Page 124 of Mafia Obsession

That startles me. What am I signing up for? I look down at my ring. It’s unbelievably beautiful, but what’s the point without love?

I catch a shadow coming toward me, and I look up to see Ares making his way over. I hate how attracted to him I am. How he steals my breath. I know he cares about me. And I know it’s beyond whatever power my father’s secrets are to him and how he can use them against the Bratva. I see the way he looks at me. How he touches me and kisses me. How he broke down in the penthouse earlier.

Ares never asks anyonewhat it will take. He just takes.

He approaches me now with his arm around a beautifulwoman. My heart rate spikes, finally seeing the punch line to all of this. I’m for show, and she’s his mistress. But a tall man with auburn hair steps in pace with them, andhetakes her hand from Ares.

“Lourdes, this is my sister Ava and her husband, Griffin Quinlan.” Ares takes his place beside me.

Relief burns away the shame of how I immediately hated this woman.

I put on a smile, as I’ve done with all my royal duties. “It’s wonderful to meet you. And I’m sorry about your brother Alexander.”

“That’s very sweet of you.” Ava cups both my hands. “We couldn’t believe it when Ares told us the news. You’re getting married.”

“Congratulations,” Griffin says, his Irish accent tickling something inside me.

It’s not an accent I hear often. I glance over his shoulder and see a group of men who look like Griffin, all with beautiful women. A dark-haired woman, a blonde with elaborate braids, and a pretty redhead.

I recall Ares telling me that he arranged Ava and Griffin’s marriage, but they look crazy about each other now.

“The king takes a queen,” Griffin adds with a smile for me.

“I’m the God of War,” Ares says with a growl. “That makes her my goddess.”

I don’t know if they know I was married before. Or that my husband was part of the organization that Griffin’s cousin and his top commanders took out the day after Christmas. Ares made sure to tell me that bloodbath had nothing to do with us, but it was never David’s boss who wanted me.

I am still under strict protection.

From the Bratva.

“Thank you,” I say to Ava. “It’s sudden. I know.”

“You don’t have to explain to them.” Ares presses his lips to my forehead.

“Do you want me to ask Sabine if you can get married at The Sterling hotel like we did?” Griffin offers, holding his wife by the waist.

“Ava slit a man’s throat at your wedding,” Ares says without moving a muscle in his handsome face. “I don’t see your sister hosting any more Zervas weddings.”

My extremities go cold. She slit a man’s throat? At her wedding? My God, what am I getting myself into with this family?

“Enjoy the party,” Ares says, his hand onmywaist. “I want to show off my future wife to my guests.”

The other guests I meet are Fortune 500 CEOs, local politicians, a celebrity surgeon, a Michelin Star chef, a hockey team owner, and a cardinal.

Not a bird. An actual cardinal priest.

Shaking the hand of the president of Harvard didn’t really do it for me after that.

As we walk up to the other members of Griffin’s family, Daria steps in front of us with an anxious look on her face.

“We have a situation.” She removes an envelope from her jacket. “Atlas found this a few minutes ago. He and Ambrose are waiting for you by the elevators.”

My stomach drops, thinking Ares is going to leave me alone on New Year’s Eve. Before midnight. But he’s been planning this event for months. All the late nights were to unveil his new center of power, and now he’s leaving to hop on some crisis?

Then I look at him reading what Daria handed him, and his lips curl into a snarl.

“What is it?” I ask.