AIR The wedding festivities passed in a flash, and when the first cries rang out asking the groom to sleep with the bride, I felt sick. Lily tried to look strong, but I could see behind her mask, I could see terror and fear, and that broke me. Matthew had to practically hold Gianna down to keep her from going after our sister, but I was paralyzed.
Helplessness. It was not the first time I had felt it, but today it had reached new levels.
“Come on,” Luca said softly when Brasci and Lily were gone in their shared bedroom. His hand was warm as it closed around mine, and I allowed him to lead me toward our bedroom in the Brasci mansion. We should not have accepted my father’s suggestion to spend the night there.
The door closed behind us and my throat closed. I turned away from Luca and headed for the bed. I remembered our first night in a room together, our wedding night.
I had been terrified of Luca, of consummating our marriage, but Luca had been kind, had treated me with respect, and had continued to do so since we were married.
I had been lucky.
Lily would not have been so lucky. Brasci was a piece of shit, or at least that’s what Matteo had called him. I had seen it in his eyes. I knew that rape was still common in some marriages in our world. It was not called by that name because our old traditions still regarded the woman’s body as the husband’s property, but it was a dark presence in many women’s lives. Gianna and I had been lucky. I had always thought that Lily would be, too. I was wrong.
I began to cry for Lily and for Romero. For their impossible love. I did not let my mind wander about what might be happening in the bedroom down the hall. I could not bear it . Luke approached me from behind and put his hands on my shoulders as he had done on our wedding night more than four years earlier. Then his touch had not brought me comfort, but now it did.
“Aria,” he murmured.
His gentle tone made me cry even more, and he slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me to him. He was warm and strong. His lips brushed my cheek, which was wet with tears. “This is unfair,” I whispered through my clogged throat . “It’s almost as if all the good fortune was given to Gianna and me, and now there is nothing left for Lily.”
Luca turned me to face him and lifted my head . His face was kind. “Don’t blame yourself, Aria. It has nothing to do with luck or fate. Life is unfair, that’s how it is.”
“No,” I said abruptly. “It’s not like that for everyone.
It’s not like that for men. Were you terrified before our wedding night? No. You were probably excited because you wanted to claim me.”
Luca sighed and wiped the tears from my cheek. “Yes, I was excited, Aria, until the moment I realized you were terrified, and you know it.”
“I know,” I said. “But Brasci won’t care that Lily is terrified. Nothing will stop him from raping her.”
Luca leaned down to touch our foreheads. “Shit, Aria.
What do you want me to do? Do you want me to drag that asshole out of that bedroom and slit his throat? Because at this very moment, I want to do it because I hate to see you so broken. The only thing stopping me is the knowledge that I would risk your life. If I kill Brasci or if Romero kills him, then we are at war with the Outfit.”
“Maybe we won’t have to kill him…” I paused, realizing how stupid that was. Brasci wasn’t going to let Lily walk out of the bedroom. We should have at least knocked him out, and even that would have led to war.
I lifted my head and brushed my lips with Luca’s.
He frowned. “What do you need that for?”
I forced myself to smile tremulously. “For wanting to risk everything because of me. I don’t deserve you.”
He shook his head, but the ringing of his cell phone prevented him from saying anything. He brought the cell phone to his ear and his face turned into a mask of shock, then anger.
“Damn it, Romero!” he growled. I took a step back, my pulse quickening. “So let me get this straight: you’re in a room with Lily and Benito?”
There was a response from the other side.
“Damn!” growled Luca. He hung up and lowered the phone.
Then he turned back to me. “Did something happen to Lily?” whispered I .
He cast me a glare of lightning. “She and Romero started a war with Outfit!”
LUCA Aria stared at me without understanding. “What do you mean ?” She looked scared, but probably for the wrong reasons . I bet her only concern was for her sister .
“Romero killed Brasci. Now he is with your sister.”
Aria said nothing, but relief painted itself on her face.
I did not blame her. All she cared about was her sister’s safety.
She didn’t know what that meant, didn’t know that Romero had forced me to make a decision I never wanted to make.
