Silent Lies: An Age Gap Arranged Marriage Mafia Romance

She looks at my fork. “What are you doing?”

“Making sure you eat something.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You haven’t eaten anything since this morning. I won’t have you faint on me. Open your mouth.”

Her lips widen slightly. “Fuck you, Drago,” she says with a smile.

“So, she isn’t as sweet as she wants people to believe.” I lean forward. “Open. Your. Mouth.”

Ajello obviously knew Sienna could speak Serbian or he wouldn’t have picked her. That scheming son of a bitch. No wonder half of the criminal underworld wants him dead

What if I did open up, letting him glimpse what hides behind my carefully composed facade, and he decided to leave? Or even worse, he stayed, and I developed feelings for him. No.

No feelings meant no hurt if anything bad happened. The pain and heartbreak weren’t worth the carnal experience.

The Italians in Cosa Nostra are a very special lot. Those at the upper levels of the hierarchy are treated almost like royalty, and a lot of them act as if they actually are. Especially women. I went out with the sister of one of the capos a few years back and was tempted to off myself twenty minutes into our date.

I follow him with my eyes as he strolls toward the exit, whistling along the way. It seems the guy is as crazy as I’ve heard people say.

The badass Santa takes a seat, pulls out a wicked-looking knife from its sheath and starts cutting the bacon with it.

Well, shit . . .

I knew Arturo had two sisters, but I wasn’t aware they are twins. My heart squeezes and bleeds as I behold the two women falling into each other’s arms. Sienna says something and hugs her sister again. Then, she leans and drops a kiss on her twin’s cheek before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Her sister does the exact same thing to Sienna. Even their mannerisms are identical. I forgot how twins can be sometimes.

It hurts to watch them, so I turn away from the sight and open the door to the building

A fast tune starts playing, and I realize we haven’t been dancing at all. We’ve just stood there, unmoving, this whole time.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Sienna DeVille,” he says, and my eyes flare in surprise. “Call your don. Tell him Drago said yes.”

I gape at him, at a loss for words.

I don’t understand why I feel that way. My brother and sister love me, I know that. They would do anything for me. And still, I never could make myself open up to them because of an irrational fear that they would stop loving me if they realized I’m not all sunshine and rainbows.

“Life’s too short to wear boring clothes.” I laugh and lean back to observe the crowd.

Luna doesn’t understand. No one does. People see my crazy outfits and wide smiles and assume that I must be a super happy person without even the tiniest trouble in the world. And I always make sure to assure them of their convictions.