2. Luna
2
LUNA
“I don’t want to marry the fucking Beast of Las Vegas!” Lina screeched, making me wince.
I looked down at the table in front of me, trying hard to blend in with the wall. If I could just make it through this dinner, I would be free to hide away in my room for the rest of the night.
“Lina, be reasonable. The De Luca family is one of the most powerful families in the world. And they ruled over the West Coast for decades. You would be one of the most powerful women as the wife of Massimo De Luca,” Mom said, trying to appease her.
“Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid. I’ve heard the rumors. The man is deformed and mean and ugly! And you expect me to be married to that ?”
I winced at the venom in her voice. And though I didn’t usually agree with Lina, I thought it was cruel of Andre to push this marriage on her. Not because of his physical appearance. I didn’t know what he looked like. I was sure there were pictures of him on the internet, but I rarely took an interest in other organizations around the US.
But even I had heard of Massimo De Luca. Now the capo dei capi to the De Luca Famiglia. A monster of a man everyone dubbed Lo Spietato .
Ruthless. Pitiless. A man who had no feelings and no qualms about what or who he sacrificed in order to get what he wanted. Rumor had it that he killed his father for the throne. I didn’t know whether to believe that or not, but he got what he wanted in the end. He was now considered the King of Las Vegas.
A ruthless god who merely lived among us mortals.
“Lina has a point, Andre. We can’t just marry her off to the Las Vegas syndicate. The man would eat our little girl alive,” Mom said to her husband.
Andre Lombardi was Emilio Lombardi’s consigliere, the head of the Lombardi Famiglia here in Chicago. They were also cousins and extremely close, so my stepfather had a lot of say in how things went around here.
Everyone was quiet, waiting for his input. I kept my gaze on the tan tablecloth, hoping the ground would just open up and swallow me whole.
My skin suddenly felt hot, and I shifted in my seat. I told myself not to do it, but I couldn’t help when my eyes moved up, and two sets of eyes were staring intently at me. Lina’s held a malicious sort of glint in them—a familiar sight—which told me she was about to get what she wanted, usually at my expense, and Andre’s.
It was his eyes that made me the most wary.
I swallowed hard, hoping to God he wouldn’t say what I thought he was about to say.
“Luna can marry Massimo De Luca. They wanted a Lombardi daughter. Surely Luna would do, considering you even bear my last name.”
I blinked, my mouth opening, but nothing came out.
I didn’t bear Andre’s last name. I had my late father’s last name, which happened to be the same as Andre’s because my father and Andre were brothers.
My mom married my dad’s younger brother after he died when I was three.
It had been a quick marriage too. And my life had never been the same since.
I looked over at my mom, waiting for her to stand up for me the same way she had for Lina.
She took a sip of her wine and looked off to the side.
She said something when Lina— her little girl—was set to marry a monster, but when I turned out to be the replacement, she said nothing.
I blinked back the tears threatening to fall.
Wasn’t I her little girl as well?
What made me different from Lina?
“But wasn’t Lina already promised?” I asked, trying to reason with him.
His eyes hardened, and I wished I could take the words back. “No, a Lombardi daughter was promised. And you are my daughter, aren’t you? Don’t you consider this to be your family?”
I looked away. “Of course,” I said quietly. We were a family when it was convenient. When I needed to make an appearance out in public. But I knew what my position in this family was all about. I knew it didn’t matter, and Mom probably wished I hadn’t been born.
“Then it’s settled,” Andre said. “Luna will marry Massimo De Luca. The wedding is set in one month.”
I walked through the quiet house. It was three o’clock in the morning.
I couldn’t sleep, not after the announcement, though I was sure Mom wouldn’t be losing any sleep over this.
She wouldn’t care that I was set to marry a ruthless man, states away from where I had grown up. All she wanted was to keep Andre happy. And Lina. Her perfect little family.
I paused with my foot on the last of the staircase when I heard a sound coming from the kitchen. I was almost convinced I imagined it when I heard it again.
Quietly, I headed toward the sound, even when everything in me said to go back to my bedroom. I might not be able to go back to sleep, but at least I was somewhat safe in there.
I didn’t listen.
I stayed close to the wall as I got near the threshold leading into the kitchen and peeked inside.
My eyes widened in surprise when I saw Lina sitting on the kitchen counter, one of Andre’s guards close to her. He stood between her legs, his lips trailing over her neck. One hand was fondling her breast, and she let out a small gasp in pleasure.
I…
I didn’t know what to make of the sight. Had Andre caught them, he would have killed the guard. That was a risk. I backed up a step, trying to get out of there. I was just going to pretend I didn’t see anything. In my haste to leave, I backed a little hard into the wall. A small thud sounded out in the quiet house, and the noise in the kitchen stopped. I didn’t think.
I turned and hightailed it out of there. I thought I might have safely got back to my room, but I was caught at the last minute. I barely managed to muffle in my scream when Lina pushed me up against the wall.
“Poor, stupid little Luna. What do you think you’re doing, walking around the house like a ghost?” She wrapped her hand around my bicep and squeezed it tightly enough that I was sure I was going to bruise there.
I gritted my teeth. “Let me go. You don’t want to wake the whole house up, do you? Wake your father?”
She laughed quietly. “You think they’re going to believe you over me?”
I had nothing to say to that, mostly because I knew she was right. They wouldn’t believe me.
“Here’s how things are going to go. You have one month left in this house before you’re married off to the Beast of Las Vegas and become a plaything for him. You’re going to shut up about what you saw, understand? Or I’ll make whatever time you have left here miserable.”
She already did. There wasn’t a single day in my life since the moment Mom married Andre that I wasn’t fucking miserable.
Tears stung my eyes but, thankfully, didn’t fall. I didn’t want to give her any more ammunition.
“Understand?” She tightened her grip on me. I let out a small pained cry then, which, based on the glint in her eyes, was something she enjoyed seeing very much.
I nodded. I wasn’t going to say anything, even without her threat.
She pulled away, and I let out a small sigh of relief. Lina might be younger than me by four years, but she was bigger than me, stronger than me. And she had her parents’ love, which made her more powerful than me.
She lightly tapped my cheek, and I flinched, making her laugh. “Good girl. Now why don’t you go back to bed and think of all the ways your future husband will break you. I know that’s what I’ll be doing tonight.”
She tittered softly as she walked away, back down the stairs, probably to spend the rest of her night with the guard, while I stayed where I was, trying to catch my breath.
My legs felt like jelly as I took in the empty hallway, her words echoing inside my head.
All the ways the Beast of Las Vegas could break me.
I didn’t know which I hated more—living in this house with everyone or my impending marriage to Lo Spietato .
Hopelessness weighed me down, and it was taking everything in me not to just fall to the ground. I wasn’t sure I would be able to get up if I did.
What was I supposed to do now?