“We have to go to them now,” I told her as I gathered my guns and knives and placed them in holsters on my chest, back, and calves.
Aria looked at me with growing concern. “We have to run, right? If Brasci is dead, Dante will declare war on us.”
I gave an abrupt nod of assent, then held out my hand for her to take . That was one option. The other was to show Dante that I did not approve of Romero’s actions. “Come on. We have to hurry.”
She slipped her small hand into mine and I led her out of our bedroom and down the hallway where Liliana and Brasci were to spend their wedding night.
I scanned the surroundings and listened for suspicious noises, but only the sound of music and distant laughter came. The party was still in full swing. My mouth tightened. Seven years. It was so long that we managed to keep the peace between the Outfit and the Family, and that night the feud would flare up again, probably worse than before. Dante was a proud man, and he would have to retaliate. If someone had killed one of my men in my territory, I would have hunted him down and cut him to pieces.
Aria was surprisingly silent at my side. Perhaps she had realized the danger of the situation.
I knocked on the bedroom door and Romero opened it a moment later. Aria untied her hand and slipped inside, running to her sister who was perched on the edge of the bed.
Romero met my gaze, and did not try to look sorry. At least he was honest. I walked past him and into the bedroom.
“My God, Lily. What happened? Are you okay?”
Aria asked, but I only had eyes for the dead body in the center of the room. Brasci was lying on his side, with a letter opener sticking out of his stomach. I walked over and lowered myself to take a closer look. The letter opener had not killed Brasci. A knife had gone right under his ribs and pierced his heart.
It was Romero’s doing, as I had expected.
I looked up at Liliana, who froze. “What happened here?”
She looked at Romero as if she did not know what lie to tell . I couldn’t believe it. “I want the fucking truth!”
“Luca,” Aria scolded. “Lily is obviously in shock. Give her a moment.”
“We don’t have a fucking moment. We have a dead member of the Outfit in a room with us. Things are going to get ugly very soon.”
Aria turned back to her sister. “Lily, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. She didn’t have time to hurt me.”
I didn’t give a shit about any of this. We were in big trouble. By killing Brasci, Romero had unleashed the wrath of the Outfit on us at a time when we were already at war with the Bratva, not to mention some MCs who kept giving us trouble in Atlanta, Charleston, and even New Jersey.
“Enough,” I growled, losing my fucking patience with all of them. I cast a furious glance at Romero. “I want answers. Remember your oath.”
Romero’s gaze was steady. He had always been a good soldier until that moment, but this was no small mistake. For what he had done that day, there was only one logical consequence, and we both knew it.
“I always know it.”
I pointed to Brasci. “It doesn’t look like it. Or are you saying that Liliana did it all by herself?”
Romero shook his head. “Liliana is innocent. Benito was still alive when I arrived. She had stabbed him with the letter opener because he had attacked her. It was self-defense on her part.”
Right. “Self-defense?” I echoed. I doubted Brasci had done anything anyone in this house expected him to do. These were the rules of our world. I squinted at Liliana. “What did he do?”
“He tried to impose himself on her,” Romero said.
“I didn’t ask you!” I growled. Aria tried to placate me with a hand on my arm, but I had no intention of calming down . This was no minor transgression. That Liliana had stabbed Brasci would have caused her big problems because she had denied him something he was entitled to as a husband. “And if he had tried to consummate the marriage, no one in this fucking house would have seen it as self-defense.
Benito had a fucking right to her body. He was her husband, for God’s sake!”
Romero took a step forward but stopped.
I looked at him, daring him to attack as he wished. He was going to take that fucking decision out of my hands.
“You can’t be serious,” Aria said, her eyes pleading.
She knew what was expected of the wedding night as much as I did. No one would have cared that Liliana did not want to marry Brasci, that she had fought him. I had not made the rules or Dante, but neither of us had the power to change a tradition without the support of the other soldiers and their families. “You know the rules, Aria. I’m stating the facts.”
Aria shook her head. “I don’t care. A husband has no right to rape his wife. Everyone in this house should agree on that!”
