Sitting in the kitchen eating pancakes the next morning, I feel all their eyes on me. Last night was beyond incredible, but there’s still so much they need to know about me.
I put my fork down and clear my throat. “I guess I should tell you who I am, huh?”
“We know you’re Liliana Constantine.” Zeke says the name so nonchalantly, as if it can be spoken openly without dire consequences. The name holds too much power, and I’ve spent years trying to forget it. But I should have known that I couldn’t hide forever.
“I am. Or I was. She died in a boating accident six years ago.”
West leans forward and studies my face with narrowed eyes. “You faked your own death?”
I nod. “My brother helped me. Nico got my papers, my new identity. Women in my family don’t have access to such resources, so I couldn’t have done it without him.”
“So you just disappeared and left it all behind? And your father bought it?” West looks skeptical.
“It helped that witnesses saw me go overboard. But Nico and I had holidayed on that island since we were children. There was a small cave, and we hid some diving gear there. Nico’s best friend, Dean, was waiting on the other side of the island. I followed the coastline, and he took me back to the mainland.” They risked so much to help me escape, rescued me from horrors they didn’t even know about. I squeeze my eyes closed for a second. Now isn’t the time to dredge up the memories I’ve kept buried so deep in the hopes of never reliving them again.
I take a deep breath and continue. “I used my new identity and flew back to the States while my brother mourned my disappearance. My father’s men were still searching the area for me, but they eventually gave me up for dead.”
Xander tilts his head. “And you never went back home?”
“Nope. I came to New York. Figured it was far away enough from Vegas that I wouldn’t run into anyone from my old life. Maybe I should have gone to some backwater town in the middle of nowhere, but all I ever wanted was to become a journalist, and Columbia and New York were my dream. Nico set up a trust to administer my scholarship and made sure there was enough for me to get my degree, but beyond that, I had nothing from my family. I wouldn’t have even taken that much, but I couldn’t get a genuine scholarship in my new name and …” I shake my head. “I guess I’m a hypocrite for taking my father’s money to pay for college, but I didn’t see any other way.”
Xander places his hand over mine and gives it a reassuring squeeze.
“Faking your own death, though? It’s …” Zeke sucks on his lip.
“Extreme?”
Zeke nods. “Kinda.”
“Let’s just say that the future my father had mapped out for me was so bleak and terrifying, even my actual death would have been a welcome relief.” I swat away the tear rolling down my cheek.
Xander squeezes my hand again. “No more secrets, shorty.”
I nod, ignoring the voice in my head telling me that we’ve barely even scratched the surface of my secrets. There are so many that I can’t share now, maybe not ever. “I was eighteen. I wanted to go to college like my high school friends, but women in my family don’t get to do that. We marry and we have babies. And I guess that’s not the worst life, not if you get to choose your husband, but my father had plans for me. I was going to marry Giovanni Santangelo.”
Zeke blanches at the name. “The former head of the Mafia?”
“Yeah. I was to be his virgin bride and give him many heirs. It didn’t matter to my father that he was fifty-eight years old.”
West scowls. “He wanted you to marry a man who was forty years older than you?”
“Yeah, but that wasn’t the worst of it. I could have dealt with that if he would’ve been a good husband and father, but Giovanni was the vilest man I ever met. We used to sometimes go to his house on Sunday afternoons, and every single time, there would be a crying woman leaving as we arrived. Always beaten and bruised. He used to laugh with my father about how much he enjoyed making them bleed.”
Zeke snarls, but Xander lays a comforting hand on his arm.
“Three weeks before our wedding was due to take place, Nico and I overheard him talking to one of his guards about the depraved things he planned to do to me on our wedding night. About how I would never leave his house again. He planned to keep me as his prisoner.”
West’s hands ball into fists. “Jesus, Lily.”
“We both knew then that I couldn’t marry him. I begged my father to find someone else for me, but he refused. And when Nico told him what we’d overheard, he just laughed, telling me it was all I was good for.” I press my lips together at the intense betrayal I still feel. The weight of those emotions used to threaten to crush me, but in the years since I learned the truth of my heritage and my true birthright, I’ve taught myself how to breathe through the pain. I was eleven when I discovered why Carmine Constantine, the man who claimed to be my father, hated me, so I shouldn’t have been surprised about his willingness to hand me over to the head of the Mafia or that he didn’t give a single fuck what happened to me after.
Zeke runs a hand over his beard. “So your father has no idea you’re alive?”
“None. If he ever found out, he’d have Nico and Dean killed for helping me. That’s why I couldn’t tell you. I couldn’t put their lives at risk, not after everything they’ve done for me.”
“And Dean can be trusted?” West asks.
“Yes. He’d never betray Nico. He loves him more than anyone in the world.”
He hums, his eyebrows pinched together like he’s deep in thought. “And Giovanni? What happened to him?”
“Murdered in his bed about two months after I disappeared. Somebody slit his throat. When I first found out, I liked to imagine that it was my father who did it, finally stepping up to at least take some vengeance for me, but I suspect it was my brother.”
