Chapter 12
12
CELIA
I knew my father would happily sell me if it got him ahead in a business deal. But Gabriel wasn’t here for me . In some way, he must see marriage to me as opening a door.
And while my father seemed convinced that it was a door he wanted open, I didn’t understand why he didn’t see the danger Gabriel posed. Unless…he had some long endgame in mind with Gabriel.
If so, I needed to know, because my father’s plan might ultimately be to crush Gabriel…and if I were standing at Gabriel’s side, I might be ground down under that fist as well.
There was no chance my father would listen to me with Royal around; honestly, I couldn’t even talk with Royal around. The way he watched me, with his eyes glinting, a sneer always teasing at the edge of his mouth, rendered me voiceless.
Instead, I got up early the next morning and went through the silent house. I put on the coffee and, when my father shuffled into the room with his head down, staring at his phone, he looked up and saw me with a fleeting expression of surprise across his face.
“Good morning, Father,” I said brightly, pouring his coffee for him.
“Good morning.” He accepted the coffee and studied me. I sipped my own coffee and took a seat again at the table where I knew he always sat in the morning while catching up on business before he showered. Of course, I didn’t take his seat.
Then he added, “You’re up early.”
“I’m excited about my date with Gabriel. Couldn’t sleep.” My father wasn’t spiteful like Royal—he wouldn’t save me from marriage to Gabriel just because he thought that wedding would please me—but if I were happy to go along with his plans, maybe he’d loosen up and tell me more.
“That’s sweet.” He sat across from me and ignored me as he scrolled through his phone, not looking away from the screen as he sipped.
Anxiety swirled in my stomach, but I kept sipping my coffee, even though I couldn’t even taste it. I waited until he looked up. Then I asked him, “Is there anything you want me to try to find out when I’m with Gabriel?”
He gave me a perplexed look. “Why would I want that?”
“I just thought you might need information about him.”
“Is that so?” He studied me, his voice and expression giving away nothing. “Do you think I’m positioning you to spy for me?”
The words caught in my throat, but I managed to reply, “I don’t know what you’re doing, Father.”
His lips curled into a faint smile or a sneer, it was hard to tell. He stood, sliding his phone into his pocket. “Have fun on your date, Celia.”
I was losing him. I blurted out, “I don’t trust him.”
“Oh, Celia.” He looked at me with an expression that seemed like next-door-neighbors with pity. “Of course, we can’t trust him.”
“Do you think he’s trying to get revenge on us for David?”
Just saying David’s name felt dangerous, especially to my father. It felt as if I might summon David from his grave to get his own revenge.
If David returned as a ghost…would he hate me for the part I’d played in drawing him to his death? Even though I had loved him honestly and truly…I had been the source of his downfall.
“Do you really think I’d entertain you marrying a man that wanted revenge on our family?” He raised his eyebrows skeptically, staring at me hard, as if he dared me to answer.
When I didn’t, he turned and headed to leave the kitchen.
I sprang to my feet.
He turned back, looking at me curiously.
“I know you have a plan,” I told him. “I wish you’d tell me what my part is in that plan.”
He sighed. “Celia, you’re being dramatic. Gabriel has developed useful connections, and I need an ally against some of the other families. Gabriel doesn’t give a shit about family. He cares about power.”
With a sudden, sickening sense, I realized my father’s assumptions might damn us all. He didn’t give a shit about me, and maybe he didn’t even give a shit about Royal, and so he believed Gabriel didn’t care about his brother’s death just as he wouldn’t have cared about ours.
“For his family’s honor—” I began.
“Celia.” My father cut in. “You have a na?ve view of the world. A girl’s view of the world.”
“A girl’s view,” I repeated. As if girls can afford to be anything but cynical in our world.
“Gabriel is a businessman. There’s much to be gained from an alliance between us. He’s remade his association into the second-tier arms dealer in our area.”
“And we would be at the top.”
My father smiled slightly at that we , but didn’t correct me. “You are a sweet girl, Celia, but you’ve never had a head for business. You’re just like your mother.”
That would have felt like a compliment—I’d adored my mother—if she hadn’t ended up dead.
“I would think the two of you would be in competition.”