Aria was too soft for this world, too caring, but even she knew that most women were claimed on their wedding night. At first I had sometimes regretted sparing her on our wedding day, but later I realized it had been the best decision of my life. If I had hurt Aria on our wedding night, she would never have forgiven me.
Romero approached Liliana and put his arm around her .
Love. Dad had always told Matteo and me that it was a weakness, and I had to admit he was right. He weakened me, he weakened Matteo, and now he weakened Romero, and as a result he weakened the Family. My uncles would attack like vultures once word of this got out. “I told you it would end in disaster. So let me guess, Liliana stabbed her husband, called you, and you finished the fucking job to have her all to yourself.”
“Yes,” Romero said. “And to protect her. If he had survived he would have blamed Liliana, and she would have been punished severely by the Outfit.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “And now she won’t?
They’re going to put her on trial and not only punish her harshly, they’re going to accuse us of organizing this, and then there’s going to be a fucking bloodbath. Dante is a cold fish but he has to show strength. He will proclaim war in no time. All because you can’t control your cock and your heart.”
“As if you could. “You would shoot down anyone who tried to take Aria away from you,” Romero said.
My eyes shifted to Aria. Her worried blue eyes locked on mine. I would burn the world to protect Aria. If anyone tried to take her away, I would kill him and anyone else who got in my way. “But Aria is my wife. That’s a big difference.”
“If it were up to me, Lily would have been my wife for months.”
Did he really think he would marry her? Did he really think we would all get out of this house alive? “Someone will pay for this. As Head of the Family, I have to blame Liliana and hope Dante will believe it and not start a war.”
Aria’s grip on my arm tightened, her eyes filled with unshed tears. “You can’t do that.”
Romero knelt before me, his arms spread wide. “I will take all the blame for this. Tell them I lost my mind and ran after Liliana because I had wanted her for months. I killed Benito when he tried to defend Lily and himself, but before I could rape her, you realized I was missing and went after me. Then there will be no more war between the Outfit and New York, and Lily will have a chance at a new life.”
She meant it, but no one would believe that story. Yet the fact that he would give his life for Liliana showed how serious he was about the girl. What was it about Scuderi women that drove us all crazy? “If this is the story we want him to believe, there is something missing,” I said.
Romero nodded. “I will give my life for this. Shoot me .”
“No!” shouted Aria, but I shook her hand and stared into Romero’s determined eyes. I had known him most of my life. We had partied together, gotten drunk together, fought and killed together. After Matteo, he was the man I trusted the most. That was why he had been allowed to watch Aria. I knew he would never lay a hand on her.
Liliana moved between Romero and me. Fear contorted her face. Fear of me and my decision. I was used to that look from the people around me.
“Please,” she whispered, her eyes pleading with me, hoping to appeal to a part that only Aria could reach. “Please don’t kill him.
I will do anything, but please don’t. I can’t live without him.”
He began to cry, but it did not affect me like Aria’s tears .
Romero stood up and pulled Liliana away. “Lily, don’t do this. I am a soldier of the Family. I have broken my oath to always put the Family first, and I must accept due punishment.”
“I don’t care about oaths. I don’t want to lose you,” Liliana said.
I reached for my gun, needing to get it over with, but Aria appeared in front of me and placed her palms on my chest, a palm on my heart, appealing to that part of me that had died before her, and at times like these I wished she had stayed that way.
Her eyes stared into mine. “Please, Luca, don’t punish Romero for protecting someone he loved. He and Lily belong together. Please.” Her hands trembled against me and her eyes pleaded with me.
I knew I should have refused his request, but I hated the thought of losing Romero. He was one of the few people I trusted. I knew he would take a bullet for me and, more importantly, for Aria. But I also knew that he would never be as unconditionally loyal as he had been because now his feelings for Lily would always get in the way.
I pulled Aria’s hands away from my chest and her expression fell.
“I cannot base my decisions on feelings. I am Chief and I have to make decisions that are for the benefit of my Family.”
Romero approached me, ready to accept my verdict.
He was not going to beg me. His eyes expressed no judgment for the decision he expected of me: a death sentence.
I sustained his gaze for a long time and made my choice.
