I grind my teeth and my nostrils flare at the thought of Liana approaching Tomasso to set up an arranged marriage with his kid, but that can’t be it.
“I don’t know about that,” I mumble out.
I’ll never forget the recognition on Liana’s face when I called herbellezza.
“I don’t get involved with mobsters.”
She has a wall up when it comes to our world, so I know that’s not what she’s going to Tomasso about. The question is, what else could it be?
4
LIANA
“Tomasso Caruso, my name is?—”
“Liana DiMaggio,” the older man says with a smile that most would find attractive. But knowing what I know about him, I just raise a brow, making sure to keep my guard up with a man like him.
I extend my hand out, which he looks at before standing from his desk and shaking it. Before I’m able to pull it away, his grip tightens and he brings it up to his mouth, placing a kiss on it. I give him the sweetest smile I can muster but internally wince, then subtly wipe my hand on the side of my cashmere coat once he finally releases it.
“Can I take your jacket?” he asks.
“I’m okay, thank you, though. This shouldn’t take long.”
“Please, take a seat, then,” he says, gesturing to the chair behind me with a confident smirk that has me second-guessing how this meeting will go. “What brings you to my place? Andalone,might I ask. No guard today?”
“There aren’t any active threats against my family, so having a guard on me twenty-four seven isn’t necessary. Besides, I’m perfectly capable of having a meeting with you on my own.”
Tomasso chuckles. “You’re a spunky little one, aren’t you?”
“If by spunky you mean a woman who can hold her own perfectly fine in a world that’s run by men? Sure, I’m the spunkiest,” I say with a loose shrug but the purest smile on my face.
My remark seems to tug at the corner of Tomasso’s mouth, but he doesn’t respond to it. “What can I help you with, Liana?”
His eyes glisten with intrigue, so I get right to it. I don’t have time to waste. Getting down to business is something I’ve always been good at.
“I’m here on behalf of Gregory Taylor, Colton Taylor’s dad. I’m sure you know him.”
Tomasso laughs again and says, “Of course I know my daughter’s boyfriend’s father. Great guy he is, huh?”
The slight hint of sarcasm in Tomasso’s tone doesn’t bypass me, and it heats my skin that he would treat his daughter’s boyfriend’s family in such regard.
“I’m here to pay off his debt.”
Tomasso lets out a humorous scoff. “And why would a sweet little thing like you want to do that?”
“Alessia means a lot to me and I want to see her happy. You holding this debt over Colton’s head, destroying his career in football, is only going to hurt her.”
“Alessia will get over it,” he chides. “There are plenty of men in this world that would be honored to have her as a wife.”
“But she loves Colton,” I state, the protective instinct for her coming out in me.
“And I’ve let her have her fun with him, but once she realizes he’s just a useless little athlete that will never amount to anything more after I’m through with him, she’ll move on to someone much better. Much more fitting for our family.”
I let out a sigh, now understanding why Tomasso won’t take his daughter’s money. He wants to control her and marry her off to benefithim.
Arranged marriages are common in our world, but it still grates on my nerves knowing men like this exist. How can a father force his daughter to marry one man when she’s clearly in love with another?
It’s why I’m grateful to be in the family I’m in. If my parents were alive, I don’t think they would’vemademe marry someone. Would they have wanted to set me up? Sure, but they wouldn’t havemademe marry a man if I was adamant about being with someone else.
