“The marriage of Rosalie… and you.”
I blink at him as I process what he’s saying. “Excuse me?” I ask him.
“It’s already been decided. It’s the best option for this family, their family, and to combine our families together would prevent what could be a war.”
“Will be a war, if you don’t hold up your end of the deal,” Eivor insists.
“No one thought to ask me about this?” I narrow my eyes. “Or perhaps, Tiberi, Tommaso? The other brothers that are readily available. Why me?”
“Tiberi and Tommaso weren’t the best choices. You were. You’re second oldest.”
“Second in command,” Eivor says with a smile. “Only the second best for my niece.”
My jaw tightens, and I feel the heated emotion rising up into my chest. I tamp it down, trying not to let it explode from my chest or out of my mouth. I need to play things carefully. Carmine is serious, not like weeks ago when he was out of control after our father’s death.
He’s taken on a genuine roll of the leader of his family. The Don. His word stands just as much as our father’s did—but only because he’s the oldest. This fact doesn’t please me in the slightest. If I had been born before him, or even we had been twins, it might be me that was standing in his place, forcing him to do as he said.
“How does Rosalie feel about this?” I ask.
“She will do as she’s told,” Eivor insists.
I look to Soren. As if to ask with my eyes,you could really do this to her?
“She wants to end this conflict as much as the rest of us,” Soren agrees. “The most important thing is that we keep all of this under control.”
I clench my jaw. I disagree, but I don’t say it. I can’t say it. Not in front of all of them. It’ll only make me look like a whiny little fucker.
I straighten the collar of my pale purple dress shirt and clear my throat. “I can’t say that I’m a bad choice,” I tell them. “But I’ll only do this if Rosalie is serious about it.”
“You will do it regardless,” Carmine snaps at me. “But she is. She is on her way here from her apartment to go over the details with you.”
“She’s not been staying with you, Eivor?” I ask him, though I already know the answer. I simply feel like watching him squirm.
His face twitches as he struggles not to frown. “She is not captive to my home. She can stay wherever she pleases.”
Where she pleases since his stunt of trying to hold her, in fact, captive in his home when Soren refused to kill Carmine and take over our family, is anywhere but the Fiorelli Estate.
Nevertheless, I haven’t seen her in awhile, and we haven’t ever spoken much. Here and there, but she is a stubborn woman who doesn’t show much interest in my brothers and me.
How they got her to agree to this is beyond me.
“So, if I marry Rosalie Fiorelli, what does this mean for the two of us?” I ask slowly. “What is the exact agreement that’s being made?”
“When you marry Rosalie, our families will combine. Our staff, employees, and those who have joined us whether as guards, guns, or a need of protection, will be shared between our families. Our estates will be welcome to both names. Our club. The safe houses. We will share our armory and resources. There will be no struggle for power against each other,” Carmine explains. “This is what Don Fiorelli has agreed to.”
I glance between them. “Are you certain you trust each other?” I raise a brow.
“I trust no one,” Eivor admits. “But I don’t have much of a choice, do I? You’ve made it clear that your family is stronger than mine, and I need our combined power to gain my own.”
“You’re saying you still plan on going up against others?” I ask him.
“As do we,” Soren replies. “Not in as violent a manner as Eivor would choose, but we do need to gain a tighter grip, and we can’t do that via friendship alone.”
“I thought you wanted to focus on allyship, Carmine,” I say pointedly. “What happened to that?”
“Allyship can only get us so far,” he says while straightening his shoulders. “I’ve agreed to take on overthrowing a couple families for the sake of strengthening our own with Eivor.”
“Killing families for the sake of our own then,” I snap at him. “Not that I disagree.” I grin with all of my teeth that I can, clenched, and try to ignore the knot forming in my stomach. “But I thought you wanted to avoid it.”
