1. Chapter One #2
“Hello to you too.” Dante leans back in his seat. “I’m here to tell you that I think I found a good alternative for a husband for you.”
“Is he Italian?”
“He is.”
I cross my arms and narrow my eyes. “And…?”
“And he’s… older.”
“How much older?”
Dante shares an uncertain look with my dad. “He’s fifty.”
All the air leaves my body. “What? Dante, no! You promised you’d always protect me.”
“I know, I know. Trust me. If I could keep you from marrying anyone, I would. But you’re too connected, Aria, just to waste you.
You will be married. And Giovanni Amato would make for a good match.
He’s been frustrated lately by my alliance with the Russians.
I know he’s seeking to make some trouble.
But marrying you to him would help calm him down. ”
“And what about the next man who causes trouble? You won’t have me to marry off then.”
Dante shrugs. “Then some other mafia girl will be used.”
“That’s just sick, you know that? Marrying us off like we’re cattle.”
“This will happen, Aria. I’m afraid to say.”
“What about Matteo?”
Dante sits up straighter. “Matteo?”
“You’re second in command. He’s young and handsome. And now that he’s back, he would make a great match.”
Matteo Conti had to go into hiding a few years ago after he killed Nadia’s father. The Russians wanted his head. But as part of Dante’s peace treaty with Erik, Matteo was allowed to come back and work as Dante’s second in command again.
Dante hesitates. “Matteo is loyal to me. I don’t need to marry him off to anyone to make him more loyal. Marrying him to you would serve no purpose. I wouldn’t gain from anything.”
“But I would. I would marry a man with good connections and good looks. You’re only thinking of yourself. Of course you would. You’re selfish.” I spit the word out. I want it to hurt as much as Dante is hurting me right now.
“You will not marry Matteo.” Dante’s tone is final. “I will set up a meeting with Giovanni. You’ll see he’s not so bad. And then we can move on from this mess. Got it?”
“Got it,” I say through gritted teeth.
What I don’t say out loud is I don’t ‘got it’ at all. I’m not going to marry some old man. Hell no.
I’m going to go out and find a worthy husband of my own.
Even if it kills me.
Finn
To say I’m mad at my brother would be an understatement.
We worked together as hitmen for years. We killed together. We protected each other. I was loyal to him.
He wasn’t the same.
Aiden fell in love with Elena – that bitch – and married her and joined forces with Erik Koslov and Dante Moretti.
To say I hate Erik and Dante is also an understatement. I despise those two fuckers.
Dante and I used to be friends, until he started working with Erik. I didn’t agree with working with the Russians, so I went against him.
When Dante and Erik pissed off Viktor Smirnov, I went and worked with him, even though he’s a Russian.
Then Viktor turned on me by choosing an alliance with Erik and Dante.
Now, I’m on my own.
And that makes me dangerous.
With no allegiance to anybody, I have decided that I’m going to fuck things up. Cause some chaos.
I was always held back by either Dante, Viktor, or my brother.
Now no one is going to hold me back.
To start, I decide to steal from one of Viktor’s drug shipments. Since I worked with him this whole past year, I know how his operation works.
I arrive at the quiet, lonely road in the middle of the night, far away from New York, where a truck full of drugs will be arriving.
I have no desire to steal the drugs and make money from it.
No. I’m going to piss Viktor off just by blowing it up.
Make him regret joining forces with Erik and Dante again.
Viktor has two men stationed on the road, waiting for the truck to arrive. I stay hidden in the woods, waiting for my turn to strike.
The truck finally shows up and the two men inspect it. I’m about to make my jump on them when another car arrives.
And my brother gets out.
Aiden looks good. Healthy. Happy.
That fucker.
It’s all because he’s in love with Elena. I killed Elena’s father and I know Elena will never forgive me for that. Well, fuck her. It’s not her forgiveness I want.
What I want is for her to give me my brother back.
But I can’t kill Elena. Aiden would be pissed and try to kill me. Which means that if I ever want to get Aiden back, I’ll have to take a non-violent route.
And that just isn’t me.
The sight of my brother only pisses me off more and it spurs me into action. I run out of the woods and kill Viktor’s two men. I have a grenade ready, which I throw at the truck.
After a moment, it explodes.
Aiden jumps to the ground and covers his head. Rarely have I seen him look startled but I guess I have that effect on him. I’m the only one.
The exploding truck will draw notice eventually, so the smart thing would be to leave right away. That’s what I had planned.
Until Aiden showed up.
I can’t stop my legs from approaching him.
With a gasp, he looks up and has his gun at the ready. Then he realizes who he’s looking at.
“Finn.”
“Hi, brother.”
Aiden and I are Irish. We used to work for the Irish mob years ago but then we parted ways when I didn’t get along with the mob boss. We started working with Dante then. We would take our services wherever they were needed, as long as someone paid good enough.
Aiden scrambles to his feet, keeping his gun clenched in his hands. He doesn’t point it at me but he has it ready just in case.
“Don’t you trust me?” I ask.
“Not to kill me?” Aiden hesitates before he shakes his head. “I’m not really sure at the moment, Finn. You might try to kill me. You’ve always been a crazy fucker like that.”
“Is that why you didn’t want me anymore?”
