Dani and Malachai move into the center of the group to cut the lavish triple-tier cake decorated with fresh raspberries and hot-pink roses. After her description of it, I’m looking forward to trying some.
Her words from the bathroom keep bouncing around in my head, and while I can’t be sure she has any idea what she’s talking about, they resonated and left me wanting more than I should. The way she and Mal look at each other is just dreamy. Could I really have something so amazing with the boys? Jagger could have taken my share of the business if that was what he really wanted. It would have been easy, but he didn’t. That has to mean something. Is it that they’re not using me at all and whatwe have is real? My heart thumps a little faster at the thought. I need it to be true. I have pinned my hopes and dreams on them being by my side. It’s the only way I can see my future, as a part of this family, but they have to understand I’m my own person. And I want to do things my way. If they really do care about me like they say, they will find a way to make it work. Won’t they?
I suck in a sharp breath as I try to get my trembling hands to calm down so I can think straight. I bury my head in my hands and try not to cry, even though the tears have already taken over. My chest aches, and my head hurts. Is this what falling in love is supposed to feel like? Because I know I love all three of them. What I don’t know is how to make this work when I can’t trust them and they keep shit from me. I need to feel like their equal.
A hand clamps over my mouth and another around my middle, dragging me backwards around a corner before I can make a sound or get the boys’ attention. I shove at whoever it is, not making it easy for them to take me away. But they are impossibly strong, making my attempts to free myself futile. He drags me into a hallway, with way too many suited men carrying guns entering into the reception hall. Sickness fills me for them, panic erupting over my skin, as gunfire goes off, knowing what this means.
I’m shoved hard against a wall by the security guard who was tasked with watching over me. “Mia principessina,” whispers a gravelly voice from behind him, his Italian accent thick and sending a shiver down my spine instantly.
The guard releases me, and I spin around in a rush and come face to face with eyes I haven’t seen in a very long time. My tears dry up instantly. Leone Russo. A chill comes over me. Leone, or Leo as he’s known on the streets of Rome, is a scary motherfucker. Violent, ruthless, and one of the most notorious drug lords the city has ever known. His lips twist up at the sides, and I’m sure he can see my fear, and he’s getting off on it. Evenwith his face terribly covered in bruises and one eye black and swollen, I’m assuming from his fight with Cruz, his presence is powerful in a way that has me utterly speechless.
“Get back in there and finish the job,” he yells at the man who dragged me out of the function room. Then his glare narrows in on me. “You’re a hard woman to track down.” He moves in closer, and I take a step back until I hit the wall behind me again. I knew no body had been found in the blaze down at the docks, but part of me thought he would be too messed up from the beating Cruz gave him to ever bother showing his face in this town again. Especially at a family event riddled with Stryker security. But now that I look around, our security is nowhere to be found. It’s all men in black suits with guns. Fuck.
“Back the fuck off,” I spit, trying not to let him intimidate me, even though he towers over me. His large frame is ominous and evil in a way I unfortunately know all too well.
He moves to his suit pocket and pulls out an envelope. I jump, thinking he’s about to pull a gun on me. “You’re very twitchy,” he comments, looking me over as he hands me the envelope, a stupid look of satisfaction lighting up his dead eyes.
With shaky fingers, I fumble to open it and feel the color drain from my face as I read the words typed out. It’s a marriage certificate dated yesterday with my signature clearly forged at the bottom beside Leone’s. Anger floods my veins so hard I hear it thumping through my body. I want to hurt him. Hurt all of them for what they’re doing to me. I lunge at him. “You can’t do this,” I snap.
He’s too fast for me, capturing my hands as he shoves me back, my shoulders smacking the wall with force that knocks the air out of my lungs. He leers down at me. “You will come home with me tonight.” His psychotic grin widens like he’s getting off on my anxiety. He’s a cruel man. I always knew it, but now I feel it with the brutal way he has me trapped against the wall.“You didn’t show up for the wedding, so we had the formalities without you. Your dear papa is so easily swayed by a little money, he really would have done anything I insisted.” His eyes darken, and his deranged chuckle vibrates down the corridor, sending shivers over my skin as he pins me to the wall with one arm, his hand stroking down my cheek roughly. “I can assure you this is all very real,mia principessina.”
I shake my head, trying to find words. This isn’t happening. I’m not going to let it. I stare up at him, trying to get my head to catch up with the program and fucking fight.
He lowers his head, and the hand that was grabbing my cheek roughly grips the back of my head as he forces his lips to mine. I scream and shove him viciously at the same time, disgust filling me. My body comes to life, kicking and struggling with everything I have to fight him off me.
