Chapter 1 #2
The barest hint of a shadow flickered across Dante’s stubble-shaded jaw, so fast I might have imagined it.
“You know why you’re here,” Father continued. “Luca isn’t strong enough to hold off the Russians when they come circling in the wake of Tommaso’s death.”
“Agreed,” Dante replied coolly, dark brows lowering slightly over his keen eyes.
“And that little shit will get rid of me as soon as he can manage to stick a knife in my back.”
I jolted at that revelation. I was mostly kept apart from family politics. I knew my father was as close as a brother to Tommaso, but I’d had no idea that Tommaso’s son would turn on him at the first opportunity. What had Father done to incite Luca’s ire?
“You want an alliance,” Dante said it like it was a foregone conclusion, a fact that had been established before we’d stepped into this meeting.
Father tipped his head in acknowledgement, but the direction of his gaze flicked to Giana and me.
I stiffened, unease coiling in the pit of my stomach.
Why were we here? There was no reason for my sister and me to silently witness this meeting; we certainly hadn’t been called here to offer our opinions or input.
“I’m backing you,” Father announced, his attention spearing Dante once again.
“I will keep my position. I will be your consigliere, and you will take control of the organization. I’m too old to be the boss.
My health is already failing. You’re strong enough to push back the Bratva and even take more territory from them.
You have the instincts and temperament for the job.
You came up from nothing, and you’re our most powerful capo now.
I choose you to be Tommaso’s successor, even if he thinks his son should come to power after his death.
” His eyes lifted in a brief prayer, as though asking for forgiveness for betraying his closest friend’s wishes.
I continued to watch the exchange in tense silence, my mind racing.
Giana and I shouldn’t be here. We shouldn’t know about Father’s planned coup.
It put us in danger, and for all my father’s cruelty, he’d always protected us from the worst aspects of his criminal lifestyle.
The violence we suffered at home was nothing compared to his vicious capabilities when it came to his enemies.
Or, it seemed, his supposed allies. He was prepared to turn on Luca and upend the organization’s power structure in order to cling to his position as consigliere.
Dante’s vibrant eyes cut into me before flicking back to my father. “And how do you propose we seal this alliance?” Again, that almost bored tone, as though he’d known exactly how this conversation would go before he’d even arrived at my house.
Father’s edict dropped like a stone between us: “You will marry my eldest daughter, Giana.”
My sister’s sharp gasp spiked through my heart, her fear lancing me with rage. My fingers curled at my sides, and my spine stiffened. She might be the eldest, but I’d always been her protector. She trembled at my side, wilting at the prospect of my father’s command.
I stepped in front of her, shielding her from him and from Dante’s arrogant gaze. How dare they treat my sister like an object to be traded? She was kind and gentle, and she deserved to be loved, not used like a pawn in a mobster’s power play.
“I won’t let you do this,” I seethed, my defiant stare clashing with Dante’s intense green eyes. They flared slightly, darkening with some emotion I didn’t fully understand.
I ignored the strange look and took a step toward him, getting in his personal space as though I could physically intimidate the mountain of a man. “I won’t let you anywhere near my sister.”
The capo was a monster with a fearsome reputation. He would be cold and possibly abusive to Giana, and she was far too frail to withstand that kind of cruelty. She would wither and waste away if I allowed them to cage her in an arranged marriage with a heartless bastard.
Dante had unnerved me during our brief exchange in the foyer; Giana would crumble if he turned that intense attention on her.
I dared to take my eyes off the threat so that I could glare at my father. “You can’t sell Giana like this. I won’t allow it. If Mom were here—”
“Don’t talk to me about your mother!” Father boomed. “I won’t tolerate this disrespect.”
He nodded at Giorgio, and suddenly the beast was looming over me.
Pain cracked through my skull when his meaty hand collided with my cheek.
I reeled, black flickering over my vision as a hundred bees stung my face.
My eyes watered, blurring the room. Giana’s arms were around me, holding me upright when the world tilted.
In the heartbeat of dizziness, a terrible snarl ripped through the study, followed by a booming thud. I blinked hard, desperate to assess my surroundings and avoid the worst of the next blow.
