Cade Burns
I saw the unstable gleam in Matteo’s eyes at the meeting, and I knew that this was going to fall through. It was only a matter of when it would happen. I’d entered this alliance with high hopes for the friend I’d once had, but I saw no trace of him in the man yesterday. I saw no glimmer of goodness or tolerance, and when he admitted that Aria’s safety didn’t matter to him, I knew a meeting needed to happen.
Serg and Aria sat at both of my sides, and the representatives of all the categories of my people sat down the long line. Five people represented our five branches of soldiers, the lieutenants responsible for buying, selling, distributing, and transporting our merchandise, the woman responsible for keeping our books and delivering them to the accountant, and a handful of other higher-up people-all of them sat around the table and spoke amongst themselves.
“We’re having a problem, and we need a solution that will end in the least amount of bloodshed,” I finally said. Everyone around the table fell silent. “We entered an alliance with the Ruso family, using my wife as leverage to keep the alliance rolling. We now know that she is only significant to our side of this alliance, and the other Italian families have put a price on her head for the sake of ending it. Aria is no longer collateral, and we’re facing a breach in the alliance.”
My head lieutenant interrupted me, and I turned toward him. “Let me get this straight. You made this alliance knowing that you’d have his family as collateral if anything went wrong. Where do the other families factor into the situation?”
“Because of the alliance, we’ve drawn the attention of all five Italian mob families, and they want it broken. They don’t want any sector of the Italian mafia allied with us, and they’re trying to ensure the alliance doesn’t hold.”
“If it breaks, will the heat be contained to the Rusos?”
That was the problem. I didn’t have an answer to that question. We’d avoided conflict with the other Italian families for years, but this served as a reminder to them that we were still here-that we posed a risk if left unhandled. We made a move to ally with one of them, and the rest would take a problem with that.
“We could end the alliance and send a messenger to each of the families, claiming that we will continue staying in our own lane so long as they do the same. We won’t start or escalate conflict as long as everyone agrees to the same.”
Another man cut in, shaking his head. “But we have to end the alliance first. We have to get out of their lane. We can handle one family, but not all five,” he shook his head, his eyes moving across the table and focusing on Aria. “And if they want her dead, that might be a problem, too. We might have to-”
“If one person suggests hurting my wife in any way, I will splatter the walls with your fucking brains. Am I understood?” I asked, making a point to meet the eyes of every person in the room. “Everyone here is replaceable except for her.”
I felt Aria’s hand move beneath the table and cup my knee. I wasn’t sure if it was a way to calm me or thank me, but it didn’t matter if I waited for the next person to speak.
“You may need to give her back to break the alliance properly and the conflict with all the other families,” the bookkeeper said. “However you want to approach that is your decision, but if she is here, they may see it as a threat.”
I clenched my fists atop the table. I knew that would be the biggest risk -keeping Aria here. But it was something that was non-negotiable. “We find a way to do it without bringing Aria into it,” I repeated.
“Boss, if we killed her ourselves, it would send a message that we will cooperate. It will break the alliance, and we’ll have a conflict with one family, but not all five of them,” the same man said. He chuckled. “Hell, the
Rusos would be in hotter water than we would if it played out that way.”
I didn’t give myself time to think as I reached for the gun at my waist, pulled it out, and fired a shot. It hit him squarely between the eyes, and everyone in the room jerked back at the loud shot. Aria squeezed my knee, but I didn’t even look at her as I spoke again.
“Hurting my wife,” I said, enunciating the word so that everyone in the room would understand the significance of it. “Is not on the table. Any more suggestions?”
It took the room a long moment to recover from what had just happened -from the body that still sat slumped in his chair. Finally, Serg spoke. “Boss has a bit of a protective streak, but I can assure you that any suggestions that don’t include his wife will be taken into account.”
I knew I’d sealed the deal for this situation with my reaction, though. Nobody else offered any solutions. We were left with only one option- give back Aria or kill her. Neither of them was truly an option, though. There had to be something else. There had to be another way, and as everyone left the room, giving me vague words of affirmation, I realized that I had no time left to find a solution. This entire situation was coming to a head, and we needed to act first. We needed to get ahead of everything.
Aria surprised me, though. She turned and strode out of the room before me, and I stood abruptly, following her. I followed mere steps behind, knowing that she was one stray bullet from death, especially when so many people wanted her dead.
“Aria,” I shouted after her as she shoved through the front doors of my house and strode outside, not a care in the world.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her to a halt.
When she turned and looked at me, I saw the anger in every crevice of her face. “What the hell was that?” I only furrowed my brows with no idea what she was talking about. “You’ve been teaching me to defend myself for months. I can finally do it, and I don’t need you coming to my defense in public. I don’t want you to undermine me when I can handle myself.”
Coming to her defense? I…
I clenched my jaw as I realized the moment she was talking about. “If I didn’t put an end to it, they would have convinced one another that killing you was the only right move, and one of them may have done it.”
“I can handle myself,” she said back, pressing her chest into mine as a challenge.
I didn’t hesitate before acting. I grabbed the outside of both of her arms and pressed her back into the exterior of my home. When she struggled and tried to move, I held her more tightly. “You are defenseless against a bullet, and you’re even more defenseless against a group mentality. If I hadn’t handled it, nobody would have. I needed to make sure that you were safe. If killing that man was what it took to make everyone realize that you’re off limits, I’d do it again.”
She gasped, her breathing growing faster as I leaned down and moved my lips just above hers.
“I know you can defend yourself,” I told her. “But the people here respect and fear me, and I will use that to keep you safe. I will do anything to keep you safe. Do you understand me?”
Her breathing went unsteady as she looked at my lips. “Me not being here might be the only way for you to have peace again,” she admitted, shaking her head.
I shook my head. “If I don’t have you, I don’t give a fuck about peace.”
I finally brought my lips down on hers, and she inhaled deeply, wrapping both arms around the back of my neck. She deepened the kiss, and I pressed my body into hers as hard as I could. I needed to feel every inch of her beneath me.
Her tongue swept into my mouth, devouring every part of me with ease.
Fuck, she obliterated me in a way I couldn’t even describe. I didn’t think she could do a single thing that didn’t turn me and make me hard for her.
No matter the cost, I would keep her safe.