Chapter 7 – Moretti
Chapter Seven
Moretti
Vanessa downs her first glass of champagne, and I keep a close eye on her.
No one else seems to be paying much attention to her, which could be due to the fact they all feel guilty about leaving her out to dry.
Then again, I haven’t let any of the other families in on my suspicions of how far Grigoryan has fallen, and Vanessa has made it her mission to be as much of a pain in the ass as possible.
Not that she owes them any better. I’m of the mindset that I don’t owe these people anything, and I believe she’s on the same page with me.
She hands off her now-empty glass, grabbing another, and I excuse myself from the conversation I wasn’t listening to, beelining toward the pain-in-the-ass omega.
It’s like she wants to make my job harder than it has to be. I can’t have her drinking too much in view of an audience. At any other time, I’d let her enjoy herself, but tonight, I need her to appear like she’s taking care of herself.
Julian Chapman has barely glanced his daughter’s way, but his eyes narrow as he spots me approaching. It can’t help his mood that Grigoryan is nowhere to be seen.
I’m sure he also didn’t enjoy being blown off by his private physician.
I pluck the glass of champagne from Vanessa’s hand before she can bring it to her lips, handing it back to the waitress.
“Come now, darling. You know why that’s a bad idea,” I say, projecting my voice enough that anyone nearby will be able to hear.
“I needed that,” Vanessa hisses, trying to stretch around me to grab the glass.
I grip her wrist, gently pulling her hand away as I get close to her ear. “What you need to do is to shut up and work with me.”
Julian is furious to see me so close to his daughter, and he strides in our direction.
I check my watch, verifying that my team should be in place. It’s a bit earlier than I planned to make my announcement, but the sooner I get this over with, the faster we’ll be able to leave.
Scooping Vanessa up, I toss her over my shoulder and take off for the stairs. Someone will eventually unhook the rope to give access to the second floor, but I’m fit enough that I go right over it.
“What are you doing?” Vanessa yelps, her hands digging into my ass as she bounces around my shoulder.
Hell if I know.
Vanessa wobbles as I place her on her feet on the same balcony the O’Connors used a few weeks ago to announce the dissolution of their marriage contract with Vanessa’s family.
“Seriously, Moretti, what is happening?” she asks, swiping my hands off her hips as I attempt to steady her.
“I have an announcement to make, and I need you at my side to do it,” I tell her, wrapping my arm around her lower back and guiding her to stand in front of the railing.
“Emory, tell me what’s going on,” she says, calling me by my first name.
I like the sound of it coming from her lips, but I have to get this over with, and quickly.
I swat her ass. “All you need to do is to shut up and look pretty.” If she could fake being in love with me, that would probably help, but I’m not expecting miracles here.
Whistling, I give the signal for my team to be ready to act if anyone should take exception to my commandeering this party.
My head swivels as I scan the crowd, and Julian, Victor, and Vance stare like they’re daydreaming my demise.
Patrick O’Connor raises his glass and smiles. He and his brothers are relieved to no longer have the guilt of what will happen to Vanessa on their consciences. If nothing else, it’s nice to have at least one set of friendly faces in the crowd.
“If I may have your attention.” My voice rings through the air as I wait for the other partygoers to notice something is happening.
Vanessa squirms at my side, but I pat her hip, and she doesn’t disappoint. Her chin rises, and even if she’s terrified, you’d never be able to guess from her expression.
“I’d like to thank our gracious host for a lovely party.” I project my voice to ensure everyone downstairs can hear. “Julian, if I had a glass of champagne, I’d toast to you. Since I don’t, I’ll leave that to the rest of the Boston families.”
Patrick raises his glass and takes a drink of whatever liquor is in his tumbler.
“As you heard from this very spot, a few weeks ago, the marriage contract between the Chapmans and the O’Connors was dissolved,” I say to get back on track.
“That left the issue of the penalty, which has since been cleared in full. My offer to the O’Connors was accepted, and the wire transfer cleared this afternoon.
” I slide my hand down to cup Vanessa’s ass.
“Many of you expected Grigoryan would announce his engagement to Vanessa tonight, but I’m afraid the rumor mill has led you astray.
That was never going to occur. Our marriage was finalized three days ago. ”
I nod at Hawk.
