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The chain is a thick gold that complements the yellow diamonds. He fastens it deftly. Satisfaction on his face as yellow runs over me.
A text alerts. “Car is here.” He slides the phone back into his pocket. “Come along, I don’t dare touch you. All I want is to take you to bed and sink inside you for hours.”
Yellow glows down at me, dark and intent. I glory in his need for me. This isn’t just me, addicted to him, greedy for him—Milos feels it too. Maybe it’s a good thing this isn’t love; I can’t imagine enduring Milos more intense than he is now.
I jump at the growl that comes from low in his throat. “Behave, witch. Stop looking at me like that.”
This time I smile as I blush. Before I make an idiot of myself, I lead the way out of the condo.
On the drive to Carlo’s house our discussion is light, going over who is going to be there. Basically all of the Outfit in Chicago and even a few mafia out of New York and Philadelphia to show the Levins respect. His brother Damien has gone back to Philadelphia so Vasily could come in for the weekend, then both he and Maxim would go back home until the wedding.
It isn’t until we’re less than five minutes away when Milos breaks the news. Ever the master manipulator, he leaves me barely any time to process it. “I’ve given Carlo permission to announce the engagement of Carina and Sandro tonight as well. Their marriage will happen a week after our wedding day in Vegas.”
I feel betrayed by him. “How could you? Does Carina know?”
His sigh is heavy as he shakes his head. “This is the way it needs to be. Carina will adjust.”
“Adjust?” We’ve stopped and the door is opened for me. “I hate you right now,” I mutter as I get out of the car. Did he really exhale the wordperfect?
There’s no time to think before my mother is wrapping her arms around me. I go stiff. She feels it and her smile falls, as do her arms from me. Carina appears, ending the moment.
“Oh my god, Celia, you are gorgeous,” Carina whispers as she hugs me tight. “He’s here. You can meet him and see for yourself. He is such an asshole. This is awful.”
I blink back tears. She doesn’t know. I’m trying to figure out how to tell her when Milos pulls me into him, not very gently. I glare at him as I watch my mother guide Carina behind us.
Holy shit, there have to be almost three hundred people here, all of them mafia. There isn’t a single civilian among the crush of people who are mingling throughout the house and out over the extensive grounds.
Only moments after we arrive, Carlo gives a speech that lasts way too long and focuses only on Milos and what an amazingpakhanhe is and how profitable his relationship with the Outfit has been. It all ends with and Celia got a degree—not even mentioning I got it Magna Cum Laude—and is pretty enough Milos is taking her as a bride.
There are salutes, I’m thinking more to do with being thankful Carlo has stopped talking. No one ever says a word about the wedding band already beside the engagement ring, or that I’m living with Milos already.
His uncle and cousins arrive almost a half hour after we do. They walk in as if they own the place. Carlo’s face when he sees him is the one time in my life when I agree with him. Then his mask comes down, he’s smooth as Milos introduces him.
Grigori smiles down at me, his blue eyes empty. Once again he reaches for me.
Milos tightens his hand that’s been glued to my waist and pulls me closer—away from his uncle. “I told you. No one touches my woman.”
Throwing back his head, Grigori laughs. Except it’s menacing, not filled with a sliver of humor. “Nephew, your woman is a revelation. A whore one night, a lady the next. I can see why you married her, you have the best of both worlds.”
I clench my jaw, not daring to show a reaction. Milos’s grip on my waist is painful, I feel his entire body go hard. Yet it’s Carlo who responds. “Careful there. That’s my daughter you’re talking about. This is my house, my city, and I’ve been making men disappear without a trace for fifty years.”
Tony Sabatini appears on the other side of me. He offers his hand to Grigori. “Tony Sabatini, it’s nice to meet you finally. It’s a shame the men your father sent to kill me and my son never made it back to you.”
Grigori loses his smile and stares at Tony’s hand as if it’s a viper ready to strike.
Milos looks from Tony to Grigori. “My grandfather sent someone to kill you, multiple people?”
While he nods, his sapphire eyes are on Grigori. “He didn’t like how close you were becoming to Dominic and me. Concerned you’d do exactly what you did and shut down your family’s trafficking operation in order to work with us. Two men, two different times, but then you did make the decision, your father accepted it, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.”
The air around us is vibrating with menace. Grigori attempts a smile that’s more of a grimace. “The great Tony Sabatini, who has killed so many men and women the devil himself will welcome you into hell. I hear you retired your ways and business for your young wife and children. Congratulations, I do hope you manage to keep them safe.”
Tony smiles. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and I’m scared of him, very, very scared. “I might have retired in business, but I’ll never retire the thing I’m best at, which is ending the lives of men.”
A scream of, “No!” causes me to jump.
Carina and a very large man are arguing, his hand is around her arm. I don’t even think before turning toward them, intent on kicking his ass. But Milos keeps me in place. “Leave it, Celia.”
“Leave it? He’s—” I try to argue.
