Bark For The Don Who’s Been Hunting Me For Ten Years Chapter 10
The rain stops.
Cassian carries me back to the estate. The one everyone in this city talks about like it’s haunted.
He leads me through the halls like he’s finally showing me something he’s been hiding for ten years. Door after door. He opens each one himself.
The back garden.
It’s a full acre of red roses. Every color of red you can imagine.
Ten years ago I made a joke. Just a stupid throwaway line. I said one day, when I had money, I wanted a house buried in roses.
The floor-to-ceiling windows in the study. The exact shade of the Persian rug. Even the teacups in the cabinet. Every single thing in this house is something I described to him ten years ago.
He built my dream home. Down to the last detail.
He takes me to the dark room at the end of the second-floor hall.
Every wall. Paintings of me. Dozens of them. All from when I was eighteen.
“Ten years. Every night. I waited for you in this room.”
Cassian slides his arms around my waist from behind. Rests his chin on my shoulder. His voice is wrecked.
“I kept thinking. If I built it exactly the way you described. Exactly right. Then one night you’d just walk through the door.”
My throat closes up.
“Cass. What if I never came back.”
That look flickers in his eyes again. Red. Sick. Absolute.
“Then I keep looking. Until I’m in the ground. And then I come back as something worse and keep looking.”
Completely, hopelessly insane.
He drops to his knees in front of me. Same way he did ten years ago. That bloody, broken kid on the pavement.
He looks up at me. Every last shred of pride gone.
“You told me you were an angel sent to save me. I believed you. You told me we’d see each other again. I believed you.”
“Make me wait as long as you want. Just don’t leave me again.”
I crouch down. Run my thumb along the little scar under his eye. The one he got the night I disappeared.
“I’m home, Cass. I’m not going anywhere.”
He crushes me against his chest. Like he’s trying to pull me into his body. Like if he holds me tight enough I can never leave again.
The next morning.
The news drops like a bomb on the Five Families.
Don Cassian De Luca is engaged.
Everyone in the city thinks I got lucky. They think some nobody girl won the lottery. Married up into the most dangerous family in New York.
Only Cassian knows the truth. He married up. He married a girl he doesn’t deserve.
The engagement ceremony.
Top of the tallest building in Manhattan. Every Don. Every Capo. Every wife. Every whisper of power in New York, packed into one room.
I walk down the aisle in white.
Cassian is waiting in a white suit at the end of the red carpet.
The second I reach him, he drops. Right down to one knee in front of the entire underworld.
Every jaw in the room hits the floor. Dons don’t kneel. Dons never kneel.
He doesn’t even hear them. He reaches out. Cradles my foot in both hands. Slides a diamond-encrusted heel onto me. Like a man handling a relic.
Then he looks up. Eyes locked on mine. His voice comes out steady and carries through every microphone in the room.
“Tonight. In front of every family in this city. I swear to God.”
“I am Serafina Marchetti’s. This life. Every life after. Her dog. Forever.”
Dead silence.
Then a wave of shocked whispers ripping through the crowd. Every Don in New York just watched the Butcher of the Five Boroughs kneel.
I smile. Look down at the man who put an entire city on its knees, and then put himself on his knees for me.
I reach out my hand. And I pull him up.
The party ends.
Rooftop of the estate. First light. Cold morning air.
Cassian wraps me up inside his overcoat from behind. His chest warm against my back.
The sun starts to break over the skyline. First rays hitting the rose garden. Every petal lit up gold and red.
I lean back into him. Voice barely above a whisper.
“Cass. If I could do it all over again. I’d still cross back through time to save you.”
His arms tighten around me. His lips press warm against my ear.
“Sera. This time I get you for the rest of my life.”