Chapter Two
Enzo Rissi
“Keeping the peace is a wiser move than sacrificing hundreds of our men in an unnecessary war,” Uncle Giovanni declared as he held my gaze.
I bit back a harsh reply. Fuck the scumbag Alonzo, and fuck his entire damned empire.
I shook my head vehemently. “He’s getting greedy, and you know it. We should deal with him and leave him to rot rather than bring him back into the family. You saw the way he treated my mom. I won’t forgive him for that shit.”
Giovanni didn’t bother bringing up that she wasn’t my mother. Not really.
But my biological mother didn’t matter, and he knew that. Lia had raised me as one of her own, and she had earned the title.
“Not all problems can be solved with brute force. Especially not this one.”
I had to disagree. “He has only ever responded to large shows of power.”
Uncle Giovanni shook his head and sipped water before resting it in the cupholder. He wouldn’t say anything more on the matter, so I reclined back and exhaled slowly to calm the temper that only the Bianchis were able to bring out of me.
And now, I was going to have the privilege of marrying one of them.
“I can find someone else to forge this alliance if you can’t control your anger regarding the Bianchis.”
I glanced at my uncle’s sincere expression and was immediately reminded of why I had never questioned working for him. He wasn’t a don like Alonzo Bianchi. He knew people, their motivations and breaking points, and he wasn’t always cruel when using information.
He knew that I never intended to marry a woman for love and that worldview would never change. Marrying for an alliance was the most practical way to use me.
Marrying a Bianchi, on the other hand…
Nobody had more reason to hate them than I did.
I had watched my mother suffer the hatred and past abuses of her brother, Alonzo. She had drowned herself in alcohol most of her life to forget the life she had before us. Still, despite everything they did, she never sacrificed being a fantastic mother.
I had been forced to sit back and watch them torture my mother for years.
I had sat back when a feud between Alonzo Bianchi and Anton Petrov caused her death.
“I don’t have to like her,” I told him. “I don’t even need to tolerate her.”
“She is not her father just like you are not yours.”
I smirked at him to diffuse the tension of the combination. “What happened to all the comments of me being just like him?”
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but there will always be enough distance to separate the two.”
I snorted and shook my head. Dad had been the guns behind Giovanni’s wisdom, and I was no different. I had taken after my father in that department, yet somehow, Uncle Giovanni had rubbed off on me in other ways.
“Are you ready to meet her?” he asked as we pulled into the mansion where the Bianchis did most of their business. The lack of separation between home and work was enough to know they operated very differently than we did.
“I am.”
“If you change your mind after the meeting—”
“I won’t.”
I couldn’t. If this was what Uncle Giovanni needed, I would tolerate the consequences. I would deal with the girl. If all went according to plan, we would marry, and then I would lock her away and be rid of her company.
We left the car with four armed guards, all their hands resting on their holsters. As I stood, I straightened my suit jacket’s lapels. Uncle Giovanni did the same as he exited behind me. As I ran my hands down my chest, it paused on my stomach. My fingers lingered right above the gun in my holster, twitching to pull it free as I spotted Alonzo Bianchi at the front door of his home.
He didn’t bother stepping outside and meeting us halfway.
Shocker.
Uncle Giovanni and I made our way to the door, and I stood behind him as he extended a hand. Alonzo accepted it.
“It’s good to see our families continuing their unity,” Uncle Giovanni said. “Just as the men before us had envisioned.”
Alonzo only nodded and gestured us to enter the house.
I hesitated at the doorway, knowing that this was a place of my enemies. A firefight or ambush wouldn’t have been unusual, but he risked too much by doing it here. With him in the room, he stood as much of a chance of being killed as either of us.
It was the only reason we would risk this courtesy visit.
“Your bride is in the study.” Alonzo gestured to the large oak door behind him, closed as if to keep us out of the room.
Or to keep someone else inside it…
“If she’s not suitable, let me know.”
I glanced at Uncle Giovanni, and he nodded once. I turned and walked toward the room.
Meeting her didn’t matter. All of these god-damned formalities didn’t matter. I would marry her because it was what needed to be done. I wouldn’t care for the girl. No matter what this marriage likely insinuated to her, I didn't do romantic attachments.
An itch in the back of my mind reminded me of what I had suggested to Uncle Giovanni when he had proposed the marriage.
We could use her to influence her father. We could send pieces of her back to her father if he didn’t do our bidding.
He had turned down the idea vehemently, but it would send a strong message.
It would put Alonzo back under our thumbs where he belonged.
I pushed down the handle and strutted into the room. My eyes immediately fixed on my target, standing right in the center with her arms crossed over her chest as if they would protect her from my gaze.
The elegant gown hugged each of her curves. The low-cut chest gave me a good look at her cleavage, and her crossed arms pushed it out. I moved toward her, still taking in the lightly made-up face and curled hair.
Aria Bianchi was a smoke show.
I knew she would be pretty enough if her father was offering her to me, but damn.
“You’re Aria?”
She nodded, and I waited for her to say something more. She didn’t. She hardly even met my eyes.
