“A baby is…huge.”
“A baby is tiny,” I murmur. “Compared to everything else, this? This is a dream.”
“What do you know about love?” Guido snaps suddenly, drawing both of us out of this sudden bubble. “You’re twenty-one, Aerin. You’re too young for love!”
“Mom married you at nineteen,” she snaps back.
“That’s different.”
“How is that different? You were going to marry me off to the Irish. Why is wanting to be with someone I love any different from being with someone I’m sold to, huh? Is it because it doesn’t benefit you?”
Guido glances at his guard who suddenly removes his gun from his hip and places it in Guido’s hand. Then his dark, furious gaze locks onto me. “You.”
“Sir.”
“Don’tsirme,” he spits, striding forward with the weapon raised. “You stood in this fucking office and you swore a vow to me, didn’t you?”
Despite the strength of Aerin gripping my hand, I have to pull away from her and step forward. “I did.”
“Yousworeto protect my daughter. You swore your loyalty to me, and instead I find out that you have broken your vow and defiled my daughter!”
“Dad!” Aerin yells. “It’s not like that!”
“You betrayed me,” Guido snarls. “You should be killed just for that, but that’s not all you’ve done, have you? You broke your oath. Touched my daughter. Fucked her for months. And you sought help outside this family, one of which is allied with another family. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
I can’t take my eye off the gun as I nod slowly. “I knew you would, eventually.”
“And still you turned up here and looked me in the eye like you were on my side!”
“Like Aerin said, I love her?—”
“Love,” Guido spits. “Love is nothing but a curse. Is it really worth your life?” He raises the gun again, this time aiming straight between my eyes.
“It would be a discredit to say I would die for her because I would never willingly leave her,” I reply quietly. “Or my child. But I will fight for her and if that results in my death, then so be it.”
“No!” Aerin surges forward and grabs my arm. “Dad!”
Guido glares at me, then he slowly lowers the gun. “At the warehouse, I saw what you did. You saved my daughter from my son.” His voice cracks slightly. “All this time, Giacomo hated me. Can I blame him? I cut him off at such a young age, hoping it would teach him responsibility. Instead, it taught him to hate me. And his sister.” He shakes his head and a deep, weary sigh escapes him. “Saving my daughter is the only reason you are still standing here, do you understand?”
I understand. Everything I’ve done, every rule I’ve broken, and every choice I’ve made has earned me the swift death I wasnearly dealt in the warehouse. But I saved Aerin. My last act and it’s granted me one more chance at life.
“The price?” Guido meets my eyes. “Leave.”
“Excuse me?”
“Walk away.”
“No.” The answer bursts out of me like a gunshot. “Not on your life.”
“You have no choice,” Guido growls. “I will kill you if you stay, do you understand? If you refuse, then I will shoot you right here and that will be the end ofeverything.”
“No!” Aerin darts in front of me, reaching back to clutch my hand. “I won’t let you and I will never forgive you!”
“I don’t need your forgiveness, Aerin,” Guido yells. “You have also betrayed me! My name has been utterly defiled, dragged through the mud and is gradually becoming worthless! Do you understand what that means for all my men? For every person that works here, and every countless family that’s under our protection? Are you as arrogant as to stand there and tell me your love with this guard is worth the life and safety of thousands of others? Is it?”
Aerin gasps, struggling with her words, and I mirror her struggle.
On some level, yes. Our love is worth all of that because I care for no one but her. But I know Aerin. Knowing her choice sent countless other families into despair, void of protection or safety, would haunt her until the day it claimed her life.