He grabs my wrists roughly, pinning them in between us, his thick thighs pressing my legs into the wall so I can’t move. “We have a jet ready to go, and I won’t be left waiting for you a second longer.”
“No,” I spit back at him, anger radiating off me. With all my limbs trapped, it’s all I have. My eyes narrow to slits, and I glare through him like he is nothing. Like I hold all the power even though both of us know that’s far from the truth. “I know why you want me, and I’m not giving up my rights to the likes of you.”
His thick brow rises, making him look as deranged as I know he is. “You know nothing, little girl.” His voice holds way too much amusement.
I snatch my hands back, an instant burn where he was gripping me so tightly. “I know you want my shares in Moretti Media Italy, and you can fuck right off if you think I’m just going to marry you and hand over what I’m entitled to.” My heart races like mad, but I don’t care. I tilt my head a little higher, defiantly. “This certificate is nothing but a fraudulent piece of shit, and Iwill be having my family lawyer prove it.” I tear the thing in two and drop it to the carpet below.
His eyes darken to black, his forehead creases showing his age, and the scowl on his lips makes me want to run for my life, but I stand strong, glaring back at him. He doesn’t try and trap me again with his brute strength. Instead, he watches me with some sort of fresh interest. “Your family lawyer?” He bursts out laughing, and it’s deranged and cruel. “I own you, little girl, you don’t get a lawyer unless I say you need one.” His fingers wrap around my throat, and he shoves me into the wall so hard my feet lift off the ground. “You don’t need one. You’re my wife, and from this moment on, you better get used to the idea, because tonight we fly home to Italy and you will obey me. If you don’t, it’s only a matter of time before I dispose of you.”
Tears spring to my eyes, and I glare through them, not wanting to be so weak as to cry in front of this awful man. “I will never be yours,” I splutter as I bring my knee up to get him in the junk. “And I will never obey you.” The words hiss out of me like a cut snake.
He growls out in pain and releases his tight grip on my throat.
Desperate to get away before he comes good on his threats, I scramble out of his grip, running as fast as my heeled feet will take me up the hall.
His labored breaths and heavy boots come clomping right behind me, but I force myself to keep moving. This might be the only chance I get. Right as I make it to the emergency exit, meaty hands wrap around my shoulders and lift me off the ground. His body is a mass of muscles, hurling us both down to the unforgiving carpeted floor below. I scream with everything I have in my lungs. The air pierced with my desperate attempts to struggle away from him, praying to anyone who will listen that someone can hear me. Music from the party mixed withwhatever horror is taking place in there drowns out my cries, and I know I’m on my own. They have their own battle to fight, and that thought is just as sickening. Because I know the boys would be running to my rescue if they could.
His callused fingers bite into my flesh as he tries to control me and drag me back to him. Not this time, fucker. Never again will a man get to have this sort of power over me, I won’t allow it. I find the gun strapped to my thigh and wrap my trembling fingers around it. “Get off me,” I growl, a darkness to my own voice I don’t recognize.
With the back of his hand, he slaps me across the face in his attempt to control me. Pain radiates through my jaw as tears spring from my eyes, and it feels like fireworks burst to life inside my head. But nothing will stop me now. My anger is too deeply engrained, and I want this fucker to pay for ever thinking he could own me.
I stare him dead in the eyes and pull the gun free of its holster, aiming it at him, and squeeze the trigger without another thought. My body trembles terribly as I wait for impact and pray that I didn’t miss.
A pained cry flies from his lips as blood blurs my vision, but it’s not enough for me. I close my eyes up tight and release the trigger again, only opening my eyes when I feel his cold hands ripping the gun from my grip. “Not a smart move, little girl.” The gun flies from my hands and clatters across the tile floor out of reach as his elbow slams into my ribs.
I gasp for breath, a fresh burn radiating through my body. But I don’t let it stop me. I fight against his attempts to subdue me, using every sharp part of my body I can, an elbow, a knee, whatever can make contact and inflict pain. Blood drips from his shoulder where I must have gotten him, turning my stomach to liquid. My head spins, a wooziness taking over. “You underestimated me,” I stutter back, trying with everything Ihave not to pass the hell out from all the fucking blood and pain thumping through me. If there was ever a time to fight, it’s now.
We struggle against each other, and I know the only reason I have any chance against him is because he’s so badly injured. I use that to my advantage and aim right for his shot shoulder with the palm of my hand, my stomach rolling as fresh blood paints my fingers.
A terrifying roar comes from him, and he pins my arms above my head with his good arm. “You’re as batshit crazy as your brother said you were.”
From behind him a man steps out of the shadows. “Where are all those big bad biker boyfriends of yours now, little sister?” Dante laughs cruelly. He’s almost unrecognizable as my brother, the sight of him crushing in a way I never expected it to.