“You are my best soldier. The Family needs you and I trust no one with Aria as I trust you,” I said as I rested a hand on his shoulder, surprising myself as much as he did.
“War has been inevitable for a while. I won’t end your life to put it off for a few fucking months. We’ll stick together.”
Romero relaxed. He said nothing, but I understood that he would try to make up for it for the rest of his life. He was a loyal man, a soldier I did not want to lose.
“Of course, we may not get out of this house alive . Now we are surrounded by the enemy.”
“Most of the guests are drunk or asleep. We could try to sneak out. They won’t notice Benito’s death until morning;
we will be back in New York by then,” Romero said.
I doubted we would be so lucky. I took out my cell phone and tried to call Matteo. We had to find a way to get out of Chicago, but he ignored my call. He was probably busy screwing his wife. “Damn. Matteo’s not answering his fucking phone.”
“Do you think something happened to them?” asked Aria.
“The only thing going on is that he’s probably fucking your sister’s brains out right now and ignoring her fucking phone,” I said. Romero and I carried Brasci’s body to the bathroom before Liliana came in to change into her torn wedding dress.
The moment Romero came in to help her, and Aria and I were alone, she came up to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, her cheek pressed against my chest.
“Thank you, Luca. Thank you so much. I won’t forget it. I didn’t think it was possible, but for what you did today, I love you even more.” She shook against me as she lifted her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. I wiped them away.
Fuck. This woman had more power over me than anyone else ever could have.
Romero returned and Aria stepped back. Public displays of affection were something I had to limit, even in Romero’s presence.
“Done,” Romero said.
“Good. Now let’s go. I don’t want to risk staying here a moment longer than necessary.” I held out my hand to Aria. She took it with a strained smile, and I pulled out my gun. I had to get her out of that house alive, no matter what. I opened the door and peeked into the hallway. It was deserted, but the party was still going strong.
I signaled to Romero that the coast was clear before pushing the door further open and walking out, dragging Aria with us.
We passed no one as we made our way to Matteo’s room. I knocked but, of course, the asshole didn’t open the door. He probably had his cock stuck in Gianna’s pussy. I knocked a little harder. Again no one responded. Aria gave me a worried look and I slammed my fist against the wood as hard as I could risk. And finally Matteo opened his fucking door, dressed only in his boxers and with a fucking hard-on.
“Didn’t you understand that I didn’t want to be interrupted when I didn’t answer your fucking call?”
Matteo’s gaze shifted behind me and his lips pulled into a grimace. “I have a fucking bad feeling about this.”
I pushed him hard. “For God’s sake, Matteo, answer when I call you. You need to get dressed. We have to go now.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Gianna, coming up from behind Matteo in a satin robe. Her lips were swollen as if she had been busy giving Matteo a blowjob. “Shit, something bad happened, didn’t it? Did that asshole hurt you?” She hugged Lily.
Aria’s hand stiffened in mine.
“He’s dead,” said Liliana.
“Good,” said Gianna. She patted Romero’s shoulder. “You did it, didn’t you?”
Romero smiled tensely. “Yes, which brings us to why we need to hurry.”
“Romero is right. We have to get out of this house before anyone realizes the groom is dead,” I said, losing my fucking patience.
“I always thought I would be the one to start a war between the Outfit and the Family. Kudos to you, Romero, for proving me wrong for once,” Matteo said, smiling.
“I thought so too,” said Romero.
Everyone had thought so. Matteo was the fool.
Romero had always been reliable, but Liliana had obviously changed her mind. I sighed. “I’m sorry to interrupt your talk, but we have to fucking go.”
Matteo and Gianna got dressed, we left the room and continued our journey through the house. Every muscle in my body was tense as I listened for the slightest sound of people crossing our path.
We took the second staircase at the back of the house to the second floor and headed for the door leading to the underground garage. Most houses in this area had one because outdoor space was limited. A sound of footsteps was heard from the hallway to the left of the door and my body went into combat mode as I protected Aria and raised my gun.
Matteo and Romero did the same.
So far things had gone too smoothly, but it was over. Even with silencers in place, a shot would have created some noise, especially if our attackers had managed to shout a warning. A bullet to the head was the only solution.
