“You’ve been promised to Mr. Salvatore.”
My stomach bottomed out and I felt like I’d just been sucker-punched. My mother was right. Shifting from one foot to the other, I tried to ignore the way my breathing felt heavier with each passing second. “Promised in what way?” I asked more for confirmation than wanting to know the answer.
“You’re to marry Mr. Salvatore,” Leo replied instead, annoyance lacing his words, his eyes disapproving. Perhaps he was just irritated with my father’s pussyfooting.
And with that, the remainder of my crumbling world exploded. My body shuddered with the impact, making it a struggle to keep upright. With wobbly steps, I gripped the backrest of the sofa nearest to me, my fingers digging into the soft leather with enough strength to cause tiny tears, my nose and mouth fighting hard to get air into my lungs. My life was being torn apart. The rug being pulled out from under me without so much as a warning to hang on. Numb from the inside out, I glowered at my father. Somehow, I’d wanted my mother’s description to be wrong but everything that had gone down since this man came into my life, seemed destined for the truth she’d unleashed.
I should’ve expected his betrayal. Should’ve shoved more disbelief into his promised words. I was an idiot. A pathetic eighteen-year-old looking for her father’s love. “Is that all I was to you? A means to your pocket,” I asked, anger lending an ambivalent quietness to my words. Even if I shouted and ranted, what good would it do me? Instead, I conveyed my feelings through my expressions. “What was my worth? A million?” My body a shaking mass, I stared daggers through him, wishing he’d incinerate under the glare.
“Add another forty-nine to that number.”
The deep, baritone voice had me swinging around sharply, almost faltering in my haste. I gasped. Awestruck by the man staring back at me and momentarily forgetting my father’s scam. Was this the castle owner? Strangely the vision I had of him wasn’t that of the man in front of me. This man was too...beautiful in a rugged sense. All hard angles and chiseled perfection. Yet, it was the eyes that held me captive. Not blue not green or gray but a translucent combination of all three.
I had a feeling his was the color that changed to suit his mood, almost like a chameleon. But if I had to hazard a guess, there was nothing chameleon about him. I got the feeling he was the type that made people change to suit him, without him asking. The type that dictated and people followed, whether you wanted to or not. His face lacked a smile, completely void of emotion yet still mesmerizing. One of those you’d want to look at all day and have insanely wicked thoughts about. Only as I stared, the vague familiarity of his features took shape and the uncanny feeling that I’d seen him before startled me.
“Ciao, bella.” He arched a brow and I blushed as if I’d just been caught with my pants down.
And with that, his earlier words registered. I began shaking again. The brief wave of adrenaline that hit me when I was distracted by the newcomer, ebbed away. All I could think of now was that I was being sold.
“Fifty million dollars?” Grateful it wasn’t a squeak, I asked more for my confirmation than his before turning to look at my father. “They paid you fifty million? For what?” I held out my hands, my tone beseeching. This seriously wasn’t happening. Everything I’d suffered in the last few days was no match for what was happening right now. My father couldn’t be selling me, could he? “Mom,” I murmured on a sob andZayneon a silent plea.
“I had no choice,” my father began. “You have to understand—”
“No choice,” I cried. “Are you kidding me right now? Which father sells off his daughter barely weeks after losing her mother?” I took a step closer, grabbing his forearm. “Please, dad, give them back the money,” I begged, tears trickling down my cheek, my eyes imploring. “You can’t do this. Mom—”
He shook his head, twisting his arm out of my hold, his eyes cold, unfeeling. “You belong to him now—”
“No! You told me the deal was off, that you wanted your daughter back. You can’t do this. You can’t marry me to a stranger,” I screeched.
“You’re acting like a fucking baby, Gianna.” He advanced on me, the look on his face making me shrink back from him. “This is business, and you’ll learn to love Mr. Salvatore.”
Immediately my hackles rose. “Mom was right about you. I was nothing but a pawn to you. You’re an unemotional bastard. You’re a criminal. You and all these sick, pathetic scum.” I stabbed a finger at his chest then pointed to the other men in the room. “Taking advantage of a helpless woman,” I shouted, my fear too far gone to care who I insulted. “I’d rather die.”
Pushing my father aside, I raced for the exit. I barely took a few steps before his strong fingers gripped my hair, yanking me back so hard, my scalp screamed in pain. “Ouch,” I cried out.
He pulled harder, tilting my head and forcing my gaze to meet his. “You will do as I say, girl.” He spat in my face. “Apologize now, you ungrateful bitch,” he snarled.
Ungrateful bitch?What had he done for me to be grateful? Ignoring the pain, I shook my head. “No. You can’t do this.”
“I can and I will. You bear the Mancini name, girl, and with that comes certain responsibilities. You’re my daughter to do with as I please. So stop your fucking insolence and apologize to Mr. Salvatore.”
So, thiswasthe owner of the castle. I bit down on my lip until the coppery tang of blood tainted my tongue. Cursing, my father’s other hand shot up. I flinched, closing my eyes and bracing for the impact of his slap. It didn’t come, instead, he released my hair, and I opened my eyes at the same time stumbling to keep upright.
Mr. Salvatore had my father’s arm bent at the elbow in a vice grip behind his back before his cold words, penetrated the air. “Should I remind you, Mancini, just how many ways I could kill you for touching her, touching what belongs to me?” he gritted through clenched teeth. “Nobody will touch her again, ever, including you. Do you fucking understand?”
What the—?I gasped, unable to look away and further stunned by the ferocity of his stare, made deadlier by the clenched jaw. My father might be formidable in his space, but Mr. Salvatore outranked him, both in height and bulk to say nothing of his coolly controlled demeanor. I didn’t doubt he’d drop my father with just a flick of his wrist.
A second later, my father bowed his head, in respect or surrender, I couldn’t tell. Mr. Salvatore shoved his hand away then turned that unreadable gaze on me.
I swallowed, trying desperately to moisten my suddenly dry mouth. “Thank you,” I stammered, hoping there was some level of kindness behind his hardness. Why else would he interfere and stop my father?
Slipping his hands into his pants pockets, he took a step toward me. The way my breath caught in my throat made me feel like he’d just stolen the shared air between us. His powerful scent of wild spice and mint, hit me full frontal and I immediately recognized it from earlier. When I stood outside those double doors upstairs. I guessed it was his bedroom.
“No need to thank me.” That piercing stare became too much. My entire insides came apart, stripping me one vein at a time. “You’re just a business transaction and now my property. Nothing more nothing less and I protect what’s mine.”
Right.My heart sank to my toes, that last vestige of hope scuttling away to hide behind my despair. His words just didn’t hurt, they stung, splintering every bone in my body. In a short space of time, I’d gone from a loved wife to a betrayed daughter and now the property of the devil himself. Who knew what torment awaited me in this hellhole?
“Are you going to marry me,mia bella?” his voice lacked the emotion a loving partner would elicit when proposing. Then again, I was nothing more than a business deal to him.