“Holy fuck, shorty. That’s some life you’ve lived.”
“Yep. So, you still want me?”
Zeke walks around the island and wraps his arms around me, dropping a tender kiss on the top of my head. “More than anything, baby doll.”
“I met you once, didn’t I?” West asks, drawing both mine and Zeke’s attention back to him.
My breath catches in my throat. “Yeah. I didn’t know if you’d remember me.”
Both Xander and Zeke frown. “You met before?” Xander asks.
West rubs a hand over his stubble. “I didn’t have any idea it was you until just now.” He sighs and directs his attention to Xander and Zeke. “It was the day we found out Carmine had stolen our entire casino investment. When I confronted him, he put a gun to my head. He would have pulled the trigger too, except a little girl came running in, clutching a teddy bear under her arm. She begged him not to kill me.”
Tears fill my eyes. That happened fourteen years ago, but sitting here watching West relive it, it feels like yesterday.
Cupping my chin in his hand, Zeke turns my head so I’m looking at him. “And he listened?”
I shake my head. “Never.”
“But …” Xander frowns again.
West sucks in a deep breath. “He turned his anger on her instead. He cracked her across the face with the back of his hand … her little head snapped right back.” His skin pales, and he drops his eyes to the counter. “And I fucking ran out of there. I left her.” His eyes swim with tears when they meet mine. “I left you. I should have taken you with me.”
“He was my father, West. You wouldn’t have made it two steps with me. If you hadn’t run when you did, he would have killed you. I can promise you that.”
West still doesn’t appear convinced. His eyes are so full of anguish, and I wish I could make him see that he had no choice. “I never knew what happened though. Why my father almost killed you that day.”
His Adam’s apple bobs. “The three of us had worked our asses off from the moment each of us left high school. We wanted to get into the casino business. We saved every single fucking cent we earned for six years to get our investment together. And then your father stole it. Just like that.” He snaps his fingers. “We thought about going back to kill him, but …”
Zeke squeezes me tighter. “We were just kids, and he was a made Mafia man. We left town the same day he tried to kill West.”
“We swore we’d make him pay one day, but then we moved on to bigger things. We created WXZ and never looked back,” West adds.
Zeke takes a step back but keeps his arms around my waist. “Wait. Did you recognize West when you met him?”
“Yeah. As soon as I walked into his office at WXZ that day. But I never thought I’d see you again. That night in the club, I should have walked away as soon as you came to the booth. But then you all invited me for dinner, and you were so sweet … how could I tell you without revealing who I really was? I mean, I always planned to someday …” Sniffling, I shake my head. This whole situation is fucked up and emotional, and I am so fucking tired of crying.
“Lily.” West’s voice cuts through my internal chatter, and he walks around the island to stand on the other side of me. He wraps me in a hug and presses his lips against my neck. “You saved my fucking life, princess. Twice. Once a long time ago, then again when you walked back in here last night. I’m so fucking sorry that I never came back for you and rescued you from him.”
“Well, if you had come and rescued me when I was ten years old, this relationship right here would be all kinds of fucked up, now wouldn’t it?”
I feel him smile against my skin.
“I could get behind calling you Daddy though,” I add with a giggle.
Zeke and Xander laugh, but West groans. “Don’t fucking tempt me, princess.”
“You kind of are like our daddy though,” Xander says with a cheeky wink.
Even Zeke hums his agreement. “Yeah, you’re a lot older than us.”
“I’m two fucking years older than you, Zeke.”
“Almost four years older than me,” Xander chimes.
“And fourteen years older than me. Biologically speaking, you could actually be my daddy.”
The growl that rumbles through West vibrates through me too. “I’ll be your fucking daddy, princess.” He hoists me over his shoulder and spanks my ass hard, making me squeal.
“We have work to do today,” Zeke reminds him, and he puts me back on my stool with a dramatic sigh.
“Yeah. You got that meeting with the new board of Genevieve,” Xander says.
West heads over to Xander and wraps an arm around his neck. “And you’ve got dogs to walk.”
Xander smiles up at him. “It’s still better than a board meeting.”
Humming his agreement, West runs his nose along the other man’s throat.
“How about we take a little time before the next big merger?” Zeke suggests.
West eyes Zeke with curiosity. “But we never take time off.”
“Yeah.” Zeke bands his arms tighter around me, pulling me close to his chest. “But now we have a reason to spend more time at home.”
West’s stormy eyes roam over my face and chest, and goosebumps prickle along my forearms. “I just started a new job. I can’t take time off.”
Zeke brushes my hair back and trails kisses across the nape of my neck. “You won’t have to, baby doll.”
Xander runs his hands down West’s chest. “I think Zeke’s right about us though. We go through another merger like the last one and you might have a fucking coronary.”
West takes Xander’s hands in his, stopping them from moving any lower. “I’m as healthy as a fucking horse.”
Xander chuckles. “Hung like one too.”
With a growl, West palms Xander’s neck and kisses him so hard, I swear I can feel his knees trembling from here.
