9. Heaven
CHAPTER 9
HEAVEN
M y head spins, and for a moment, I thought Matteo Villani told me I’m marrying him.
He meets my gaze, and there’s a glimmer of victory in those brilliant blue eyes, a cynical turn to his sensuous mouth.
“What the fuck?—”
“Heaven,” Matteo says, voice even, calm, almost expressionless. But I can hear the mocking note. “Is that any way to speak to your future husband?”
Conor starts to laugh, and I’m on my feet fast. I stalk over to my brother and grab his shirt. “Shut up.”
“Yes, shut up, Conor,” Matteo says behind me.
I glare at my father, unable to turn back to face the man I know is now standing behind me. The man who seems to think I’m going to marry him. I’d rather eat a bag of rusty nails…wrapped in barbed wire. “Is he blackmailing you? I’m not?—”
“Heaven Margaret Mulligan, sit down and be quiet.” Dad looks at Conor, disgust bright in his eyes.
“What did you do?” I turn back to my brother. “What the fuck did you do?”
Conor doesn’t look at me, and from behind me, the devil with the smooth, accentless voice speaks.
“We know why the Dominguez cartel is making moves.”
I turn and raise my head to look at that hard face, ignoring the way he drops his gaze to my mouth, and then back up. The knowing, mocking light in his eyes makes my stomach turn slow somersaults.
“You did something.”
“Conor made a move against the Dominguez cartel. He went into one of their neighborhoods and killed one of the lieutenants, along with a couple of the soldiers.”
My mouth drops open. “Who?”
“Santos Rojas,” he murmurs.
“Oh my God,” I say. Santos Rojas is second-in-command to Dominguez himself. If Conor took out Rojas…fuck. “They’re coming after us, aren’t they? Is that what today was about? They hit others, so if they know, why didn’t they just kill us?”
But I don’t need an answer. I know why. They don’t know. Yet. It’s a matter of elimination. And Conor’s put my family in danger. And this fucking marriage…
I close my eyes. Matteo Villani is dangerous. He’s a bastard. Ruthless. He’s playing games. But he gets things done. And he thinks he can offer his services to protect my family for a piece of our territory, our name.
Through me.
I know it. I feel it. And when I meet the asshole’s gaze again, that slight, knowing smile, he knows he’s got us where he wants us.
“You said I never have to enter an arranged marriage, Dad.”
Dad rubs the back of his neck. “This is for the family. For your brothers. For you. I can’t keep you safe. This man can, and we all do things we don’t want.”
“Come now, Heaven,” Matteo says, “you might like me.”
“When hell freezes over,” I snap.
And Conor snickers.
“Conor, shut the fuck up,” my father says sharply. Conor does. But no doubt he thinks he’s gotten away with it. That as usual Dad’s swept his mess up for him. Only this time, I’m the broom.
I fight the urge to leap at Conor and pound his face into the wall he’s cowering next to for putting me and Patrick in the line of fire. How could he do something so stupid and selfish? “What would make you go into his territory and kill him?”
“I didn’t plan to kill him,” Conor says, gaze skittering over mine. “It happened. It was a mistake.”
“Bullshit.” I say. “Because that’s always your excuse. ‘I didn’t mean it.’”
“Heaven, stop?—”
“No, Dad,” I say, my voice tight. “I’m tired of him getting a pass every time he screws up. Co-underboss, my ass. Conor’s not fit to lead kindergarten nap time. I’m not marrying this asshole Villani. I’ll think of something else.”
“Go ahead, Heaven,” Matteo says in those rich, smooth tones, “I’m guessing no one here needs my help. Consider the deal off.”
There’s deathly silence and I want to laugh, tell him to go. But Dad stands, comes around the desk and grabs my arm hard, pulling me close. “Don’t speak in such a disrespectful manner, iníon . What Conor did is inexcusable, but the fallout will be detrimental for our future unless we put a plan in place to stop the bleeding.”
He’s right. I know it. “Villani is bluffing.”
“Heaven—”
“No, it’s fine, Mulligan,” Matteo says as he moves to the door. “Heaven has all the answers.” His gaze locks with mine. “Just invest in quality soap to wash the future blood from your hands. Dominguez will spill a lot of it. Not just Conor’s and your father’s, but your family’s. All of them. Brothers, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces.”
Ice creeps through me as he reaches for the doorknob.
I’m underboss, one of them. I’m backed into a corner. And as my heart beats hard and fast, I know I’m not made of the same stuff as Conor. I come from stronger ancestral stock. To protect all of mine, I’m going to have to do it.
Marry the devil himself.
“Wait.”
Matteo stops, expression bland as he takes me in, and I yank my arm free from my dad’s hold. “For my family, I’ll do this. But you—you don’t get to touch me. Ever. And Conor?”
My brother raises his gaze.
“You owe me your life. I own you.”
“Heaven, love?—”
“No, Dad.” I hold up a hand. “No one in this room gets to say another word to me. Not right now.”
