Chapter 3
DANTE
She’s so beautiful with her long, wavy black hair and brown eyes so dark they’re almost the color of midnight. She’s a lot shorter in person, especially with no heels on. She’s five-three while I’m six-three. My brothers and I are all tall, taking after our father.
Thanks to my constant surveillance, I knew she’d be at this bar. After I watched her run from her house, I beat her here.
Raquel Bianchi is predictable that way. She likes to hide out in this crummy hole-in-the-wall bar whenever she’s upset. I would’ve been really pissed if she’d chosen to go elsewhere.
I’ve been keeping tabs on her for a year now, intercepting all her calls and having my men follow her when I couldn’t do it myself.
When my brothers and I set the plan in motion to hurt the Bianchi brothers, Raquel was always the chess piece I was born to play. We knew how much she meant to her father, and we knew how much they hated us.
At first, when I saw her photo while we planned our revenge, I only wanted to trick her into marriage to punish her father for hurting our family. Marrying his daughter would do the trick. But then we decided we could use her as a bargaining chip to get her father out of hiding.
Not that I’ll ever give her up, but I could easily convince her father I would trade her life for his. Unlike Faro, he’d probably choose to save his daughter.
Little does Sal know that Raquel will be mine, and she’ll stay that way, even though she doesn’t know it yet. The Bianchi men have always thought they’re better than us. The thought of the Cavaleri boys marrying a Bianchi woman would be hell to them.
I can’t wait to let her father know the happy news…right before I put a bullet in his skull. It’s too bad he won’t be attending the wedding, unless it’s in a coffin.
I have no plans of falling for my enemy’s daughter. Raquel may be innocent, but she still shares their blood. We may be married soon, and I’ll even fuck her, but I’ll never fall in love with her. A loveless marriage is all we’ll have.
She can blame her father for that. He stained her with the blood of his mistakes, and for that, she’ll always pay. I might not be as cruel as Carlito, but marrying me will be its own prison. This little bird will never truly be free.
I can provide her with something Carlito can’t, though: a life not ruled by fear. She’ll never have to be afraid of a man hurting her again.
Tonight, after I left Viper, one of the dance clubs my brothers and I own, I went to the wedding she was attending and made sure Carlito wasn't doing what she didn’t want him to do.
I blended with the crowd, completely unnoticed amongst the hundreds of people in attendance.
When they were heading out, I followed them back to her parents’ house.
I’ve gotten to know her soon-to-be ex-fiancé quite well. He likes to frequent Tips it feels like I know her.
She doesn’t deserve any of this. Not what her family planned for her, and not what I’m planning. But sometimes life beats down on people who don’t deserve it, leaving the evil ones unscathed. It’s unfair, but it’s reality.
My brothers and I didn’t deserve the shit we got either. Matteo didn’t deserve to never know what it means to live, but he was killed anyway.
When I heard what Raquel said to Chiara earlier tonight, about how she wanted to kill herself, I knew I had to make our introduction today. Give her the opportunity to accept the offer that’ll change her life forever.
If she doesn’t accept, I’ll have no choice but to take her against her will. It’s much easier if she’s not kicking and screaming. Not that it’d matter. None of the men securing my place would give a shit.
When she finds out the real truth about me, it’ll be far too late. She’ll be Mrs. Cavaleri for the rest of her life, whether she wants to be or not.
This is, until death.
I never expected her to want to leave with me tonight. I had this plan of flirting my way into her panties and then letting her know I need a wife, but she’s made things a lot easier…so far.
“Hey.” I reach out my hand for hers, tucking her fingers in my palm. “It’s gonna be okay.”
“No, it won’t.” Bitterness grows in her eyes. “It’ll never be okay.”
“You don’t know that. You never know where your life will take you.” I glance at her in between focusing on the road. “I mean, did you ever expect to meet a handsome man at four in the morning?”
She half laughs, half cries while swiping under her eye. “No, I actually didn’t.”
“So you do think I’m handsome.” I lift a brow, my lips turning with a grin as I catch the light in her eyes from the smile now on her face.
“You’re okay, I guess,” she giggles pitifully, sniffling and taking her hand back. “A lot better than the man I’m being forced to marry, that’s for sure.”
