“You’re joking,” my youngest brother, Enzo, insists.
But the haunted look in Marco’s eyes is deadly serious, and it turns my blood to ice.
He shakes his head, almost as if to rid it of a bad image. “I witnessed firsthand a few years back. Some guy pissed him off one night at one of their clubs. He punched the guy so hard it broke his neck.”
Cold fear trickles through my veins as Sandro’s words echo in my head.“I’m not a good man.”
Perhaps he was right. Perhaps I should be scared of the man I’m supposed to marry.
But then why can’t I stop thinking about his eyes—the way he seemed to peer into the very depths of my soul when he looked at me?
Just the memory of it makes my spine tingle.
3
SANDRO
I can feel Raf fuming beside me. I half expected him to make me find my own way home tonight. But he didn’t abandon me after our dinner with the Lombardis like I thought he might—not that I would have minded walking.
But after three more fights in the Murrays’ underground boxing ring, my jaw is throbbing, my knee doesn’t bend quite right after a dirty shot from McMann, and I can barely see out of my left eye.
I’d probably make an easy enough target on the streets tonight. Maybe that’s why Raf decided to stay.
Or maybe he was ready to watch someone beat the crap out of me after how I behaved in front of my future in-laws.
Either way, the beast inside me is finally quiet, and I’ll be able to get some sleep tonight.
It’s been much harder to come by since the Tanakas ripped my family’s world apart and left my twin brother’s life in pieces.
They killed our father, killed Raf’s wife, destroyed our family home. They took everything from us and left us scattered, vulnerable.
I know I won’t rest easy until they’re dead—everyone who betrayed us.
That’s the only reason I agreed to take a wife. If we need the Lombardis’ support that badly, I’ll marry their daughter.
In the end, I’m not the one who will pay the price.
Until the dust settles, I can carry the guilt of strapping her with a man like me.
I’m sure it won’t take her long to realize she drew the short straw in this arrangement.
From how well dinner went, I’m confident her family has already realized just how horribly they’ve failed their daughter.
But if tonight didn’t convince them to break off the engagement, I doubt anything will.
To my surprise, I feel a flicker of pity for Evelina Lombardi.
She likely has no choice but to marry me. Her family wouldn’t take her wants or desires into consideration when they could finally land a Chiaroscuro for a son-in-law—even if I’m the broken brother.
It’s a prospect they’ve likely been drooling over since they first discovered they would be having a baby girl.
To climb the twisted social ladder of our world, the Lombardis are willing to sacrifice their only daughter to a monster.
This will likely be their best chance to join our houses, a feat I know Matteo Lombardi has been struggling to achieve for years.
How the mighty have fallen that a Chiaroscuro would even consider stooping to such a level. And yet, there’s no doubt in my mind that Evelina is the one getting the raw end of the deal.
The car rolls to a stop at the front of the gates of the Novikov estate, and they slowly swing open.
