Dante follows my line of sight.
“Someone thought the ceremony was a good place to test my patience.”
At his cold words, ice slides down my spine.
“They were wrong.”
“Who was it?”
“An associate of your family.”
I can’t breathe.So there had been an attempt to save me from this hideous union.
“Not a very good one.”He looks at me.“Frankly I was disappointed that the effort wasn’t greater.One person.”
Unless my brother and the men he had with him were meant to be part of the rescue mission.
Still, would my father only have sent one man to the cathedral?
I would have advised him to send many more.
No doubt Moretti has considered that as well.
“Where is the man now?”
The answer isn’t immediately forthcoming, making me scoff.I’m no stranger to men like Moretti.“Hospital?”I guess.“Worse?”
“He had a knife.”
“At least he was in a place he could receive the last rites.”
Moretti raises an eyebrow.“Marrying you may be one of the smartest things I’ve ever done.”
“Or stupidest.”
“I don’t underestimate you, Valentina.”
“You would do so at your peril.”
He tips his head to the side in acknowledgment.“Nor do I undervalue you.”
Which was why he’d been watching, waiting for my family to make an attempt to save me.And why he’d personally stepped in to prevent it.
Moretti lifts his glass and angles it toward me.“No one fucks with what’s mine.”
His eyes are more intense than ever, and his jaw is set.
He’s the devil himself, and I belong to him.
I shiver.
“Nico and Dario will be here at nine tonight.”
When he was on the phone earlier, that’s the assumption I’d made.High-level talks are needed, but Matteo and my father should not be part of them.If they were, it would be a flat-out declaration of war.
As of now, the situation is tense, fragile.
The fact that I’m here, married to a Moretti, is possibly the only thing keeping the peace.