“It’s funny.” I pause, setting my plan in motion. “You want to get out of a marriage, and I want to get into one.”
“What do you mean?” Her head tilts to the side, eyes laser-focused on me.
“Well…” I make a left turn, cruising down a bare street. “There’s this property I badly want to secure. But the problem is, the owner won’t sell to me.”
“Why?” Her brows furrow.
“I have to prove I’m a happily married man first.”
Her eyes widen. “That’s crazy.”
“Yep.” I shrug. “The owner is old and has his rules. Something about a married man being better suited to take care of the house. If I want his place, I have less than a week to find a fake wife who can live with me for three months and pretend to be mine.” I turn right, nearing my house.
“I kind of told him I was already engaged and the wedding is in two weeks.”
Her mouth falls open.
“Now you see the problem?” I grin.
She nods with a nervous laugh. “A little.”
“He wants to see the marriage certificate once it’s finalized,” I explain further. “And after he’s happy that I’m married for three months, he’ll sign the contract for the property.”
I fucking hope she buys this shit, or I’m going to have to do what Dom will be doing to Chiara tonight: lock her away in a room until she accepts her new world.
“Do you have anyone in mind?” Her eyes narrow.
Yes. You.
“Not yet. It’s a hard ask, even with all the money I’d offer her in return.”
And the pot has been sweetened.
“Money?” Her tone rises with excitement. “How much money?”
“I think a million tax-free would be fair. What do you think?”
Her brows shoot up. “I’ll do it!”
“What?”
I turn my head to her as I park the car in my driveway.
“Are you serious? You should really think about it,” I push, but internally I’m grinning like a bastard, knowing I have her where I want her.
“I don’t need to think about it.”
She reaches for my arm, clinging to my bicep with all the desperation slinking in her eyes. I feel it and hate that I do.
I’d let you fly away if I could, little bird, but I can’t. You’re mine now.
Will she be this desperate to escape me when she learns of her new fate?
It shouldn’t matter to me. None of it matters. Not her pain, and not what I have to do. It’s all irrelevant. The only thing that I care about is avenging the deaths of my family.
“Look…” She drops her arm away from me. “I don't have anywhere to go. If I go home, I'm afraid my mother will send me to the altar the next hour. And my fiancé? He’s a real asshole. I'm scared of what he'll do once he gets his hands on me. So even if you’re some crazy psycho killer…” She laughs. “That’s okay. I was considering offing myself tonight, so you’d be saving me the trouble.”
Those words slam right into the center of my chest.
Fuck. This woman.
“Raquel….”
I lift up my hand, my fingers inching toward the sharp contours of her face. My palm finds her cheek, and I love how well it fits.
“Don’t say that,” I whisper, my thumb feathering softly over her skin.
She blinks the tears away, but they can’t hide from me. I see them. I feel them rotting through the marrow of my bones. I hate that I feel sorry for her, but I can’t block it out. The sensation overcomes me. She’s such a good person; it kills me to see that amount of pain in her eyes.
“I’m sorry for my sob story.” Her voice cracks, dripping with emotion. “Maybe I was meant to meet you. Maybe you’re my one chance to have a fresh start, somewhere they can’t find me.”
I wish that was true.
“I’ll help you. I promise.” My lips betray her even while my eyes pretend that I’m a good man.
She melts into my touch, her eyelids drifting closed as her breathing evens.
“If you’re serious about this, then I’ll get you whatever you need to start a new life once your three-month commitment is up,” I add. “I’ll hand you a new identity, a passport, and you can pick wherever the hell you want to go. No one will stop you.”
I’m such a bastard.
“You’d do that?” Her face lights up, those eyes glistening.
“I’d do that. No questions.”
There’s so much hope on her face, and it won’t be pretty when she realizes none of this is real.
“Thank you!” she cries, throwing herself at me and wrapping her arms around my neck, her small sobs denting the armor I’ve built around my heart to keep her out of it.
Stop caring about her. She’s nothing.
But I can’t seem to.
My arms go around her, tugging her even closer, wanting to protect her and not understanding why.
She’s the daughter of my enemy. Why do I care what happens to her? Why do her tears make me want to rip out Carlito’s heart and feed it to her father?