25. Ilaria
25
ILARIA
I feel like I am in college again.
All the girls are in my room, the adrenaline of the night before still running through us as we stayed the entire day inside the suite. We binge watch TV shows and eat takeout without seeming to care about the real world.
They didn’t ask about what happened and for the first time I wondered if they knew more about my life than they let on. Or maybe they were thinking about all the trouble we caused and were worried it was finally starting to catch up with us.
“Have you heard from Dante?” Becca asked, rolling over to grab popcorn from Sammie.
And now we have this problem.
Dante, who had blown up my phone when I was away with them a week ago had yet to answer my text from the night before asking if he was okay. And instead of sending another text to him asking him if he had missed my text I had remained silent for almost 24 hours now and it pissed me off.
“He’s busy working on the club.”
It wasn’t a truth and it wasn’t a lie. He probably was working on the club right now but I hadn’t checked in on him to see what the hell was going on.
The girls and I had finalized a few wedding details in between TV show binges including ordering their dresses for the wedding and showing them a picture of me in my wedding dress.
It made everything seem realer.
Having them involved in decisions and asking them what they thought had me nervous about the day. It was feeling more like a real situation and that terrified me. Especially since Dante wasn’t answering a text.
I was going to punch that mother fucker.
“I think I’m going to spend the night with him.” They all looked at me and I shook my head, “I mean just to sleep with him like we’ve been doing.”
“Expect there won’t be sleeping.”
“Not if he looks like that.”
“Or if you wear that La Perla set you bought a couple weeks ago.”
“Or if you two check each other for bullet wounds. Maybe find other holes that you can treat.”
“I hate you all.” I replied as they all dissolved into laughter at my expense.
Moving to my closet I slid on my sneakers and grabbed a backpack, tossing my clutch I had at the dinner the night before in it and looking at my phone.
Maybe I should call him, have him pick me up. But my stomach twisted at the idea of him ignoring my call and I wasn’t sure if I could handle that kind of blow.
Sammie was already pulling this roll up ladder we had bought in college when we snuck out of the house when my parents were sleeping.
My dad had no problem with having us over as often as possible and had asked me to come home to spend time with my parents, even before my mother was sick.
My friends would all come with me because they were the best but everyone had a wild streak and at times a boyfriend so we would use the ladder to sneak in and out of the house.
Except I had never snuck out alone before and I felt like I was doing something wrong despite knowing I wasn’t.
“If you can’t find Dante I hope you find Francesco.” Tessa said, making me look at her with a shocked expression.
“Who is Francesco?” Madeline asked as her and Becca opened the emergency chocolate stash.
Tessa smirked as I gave her a look.
I was never going to be able to sneak out if they talked about him. I was pretty sure he was guarding this place as well from the way that my father had praised him several times since the shooting. Even going as far as to say he should have had me betrothed to a real man in the first place.
“The hot guy who got us all to a car and safe.” Tessa said as I rolled my eyes, watching Becca’s eyebrow pop up.
“He’s the guy who was outside the balcony earlier.” Becca added to the conversation, her cheeks pinkened slightly before she shoved the chocolate into her mouth.
Why had she noticed him and why was he outside my balcony?
We all looked at each other before it was a race and we were jostling to look over to see if we could see him there. As if he would still be there at one in the morning.
Sammie grabbed me as we hit the balcony dissolving into a fit of giggles as he turned the corner checking the area that surrounded the house before pulling out his phone and not even bothering to look up. All of us were peeking out and wondering if he had seen us trying to find him and then diving down when he finally looked up like he sensed us all watching him.
The prick would probably let it go right to his head.
“He’s so hot.” Sammie whispered as I elbowed her in the ribs, getting a grunt out of her but I watched to see him turn the corner of the house, not even looking back at us. ‘
“All the dangerous ones are.” Becca muttered, she sounds bitter as she says it like she wants nothing and everything to do with him.
Crawling over the railing I started making my way down the ladder, having to jump about four feet because when we ordered it we had done the wrong size.
As soon as my feet connected with the dirt the ladder was being pulled back up and I heard them all laughing as they went back inside my room to watch the next show.