My finger on the trigger tightened as a blond boy rounded the corner. Shit. At the last moment, I held back from shooting. His hair had saved him. It was Fabiano.
Aria gasped, her hand twitching in mine. She would have run to him if I hadn’t held her still. Fabiano’s eyes widened as he staggered and pointed his gun at us. He had not yet been fully induced, he certainly had not yet killed anyone, and he was not good at hiding his emotions. Fear crossed his face before suspicion took its place.
Aria pressed her palm against my arm, trying to force him down, but I kept my gun pointed at Fabiano. He was just a kid, but a bullet fired by him was as deadly as one fired by anyone else.
“What’s going on here?” asked Fabiano firmly, standing even more erect than usual and trying to look like a man. With the gun and that serious expression, he almost managed to look more than a teenager.
“Put that gun down,” I ordered.
Fabiano laughed, but he looked nervous and his eyes expressed fear. He would have to learn to hide it better if he was to survive in the Outfit, if he was to survive that night. ” Absolutely not. I want to know what’s going on.” His eyes shifted from Aria to Gianna, then to Liliana.
“Why are you walking around with a gun? Shouldn’t you be in bed?” asked Aria and was about to take a step forward, but I pulled her back.
“I have guard duties,” said Fabiano with a hint of pride.
“But you haven’t been drafted yet,” said Lily, confused.
“I started the enlistment process a few weeks ago. This is my first assignment,” Fabi said. The hand with the gun began to shake slightly. He wouldn’t stand a chance against us, even if we didn’t have guns pointed at him. I would have been at his side to knock him out in a heartbeat, and I preferred that scenario to killing him because of the woman at my side.
“Dad gave it to you because he thought it would be an easy first job, right? “Nothing bad ever happens at weddings,” Liliana said with a broken laugh.
“He gave me the job because he knew I was responsible and capable,” Fabiano said, straightening his shoulder. His eyes shifted back to me, then to Matteo and Romero.
“You don’t really think you can kill all three of us, do you ?” asked Matteo with a crooked smile.
Gianna gave him a grim look. “Shut up, Matteo.”
“I can try,” said Fabiano. Aria’s fingers around my arm tightened and her gaze was practically burning me.
“Fabiano,” I said, trying to sound reasonable even though time was against us and I just wanted to get the hell out.
“They’re your sisters. Do you really want to risk them getting hurt?”
“Why is Lily here? Why isn’t she with her husband? I want to know what’s going on. Why are you trying to bring her with you? She’s part of the Outfit, not New York.”
“I can’t stay here, Fabi. Do you remember when you told me I shouldn’t marry Benito? That it wasn’t right?”
said Liliana.
“That was a long time ago, and today you told him yes. Anyway, where is he?”
Liliana looked at Romero with an expression that even a 12-year-old could have understood.
“You killed him, didn’t you?” hissed Fabiano, and raised the gun again. “Was it some kind of trick to weaken the Outfit? Dad always said you would stab us in the back one day.”
Aria tried to approach him again, but I pushed her away with a glare of lightning.
She squinted her eyes. “He’s my brother!”
“He’s an Outfit soldier.” Perhaps he thought that because I was putting her first, even the other Made Men would forget that their first choice always had to be the mob.
“Fabi, the Family did not try to weaken the Outfit.
It is not a question of power. It’s all my fault. Benito tried to hurt me and I stabbed him. That’s why I have to leave. Father would punish me, maybe even kill me,” Liliana said in a persuasive voice.
Fabiano took a step back. “Did you kill your husband?”
Matteo threw me a look over Gianna’s head. He was waiting for me to give him the green light to shoot, and if not for Aria’s trembling body at my side, I would not have hesitated.
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
Fabiano pointed to Romero. “What about you and him?
I’m not stupid. There is something between you.”
“We have been together for a while. You know I never wanted to marry Benito, but Father didn’t give me a choice.”
“So you want to leave Chicago and the Outfit for New York like Gianna and Aria,” Fabiano said.
Liliana nodded, “I have to.”
“You could come with us,” Aria suggested. Her eyes met mine, pleadingly.