He has his orders and an official copy of mine and Vanessa’s marriage certificate with the special seal. His job is to hand deliver it to Julian.
While he does that, I turn to Vanessa.
“My wife and I would like to thank you for taking the time to come out to celebrate.” My hold on her hip tightens, and I bring the other to cup her cheek, dipping my head. My lips dance over hers as I whisper, “Congratulations. You’re officially a Moretti. You’d better kiss me like you mean it.”
Vanessa gasps as my lips crash against hers, but she doesn’t pull away as I fuck my tongue into her mouth. She melts into my front and wraps her hand around the back of my neck.
Thank fuck for the sky-high heels, otherwise, I’d have to bend practically in half to get to her lips. Her electric scent hits my system every time I breathe, and it makes my chest flutter.
That can’t be healthy.
Perhaps all the stress is getting to me.
I had carefully laid plans for how the next three years would play out. Now my entire life has been flipped upside down. She’d better be goddamn thankful I put my neck on the line for her.
Her pillowy soft lips push against mine as our tongues dance, and the urge to slam her against the wall to officially claim her here and now washes over me from nowhere.
While the rest of the world will recognize our marriage certificate, the mafia families will only accept our union following a public claiming ceremony.
It’s part of the pact between the original seven families, marking the participant as off-limits.
Along that same vein, if any of the other families should come across Vanessa in a dire circumstance, it would be their responsibility to protect her as one of their own in the same way I’m now obligated to do for Charlotte since her claiming ceremony with the O’Connors.
There are strict sanctions against attacking the partner of any of the family heads. Stricter, in fact, than outright attacking another family head. That’s the entire reason a claiming ceremony is worth it. It marks them as untouchable.
I briefly contemplated going ahead with it tonight, but I’d prefer to schedule that for some point in the next few weeks.
There are too many moving parts that need to be set up.
My team is here, but they weren’t in charge of the initial security, and I don’t trust that Chapman did his due diligence.
Vanessa moans, and I pull back from our kiss to avoid taking things too far. This announcement was to make the masses aware, not to put a target on our backs.
Well, as soon as Grigoryan is done with the fire department, and likely Boston PD, I’m sure he’s going to be mighty pissed that I stole his intended fiancée out from under his nose.
That, however, is a problem for later.
I hope he enjoys the lesson I’m in the process of teaching him.
As soon as we step off the balcony and into the upstairs office, Vanessa spins to face me. I still have hold of her hand, but she pokes a finger from the other at my chest.
“What the fuck was that?” she hisses, jabbing her finger into my pec painfully.
I would have been disappointed if she hadn’t had something to say about my little display. Swiping her hand away, I reach into the pocket of my coat, pulling out the certified copy of our marriage license.
“I believe this is your signature, is it not?” I ask as she rips the paper from my hand.
“You fucking dick,” she whispers, examining the very real marriage license. “You stole my signature off the NDA. That’s why you wanted me to sign it.”
“Would you have preferred I left you to rot with Grigoryan, like everyone else planned to do?” I ask, genuinely interested in what she has to say about that.
“No,” she snaps, shoving the marriage certificate at my chest.
“Exactly. I understand the kidnapping rattled you, but you came to my house that day for a reason.” I take the document, fold it up, and tuck it into the inside pocket of my coat. “We both know you wanted to make a deal. Why are you playing coy now?”
“Playing coy?” Her eyes narrow. She looks like she’s thinking about stabbing me in my sleep, and who the fuck knows why it makes my cock rock hard. “You’re unbelievable. What if I had another plan in place? At the very least, you should have given me a heads-up.”
“I didn’t want to risk things going sideways if your father caught wind of my plans.”
“Yeah, well, it still makes you an asshole.” Vanessa slams her heel into the top of my dress shoe, and a half second later, her left fist connects with my kidney.
A low whoosh leaves my lips as my body responds by bending in half.
Vanessa wraps her hand around the back of my neck, pulling me lower and landing a solid right hook.
At least she didn’t slap you.
I’d much rather take a punch than be slapped.
The movement throws her off-balance in her ridiculously high heels, and my hands fly to her waist to steady her.
Once she’s no longer wobbling, I massage my jaw as she glares up at me.
“Feel better, darling?”
“A little,” she says, planting her hands on her luscious hips.
