Despite my nervousness, I feel my lips twitching at his gallows humor. “It’s a good thing Dante isn’t coming. He would definitely cause trouble.”
“Very true. Unfortunately, I have my own betrothal dinner to attend.”
Another concession for peace in the Trio, the future Capo of Chicago will marry the oldest daughter of New York’s Consigliere, Margareta Russo. As she’s already of age, the marriage will take place in a few months. “Are you nervous about meeting her?”
“Why would I be?”
“You have to marry a woman you’ve never met. What if she doesn’t like you?”
Even as I speak, I realize how silly I sound. Marriages in our world are rarely a matter of liking, much less love. Nico is a man, and he’ll be Capo. He has never expected to marry for anything beyond strategic purposes and to produce an heir someday.
But, what if the Consigliere’s daughter has cherished romantic daydreams she secretly wishes would come true?
I should know better.
She will move to Chicago and be at my brother’s mercy upon their wedding day. It’s her I should empathize with. Except I trust my brother not to abuse her. My future husband on the other hand…
“Is it true that he likes plucking out eyeballs and pulling teeth while his victims are still alive? And, that he skins men who have wronged them?”
“Who told you about this?”
“I overheard Manfredi and the other guards talking.”
The look Nico gives my bodyguard is one of utter contempt as he wraps an arm around my shoulders. Grateful he’s allowing this closeness, I snuggle against him, taking comfort in his familiar scent and wishing the car ride might never end. “He’s more brutal than most, but he is his father’s Enforcer. There is no room for mercy or weakness in such a position. Your heart places us on a pedestal, but my Curious Cat is a smart girl. You must know that Dante and I are not so different from Alessio.”
“Don’t compare yourselves to the Reaper. He’s a monster.”
“So are we. Alessio has younger half-sisters and a much younger half-brother. I have never met them, but I haven’t heard of Alessio mistreating them. We are monsters but even monsters might not bring their savagery home with them.”
“But I won’t be the little sister he loves. I’ll be his wife whose brother he hates. He’ll use me to… He’ll mistreat me. One way or another. He’llneverlove me.” My chin trembles, thinking of the misery that awaits me.
“Cat, don’t.” His tone is harsh, but I recognize the pain behind it. Nico blames himself for my fate and, in my darkest moments, I blame him, too. But it was my father who had made the agreement with De Luca even before the originally intended groom was killed.
With a shuddering breath, I resolve not to cry, and the tears remain clinging on my eyelashes. “Is it true about the wedding night and the sheets?” I whisper, hoping Manfredi will not wake up to hear my girlish fears.
“Who told you of that? Not the guards,” Nico says, his voice tinged with amusement now.
“Girls at school.” I attend an all-girls, Catholic school where many of the girls come from families like mine, but that doesn’t mean we live in a vacuum.
“You should ask our mother about such things.”
“Mother tells me nothing except to stand up straight, fix my hair and mind my tongue. I’m asking you.”
For a long while, his gray eyes study mine before he answers. “The Sicilians hold to their bloody sheets, but it won’t be the spectacle you might imagine in Vegas. There, it is only the bride and groom’s fathers who view the sheets the morning after the wedding to confirm consummation.” I start rocking in my seat with embarrassment for my future self, picturing my father and his inspecting the proof of my lost virginity. “It’s tradition, Cat.”
“I hate our traditions! Our traditions should’ve died out centuries ago!”
Manfredi snorts in his sleep so Nico gestures for me to lower my voice. “But, they have not. Do you know why?”
“To keep all of us girls virgins until our wedding night,” I grumble.
“Yes, to show you are an honorable Italian girl but, for your groom, it is a test as well.”
“A test of what?”
“His resolve to claim what is his without hesitation, to prove his pitiless nature even when it comes to his virgin bride.”
“By raping her?”