I missed them already but I needed to see what the fuck was up with Dante.
I stick to the shadows as I head for the garage. Pausing when I see Francesco talking to someone on the back of a bike. My eyes narrowed as I realized that it was Dante.
That piece of shit couldn’t answer a text but he was making a house visit.
“...she’s been smoking and eating takeout delivery all day. Her friends are all loud. Very loud and all have an opinion on everything. Loud opinions.”
He was giving him a report on me.
Francesco was a spy.
“Keep an eye on her, okay? I need to deal with the Cartel and may have to leave town for a few days. But you will make details with her friends for us all to go on the trip to Vegas. I want us all in the same Suite or floor. Book a whole hotel if you need to.”
My hands were in fists and before I knew what I was doing I was storming over, two hands shoving Dante as he nearly lost balance falling off his bike.
His eyes were on me, annoyed as he saw me standing there, a sneer on his lips. I had disrespected him in front of someone and I knew that was something that should never be done.
But I was furious.
“You fucking asshole.”
I went to shove him again but Francesco caught be around my waist, pulling me up and off my feet as I lifted my leg, kicking at Dante’s bike. My fury was unmatched as he dismounted, pulling his helmet off.
Fuck .
He looked good in jeans and a leather jacket, his hair falling in his eyes as he smoothed it back like it was a minor inconvenience. His eyes locked on mine as his displeasure clearly illuminated his feelings.
“Looks like the princess escaped her tower. Off to go find a new prince?”
Francesco held me too tight as Dante talked down to me and I was growing more agitated by the second. And then I was overwhelmed.
All of it being too much.
A marriage contract.
Moving out of the house.
The Cartel shooting up our party.
Dante and I not being able to communicate.
Francesco’s hand on my throat on the roof.
My friends giving me looks all day that were on the border of pity.
My life was a mess and every time I tried to put the pieces together it shattered again. It was the most out of control I’ve ever been.
My body went slack and they exchanged a look before I let out a sob.
Francesco let go of me like I was made of fire, his hands going up in a surrender pose as he looked at Dante for what to do.
My hand slides around one of my arms as I sniffed, looking at the man I was supposed to marry in a week.
“I texted you. I asked if you were okay and you didn’t answer me. You let me go twenty four hours not knowing what was going on, locked away at my fathers house like a child without a text back? What’s wrong with you? Hunh? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I went to shove him again but Dante wrapped his arms around me, dragging me to him as I breathed in the scent of him, holding onto him as I fisted his shirt, sobbing against him as he smothered my hair, trying to make soft sounds to calm me.
But I couldn’t be calmed.
My legs buckled and Dante kneels down on the ground as I scream into his chest, letting out a sound so feral, aching with pain in his shirt as he tightens his grip on me, making sure I couldn’t move an inch as I shattered.
“Principessa…”
I howled.
Broken.
This man had managed to break me. After everything that I had been through this was what finally gave into my grief, unable to control myself as I let my emotions take over so violently.
I gave up my control.
“Take her, Francesco.”
My heart is breaking as he rejects me. Pulling me away from him as I tried to adjust to what is happening.
I am being lifted up from the ground, handed over into another man’s arms as Dante let me go.
My eyes, nearly swollen, burning with tears, looking at Dante, his eyes hard as he gives me a look that makes me sob again.
Sighing, he steps in closer, taking my face in his hands as he makes me look at him. Vision blurry and his image shaking as more tears fall down my face.
“You are marrying me, Ilaria. But I need to do this business to guarantee that I will be the one at the end of the altar waiting for you. I need to do this to keep you safe. But I will call you as soon as I can.”
He is confusing me.
I don’t understand what his veiled speech meant. All I knew was that he had pushed me away as I cried and it hurt me. Even as he touched me now it wasn’t enough an I needed him to give me more of him.
His thumb swipes at the tears I have falling and I lifted a hand for his face, rubbing over the beard that was in the shadow of growing.
“I want to go home with you, Dante. Please. Please can I go home?”
His eyes close like the words were an attack against him.
