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Dark circles lingered beneath untrusting eyes that stalked my every step. He looked at me as though I were now the enemy, and honestly, I was starting to wonder how I—a girl who never wanted any part of the mafia and had no involvement in its dealings—was suddenly on everyone’s shit list. You did kill your father, a mocking voice whispered in my mind, and I shoved the thought away. I couldn’t deal with that right now.
“If you’re here to try to sell hubby’s alliance to me, you can go. Renzo already came down here with his team Famiglia bullshit,” he sneered.
I nodded and took a seat at the foot of his bed. “Did Renzo tell you what happens if you don’t agree to this?”
Luca’s disgusted gaze raked over me. “I’d rather die than turn traitor.”
“They will kill you, Luca. I can’t lose another sibling, so please….” I let out a long breath. “I married him so you could run The Outfit.”
“Yeah, as his bitch.” He snorted and shook his head. “Last I saw, you were trying to run away from him. Now you’re fawning over him.”
A seed of guilt burrowed into my chest and sprang roots because he was right. Somewhere along the line, I had stopped fighting, and though I’d made my peace over my feelings for Gio, part of me hated myself for giving in to this fate, for becoming everything I was running from.
I glanced down at the gold band on my finger before tucking my fingers between my thighs, hiding it.
“It’s a business transaction, a marriage of alliance.” The lie felt like ash in my mouth.
“Bullshit.” His gaze narrowed on me viciously. “You think I don’t see the way he looks at you. The way you look at him. It’s clear where your loyalties now lie, and it isn’t with The Outfit.”
“My loyalties have never been to The Outfit! They are to myself and those I love. That’s it.” I just happened to love Gio as well as my brother, which complicated things. “I want peace between The Outfit and the Famiglia, the same as Giovanni.”
“Have you heard yourself, Emilia? You’re willing to whore yourself out to the man who killed your father. Marry him.”
I ducked my chin, hoping he wouldn’t see the color I could feel draining from my face. “Uncle Sergio betrayed them,” I said hoarsely. “What did you expect?”
“For my sister not to become a traitor.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” My temper snapped, dissipating all traces of guilt as I shoved to my feet. “Did you know Sergio was going to fuck them over, Luca? That he sold me to Giovanni Guerra, knowing he was planning to betray him.”
He said nothing, and I shook my head, pain squeezing my chest.
“Be honest, knowing what you do of Gio’s reputation, did you expect me to still be alive right now?”
He dropped his gaze to his lap, shame coloring his features.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so. So, do not talk to me of betrayal. You’re not even loyal to your own blood!”
His brows pulled together. “I helped you get out.”
“One good act does not negate years of looking the other way, Luca. You act like being Giovanni’s ally is a fate worse than death, yet you are Sergio’s puppet, and I assure you, Giovanni is a far more honorable man than our uncle.”
“He killed our father, Emi! How can you look past that?”
“Because our father was a piece of shit!”
Luca glared at me like he’d slit my throat if only he weren’t cuffed to that bed.
“Do you know why I agreed to marry Gio and then ran?”
“I assumed you wanted to do your duty but changed your mind.”
“Duty.” I snorted. “Uncle Sergio said that if I didn’t marry Gio, he would give me to Matteo…as a whore.” I looked back at my brother. “Dad was in the room. He said nothing.”
“He wouldn’t—”
I laughed. “Please, Luca. Stop trying to find a thread of decency in Sergio or Dad. They would, and you know it.”
He closed his eyes. I didn’t know why he needed to believe the man he served was so much better than the Famiglia. Maybe he’d personally killed some of Gio’s men in recent weeks and needed to clear his conscience.
“What do you want me to say, Emilia?”
“I want you to see that Uncle Sergio is the villain here!” I threw my hands up. “He tried to kill you, for fuck’s sake.”
“A mercy—”
“Bullshit! He knows you pose a threat to him. That Gio married me and would back you. He knows you could run The Outfit far better than him, and he would be obsolete.” I met his gaze, silently pleading with him to let me fucking save him. “Please, Luca.”
For a moment, his expression softened, filling with a kind of longing I’d never seen in my stoic brother. But in a blink, it hardened.
