices. They weren’t considered human, just a possession or commodity to buy and sell.
Her only happiness came from her three beautiful daughters, Faith, Hope, and Angelica, and the only two friends she’d ever had, Trent and Mateo. They were two of her husband’s guards who hated how he treated her from the beginning. Those two men wanted to kill Lorenzo, but she’d stopped them because there would be repercussions—they would be killed and taken from her.
If she lost them, she’d lose her mind. They were the only thing that kept her sane, even though they hadn’t ever been able to spend quality time together because if her husband knew, they’d all be dead.
She thought about the weeks when two of her daughters had gotten free, and she was so pleased. Mateo had told her they were married to good men. Two of her precious daughters were safe, and the men treated them well as far as he knew. If she ever found out differently, all hell would break loose.
Now, if she could only get Angelica away, she’d be able to do the thing she’d dreamed of for years. Kill her husband. Remove one monster off the earth and any future chance he’d have to hurt her babies. Because she knew it was a death sentence for her, she needed her babies taken care of.
She shut the bathroom door behind her, closed her eyes, and rested her head against the wood.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Her eyes sprang open to find Trent in front of her with his arms crossed. He was a huge man who stood over a foot taller than her and outweighed her by a hundred pounds, but he had the gentlest, most beautiful blue eyes she’d ever seen.
“What are you talking about?”
“Giving up,” he said. “I see it in your face.”
As she sighed, she bowed her head.
“Are you hurt?” Trent asked.
She shook her head.
“So, what with the attitude lately? You’re just going to what?”
She didn’t consider her plan as giving up but finally found the courage to do something that needed to be done.
“Do you want to tell us what this is for?”
She spun to see Mateo in the doorway of the secret passageway they used to get to her. When she saw the knife in his hands, she recognized it as the one she’d taken from the kitchen to kill her husband and thought she had hidden it fairly well.
She lunged for it. “Give me that.”
He gently pulled her against his chest and pressed a kiss to the top of her head while holding the knife out of her reach.
“Start talking, pet,” Trent said.
Her shoulders dropped. How did she think she would get away with it? They knew her well, better than anyone in the world.
“I took it.”
Trent nodded. “We know that, baby. Now, tell us why.”
She pulled out of Mateo’s arms, walked away from them both before tightening the belt on her robe, and then faced them. “I’m going to kill Lorenzo,” she said.
Both men stiffened.
“Oh, really. When do you plan on doing that?” Trent asked and raised one brow.