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“Why?” he growled, leaning over his lap and stabbing me with a stare that could wither flowers pushing out of the ground. “Because our precious pater demanded it? The fucking ground he walked on was sacred. Everything he wanted, he got. Unquestionable loyalty for a plan that was, and continues to be, madness. Nelu will betray us. He doesn’t have an honest bone in his decrepit body. He’s evil personified, and as a result, any of his offspring are as putrid as he is.”
“You mean besides the fact that it’s good for business? Then, yes, because Tata demanded it. On his deathbed. It was an oath I made to him, and I’ll be damned if I don’t do everything in my power to bring it to fruition. While I may agree with your judgment of Nelu, after all these years we finally have a contract—”
“One which you’ve already violated. If you think he’s going to do right by you, you might as well get drunk on cold water,” he snapped, using a Romanian proverb to suggest I was grasping at straws and being unrealistic.
“Ha, ha, fucking funny,” Nicu mocked.
“What makes you think he’ll follow anything in that contract when you can’t bring the bride to the altar?”
“Because,” I answered calmly, “I’ll bring him a groom instead.”
“A groom?” Luca spat out.
“For Nelu’s precious young daughter. Tasa’s age, I believe.” I snapped my fingers, pretending I didn’t remember her name for Luca’s sake. “What’s her name, Nicu?”
“Catalina,” he helpfully supplied.
“There you go. Catalina. A good Romanian name if I’ve ever heard one. She’s a looker, too. A blonde, and we know how much you like blondes. Unlike her father and brother, she’s as pure as the driven snow,” I noted, arching my eyebrows at Luca expectantly.
After a beat, realization dawned on his face. “Romanian, yes. But good? Never. Oh fuck no. Hell. No. I know what you’re thinking, but there’s no way I’m getting married. Ever. And if I was ever insane enough to do so, there’s no way I’d marry a Popescu. Pure, my ass. I’d bet my balls she’s a whore. There’s no way you can expect her to be a virgin with that cocksucker as a father. He’d fuck the virgin out of her himself, as retribution for the dishonor of Tasa’s running. And without virgin blood to shed, there’d be no bond. Not that you could do anything about it, without adding insult to injury. We don’t check the sheets anymore, so it would be my word against Nelu’s, and you’d have to side with him or insult him and risk starting a war.”
I expected a fight, of course. Luca never went down without one, but this would clearly be a bad one.
“Calling the poor girl, Popescu or not, a whore is going a bit far,” I chastised. “You’re so fucking cynical. If he says he’ll produce a virgin, he’ll do it.”
“Doubt it, but even so, I’m not a fucking stud to mate with any bitch you put in front of me,” he sneered.
I spread my hands wide. “So much drama over nothing, Luca. You know you’ll have to marry eventually. For the good of the family.”
“I know no such thing. Sure, I’m a Lupu, but I’m not a fucking ass licker like this one,” he jutted his thumb at Nicu, seated to his left. “I’ll do what’s required to protect this family. Within limits. I have a fucking brain of my own, Alex. Don’t take the fact that I went to graduate school or followed any other of your directives as signs of weakness. I did it because I believed it was the right thing to do, not simply because you said so. You know nothing about me if you don’t know that.”
“I do know it,” I replied slowly because keeping my calm was paramount and I could feel my blood starting to boil. “Just as I know you will agree in the end because if I don’t produce a groom, it will trigger a war. And war is bad for business. Not only would it fuck up the contract we have with him, but we’d be forcing his hand to retaliate.”
“Surely, he wouldn’t dare go to the Bratva,” supposed Tatum.
My head swung toward him. “Do you want to risk it? You know his pride. If he feels like we’ve insulted him, there’s no telling how far he would go. And if he were to turn to the Bratva…”
“It’d be game over,” Tatum finished. “There’d be no getting back from that. It would make the skirmishes of the past look like child’s play.”
“Oh, fuck no,” rumbled Nicu. He hated the Bratva the most, and that was saying something.
“Why not you, Alex? Why don’t you marry the little bitch, since you think she’s so precious? Or do you think you’re above it? Are you holding out for a girl from a better family? Sacrifice the black sheep to that wretched family of trashy newcomers and preserve the bloodline of the chosen heir.”
“Certainly not, I’m not a snob like you,” I said dryly, leaning back into the leather seat.
There was no way I was spilling my feelings about Nina to Luca. While Nicu was physically rough, Luca was emotionally harsh, and Nina was too precious to carelessly place in his brutal grip. I loved my brother, but we didn’t relate to each other in a way that allowed for weakness. And Nina was my weakness.
Was I wrong to ask this of him? Perhaps. Then again, I was sef. I’d sacrificed my entire life to them; left college and my plans for law school to take over the family. In comparison to what I’d given up , the least Luca could do was accept this marriage. Hell, it’s not like he cared who he married.
Placing my elbows on the armrests, I steepled my fingers together. “I have my own reasons for not choosing her for myself, but you’re not privy to them.”
Tatum leaned over as if he was about to speak, but I gave him a short nod, and he pulled back. He might be Luca’s closest friend, but his loyalty was to me first, if for no other reason than that I was the Lupul.
“Why not? Don’t you owe me that much?”
“No,” I finally snapped. “Just as you keep most of your life hidden from us, I deserve a modicum of privacy.”
“Touché,” murmured Nicu because we all knew how protective Luca was of himself and his life. Even though he maintained his apartment in the city, he spent most of his time at his secluded house in the country, living a solitary existence. Not having spied on him of late, I didn’t know what he was up to. Perhaps he had a mistress holed up in there with him and that was the reason behind his adamant refusal. This could be more than mere stubbornness and his tendency to automatically deny every request.