Aiden huffs. “I still love you. You’re my brother and you always will be. But I’ve moved on. I have a wife now. We’re thinking about starting a family.”
I look at him more sharply. “You’re going to be a dad?”
“Not yet. But Elena and I have been trying.”
“Why are you telling me this? Having kids is only going to take you further from me. I could kill your wife just to stop her from ever getting pregnant.”
Aiden raises his gun. That struck a nerve. “Don’t talk about Elena. You will not go towards her again. I swear, Finn. If you ever loved me, you will not do that. I’m telling you about my family because you’re still my brother. You could be a part of it again.”
“I doubt it. Elena will never forgive me for killing her dad. I can never be a part of your family.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to go on this murdering rampage. You can stop. You can choose happiness, Finn.”
“That’s what you chose?”
“It is.” There’s no hesitation in his face or voice. He means every word he says.
If I’m being honest, I’m a little jealous. I’ve never been that sure of anything. I’ve always doubted people. Always distrusted people.
And yet, here’s my brother, who grew up the same way I did – the same shitty abusive father that we later killed and the same nurturing Mom who tried her best with us – and yet, Aiden is able to love.
Why am I incapable of it?
I do love our mom. Fiona Murphy. She’s a formidable woman, having survived abuse at the hands of our father for years.
I’m still loyal to her. But she’s not really a part of Mafia business.
She has some contacts to keep her informed about the going-ons of everything but she holds no power or status in the Irish mob. Not in the Mafia. Not in the Bratva.
It’s the one thing that has allowed me to love my mom the way I have. She will never betray me because she has no reason to.
Unlike Aiden.
“Are you going to kill me?” I ask him. “You still have that gun pointed at me.”
Slowly, he lowers it. He’s just a year younger than me but we could pass for twins. The only difference is our hair – his is reddish brown and mine is black.
Black like my fucking soul.
“Just go, Finn,” he says, sounding so tired. It’s because of me. I’m causing this pain in my brother. Well, good. Now he knows how I have felt for the past few years since he married Elena.
“I could kill you.” I raise my gun.
Aiden lifts his hands in surrender. “Then do it.”
What would killing my brother achieve? Nothing really.
But that’s not why I lower my gun after a moment. I lower it because Aiden is still my brother despite everything and I will always love him.
That’s why I also hate him.
“I’ll go,” I say. “Have a fun fucking life.”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he calls out as I walk away.
I laugh. My brother knows better than to be na?ve.
He knows I always do something stupid that always seems to work out in my favor.
I want to hurt Erik and Dante and Viktor. I want to make them pay for going against me.
Dante’s betrayal, other than my brother’s, stings the most. Dante and I were once friends. I was never friends with Erik and Viktor and I only had a working partnership because it suited us, not because either one of us liked the other.
So, how can I hurt Dante?
I arrive at his house and watch it for a long time until he leaves. Then I follow him. He ends up going to a brownstone in a very wealthy neighborhood. It’s so different from the place I grew up in. Poverty was something I was used to until I became a hitman and made enough money to support myself.
Dante goes inside the brownstone and doesn’t come back out for a long time. When he does, he’s joined by a middle age man and a young woman.
A very pretty young woman. She’s blonde and petite but there’s a fire in her eyes I can see even from where I am across the street.
I realize who these people are.
Elio Romano and his daughter, Aria. Dante never let me meet them when we used to work together but I knew he had a soft spot for Aria. She was like a daughter to him. Seems that’s still the case as he gives her a hug goodbye.
It’s in this very moment that I know how I can hurt Dante. It’s something he did to Erik when he wanted to make Erik angry a few years ago before they made peace.
Dante kidnapped Erik’s sister-in-law, Nadia.
So, I’m going to take a page out of Dante’s book and kidnap Aria. I have no idea what I’m going to do with the girl. Kill her? Let her go?
What I do know is I want to cause chaos and this will piss off Dante so much, I won’t be able to stop laughing.
I look at Aria until she goes back inside her house.
My mind is already formulating a plan. This is going to be fun.
Aria
I was never one to sneak out of my house at night, just for the sheer fact that my father has security cameras all over the place. I would surely be caught.
But I can’t stay in this house. Not when Dante is going to marry me off to an old man. I refuse to be a fucking trophy wife to an old man who is too young to die anytime soon and yet too old to be a good lover.
Not that I would know what good sex is like since I’m still a virgin but I just know a fifty-year-old is not it. I shudder at the idea of an old man touching me.
So, I decide to sneak out of the house, security cameras be damned.
I steal my dad’s car and drive away from the house.
I only make it down the street when someone rams their car right into mine. I immediately slam on the breaks. With a gasp, I look around to see who did it. Some car is idling right next to me. Bastard.
I storm out of my car and glance at it. Oh god. There’s a huge dent in the side of it. My dad is going to be so angry.
But his anger won’t be able to compare to my own.
I pound on the other driver’s window. “What the hell were you thinking slamming into me?”
The window rolls down and a very handsome man smiles back at me. But his smile isn’t flirty. It’s dangerous.
“I was thinking that I needed to get your attention.” He steps out of his car and instantly, I can feel it in my gut that I’m in danger. “You’re coming with me, Aria.”