“Alcina.” He took another drink. “He looks at you the wrong way, his eyes are mine. He touches you, I will separate his wrist from his hand with a rusty, dull saw. He falls in love with you, his heart is mine. He’ll be a dead man by the end of the day—one without eyes and hands before his heart stops beating.”
A quiet groan left my mouth. If I didn't meet with Eraldo, his family might use my family as leverage. If I even walked with him, I might lose Corrado after he killed him. His family would want vengeance no matter what the cost.
“What should she do?” my sister asked the question that had slipped my mind.
“Have Nicodemo tell them Alcina left forForza d’Agrò.” He looked at me. “Finish getting ready, angel eyes, and then we're leaving.”
14
Corrado
Iwore a button-down shirt and a vest to meet with her father again. It wasn’t as pretentious as a suit, but the clothes still showed respect.
I had worn the same when I first came to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage, sliding the ring I was to give her in front of him.
“No,” he had said straightaway and then stood from the same seat he had been sitting in when he had entertained the Balistreris.
“Sit,” I had told him, nodding to the chair. “Either way, your daughter will be my wife. So you have two choices. Work with me or against me. If you work against me—” I shrugged. “You will have to work with the Balistreris. Apparently they are not in agreement with one of your terms. Sit and we will discuss.”
Alcina Maria Parisi was my wife, no matter if a piece of paper confirmed it or not. Officially she would be soon. That sacred blood she'd saved for me confirmed all I needed to know. She cut off a man's balls so she could choose me. I'd cut off a man's head because I chose her. I'd earn the name Mercenary in her honor.
Angela had squeezed her husband’s shoulder, staring at me with a look on her face I couldn’t place. I knew this was difficult for him. He felt that he was trading one devil for another to marry his daughter to.
With his back to me, he had said one word, “Why?”
“I love her,” I had said in Sicilian and then nodded to the seat again.
I heard the breath leave Angela’s mouth, and then she went into the kitchen. She returned with a tray of food and drinks for us to enjoy while we hashed out the terms and worked on a plan. Adriano licked his lips and went straight for the tray. Nunzio kept his eyes on all of the doors.
“Tell me,” I had said, when I assured him I could deal with the Balistreris, “what is the last term of your deal with them—the one they refuse to agree to.”
“Will you agree to it without question?”
I had narrowed my eyes at him. “Tell me.”
“You will sing for her,” he had said.
Adriano had started to choke on cheese. Nunzio had to beat him on the back, nonplussed by what Giuseppe had just said. It was a tradition in Sicily. The groom-to-be serenades his bride-to-be from underneath her balcony the night before the wedding.
“Serenata,” Nunzio had said, nodding his head.
I had moved the vest, taking out one of my guns from the shoulder-holster hidden underneath. I placed it on the table before Giuseppe and slid it toward him, right next to the ring.
“Shoot me,” I had said in all seriousness. “I will bleed for your daughter, give my life for her. That should be enough for any man.”
The only one who had laughed was Adriano.
Giuseppe shook his head. “For men likeyou—” he pointed at me “—a bullet is easier than a love song.”
He was fucking right.
“If you do not agree,” he had said, “I will not give my blessing. I will not give my daughter to you without a fight. Even if that means she will go with the Balistreris. For them, this is a business deal, no claim of love. You claim you love my daughter, mybambina.Prove it.”
Angela met my eye and mouthed at me, “Can you sing?” Bringing me back to the time we’d met in front of the church, when she’d said the same thing to me.
All of these fucking tests.
I’d sighed, stood, took my ring and my gun, and left. Which brought me here. Back to the same restaurant—empty of people—sitting in the same seat, Giuseppe in his, Adriano and Nunzio where they had been, and now Nicodemo. The men were placed strategically around the restaurant.