I stalk over to the door and push Matteo out of the way. Or rather, he moves. And my stomach knots as a wave of nausea rocks me. I wrap my hand around the doorknob when Matteo speaks.
Low enough, soft enough it won’t reach any other ears but mine. “You’re wrong, Heaven. I’ll be touching you. And you’ll be begging for it.”
“I’ll do this for my family. Because I’m an underboss and I understand responsibility,” I say back, keeping my voice pitched just for him. “You will never touch me again.”
And I rip open the door, rage blurring my vision.
I stalk down the hall and duck into the kitchen, my heart thumping hard.
“Heaven, a mhuirnín . What’s the matter?”
I jump at my Aunt Maura’s thick brogue.
“Everything is shite.”
She brings a hand to the side of my face, her own pinched with concern. “Is it your head?”
“No , ” I whisper, leaning against the sink, trying to control my anger, my disgust. My fear. “It’s worse. Way worse.”
“And you just came from my brother’s office,” she says. “I’d imagine anything that happened behind that door would certainly cause you more grief than a bump on the head.”
“You have no idea.”
Aunt Maura reaches beneath the stainless steel prep station where we stand in the back of the kitchen and pulls out a bottle of liquor and a couple of glasses. She pours two shots of whiskey and holds one out for me. “Take this, a leanbh . And then we’ll talk.”
I let the booze sear a path down my throat. It feels good, but nothing can numb the pain clenching my heart. “Mom would never let this happen if she were alive,” I whisper.
Aunt Maura places her glass on the stainless steel counter. “Wouldn’t let what happen?”
I sigh, scrubbing a hand down the front of my face. “The meeting? It was…something happened that put the entire family in danger, and the only way out is for me to marry that man. She wouldn’t want that for me. I wasn’t exactly given a choice. I’m underboss, I had to agree. But Mom would have—” I stop. “I hate them.”
Aunt Maura nods. “Your mother certainly would have an opinion on marriage, Heaven. But it’s not the one you think.”
I shoot her a quizzical look. “Meaning?”
Aunt Maura leads me through another doorway into a more private space and motions for me to sit down. At this point, my knees are about to give out, and I gratefully sink into the chair. “Your mother was very young when she married your father.”
“They were childhood sweethearts.”
Aunt Maura smiles. “It was a nice story to tell all of you, but that’s not why they married so young.”
“What are you talking about?” Anticipation knots my stomach.
“They were arranged, Heaven,” she says in a low voice. “Because the families needed an alliance against a common enemy. Your mother was the only girl in her family, just as you are, and she was arranged to marry your father to keep peace.” Aunt Maura shrugs. “It was the only way to defeat the evil force that would have crushed them both.”
“How could you not have told me this? How could you all keep that secret for so long?”
“It didn’t matter why they came together, dear. After years passed, they grew to love one another, and they were able to preserve their families through the union. They moved here to the States to raise a beautiful family and grow and prosper. How they got together didn’t much matter after everything they achieved together.”
I press my fingertips together. “Jesus…”
She drops a kiss on the top of my baseball cap. “I know how badly you want to lead this family, Heaven. And I know the kind of opposition you’ll encounter, being a woman. But whatever happened, maybe this is the way to prove your loyalty to the family, to show that you can accept responsibility. It may be a different path than you’d anticipated, but in the end, it is a greater show of strength to make the hard choices and stick by them than to resist them.”
And by that, I need to clean up one of Conor’s messes in the worst way possible. But I reserve this last bit, because even though Aunt Maura has become my confidante over the years of living in the middle of Testosterone Central, and taken on the role of mother figure, there’s still plenty she doesn’t need to hear.
I lean back against the chair and stare up at her. “I said I’d do it, but there has to be another way than marry a man I detest.”
“He’s handsome and you don’t know him.”
“I know enough.” Heat snakes through me with the memory of what he did.
“Look at it this way.” She takes my hand. “There’s no better way to prove you’re capable of leading the family than by taking control of an issue before it has a chance to control you.”
I stare up at her. She’s damn wise, I’ll give her that. She knows more than anyone how badly I want to step into my father’s role.
I could dig my heels in and refuse, but then all of the blood spilled as a result will be on my hands.
Not Conor’s, mine . Just like Matteo Villani said.
Which is completely fucked up. But that’s how things work in our world.
She who has the power to control the bloodshed must .
Fuck me.
Something shifts in the air and my aunt goes still, her gaze shifting behind me and up and I know who it is.
“ Amore mio ,” his silky, rich voice says.
Shivers run through me as it hits home and I close my eyes.
To save my world and everything I love, I have to marry Matteo Villani.
“What?”
“Heaven,” my aunt whispers.
I take a breath, open my eyes and turn. He’s gorgeous. The devil. A bastard. And he smiles.
“I’ll give you a little time, amore mio . Say…thirty minutes?”
“For what?”
“What do you think, Heaven? You’re coming home with me. Tonight.”