Every time I said please and home he flinched like it was a punch landing straight in his face. Seeing him fight the rage of not being able to give me what I wanted sent shivers down my spine and I whimper trying to get out of Francesco’s arms and back to Dante.
I want Dante.
But he steps back, leaving me with another man as he walks to his bike, shoving his helmet on. Not even giving me the satisfaction of an answer.
“Keep her safe, Francesco.”
And then he was gone.
I whimper as I watch the way he fades from view and frozen in horror that he had just left me there. After I had begged him to take me home he had rejected it.
Did he not think that we shared a home? Did he really think so little of me that leaving was easy for him?
I had given him too much of myself and this was my punishment for feeling.
“Are you done making a scene? Can you climb back up your ladder and hide away all night with your little friends?”
He was setting me on my feet as I shook, unsteady from the burst of emotions. Francesco frowned, steadying me with a hand on my hips as he took in my appearance, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
But what sense could he make?
I didn’t even fully understand what was going on. I was just overwhelmed with this need for Dante, wanting to feel safe. He was where I felt safe and he had left me with Francesco instead of staying and letting me feel protected. Dante had left me in the hands of another
And what he had said to me.
Francesco looked at me, he was waiting for me to ask but I was afraid of what the answer was going to be.
Using words as a weapon was an art form and I was sure that whatever he had meant with his words to me was some form of a masterpiece that I didn’t have time to stare at and pick apart.
“What did he mean about guaranteeing it was him at the end of the altar? What the hell is going on?”
Francesco shook his head as he lit a cigarette, looking at me as he locked his lips and leaned against the house as if he was taking stock of me. It wasn’t a good look, not one where he wanted to consume me.
It was like he was stuck with me and trying to figure out what to do.
“If your boy can’t get the Cartel situation handled you’ll be marrying me, little queen.”
My blood runs cold as I look at him, trying to make sense of what he was saying to me.
And then I remembered the contract that I had signed, the stipulation that I was marrying someone that our parents chose for us. It wasn’t Dante’s name on the line but there was the understanding it would be him.
If Dante failed the family my father wouldn’t let him marry me If he felt like he couldn’t keep me safe he would pick someone else. And my father made it clear by having Francesco here, in our home, that he trusted him.
My stomach knots and I blinked watching him.
Oh Fuck.
“What if Dante fucks me first? You can’t take a ruined bride.”
Francesco laughs at this, literally shakes his head as he steps forward, his hand running through my hair as he grips the back of my head, tilting it back so that I’m forced to look at his pale green eyes.
Double fuck.
“Ilaria, Dante won’t fuck you. He is a stickler for rules. It’s me that you should be worried about ruining you because if I get the chance I’ll pop that cherry of yours and bottle up your virgin blood with my cum as a wedding gift to my cousin.”
My thighs ache as my body deceives me. Fucking Francesco is too hot and when he is talking dirty to me. That just-
“But we both know that won’t happen. You love Dante.”
And at his words my body reacts violently.
I’m puking on his shoes as Francesco lets go of me leaping back as my insides empty of all the junk I’ve been eating for the last 24 hours. The word love hitting my gag reflex and making everything come up.
Love? No. I don’t love Dante.
I swipe a hand over my mouth, taking in a shaky breath as I look at a very pissed off Francesco.
“I don’t believe in love.”
He shakes his head, pulling out a handkerchief square from the pocket of his jacket, bending down to wipe at the shoes that I just ruined.
Serves him right.
“You might not believe in love, little queen. But your eyes when you look at my cousin tell a different story. You better hope he solves this problem because you’ll never get a look like that from me. You might not believe in love but me, I destroy it. I actively seek it out just so I can break it apart. Maybe that’s why you’re attractive to me. I just want to break you.”
And he turns, leaving me outside of my fathers house as he goes to clean off. What the fuck am I supposed to do?
“I thought you left?”
I turn and see Sammie staring at me, then looking down at the pile of vomit that is beside me with her nose scrunching up in disgust at the mess I made.
“I’m headed to the casino to meet someone, do you want to come?”
And that’s exactly what I need.
A night at the casino, playing cards and being someone other than Ilaria Riccio.