19. Giulia
R enzo sped up to lose the Greeks closing in on us. When they failed, he counted on their colliding and getting in an accident to slow them down.
With deft maneuvering, he avoided crashing. But it wasn’t enough. He slowed to fire at the closest car, and that did the trick.
I watched with my heart trapped in my throat, my pulse skyrocketing and my breaths so quick, as he shot at the front wheels. The SUV swerved, then flipped, and with the second car right behind it, that vehicle was smashed.
Large flames shot to the sky, but we were too far to be caught in the heat. Renzo kept a steady hand on the wheel and sped further away. Seeing him so tense and taut, his muscles flexed as he gripped the wheel and his gun, proved that he was no damn spare. He wasn’t an inferior brother only now expected to perform as the Bernardis’ second in command.
This wasn’t the action of a man just suddenly coming into his strength or finesse as a ruthless Mafia man. He’d always been like this, always prepared to kill and defend, but I didn’t know if it was himself or me that he was keeping alive.
“Are they targeting you?” I asked once several quiet moments filled the car as he sped away.
“Maybe you.” He glanced at me, checking over me quickly. “Word spread that Rocco’s dead. I wouldn’t put it past them to try to take out more of your Family.”
Which would make sense why Mother was drugged too. But no security footage showed anyone coming inside the house that night.
I nodded. “Or they want to attack with the knowledge that I’m Nickolas’s bride.”
He growled. “Don’t fucking say that.”
I sighed, trying to come down from the adrenaline rush and relax. We were safe. We’d gotten away, and knowing how much Renzo hated to hear of me as Nickolas’s bride soothed my needy soul—needy for him.
“They could try to take me out to counter the Acardis aligning with the Romanos.” It needed to be said despite how cold it sounded.
“I thought the same thing about Luka.” He glanced at me, taking my hand and looking at me again as though he was still worried I could’ve been injured or stressed from that scare.
“You thought what?” I asked, holding on tightly. I had no right to seek comfort from his touch, but it was impossible to resist.
“That someone might have wanted to stop the Bernardi name from aligning with the Romanos.”
I shook my head. “But that would have only worked if they’d killed Luka before the wedding.”
He sighed. “I know. Which is why it doesn’t make sense. And if that was the motive, your Family would stand to act on that motivation.”
“My father didn’t kill Luka.”
“I know.”
And he did. I could tell he hated to admit it, but the timing didn’t add up. My parents had been outside looking for me when the poison had to have been slipped in Luka’s drink. I’d considered the possibility of the poison being administered in his drink sooner, but it seemed unlikely. With all the drinks being ordered and given out, the killer would’ve had to ensure it was going only to Luka to get the desired result.
Before we could discuss it any further, my phone rang. I debated picking up when I saw it was my mother, but she would only continue to call me.
She was the enemy now, and it seemed prudent to keep an eye on her, keeping my enemies close and all. Once I spoke with her, I’d block her number.
“Hello?” I answered on speaker. If Renzo trusted me enough to let me listen in to a call with his father, I could return the courtesy.
“What the hell are you doing?”
I didn’t reply. I stared at the phone, waiting for her to tell me what she knew. If she had a reason to call and ask me that, she had to be aware that I was, in fact, up to something. I’d disabled the tracking on my phone, so for all she could guess, I was in my room at home.
“I just received word that the Ornos Family reported casualties in a fight where you were spotted.”
I rolled my eyes and slumped back in my seat. The flames from those burning cars would’ve been impossible to miss. Renzo’s speeding car would’ve been noticed too. We’d been made, and I couldn’t be mad about the fact. It was inevitable in any high-speed race.
“What do you want?”
“With Renzo Bernardi? That’s who they suspect you’re with. Are you fucking insane?”
Renzo’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel.
“What the hell are you thinking?”
“What do you want?” I repeated. I wouldn’t confirm nor deny that I was with him.
“I want to know what the hell you think you’re doing.”
“I don’t owe you answers.”
“Oh, you don’t?” she sassed back.
“This is the last time I’ll ask. What do you want?”
“So long as you are the unmarried eldest daughter of the Acardi Family, you will answer to me. You will listen to what I say.”
I pulled my lower lip between my teeth, not replying. She always caved to the silent treatment. Always.
“Are you running away? Are you?”
“No.” Not yet.
“Really. Because that’s what it looks like to me . Are you running away with a Bernardi, of all people?”