But the hit didn’t come. Through my watery vision, I saw Dante holding Giorgio up by his neck as though he weighed nothing, pinning him against the bookcase with one huge hand wrapped around the guard’s throat.
Shock punched me at the sudden violence, taking my breath away.
Dante’s beautiful features were twisted into something almost feral.
“Dante!” Father barked, a thread of fear in his voice.
The younger man didn’t heed the warning. His full lips peeled back from his teeth as he lowered his face closer to Giorgio’s purple features.
“No one touches what’s mine,” he snarled at the man who’d been my tormentor for years.
My stomach dropped to the floor, and my head spun. I couldn’t fully take in the implications of his furious words.
“That’s enough,” Father insisted, the command hitching slightly.
“Apologize,” Dante hissed in Giorgio’s rapidly darkening face. My assailant twisted and struggled for air.
“I’m…sorry,” he gasped out when Dante loosened his grip a fraction to allow him space to suck in a tiny breath.
“Don’t look at me when you say it,” Dante said, his voice going cold and more tightly controlled, some of the primal ferocity ebbing away. “Look at her.”
Giorgio’s eyes rolled with fear, but he managed to direct them at me. “I’m sorry,” he forced out, tears streaming down his face.
Dante dropped him like garbage, stepped away, and straightened his suit. The snarl had melted, and he was coolly composed once again, as though he hadn’t just nearly strangled a man to death.
“I accept your alliance,” he told my father. “But I’m marrying Elenora, not Giana.”
As my mind spun, Father’s eyes narrowed, bristling at the challenge. “She’s my youngest. Giana should be married first.”
Dante met him head-on. “It’s Elenora, or the deal is off. She will be my wife, or I walk away right now.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Father shot back. “You want this too badly. You’ve been working toward it your entire life.”
Dante’s head tipped back, his lip curling with contempt. “I can take control without your help, old man. I’m offering you a seat at the table. All I ask in exchange is your daughter, a price you were already willing to pay.”
My fingernails cut into my palms, and I bit the inside of my cheek as I trapped defiant words behind my pursed lips.
I wanted to rail at him that I wasn’t an object to be traded any more than my sister was.
But I could see the cold determination in Dante’s glittering eyes.
He would take what he wanted, one way or another.
He would step over my father’s dead body to seize control of the organization.
And then, he could claim anything he desired. Including my sister.
I wouldn’t let him have her. This monster of a man wouldn’t touch Giana. For some reason, he preferred me at the moment, and I wouldn’t give him a chance to change his mind.
“I’ll do it,” I forced out through gritted teeth.
“Nora, no!” Giana exclaimed, her hand suddenly a vise around my clenched fist.
I shook her off and squared my shoulders, facing Dante with defiance and determination. If this beast of a man was going to marry one of us, it would be me.
Sparks danced in the depths of his deep green eyes, and his lips curled at the corners, that amused expression once again gracing his painfully handsome face. I suppressed a shudder and kept him locked in my stare.
“I will marry you,” I said, the oath ashes on my tongue.
The words were surreal, as though they were issued from someone else’s lips. But Dante’s intense gaze kept me riveted, rooted in this awful reality so that I felt every aching beat of my racing heart as it hammered against my ribs.
Two thick fingers curled beneath my chin, gently turning my face so that he could inspect my stinging cheek. His dark brows drew low over his eyes, and angry lines appeared around his mouth.
“No one else will touch you ever again, little bird,” he promised, his voice a low rumble. He spoke as though it was a reassurance, not a horrific claim over my future, my forever.
“Girls, leave us,” Father snapped. “Dante and I have a lot to discuss.”
Giana’s small hand wrapped around mine, tugging me away from the predator who held my chin with such shocking gentleness. He’d just strangled Giorgio with the same long fingers that now caressed my face.
My breath stuttered, and I allowed Giana to pull me away from the man who’d just condemned me to a life sentence. My fiancé. I would marry this brute. I would’ve done anything to protect my beloved sister, but my insides began to quake at the reality of the commitment I’d just made.
In the back of my mind, I’d always known such an arranged marriage was a possibility.
In our world, a love match was too much to hope for.