“Not at all. If you and Gabriel marry, I’ll hand over the arms business to him entirely, and he’ll help me to destroy the Kournikov and Dempsey families.”
“And we’ll be one happy family.”
My father shrugged.
“You don’t trust Gabriel.”
“We need the alliance. Gabriel is smart enough to see that. We both have much to gain.”
“I think he wants to destroy our family, Father. He has much more to gain if we’re gone.”
“Well, if you’re right, Celia…we should keep our friends close and our enemies closer. Close as family, if we can.”
“You’d marry me off to him knowing he wants to hurt us?”
My father frowned at me, as if I were being rude to say the truth out loud.
“What do you think he might do to me, Father?” I couldn’t keep the bitter twist out of my voice on that last word. Father . As if that role had ever meant anything to him when it came to me.
My father’s gaze seemed to soften, and he leaned in close to me as if he were going to tell me something true and fatherly and comforting.
“As long as I get what I want, Celia, I really don’t care.”
My hands were shaking as I set my coffee cup down too hard on the counter. “Excuse me.”
He waved me off with one hand, already focused on his phone again.
My father knew Gabriel was using our marriage, and he had his own plan to hurt Gabriel. I was trapped between the two of them.
I was going to die. I meant nothing to anyone except the use I could provide before they stepped over my corpse.
My knees felt weak as I stumbled out of the kitchen, down the stairs into the garden. The morning was foggy, and the ground soaked my slippers before I even realized I’d begun to run across the grass.
The world was a hazy blur as I ran, even though I couldn’t escape the walls and gates around our home. I couldn’t stand for Royal to find me. But there was nowhere to go.
I finally collapsed, sinking to my knees in the dew-soaked grass. I let out a strangled sob, as if I couldn’t even find my voice. Although I cried so hard it shook my body and made my ribs, stomach, and throat ache, it was all soundless. I bowed over, keening.
I was so alone in the world.
There was a soft sound in the distance—someone clearing their throat—and the faintest flicker of movement. I shot up, wiping my eyes desperately, sure that it was Royal. But the dark-haired, hulking man from the other night was there instead. Dante.
He crouched in front of me.
I scrambled to my feet, feeling a surge of embarrassment and fear.
He stayed on the ground. He was so tall and massive that it felt strange to see him from this angle; his dark hair was thick, and there was a scar at his temple. I felt the strangest urge to reach out and touch it.
“I have to go,” I said, but before I could, he caught my hand in his.
Gently, he turned my palm up and traced a letter across my skin with his fingertips. S-T-A-Y.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
His lips quirked up slightly. Y-O-U-A-R-E-S-A-F-E.
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ve never been safe, but especially now…I’m being sold to Gabriel Caruso like property, and no matter what he says…he must hate me. Or at least, he must hate us . And I’m nothing to him.”
I kept reminding myself of that fact, because the memory of Gabriel wrapping his arms around me and the puppy kept surfacing. Kept making me want . I wanted to believe in Gabriel Caruso, and that was a dangerous impulse.
Dante shook his head. N-O-T-L-I-K-E-Y-O-U-R-F-A-T-H-E-R.
“Do you know him?” I frowned down at him. “Should I trust him?”
A mocking note had entered my voice at the idea, but deep down, I felt a pull toward Gabriel that I had to resist.
Hesitation crossed his face.
I let out a shaky laugh. “So that’s a no. He seems very much like my father. Cold, controlling, always has a plan.”
It was too easy to talk to this man who couldn’t speak back to me. It felt as if I could say anything to him without judgment, but that, of course, was a dangerous impulse too.
C-O-M-P-L-I-C-A-T-E-D.
He folded my fingers in his big warm ones for a few long seconds, then began again. T-R-U-S-T-M-E.
“Why?” I asked, and before he could answer, I pulled my hand out of his grip. He didn’t fight me.
“You have to go,” I said calmly. “If someone catches you with me…”
He held out his hand. He waited this time, patiently.
Until I sighed and gave him back my hand. “You need to stay away from me, Dante. This isn’t a game. This place is dangerous. Being near me is dangerous .”
His thumb traced over my inner wrist, and I felt an unexpected flutter at the intimate contact before he began to trace more letters.
S-O-A-M-I.