“No,” I repeated. I wished I could. The idea of taking off with Renzo—for good—sounded like a dream coming true. He didn’t want to use me. He only wanted to show me how good it felt with him when we caved to the pressure of this sizzling attraction that bonded us.
“Think again, Giulia,” she warned. “That’s what people are going to say, that you’re running away with Renzo Bernardi because you don’t want to marry who I arranged for you.”
I looked at Renzo, and he squeezed my hand. That simple touch comforted me more than he would ever know.
“You do understand that you’re risking the wrath of Marcus Romano, right?” She huffed. “Not only are you trying to renege on the arrangement to marry Nickolas, but you are also interfering with Renzo’s engagement to Cecilia.”
My heart dropped. I blinked, trying not to fall into this zoned-out shock. Renzo and Cecilia? Since when?
An instant spike of pain lanced through me at the thought of another obstacle standing between me and this infuriating and stubborn man.
“He’s arranged to be with her,” she said. “I’ve seen to it that you will marry Nickolas first, but be aware of what you are doing, Giulia.”
I had no clue what I was doing anymore. With Renzo, it was easy. I followed my heart. I obeyed this desire. Until I knew who killed my father and what was at play in the bigger picture of my world, I didn’t know what was what.
“Come home. Now, Giulia.”
“No.” I couldn’t censor my reply. I blurted it without thinking.
“You must. You come home right now.”
“No.”
She growled. “No? You have no right to tell me no .”
After a week of her hiding in her room after Father’s death, she was issuing her command with tenfold intensity.
“If you don’t turn around and come home now, I will send a capo out to retrieve you. Come home, or let our men bring you home.”
I shook my head and pressed the icon to end the call.
“Giulia—”
I sniffled, fighting back the tears that rushed to my eyes. “How could you keep this from me?” Wiggling my fingers loose, I tried to sever his touch.
He wasn’t having that. Turning sharply, he pulled off the road again. I barely had time to brace myself from hitting the dashboard with his abrupt braking.
“I didn’t,” he argued, snatching my hand back again. He put the car into park and turned to face me. The severe concern shining in his eyes arrested me. The desperation in his tone persuaded me to listen.
“This is news to me.”
I shook my head. “Don’t act like I’m stupid, Renzo.”
“You’re not. Which is why it’s so fucking infuriating to even think about being with a timid idiot like Cecilia. You are the intelligent, brave woman I want in my life.” He slid his hand along my jaw, cupping my face. “I wish I could be arranged to marry you . Only you.”
I swallowed, so moved by his risk to voice those sentiments. I felt the same about him, praying and wishing that he and I could be paired up. We meshed. We worked. If not for the stupid rivalry between our Families, we were a perfect fit.
“Giovanni mentioned the possibility of my marrying Cecilia.”
“In other words, it was planned,” I scoffed, still too guarded to be swooning and duped by his former words of something like love.
“No. I asked directly.” He shook his head. “I asked if he’d set it into action and if I was officially arranged to marry her. He said they’d merely mentioned it. As a possibility.”
“Well.” I licked my lips and lowered my gaze.
He tipped my chin up, forcing me to maintain eye contact with his blue stare.
“It seems that something has changed, then. If my mother can say that with such authority?—”
“Authority?” He grunted. “She doesn’t have any fucking authority. No woman in our world has authority. She’s got to be talking about rumors, using it as a way to convince you to run home where she can try to control you and force you to be with Nickolas.”
I furrowed my brow, hating that he might have a point there. She very well could be using it as a tactic to sway me.
“But she said it. She wanted me to marry Nickolas before you could marry Cecilia. And in that case, you’d win.”
His scowl preceded his heated argument. “ Win ?”
“The Romanos. This… competition to marry into their Family.”
He exhaled long and hard. “I won’t,” he swore. “I don’t want Cecilia, Giulia. I want you. I don’t want to win the Romanos over. I don’t fucking care what it could mean. I want you.”
“That will never happen. Too many people would stop us from forming an alliance.”
“Too late.” He squeezed my fingers and leaned in closer. “We are allies. We’re working together already.”
I blinked, overwhelmed with this familiar warmth of desire that he stoked whenever he neared me.
“I want you .” He sealed it with a tender kiss.
My heart sang with joy at his promise and sweet touch, but I couldn’t lower my defenses.
“We’ll go speak with Cecilia,” he said. “I’ll tell her that we won’t marry. Ever. And if she doesn’t have any information for us that will enable us to figure out who could’ve killed my brother or your father, then we will continue to work together—however we can—until a future that unites us is more possible.”
I nodded then sighed, praying that he could be right.