He wasn’t playing fair. Left with no other choice, I did as he directed.
His blue eyes clashed with mine. It only took a few moments for him to comprehend what he saw. “You care for her.”
“I care about fucking her.”
“No,” he said. “It’s more than that. Much more.”
“She’s been through a lot. Because of me. Because I offered her protection and then I didn’t provide her that protection. I think she’s earned a respite before she’s shipped back to her crazy father. That’s all.”
“Don’t lie to me, Enzo.”
I clenched my teeth together until they hurt.
“I know you haven’t known her very long, but as I know from my own experience, that doesn’t always matter.” He sighed, and laid a heavy hand on my shoulder. “Would it be the worse thing in the world to have a wife again?”
“Yes.” It would. I refused to subject Sera to the same thing I’d put Alessandra through. “Our life is too dangerous. Especially right now, with you going after Luigi’s position in the family. We don’t know who our friends are or who our enemies are.”
“If you married her, we could coerce her father to be on my side. He would be family. He’d have no choice. And whether we like his methods or not, he’s rising in power up in Dallas. He would be a good ally to have.” He paused. “If you don’t, and we send her back without her virginity intact, what do you think he will do to us when I go after my father? What do you think he will do toher?”
“That’s exactly why you can’t send her back.”
He stared at me, and I could see the way he struggled to understand my thinking. “You’d rather start a war than marry the girl?”
“I don’t see you running off to marry Veda.”
“Veda is not in the same position as Sera. She’s not a mafia princess. And, for your information, I would marry her tomorrow if she would fucking have me. Don’t think I haven’t tried to talk her into it.”
That surprised me. “You proposed? And she refused?”
“She did,” he said, momentarily allowing me to sidetrack the conversation. He crossed his arms over his chest, pulling his black Armani jacket tight across his shoulders. “She has her reasons, and I can’t fault her for them. She’s not from our world, and although I know she loves me, making it official on paper…well, she just needs a little more time to adjust.”
“Sera wants to escape this world. Just like Alessandra.”
His eyes snapped back to mine, and understanding dawned. “Sera is not Alessandra. If anything, she’s better suited to live this life than either your first wife or Veda. She’s grown up in it. She knows what the deal is.”
“That’s all true. And because of all that, she hates this life even more, Luca. She’s here in Austin because she ran from her father. Ran the first chance she had. She was little more than a prisoner and had to stop here to try to earn some money so she can start over somewhere else.”
“And yet you sucked her right back into it.”
“Temporarily,” I insisted, even as the truth clawed its way up my spine. “And I didn’t know who she was when we met.”
“What did you offer her?” he asked.
There was no sense in not telling him. He would find out eventually one way or the other. “Money. Enough to allow her to start a brand-new life. A new name. New identification. And anything else she would need.”
One eyebrow went up. “All of that for a girl you just want to fuck a few times?”
I tried to play it off. “Us Italians are a passionate bunch who go after what we want. Whatever it takes. Right?”
His eyes narrowed at the reference to him kidnapping Veda. “This is true,” he finally said.
Running his hand through his hair, he paced away from me as I waited patiently for him to tell me what he was going to do. I didn’t have to wait long.
“I’m sorry, Enzo, but with the circumstances being what they are, if you’re not willing to marry the girl, I don’t know how else to get around letting my father know she’s here. And she will eventually go back to her father.”
I stared down at the floor, my mind racing. But he was right. There was nothing else we could offer to Ciro Cordaro that would be worth anything to him. Except…
“Wait.”