I looked at Fabiano. “You could join the Family. My family wouldn’t like it, and I would probably have to kill some of them to prove my strength.
Fabiano shook his head. “Dad needs me. I am part of the Outfit . I took an oath.”
“If you’re not fully inducted yet, it’s not that binding,” Matteo said. A fucking lie. Matteo and I would have killed any initiate who decided to stop induction, let alone join the Outfit.
“I will not betray the Outfit.”
I expected that answer. Fabiano had been raised in the Outfit, raised with the knowledge that one day he would follow in his father’s footsteps. “Then you will have to stop us from leaving. And we won’t let you. There will be blood and you will die.”
Fabiano met my gaze. “I’m a good shot.”
He was also terrified. “I believe you. But are you better than all three of us? Do you really want your sister Lily to be punished? If you force her to stay, you sign her death warrant.”
Conflict painted itself on her face. “If I let you go and someone finds out, they will kill me too. I could die an honest death if I tried to stop you.”
“You could, and they would sing your praises, but you would still be dead. Do you want to die today?” He was still young. Death terrified him more than it did us.
He had not yet faced it often enough.
Fabiano lowered the gun a couple of inches. I doubted he had noticed.
“No one has to find out that you let us go. You could have tried to stop us, but there were too many of us,” Romero said.
“They’ll think I was scared and ran, and that’s why you ran.”
I made a sign to Romero. I could tell we had Fabiano.
“Not if you were wounded. We could shoot you in the arm.
This was supposed to be an easy first job-no one expects you to be able to stop the best fighters in New York.
They won’t hold it against you if you get shot.”
Aria stared at me. “Are you going to shoot my brother?”
“What if you seriously wound him?” asked Lily.
“I could hit the pimple on his chin if I wanted to; I think I could hit a non-issue spot on his arm,” said Matthew. “And we’re taking a risk by not killing him, so an arm wound is nothing.”
I ignored them and focused my attention on the boy. “So what do you say, Fabiano?”
There was conflict in his eyes, but then he lowered the gun. “Okay. But I’ll have to call for help. I can’t wait more than a few minutes or they’ll get suspicious.”
I kept the gun pointed at Fabiano, as did Romero and Matteo. “A few minutes should be enough time to leave . They will follow us once they understand what is going on , but five minutes will be enough to put enough distance between us and them . Dante is not one who likes to fight in the open , so I doubt he will send his men on a wild car chase .
He will attack us later, once he figures out the best way to hurt us.”
After pretending to shoot and after Matteo shot Fabiano’s arm, we took off at full speed in our rental cars. Romero and Lily were in the front in their car and the rest of us got into the other . Matteo was at the wheel, Gianna next to him, while Aria and I sat in the back seat. I looked out the window and after a few minutes, three black Outfit cars started chasing us.
“Get down,” I ordered, and Aria immediately obeyed, huddling in the seat with worry and fear on her face. I rolled down the window, preparing to fire. So far Dante’s men had not fired a single shot, probably because we were still in a residential area. Neither he nor I needed any additional attention from the press or the police. The moment we entered an industrial area, I pulled out my gun and started shooting. Our window broke and Aria let out a scream. I fired again and hit the shooter in the head. My next bullet pierced their tire and the car lost control. The other two cars continued the chase but eventually slowed down. Dante must have given them the order to retreat. He was going to attack soon, having worked out a plan in which he could do more harm. Shit.
When I was sure we would not be attacked again, I lowered my gaze to where Aria was pressed against the seat. I brushed splinters out of her hair and shoulders and she opened her eyes, looking at me with confidence. Confidence that I would protect her, but damn it, doing so had gotten harder today.
“You can never go back to Chicago,” I said softly as she sat down. “You’ll never see your brother again.”
Her expression wrinkled, and she pressed herself against me and buried her face in my neck. I held her close as she cried.
Matthew met my gaze through the rearview mirror. We both knew the shit would soon hit the fan, and we would have our hands full checking on our uncles and keeping the Outfit out of our territory.
Love. The root of weakness.
Shit.
Aria lifted her head again, those fucking baby blues were drawing me in like they always did.