“Whatever man you choose will have to know he will face backlash from Father. He’ll try to have him killed for going behind his back when he has other plans for me and my future.”
“I know.” Romeo hesitated. “That’s why this person needs to be close to the family, including Father. It has to be someone believable who’s been there a long time.”
Lorenzo was no longer looking bored. His dark eyes were trained on me, intense and possessive. Mossimo compared me to a lioness earlier, but again, I felt like the zebra ready to be devoured by the true predator sitting across from me.
Chapter Four
Lorenzo
I watched the various emotions slide across her face – anger, shock, then fear. Bianca was my one weakness, and she didn’t even know it. Her father had no idea he had handed me his daughter on a silver platter. Romeo mentioned a marriage in name only between her and me, followed by a possible divorce or annulment once she was safe. Unbeknownst to him, those options would not be on the table after we’d exchanged our vows.
“No.” Bianca said hoarsely, “He will kill him for this.”
“You will marry in secret as a backup plan,” Romeo informed her. “The man he’s arranged for you is part of a major criminal organization that makes our family look like petty crooks.”
“What if he tries to hurt Lorenzo or promises Giana or Nicoletta in my place?” Her concerns were valid, and Romeo and I had expressed them ourselves when we’d discussed how best to protect Bianca.
“That’s why we keep it quiet as long as possible,” he answered. “There are a few things I have to wrap up before I can take over, Bea. If I tried now, I couldn’t guarantee the loyalty of some of his men.”
“Gino,” she said quietly. “Don’t trust him.” The look in her eyes and the way she wrapped her arms around herself tighter had rage simmering in my veins.
“How do you know we can’t trust Gino, Bianca?” I asked her, keeping my voice as calm as I could manage.
“He’s Dad’s right-hand. Birds of a feather....” She let the old adage trail off, but I got the feeling she was hiding something.
“We don’t, Bianca,” I assured her, even though I wanted to demand answers. “He’s an expendable pawn and is one of the pieces that have to be moved, carefully.”
“What if we just lie and say we’re married?”
I was already shaking my head, yet I allowed Romeo to respond since he would be the next head of the family. While she was mine to take care of and protect, I couldn’t do shit until she carried my last name. It was infuriating to have to take a backseat, despite the fact that I’d been doing it for years. When Mossimo started guarding her, I’d seen the interest in his eyes when he stared at her. I wanted to cut them out and remove him from her detail, but it wasn’t my call as I was neither the boss nor the underboss. I also wasn’t her husband. So, I did the next best thing. I threatened to put a bullet in his brain if he so much as flirted with her. He wasn’t to say her first name or deepen their interactions beyond being acquaintances. She was only to be Miss Morelli to him, a message he received loud and clear, as I’ve never heard him use anything else.
When I opened the door to see her standing there, scared and shaking, his hand hovering over the small of her back, I wanted to chop his hand off for daring to touch what was mine. Nobody knew the depth of my obsession with my best friend’s sister, not even Costa. He knew I wanted her, of course, just not that I’d been obsessed with her since the day I moved into their house after my father’s death.
I cared for Giana and Nicoletta, but my main concern was Bianca. She was always doing something to inadvertently piss her dad off, either that or he had it out for her more than the others. All she had to do was breathe the wrong way, and he’d get upset and be ready to punish her.
“That won’t work, Bea,” Romeo spoke up. “It has to be official to buy us time if he tries to push the wedding up. I’m going to do what I can to get him to wait longer, but in case I can’t, we’llneed all the help we can get. If you have to go through divorce proceedings, that could take a while.”
“Or he could kill Lorenzo,” she pointed out with worry lacing her voice. “A widow can be married much faster. I won’t put him or anyone else in danger like that.”
“I’d put a bullet through Dad’s head myself if he tried to go after Lorenzo,” Romeo promised her.
Bianca stiffly rose to her feet and started pacing the floor in front of us. “I won’t agree to this, Romeo. You need to have my consent, and I do not give it. I won’t put other people in his path.”
Romeo was about to speak, until I raised a finger to silence him. His sister was confident her brother loved her enough not to force her. I was not that merciful. “Bianca, you’re going to marry me. That’s not up for debate.”
“You can’t make me.” I smiled at her attempt to stop this, and my reaction had her taking a step back.
“But I can. You see, I told Mossimo if he ever touched you, I’d kill him. If my memory serves me correctly, and it does, his hand was on your back earlier.”
“You were the one who threatened him.” While shocked, her voice was more statement than question.
“Yes. He knew the risk, yet he put a hand on you. Now, I can let it go if you agree to marry me, or I deal with him. You decide. Whose life are you willing to put on the line? Mine, which may not be in danger, or Mossimo’s, whose life already is?”
I watched as she swallowed, then shook her head as if in denial that I would do what I said. It was only a half lie. Would I kill someone for touching her? Without hesitation. All these years, the only thing that stopped me from killing Luca Morelli was his children. Massimo had no such protection from me. I may not kill him for touching her back, like that, but I would fuck him up for disobeying my warning.
“You can’t do that,” Bianca rasped out. “He didn’t do anything.”
“I saw his hand on you. Although I’m willing to overlook it if you agree to be my wife until this is all over and you are safe.” She bit her lip, and I wanted to pull it from between her teeth, but I resisted.