Especially if my father was the one making the arrangements.
He’d never miss an opportunity to secure more power, and if that meant using his own daughters to solidify an alliance, he wouldn’t hesitate.
But that was always a vague future prospect that I hadn’t allowed myself to fully contemplate.
I’d allowed my head to fill with fantasies of romance based on the novels I indulged in secret.
I’d hoped that my father’s emotional neglect might extend to my future prospects and that he wouldn’t care about my marital preferences.
I would never be allowed a match with someone outside our organization, but I might’ve chosen someone gentler than Dante Torrio.
If his scheme with my father worked, Dante would be the boss. He would rule our crime family with an iron fist, and that would include me.
He’d just committed shocking violence to claim me for himself.
No one else will touch you ever again, little bird. From now on, Dante would personally be the one to keep me in line. I no longer had to fear my father’s men, but my future husband was far more terrifying than even Giorgio, his cruelest guard.
My fingers went numb in Giana’s as she urged me out of the study and back into the hall. My chest grew tighter with every quick step across the burgundy rug.
“I’ll get you out of this, Nora,” she pledged shakily. “I won’t let this happen.”
“No,” I refused, my tongue feeling strangely thick in my mouth. “He can’t have you. I can handle him.”
She clutched my hand more tightly. “I won’t let you do this for me.” Her voice wavered with tears. “He’s a monster, Nora. You can’t marry him.”
My lungs seized. I couldn’t draw in enough air to argue with her. I rushed toward the front door, bursting out into the crisp fall air. It seared my lungs as I gasped in deep gulps of fresh oxygen.
Dizziness swept over me, and I didn’t see the men coming for us until it was too late.
Tires screeched as brakes slammed, and the doors on three black SUVs flew open.
A dozen men surged toward us, and Giana’s scream ripped into my chest. The fearful sound sharpened my senses, adrenaline spiking to throw everything into sharp relief.
Time slowed, and I saw the huge man who made a grab for her: Luca Vitale.
I’d memorized his strong, stony features over the years, harboring a foolish crush on the ruggedly handsome man.
There was nothing charming about his ochre eyes now. They were dark with grim determination as his meaty hand closed around Giana’s arm.
“You saved me the trouble of coming in to get you,” he rumbled, tugging her close.
I threw myself at him, shoving at his brick-hard chest. “Let her go!”
He sneered at me, unmoving under my assault. “I’m here for Dante’s bride. Your father is a traitor. He’ll pay for that. Now, get out of my way.”
My heart leapt into my throat, but I managed to force words past it. “She’s not his bride. I am.”
His brows drew together, and he paused his progress in dragging Giana back to the SUV. “But you’re Elenora.”
“Yes,” I seethed, hating him with every fiber of my being. Hating Dante. Hating my father. “I’m Elenora, and I’m supposed to marry that monster, not Giana.”
I couldn’t let Luca take her away from here. He’d clearly learned of my father’s betrayal somehow, and he’d come to destroy those plans by stealing Dante’s bride away. We truly were nothing more than pawns to these awful men.
“If you’re looking for Dante’s fiancée, I’m right here,” I flung at him, shoving his chest once again. He didn’t so much as sway beneath the impact.
His lips pressed together in a grim line, and he released Giana. I didn’t have time to draw in a relieved breath before his hands closed around my waist. The world spun, and my abdomen collided with his muscular shoulder. I shrieked and struggled as he carried me away from my sister.
She screamed my name as Luca hauled me toward the waiting SUV, stealing me from Dante as though I was his property, his prize of war.
My fists beat against Luca’s back, my body refusing to simply surrender to this awful fate. His thick fingers dug into my upper thigh, just beneath my bottom. I cursed him and twisted, unable to shift so much as an inch out of his hold.
Then I was in the car, his strong arms caging me as the door slammed shut like a prison cell. We peeled away from the curb, leaving my sister screaming on the pavement outside our family home.
I looked up into my captor’s light brown eyes, finding no warmth in their caramel depths.
“Where are you taking me?” I demanded, voice shaking almost as violently as my hands.
“To get married,” he said coldly. “You’re not Dante’s bride. You’re mine.”