I could shoot him right now in the back of the head. Easily. All I had to do was pull out my gun and aim.
Before I realized what I was doing, my hand was sliding inside my jacket.
The couple paused halfway down the aisle to receive congratulations. Sera stopped when Luigi did, turning her profile to me, and I saw the corner of her mouth lift into a timid smile. As though she felt me there, watching her, she looked back over her shoulder and her eyes searched for mine. They dropped down to my hand inside of my jacket, and then back up to my face. Was that a flash of hope on her perfect face? Looking away from me, she smiled again and then placed her hand inside Luigi’s elbow and continued down the aisle.
Slowly, I dropped my arm back onto my side. When I turned, I found Luca watching me, waiting to see what I would do, but not trying to stop me this time. We stared at each other for a long moment, and then I took a step back and allowed my friends to walk ahead of me as we followed the other guests out of the church.
No one spoke until we were inside our vehicle with the doors closed. Tristan was driving. My hands were shaking too hard to grip the wheel.
Luca spoke from the backseat. “We need to go to the reception, and you need to be there, Enzo.”
“No.” I couldn’t do it. I’d barely survived the ceremony.
“This is a game,” Luca said. “You know it as well as I.”
He was right. I did know. I knew exactly why he had married her. “He thinks we won’t come for him if he has Sera.”
“Exactly.” Luca paused. “And he’s right. If I go after him now, she will also be in danger. And not just from me, but from anyone who covets my father’s position as boss.”
“I don’t understand,” Veda said.
“There are only two ways my father will give up his position within the family. By stepping down gracefully, which we know he will not do, or if he’s dead.”
“You plan to kill him,” Veda said, her voice soft and incredulous.
“Yes,” Luca told her honestly. “That was always the plan.”
I didn’t have to look at her to see the horrified expression in her eyes. Veda wasn’t from the world of the mafia. She didn’t understand the way it worked. And sometimes, I wondered if she would survive staying with Luca. But their relationship wasn’t mine to worry about. “I cannotgo there,” I told him.
“You must,” Luca ordered.
I threw my head back against the headrest. “Jesus fucking Christ.” My lungs felt tight. I couldn’t breathe. I needed to get out of this fucking car. “Let me out,” I told Tristan.
“Enzo, what are you doing?” Luca asked.
“Stop the fucking car and let me OUT!”
Tristan glanced over at me and then pulled the SUV onto the side of the road. My seatbelt was off and I was out of the vehicle before it had even fully stopped. I felt like I was going to vomit.
“You didn’t want her, remember? You gave her back to her father. What the hell did you think was going to happen?”
Yanking my sunglasses off, I wiped the sweat out of my eyes. “Get the fuck away from me, Luca.”
He walked around in front of me, one hand shoving my shoulder so hard my back slammed into the side of the SUV. “Get it fucking together,” he growled in my face. “This is what you wanted. We are going to the fucking reception, and you are going to be there with me.”
“I didn’t wantthis,” I hissed at him.
He paced away from me, hands on his hips as he struggled to control his temper. When he did, he turned back to me. “I need you there, Enzo.”
I shook my head. “I can’t, Luca. I can’t. You can’t ask this of me.”
His large hands cupped the sides of my head, forcing me to look at him. What he saw in my eyes made the remaining anger drain from his own. “You know I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t have to,” he said. “But if we let him win this battle, it will ruin everything that we’ve accomplished up until now. Everyone will think I’m a fucking coward. They will thinkyouare a fucking coward. Everyone we’ve brought to our side will turn against us in a heartbeat. You know this as well as I do. And we’ve worked too fucking hard to let that happen. What will happen to us, to Veda—toSera—if my father stays in power? What do you think he will do to her?”
I swallowed hard, and knocked his hands away.
But he wasn’t about to let me go that easily. “We need to show up, and I need you to find that place inside of you that feels nothing. I need you to go there, and stay there. We will toast to the bride and groom, I will dance with Veda, we will eat the expensive fucking food, and you will show my father that you don’t care. And then, when we are ready, I will deal with my father. But not before we are ready, or it will be a death sentence for all of us.”
“And what about Sera?”
