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“I want to marry her.”

“I understand that.” Don DiNardo leaned forward, elbows on the desk, hands folded together in the middle. His hawkish look took in every bit of my reaction, not that I ever showed much emotion. “I don’t understand why.”

I wasn’t sure I did either. I wanted to shrug again, but I knew he wasn’t going to accept that.

“I like her.”

“You like her.” Jack sounded dubious as he repeated my words.

“She’s got moxie.” I did shrug now. “She asked me to kill her when I got there, and she saw me do Don Bianco, but Hailey said no innocents. And she was in a cage.”

“Did she try to escape on the way here?” Don DiNardo asked.

“I handled it.”

Both the don and Jack stared at me for a long moment. I stared back at them. They looked at each other.

“Hailey will be very upset if we take care of her now,” Jack murmured.

“As will your mother.” The don sighed. “I don’t think we have a choice. But Tomas, you’d better make sure she understands that staying here with us is her best option. If she escapes…”

His voice trailed off and I nodded.

“I won’t send you.” His voice was cold as he met my gaze, making sure that I understood. That I knew he didn’t trust me to carry out the assignment, even though that was my job. And the don not trusting you was a dangerous place to be. “I’ll send Anthony.”

Because Anthony would get the job done. He was the only one with blood as cold as mine. Except Ivy had done something to me. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to kill her. Even on the don’s orders.

And worse, he clearly knew it too.

It was a good thing Aunt Serena was on my side, or Ivy and I would likely both be wearing concrete shoes by morning.

Ivy

Dressed in one of Hailey’s dresses, which was a little big around the waist and a little short on the skirt, I found myself sitting and getting my hair cut. Again. Did it make me a little nervous to have a don’s wife using scissors so close to my throat? Yes. But there was also something about her that was soothing. Comforting even.

I had no doubt she would cut my throat if she deemed me a threat to her or those she loved, but as long as I wasn’t then I would be safe.

Which meant she must never see me as a threat.

I sat very quietly with my hands in my lap, trying to look as innocent as possible while Hailey and Clara chattered at me, telling me about the family. Not its secrets of course, but what to expect.

Don DiNardo was hard but fair. Hailey was Don Bianco’s granddaughter, but she’d tried to leave the mobster life years ago. Her marriage to Jack DiNardo was what brought her back in. Despite the fact that she seemed resigned to this facet of her life now, it was clear that she was in love with her husband, even if she’s not thrilled that he’s a future don.

Clara was her best friend, and then she married Gio, Jack’s cousin and the closest thing he has to a brother. I got the understanding that Tomas is also a cousin of some kind, though more distantly related than Gio and Jack are to each other.

“He’s a good boy,” Mrs. DiNardo murmured, clipping my hair with swift, sure strokes. “So quiet though. I’m sure having a wife will be good for him.”

As supportive as she sounded, I heard the underlying threat – having me for a wife had better be good for him. Or else.

“I will do my best,” I said meekly, hands still folded quietly in my lap. Currently doing my best to look as unthreatening as possible. “I don’t know if I know how to be a wife.”

“We’ll help you,” Hailey said immediately.

Clara gave her a look, but Hailey didn’t seem to see it. I got the feeling that, despite the family she’d been born into, Hailey was the more trusting of the two of them. How she’d managed to maintain that quality as Don Bianco’s granddaughter and now the wife of a future don, I had no idea. I couldn’t decide if it was admirable or stupid as hell.

Maybe a bit of both.

“What should I do?” I asked, and it wasn’t hard to sound worried, because I was. I really didn’t know what a mob wife should do.