I bark a laugh, shaking my head. “As long as it helped.”
This is likely only the beginning of the hell she’s going to cause me. Only time will tell if it ends up being worth it.
Vanessa and I make it back downstairs, and she plays the part of a doting wife to perfection. She leans against my side, smiling up at me as I speak, but her scent betrays her anxiety. If that didn’t give it away, how she continually darts looks at her father and brothers would.
They keep their distance, talking among themselves, but the explosion is coming.
Charlotte and whatever the woman’s name is who bonded Wilder make their way closer, and Vanessa excuses herself to speak to them.
“I can’t believe you pulled this off,” Patrick says, clapping me on the back. “Julian looks like he’s about to blow a gasket.”
“Good, let him,” I murmur, taking a drink of the awful whiskey the Chapman family patriarch chose to stock. It’s barely tolerable, and I spin, dropping my glass on one of the nearby high-top tables.
“I’m surprised Vanessa hasn’t gouged your eyes out yet,” Malachy O’Connor says, chuckling softly.
“She really had no idea that speech was coming?” Cormac asks. He’s the youngest O’Connor, and I’ve heard he has a penchant for torturing anyone who ends up in his basement workshop.
“She did not,” I acknowledge. “I believe she’s in shock. It’ll take a bit of time for the real Vanessa to make herself known. I’m sure that’s when I’ll need to watch my back.”
“Possibly,” Patrick says. “Then again, there’s no universe where anyone would choose Grigoryan over you.”
That’s not hard to believe, but I’m not about trapping anyone into a life they want no part of. I had no desire for a wife before this situation arose, and I intend to give Vanessa the option to live as she sees fit. At least, once her father and Grigoryan are handled.
Only, my wife is once again fisting a glass of champagne like it’s a lifeline. I sigh, excusing myself and making my way over to where she speaks in hushed whispers to the two women.
“We talked about this.” I pry the glass of champagne away from her with my right hand as the left comes to rest on her lower back.
I toss back the last of the alcohol, holding the empty glass out for one of the servers.
I make sure to project my voice as I say, “We haven’t exactly been careful.
I don’t care if it’s highly unusual for an omega to conceive outside of a heat.
No alcohol until we’re sure you’re not carrying my heir. ”
A sound I can’t quite decipher escapes Vanessa’s lips, and I believe she might be daydreaming about breaking the champagne glass to stab me with the jagged stem.
My eyes meet Julian’s, and the way his jaw clenches tells me he heard every word.
“I mean, good for you,” Wilder’s fiancée says. At some point, I should probably ask that woman’s name.
“Lacey,” Charlotte says, laughing.
“What?” the woman I now know is Lacey says with wide eyes. “He’s stupid hot. More power to you, Vanessa.”
“Thank you.” I chuckle, winking at the woman. “We’ll be leaving soon. Enjoy a few more minutes chatting with the ladies.” I kiss Vanessa’s temple and excuse myself to make the rounds.
I need to gauge the atmosphere of how the other families are feeling after my announcement.
I’m listening to the Torres family patriarch’s warning that I’ll need to watch my back with the Grigoryan and Chapman families now being my enemies when Julian approaches Vanessa.
They speak, going back and forth for a moment before he grabs her by the wrist, dragging her toward the hallway with the bathrooms and dressing rooms.
“Thank you for the advice,” I tell Torres. Normally, I would roll my eyes and ask if he thinks I haven’t thought that through, but I have bigger issues to focus on. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to set my father-in-law straight.”
My strides are long and steady as I cross the room. Everyone must understand I’m a man on a mission because not one person tries to stop me to speak, nor does anyone step in front of me as I move.
I search for Hawk. The man is a beast at over six and a half feet tall. He’s almost always visible above the tops of everyone else’s heads. If not, I look for the ridiculous brown man bun or thick mountainman beard. He heads toward the hallway from the right side of the room.
Good.
I won’t have to rip him a new asshole.
Outside of being my best damn friend, he’s been my number two for years. He’s the only one in my organization that I trust implicitly, and that made him my only choice to assign as my wife’s full-time bodyguard.
Hawk is less than enthused with this turn of events, but he promised to watch over her until we can do an extensive search for a team to take over Vanessa’s day-to-day security.