CHAPTER 6
Luna
“Hey Lu!” Ellie’s gorgeous face fills my phone.
Then is quickly eclipsed by her younger sister, Mia. “Luna! My Queen!”
I chuckle but my heart’s not in it today. “Oh good, both of you. Um, I have news.”
“What’s wrong?” Ellie asks, reading my tone immediately.
“Sometin won?” Mia exclaims with her mouth full of whatever her sister must be baking. I can see my best friend’s bright white designer kitchen in the background.
I sigh, then square my shoulders. There’s no easy way to say it, “Yup. Guess it’s my turn. Papa arranged a marriage for me.”
“Bosco?” Mia asks hopefully, but Ellie frowns and shakes her head. She knows I wouldn’t be so upset if my plan were finally falling into place.
“Not Bosco,” I say, fighting to keep my voice steady.
“Who?” Ellie says softly, bracing herself.
I sniff, mad that I’m getting emotional.
“Wait, no. What? It has to be Bosco. That was your plan! And Bosco is into you and your dad seemed fine with the match and you’re going to be the don!
” Mia starts to lose it a little bit, and I haven’t even gotten to the worst part yet.
I forget that she’s only eighteen. And that she’s my number one fan, number one hater of men, and number one hater of the particular mens’ world we live in.
“I’m not, it turns out.” My voice is scratchy now.
“What!”
Ellie puts a hand on Mia to rein her in, “Take your time, Lu. Tell us what’s going on.”
“He knew. Papa knew all along what I wanted. I was so careful, so secretive but he knew. My training, my spying, he thought…” I have to take a breath.
“I think he thinks it’s cute. Ugh! It was so humiliating.
He sat me down and basically turned me inside out, laughed at my goals and then shut down all my hopes. ”
“Oh, Luna, no,” my sweet friend’s eyes burn with tears.
“Yeah. I found out about the marriage through the vent like I always find out everything, and I had a plan to tell Papa the truth, show him my work, all the inefficiencies I’ve found, and explain my vision for the future.
He shut me down. Hard. Said no red-blooded mafia man would ever follow a woman. End of discussion.”
“Fucker!” Mia spits in the background.
“Mia! That’s her papa you’re talking about,” Ellie glares at her younger sister, who just shrugs, then turns back to me. “I’m so sorry.”
“I stand by what I said! This sucks!” Mia carries on.
I snort. “I haven’t even gotten to the bad part.” Both of them freeze and wait. “The marriage. My husb…I…it’s Skulls Qu—”
“No!” Ellie gasps and drops a bowl with a clang before I can finish saying his name.
“Skulls, like Skulls Skulls? The lunatic head basher guy?” Mia squeaks.
I squeeze my eyes shut and nod, fighting off tears and nausea.
“This can’t be right. What is your father thinking?”
“Well,” I open my eyes to study her as I reply.
“I think it’s about the kidnapping. Sealing the deal once and for all that the Irish weren’t trying to frame us for it, that Quinn wasn’t trying to start a war between your family and mine.
” I think I see her eye twitch as she frowns and nods, processing what I’m saying.
But just barely. If she is in on the whole fishy ordeal, she’s a damn good actress.
“Okay, but marriage? The Irish and the Italians together? I mean, is that normal?” Mia asks, disgusted.
“Not normal,” Ellie mutters. Now it seems her mind is spinning.
“No, it’s not.”
“And to that guy? I mean did you piss off your dad? Because Skulls is known in our world as a total barbarian and, like, they’re all barbarians! He must be really, really bad, Lu! This can’t be happening.”
“It is happening. Paper signed, date set.”
Ellie snaps back to our conversation, “Date set? For when?”
“A month.”
“No. We will get you out of this,” Ellie says, shaking her head.
“Who will?” I say at the same time that Mia asks her, “How?”
Ellie stammers a bit, like she didn’t mean to say that. “I…I’ll talk to my uncle, see if he can reason with your dad, don to don. Mark can talk to him too. And you,” She locks eyes with me on our devices, “You’re Luna Mancini. You’re not going to just take this lying down, fight him on it.”
“Fight him how? Two of the four most powerful men in the country, if not the world, have signed a contract, two different clans coming together in agreement. It’s almost historic. And you think there’s something I can do? What? What can I possibly do?”
“Run,” Mia says, serious as ever.
“Oh, Mia, it’s not that simple.”
She doesn’t even hear me. “What about that Vix girl, the Russian hacker, she’s your friend, right?”
“More like business associate.”
“Still, you can contact her. Surely she can disappear you. Isn’t that what mob hackers do? Make up identities and kill people off with fake death certificates, that kind of thing?”
“Maybe if I was a distant cousin or a business associate. Someone low profile who could slip away. I’m a don’s daughter.
There’s no way out for me.” I see disappointment crash over Mia’s face and I know it’s not just about me.
Maybe she held out hope she’d escape this life.
I wince. Still, better she face the truth.
She’s a don’s niece, her fate will be no different.
Both of them are silent now, lost in thought. I understand their shock. But I don’t understand the determination on Ellie’s face when she finally looks up.
“No, Luna. You’re not going to marry that man. We’ll figure this out.” She starts tapping on her screen. “I’m going to ask Papa about Tio’s schedule right now. I’ll talk to them. Today.”
“Worth a shot, I guess,” I consider what pull her uncle may have. “Actually, that’s not a terrible idea. Your uncle won’t love the idea of the two families joining together. We’ll be bigger than you.”
“Bigger than them.” Mia grouses.
“Your last name is still Delgado whether you like it or not. Now hush and let me get to work,” Ellie says to her sister as she taps a few more times. “Also, the Vix idea isn’t terrible, Lu. No one knows much about Skulls. Have her help you like she helped me.”
I nod, resigned. “Already sent her a text. Just…not sure I even want to know what she finds. What if the details are even worse?”
“Can it get worse? Didn’t he cut a man’s head straight down the center with a saw and then leave one half of it on a doorstep as a warning?”
Ellie’s jaw drops before she asks, “Mia, how do you know all this?”
“How do you not? Our stupid brothers and Zeno are always gossiping back and forth about the worst of the worst in this sick hell hole we call our lives.”
“Well,” I say, my tone changing. I’m ready to be done with this bleak conversation. “I’ll ask her to dig up what she can, then consider how much of the dirt I want to actually read.”
“Good plan, Queen. He probably has a big file on you.”
“Hm,” I wonder about Mia’s suggestion. My public persona doesn’t offer much interest. Plus, he told Papa I’m “not his type.” If he dug into the truth, though, what my father has apparently known all along…
I shudder, instantly feeling too exposed, too vulnerable.
He won’t like what he found. “You’re right.
He probably has spies on me already. I need to level the playing field, prepare for battle. ”
“Battle?” Ellie raises an eyebrow.
“Marriage. If that man is coming for me, I’m going to be ready.”
“Yes! Like, with poison you mean, right? And your knives?”
Mia’s excitement lightens us, and we all three laugh, letting out our nerves.
“Right, Mia. I better go sharpen them. I’ll let you all know if I hear back from Vix.”
Before we end the call, they tell me they love me and are here for me, with more over-the-top determination from Ellie.
She’s our traditionalist so her fight the man energy seems fishy.
But if there’s ever been a time I need her pulling for me with her powerful family and her sketchy snake of a husband, I suppose it’s now.
I go to put my phone down and start a hot shower for myself but it buzzes. The pixels on the screen make my hand shake.
Vix: Done. I’ve withdrawn from your account and sent over the deliverables. Check your email.