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Chapter Four
Kristo
There aremany things I’ll do for Falcone Siccario. I’ll protect any member of the family. I’ll run errands and track down targets for one of the family enforcers. I’ll retrieve precious cargo like his great niece and plant lo-jacks in places she’ll never think to look.
There are also things I won’t do for him, things that go against every fiber of my being, things that threaten my moral integrity. I won’t step into the role of Siccario’s top enforcer—any enforcer at any level—regardless of his promises. Money. Cars. Houses. So much more. His proposals become more extravagant with each offer. My answer remains the same: I won’t kill for money. Demetrius, my cousin, was Siccario’s top enforcer up until he met the woman who changed everything and got out of the game completely. I’m reminded daily that the Kostases serve a very critical role with the families. Now that Dem is retired and splitting his time between the U.S. and Greece, his particular critical role would normally pass down to the next Kostas in line. That’s me.
Only, I don’t want the job. Yes, I will work for the family and be the best bodyguard the Siccarios will ever employ, but I won’t carry on with the work Dem did.
“Kristo,” Mr. Siccario says, stopping me from following Iris to her rooms as any bodyguard would do.
Stiffening, I face my boss. “Yes, sir?”
“Let Iris cool down. Lucy will take care of her for now. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you in private.”
I keep my expression blank, my eyes calm, cool. I’m sure he’s about to offer me something else I’ll turn down. After closing the doors behind me, I return my attention to Siccario and nod. “Sir.”
He takes his time circling the room before sitting in one of the chairs and offering another to me. I sit and keep my focus on him, refusing to acknowledge the churning in my gut from the news I heard not more than five minutes ago, news that dropped a bomb on my world and left a crater in my heart.
Iris—a woman I’d no sooner met than known would be mine from this day forward—is promised to another man. This doesn’t sit well with me. It’s not the fact someone else will be calling her his, though that realization is like taking a bullet, it’s the fact I touched another man’s woman. I may not be willing to kill for money, but that’s something I would kill for, to protect what’s mine. I’ve broken the faith of a man I don’t even know.
I push that crushing truth from my mind to focus on my boss. He’s looking at me, no doubt debating what to dangle in front of me in the hopes it’ll be the carrot I finally want, the one that’ll make me shift my moral compass from due north to self-by-sellout.
“Kristo, you are happy here, eh?”
His question puts me on my guard. I know what he’s going to say next and prepare my answer. Thank you, Mr. Siccario, but I respectfully decline to be one of your killers-for-hire. “Of course, sir.”
“And I am happy with you. So when I ask this of you, know I do not do so lightly.” He blows out a long breath, and I tense, readying my polite refusal. “I need you to keep Iris distracted,” he says abruptly, eyeing me with a knowing look. “By any means necessary. I assume you understand what I mean?”
I stand corrected. I did not expect him to say that.
Before I assume anything, I ask carefully, “You want me to entertain your great niece until her fiancé arrives?” To take her from me.
He waves off my question. “He is not her fiancé yet, not until she accepts him.”
This comment both confuses and annoys me. “Accepts him? You let her believe she had no choice in the matter.”
“Of course, she has a choice. I’m not a dictator, nor am I her captor. I’m her great uncle and she means the world to me. Her acceptance of this arrangement would allow the family access to a great deal of assets.”
My annoyance edges higher. “Are you saying you’re forcing her into an arranged marriage to get at the man’s money? Is he some sort of millionaire?”
“Billionaire, actually,” he corrects. “And I’m not forcing her into anything. As I’ve said before, she must accept his proposal. To do that, the two must meet. If you can’t keep Iris distracted, she’ll find a way to sneak off as she’s proven to do so well and far too often.”
“How would you like me to keep her distracted?”
His eyes dance in silent mirth, shoving my annoyance right into irritation. Nothing about this sits well with me. Mr. Siccario is asking me to…what? To seduce his great niece? To keep her distracted by bedding her until I must hand her over to some fucking stranger?
Then again, why should I argue? She wants me, I want her. She may be promised to another man tomorrow night, but she doesn’t even know his name, yet. She’s free to make her own choices.
And I’m free to convince her to choose me, over and over and over again, if necessary.
I’m more than up to the task.
I stand and turn to the door. I’ll keep her distracted, all right. I’ll take Iris and claim her, make her truly mine when I root my cock deep inside her tight body. Again, she’s not promised to anyone else, not yet. Which means…she’s mine.
I hurry from the office before my boss gives me further instruction on how to distract his great niece. Once I reach her room, I slow when I don’t see Lucy keeping watch. Maybe the young bodyguard is inside with her charge, so I approach the door silently, only to hear the sweet, gentle music of my Iris cursing and grunting with effort.
“He thinks he can do this? Screw you, Uncle Falcone. This is bullshit. I’m so—dammit! Why won’t this work!” her frustration comes through in her tone.