“Some would consider it rude not to speak.”
“I don’t have anything to say,” she retorted.
The words took me aback. Not only the words but the tone she used to deliver them. A pent-up frustration settled there.
I tilted my head and tucked both hands into my pockets. “We’re here to meet one another, are we not? Did you plan on staying silent the whole time?”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them. The rebellious woman who had been standing before me disappeared before my eyes. “Well, it’s great to meet you, Enzo.”
“Is it, now?”
“You are to be my husband, so yes. It is.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from a script,” I pointed out.
She shrugged. “How else would you like me to speak?”
“I—” I cut myself off and shook my head. I hadn’t come here to have a conversation. I hadn’t planned on being intrigued by the woman before me and asking her questions. Hell, a few moments ago, I had been considering cutting off her fingers and sending them to her father as leverage. “It doesn’t matter how you speak. I want to make myself clear on how this arrangement is going to go.”
A spark of resilience shone in her hazel eyes. Curiosity and intrigue flooded through me, but I ignored it.
“Go on,” she offered, gesturing toward me. “How will this go?”
“We will do what is expected of us. We will marry, consummate the marriage, and then you will come and live with me. Beyond that, we will be nothing to one another. If you use discretion, you can have suitors. I will, as well. We will live separate lives, and there will be no need to combine them.”
Oh, that was fury behind her eyes—flaming-hot fury.
“You’ve decided this for the both of us?”
“As I should. I will be your husband.”
I didn’t know what to expect from her. The battle between her demure side and her outraged one was visible. Her eyes darted around as her thoughts took control. She wasn’t the woman Alonzo had presented. She wasn’t meek and timid. She wasn’t blindly obedient.
He’d been a fool if he thought those things about her.
She had hardly said a word to me, and I could see her mind racing and defiance building.
But with another breath, it fell away.
“Yes, you will be.”
Now, I wanted to get a rise out of her. I wanted to see more of that woman beneath the mask. I stepped into her personal space. “As your husband, I will have a right to your body whenever I please.”
Her breath hitched, but she didn’t say anything.
“Maybe I’ll put an heir inside of you on our wedding night.”
That seemed to do the trick. It wasn’t a battle this time. She tilted back her head and warm fluid sprayed across my face. My eyes closed on their own volition and I stepped back. I lifted my arm slowly, wiping the fluid off my face before opening my eyes and examining my sleeve.
“Did you just…” I found a deep chuckle rumbling through my chest. “Did you just spit in my face? ”
She straightened. “I—I…” She bit her lip before opening her mouth again. “I’m sorry. I just… You were saying things that…” She placed a shaking hand over her mouth. “I lost my temper. It won’t happen again.”
But I wanted it to happen again.
I liked it when the real Aria came out to play with me.
I caught my thoughts and froze. What the fuck? I didn’t care about her and I wouldn’t allow myself to develop any attachment. It didn’t matter that she caught me by surprise with her personality.
I turned away from her, intent on leaving all these thoughts behind me. I would have to get myself under control before our wedding night because connection and attachment weren’t options.
“This meeting is over,” I told her as I opened the door.
Aria stumbled after me as I approached Uncle Giovanni and Alonzo. They still stood beside the door, having no time to bring their conversation into the house.
“I’m so sorry,” Aria repeated.
It caught the attention of both my uncle and Alonzo.
Alonzo looked between me and Aria before approaching, a scornful look in his eyes. “What the fuck did you do?”
I watched as the scene unfolded before me, and even before I was consciously aware of what Alonzo was prepared to do, I intuitively knew . I saw his hand raise and Aria flinch. I knew I shouldn’t interfere with a father and his daughter, but I moved regardless of logic.
I grabbed Alonzo’s hand and took a step between them.
Alonzo looked at me, his eyes fuming as he saw the way I had inserted myself between them.
Why the fuck had I done that? I didn’t know her. I didn’t care what happened to her.
But I had gotten involved, and I needed a damn good reason. I couldn’t back down now—not when the conflict among our people was already so great.
“Aria did nothing to warrant your punishment, but even if she had, you will not raise a hand to her again. Aria will be my bride in a few weeks, and I will not allow someone to lay a hand on her. She is my property, and nobody will touch my bride but me. ”
The words echoed through the room.
I didn’t have the power here. Alonzo and my uncle did. But I was the one promised to this woman, and I did have the right to make this claim, even if I should have never bothered.
I shouldn’t have cared.
Uncle Giovanni stepped forward and patted Alonzo’s back as he pulled away from my grip. It eased a fraction of the tension.
“Don’t we all remember when we were young and claiming our women, Alonzo?” he asked with a grin. “The boy has a lot to learn.”
Alonzo looked at him before nodding slightly. “Yes, he certainly does,” Alonzo agreed.
As I followed my uncle and Alonzo toward the door, I glanced back and saw Aria standing in the same place, watching me with an intrigued gaze. I hoped she wasn’t getting romantic ideas about what my gesture meant.
We were still in this arrangement strictly for business, and despite my actions, there would be nothing more.