Chapter 32

—Ellie—

“One month,” Tristan reminded me as he led me through the garden. It took me a moment to understand what he meant.

“Since you captured me,” I said quietly. One month. Sometimes it felt so much longer, sometimes like only yesterday. I had never thought I’d survive a single day in the hands of the Russo's, in Tristan Russo’s hands, and now I’d survived so many more. Tristan was more patient than I’d thought. I was fairly sure my family and the Outfit was at a point by now that they’d hand Scuderi over, even if my grandfather disapproved.

He was an old man close to death. I stared down at my bare feet in the grass. As a child I’d loved to run around barefoot, but eventually I had stopped because I was told it was undignified. Ice Princess. I’d enjoyed being her in public, even if she wasn’t a reflection of my true self. It was who I was supposed to be as Salvador’s niece, as Drake’s wife. Controlled. Dignified. Graceful.

I caught